Unintended Cultivator

“War?” asked Sua Xing Xing. “What war?”

Sen had been a little surprised that Bahn Huizhong knew, but not entirely shocked. Sen hadn’t spread the news to that particular sect, for so very many reasons, but the elder of the Vermilion Blade Sect increasingly struck him as the sort of man who didn’t miss that much. Of course, Sua Xing Xing had not been in the circle of trust for that particular secret. Some of it was simply his discomfort with the woman. Telling her would inevitably mean spending more time with her, rather than less time with her. He also wasn’t sure about her allegiances. He had put out quiet feelers to see if she had actually left her old sect, and the answer seemed to be yes. Of course, that was a very easy lie to maintain if most of the sect was told that it was true. Now, though, the information was in the air. Sua Xing Xing was looking back and forth between Sen and Bahn Huizhong expectantly. The sect elder was giving Sen an apologetic look, having seemed to realize he’d let something slip that he probably shouldn’t have.

“Follow me,” said Sen in a tired voice. “Both of you. We might as well get this all out of the way now.”

Sen led them to his office and told the young man outside that they weren’t to be disturbed for anything that wasn’t a true disaster. Sen slumped into the chair, a comfy one he’d had made, behind his desk. There were two more chairs in the room. They were not as comfortable. Sen didn’t love the idea of giving people a reason to want to stay in his office. Bahn Huizhong settled in one of the chairs, while Sua Xing Xing produced a tea set from somewhere and, with a bit of assistance from Sen, made them all tea. With cups in everyone's hands, Sen regarded the other two. He started with Bahn Huizhong.

“You’ve clearly put some things together. So, what do you know or, maybe I should say, what do you suspect?”

Bahn Huizhong briefly eyed Sua Xing Xing, which drew an annoyed look from the woman.

“In terms of what I know,” said the man, “it’s not much. I know that there’s been a lot of communication between sect leaders lately. A lot more than there usually is. I was told by my sect patriarch to get ready and that something was coming. I reached out to some people I knew and they told me there’s a war brewing, but it all got very speculative after that. Some people think it’s going to be a war between kingdoms here. Some people think it’s going to be war with one of the kingdoms over the Mountains of Sorrow. There’s even a rumor or two floating around about some kind of sect war, but no one seemed quite sure which sects it would be. The only thing that everyone seemed sure about was that a war with someone was coming.”

Sen nodded. He supposed that was about what he expected to be going around in the upper reaches of most sects.

“Okay,” said Sen. “That’s what you heard. Now, what do you think is going to happen?”