Unintended Cultivator

Leaving was something Sen was never eager to do, and this time was no exception. He was ever more resentful when the events of the outside world dragged him away from Ai. Taking her in meant taking responsibility for her. Not just making sure she was clothed and fed, but being there for all the other things that he’d never gotten as a child. Love. Discipline. A sense of security. It wasn’t that he lacked faith in Auntie Caihong. The elder cultivator adored Ai, but she never overindulged her. He supposed that Auntie Caihong and Uncle Kho must have had children at some point. They never brought it up, though, so neither did he. If not children, then he expected that they had had enough students and been on hand when enough other people were raising children to glean a lot of good lessons about turning the young into adults.

Venturing out also meant either altogether abandoning anything he’d been working on or placing the tasks in other people’s hands. Both options had pitfalls. In this case, he was mostly foisting his responsibilities and projects onto other people’s shoulders. Sua Xing Xing was getting the unenviable task of running the sect and the town that came with it. She was also inheriting his deforestation project. He’d been planning on cutting down the trees in a great circle around the town. He wanted at least two miles of visibility in every direction and a defensive wall at that extreme perimeter. Nothing that far from the actual town would be very defensible, but it would be a great obstruction. More importantly, large numbers of spirit beasts climbing over it would be pretty obvious. As would a great big hole in the wall if they wanted to come through that way.

That was a project he’d intended to handle personally since he thought he could probably complete the work in a day. That would have to become someone else’s problem. He was also taking some of the sect when he went. They weren’t coming with him since none of them could possibly keep up, but his sect needed a firmer presence in the capital. He doubted they would reach the city until after the battle, but he hoped that they’d be able to help stabilize the situation there when the immediate threat of the spirit beasts was gone. The danger wouldn’t be gone then, it would just take a different form. He wanted at least a small contingent of cultivators on hand who were loyal to him and him alone. That came with the pitfall of depleting some of the defensive and offensive power of the sect and town. Sua Xing Xing had thoughts about that.

“So, not only are you leaving, but you’re going to make it even harder to keep this place safe?” she asked in a voice that couldn’t quite settle on exasperation or trepidation.

“Yes,” said Sen. “I believe that sums things up pretty accurately. On the upside, though, I expect that the number of mortal and cultivator refugees will probably increase for a while before it dies off. So, that should help with defending the sect and town.”

“How so?” demanded Sua Xing Xing. “I mean, yes, the cultivators might help, assuming they’re not terrible and can adapt to how things work here. But how will more mortal refugees help?”

“They probably won’t,” Sen conceded. “I just thought it sounded good and vaguely benevolent.”

“Vaguely benevolent? Yes, that probably sums you up rather succinctly.”

Sen shrugged and said, “I never claimed to be a good leader. If you recall, I was entirely opposed to becoming a sect patriarch.”