Unintended Cultivator

“Lord Lu, the cultivator Judgment’s Gale, and his escort, Honorable Shen Mingxia,” announced the man at the door.

Hsiao Jiayi looked over, her curiosity burning. She’d heard so much about this man, this folk hero, this cultivator turned house patriarch in a land where cultivator noble houses simply did not exist. The stories had been ludicrous. Wild tales of impossible victories over sect elders when he’d been nothing but a foundation formation cultivator. Stories of him vanishing into the deep wilds and battling beast tides, sometimes single-handedly, and sometimes with a green-eyed jade beauty. Stories of him colluding with a nine tail fox princess to steal heavenly treasures from ancient ruins. Stories of villages saved, bandits punished, and clandestine meetings with ancient spirit beasts who guided him through advancements. Oh, she was sure that bits and pieces were true. He’d probably fought some outer disciple who called himself an elder where others could hear it. Maybe the man had robbed a grave somewhere. Perhaps he’d met a nine tail fox and no doubt been swindled by them. But no man could possibly be as interesting as the stories made this man out to be.

When he stepped through the door, though, all thoughts fled. Her heart started racing wildly. She’d never seen a man that beautiful before. Oh, he was still a man, a towering figure, the loose robes unable to fully conceal the heavy muscle beneath, but his face… It was what she imagined gods would look like. Too perfect to look at. Too perfect to be real. It took her an agonizingly long time to tear her gaze away from him. She focused instead on the woman who was with him. She was lovely, helped along in no small part by the outrageously expensive dress she wore, and that beautiful diadem, but it was still beauty within the bounds of humanity. Yet, her loveliness was a flickering candle next to the blistering sun that was Judgment’s Gale. Hsiao Jiayi risked another look at the man, and it was not better the second time. With another painful effort of will, she forced herself to look away. She didn’t know how that woman with him could stand there looking so calm.

As much as she wanted to not pay attention to the man, to spare herself that quiet agony, she couldn’t help but look again. She watched as he gave a respectful nod to the king. She coped with his appearance by doing what she’d been trained to do. She evaluated him. There was genuine warmth in his expression when he looked at the king, which meant the stories of a friendship were probably accurate. When Lord Lu swept his gaze around the room at the gathered nobility, that warmth was gone. It was replaced by a disdain that bordered on hatred. Then, his eyes landed on her. Her breath caught in her throat. There was an intensity in those dark eyes that could set forests ablaze. He seemed momentarily startled as he looked at her as if he was seeing something he didn’t expect. Then, his eyes moved on and she was able to breathe again.

When her father had ordered her to come here, she’d taken it as both a punishment and reprieve. So far from home, she would be largely free of the machinations of her father. The constant drive to make her useful in the way he wanted her to be useful. Something she had evaded through sheer determination and a little bloodshed. She had calmly murdered one suitor who had failed to understand that their parents’ political intrigues did not include her willing participation in his fantasies. That act had been what finally managed to half-convince her father that she would not be pushed into a marriage she didn’t want. Of course, the price for that had been never-ending travel to serve as his ambassador. Assignments that, as often as not, she was sure were designed to maximize the danger she’d be in. If she wouldn’t let herself be married off, then her death would be a fine excuse for another war.

This assignment wasn’t one of those, but it was still punishment. Being trundled off to the far side of the Mountains of Sorrow to talk with some mortal who imagined he was a king. As if the sects here couldn’t take control in a heartbeat if they wanted to. As near as she could tell, they just couldn’t be bothered with it. She wasn’t even sure that it was the wrong approach. Letting the mortals think they had some control did seem to be easier than enforcing cultivator control. If nothing else, it was less bloody. Even so, it felt unnatural to her, like some kind of gross inversion of the natural order. She had simply braced herself to get through this with as much dignity as she could muster, and then she would return to a place where things made sense. Maybe, if she was lucky, she might even be able to go home if only for a little while. Even if she’d personally heap gold and cultivation treasures on anyone who killed her father, she did miss the rest of her family. What was left of it. Most of her brothers had died on her father’s battlefields. Most of her sisters were either dead or married off. Even so, she could only see them when she was home, which happened all too rarely.

Of course, she had not expected such upheaval during her visit to this backwards nation. Now, though, she wasn’t sure what she should do. Part of her wanted to go and talk to this cultivator who had wrought such change in this theoretically mortal kingdom. The other part of her quailed at the very idea of having that man turn his full attention on her. It wasn’t that she didn’t want that attention, but that she wanted it too much. She chastised herself mentally. She didn’t know the man. She didn’t know anything about him that hadn’t come to her secondhand. If even half the stories were true, he was some kind of monster. No, that desire was just her body telling her lies. She had taken one look at him and reason had been bypassed by a primal urge to drag him somewhere private and have her way with him. She’d been so caught up in her own thoughts that she’d completely lost track of time and her surroundings. It was only when a man spoke to her that she truly came back to reality.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” said the man. “My name is Lu Sen.”