Book 9: Chapter 39: Distant Observation
Sen observed the Twisted Blade Sect compound from a distance. Not that the distance meant much to him. For anything less precise than formation work, scanning the compound from a mile away was as good as looking at it up close. The compound had proven smaller than he’d expected, even if it was many times larger than his own. It was about the size of a moderately sized town. That had given him pause at first. Several days of studying the sect buildings and the movement of the sect members while hiding had let him draw a few conclusions about the general organization of the place.
The center area of the sect was the literal and figurative heart of the place. It had the least amount of foot traffic and seemed devoted primarily to housing the sect elders and, presumably, the patriarch. There were a few larger buildings there that Sen assumed were the sect library and possibly the sect armory, at least for the texts and weapons suited to the upper tier of the sect hierarchy. Outside of that was a ring that Sen had dubbed the next zone of authority. There was more traffic and utility buildings there, but it seemed primarily devoted to housing the core and inner sect members. Still, he could see a building that was clearly a forge, several distinct martial training areas, and buildings he assumed were a lesser library, alchemy building, or provided room for professions without strong representation in the sect.
The final and by far largest ring of authority inside the walls was obviously intended for the outer sect disciples. There were so many of them that it reminded Sen of a disturbed anthill. There were always people moving back and forth or engaging in some kind of training. He had been less than impressed with the weapon training he’d observed. The outer disciples here were sloppy and undisciplined. While he couldn’t assume that sloppiness and lack of discipline were representative of the sect as a whole, it was hard not to think that it was true. Still, it was hard to evaluate things when he was so thoroughly cut off from the outside world. While he could expand his spiritual a few hundred feet while hiding, a marked improvement from years past, he needed to be careful that he didn’t accidentally alert anyone to his presence.
That seemed particularly pressing when he considered the area he had dubbed the zone of no authority. While all of the combat training happened inside the theoretical safety of the walls, the sect gardens were firmly and he assumed intentionally outside of the walls. That included the areas that grew plants he knew were necessary for what he considered basic alchemy but probably passed as advanced alchemy in this particular sect. He had observed some formations around those fields. Well, he gave them the benefit of the doubt that they were supposed to be formations. He expected Uncle Kho would want to weep tears of blood at the sight of them.
While the formations wouldn’t pose any particular problem, cultivators tended those fields. Most of them did their work during the day, but he’d seen a few out there at night. He suspected they were trying to cultivate lunar grass or starlight roses. It was hopeless in this environment but that was their business. He would need to remain mindful that there could be cultivators in those fields at any time, though. Forgetting that could expose his presence long before he wanted anyone to realize he was there. Ideally, no one would ever know he was there until it was too late, but he wasn’t going to assume that the universe would treat him so kindly.
He'd also paid close attention to how they guarded the walls. While everything else the sect did seemed pretty second-rate to Sen’s eyes, they took their security seriously. They had fixed positions on the wall, as well as teams of guards who patrolled. In other words, there was never a time when any particular piece of the wall wasn’t potentially under observation. Sen suspected that would prove more of a challenge to overcome, but it wasn’t insurmountable if he didn’t rush things. Not that he ever meant to rush things, but the raw area the sect covered made it impossible to be hasty. There was too much ground to cover and too many people. He’d have to take it slow if he wanted to finish this fight with one lethal strike.
Of course, now that he was looking at the sect and all of the people there, he was having to push aside a lot of thoughts about the costs. With that many people, there were bound to be some who were worth saving. It just wasn’t possible that every single last one of them was beyond redemption. He confronted that realization with the fact that he had depressingly little hope of identifying or sparing them. It wasn’t like he could talk to all of them, and he couldn’t trust what any of them said even if he did talk to them. There were going to be innocents caught up in this. There was no avoiding it. And he was going to do it anyway because, misgivings aside, he could not allow this sect to attack his academy. The Twisted Blade Sect’s sheer numbers would overwhelm the comparatively tiny number of people in his own sect.