Book 9: Chapter 18: Uncomfortable Peace

Sen had found the last few weeks very odd. The arrival of Li Yi Nuo, while perhaps foreseeable, had caught him off guard. Bringing along her master had been even more perplexing. Not that either of them had done anything specific to disrupt his life. Sen had brought Li Yi Nuo to see Uncle Kho. The man had been deeply amused by the story of how the sect cultivator had gone all the way to Orchard’s Reach to find him, only to have to turn around and come all the way back. Uncle Kho probably would have agreed to teach her a few things out of pure pity even if Sen hadn’t suggested that she showed some faint glimmers of hope with the spear. Of course, dealing with her had been the easy part. Putting her and Uncle Kho together in a room had fulfilled any and all obligations he might have had to the woman, self-imposed or not.

Bahn Huizhong was another matter entirely. Sen truly hadn’t known what to expect from the man. Or, rather, he’d based his expectations on previous encounters with sect elders, none of which ever appeared. He’d thought that the man would demand his time since he was a powerful and important elder. He’d imagined that the man would make himself a problem in town, expecting to be given whatever he wanted without paying for it. He’d predicted the man would try to recruit away the best students or at least a few of the core formation students who had come from other sects.

None of it happened, which left Sen feeling off balance and out of sorts. He knew how to deal with cultivators who insisted on acting like bastards. Bahn Huizhong had opted to behave like a guest ought to behave. He visited shops in town where he paid for the things he wanted. He interacted with some of the students but generally only when they approached him first. He had refrained from entering the buildings where teaching or crafts were done, even going so far as to restrain his spiritual sense to open areas. He had politely asked for some of Sen’s time, but only when the Patriarch was not occupied with other duties. The man had even raced off to fetch an injured child at a nearby farm before Sen had even been made aware that such help was needed.

By the time Sen arrived at what had slowly evolved into a sort of healing center attached to the alchemy workshop, the injured boy who had been trampled by a startled animal was already being tended. He’d found Bahn Huizhong leaning against a wall, observing the work with curious eyes.

“Thank you for helping,” said Sen.

“Of course,” answered Bahn Huizhong.

“Do you mind if I ask why you did it?”

“I’m no healer, but I’ve seen enough injuries to know that seconds and minutes matter. Especially for mortals.”

“True,” agreed Sen, “but that’s just a reason for

someone

to act quickly. I’m curious why

you

, specifically, chose to act. It has not been my experience that sect elders or cultivators in general are burdened with much compassion for mortals.”

Bahn Huizhong was quiet for several moments, his eyes still on the injured boy, before a look of understanding crossed his face.

“Oh, I see. You’re wondering if I acted to try to get into your good graces. Is that it?”

Sen lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug and said, “It

has

been my experience that sect elders want what they want and will do almost anything to get it.”

A troubled look crossed the man’s face.

“I wish I could say that’s an unfair assessment, but you’re not wholly wrong. You’ve been a wandering cultivator. The ones you were most likely to run into were the ones most prone to acting like that. They aren’t all like that. Too many are but not all of them.”

“I take that to mean that you’re an exception?”

Sen knew that the question was borderline offensive, but he’d been forced to fight and kill too many people from too many sects to just take things on faith. He was surprised when Bahn Huizhong let out a gentle chuckle.

“Me? Oh, I definitely want what I want. You don’t get as far as I have without a lot of drive, and the ability to stay focused on your goals. But there are good ways to get what you want and bad ways to get what you want. Being a cultivator doesn’t shield you from accumulating bad karma, after all, no matter what some of these fools seem to think. So, I do my best not to invite bad karma. Mostly. You can’t always avoid it, but that’s just how life works. That being said, there’s no benefit to mistreating mortals. There’s nothing to be gained in denying help when it’s needed. So, in answer to your true question, no. I didn’t help to get into your good graces. I

could

help, so I did.”

Of all the answers the man might have offered, it was the kind of answer that Sen wouldn’t have believed came out of a sect elder’s mouth if he hadn’t personally heard it. It resonated with a lot of Sen’s own thoughts. Sen found himself

wanting

to like the other cultivator, but he struggled to get over his automatic distrust of anyone from a sect. Recent events with spies and supposed training accidents that were people trying to settle old inter-sect grudges had only reinforced that distrust. Even more, though, the looming threat of the coming war made him want to tighten his circle, rather than expand it. He didn’t want someone else to worry about, even someone as capable as this sect elder seemed to be. Mortals were going to die. Cultivators were going to die. Sen didn’t want to have to mourn them individually.

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At the same time, he knew he was going to have to work with these sects. He would need to be on speaking terms with at least some of the people from them. If he couldn’t start with someone he thought he might actually like, where in the thousand hells could he start? There was at least one last stumbling block that had gone unmentioned by everyone.

I guess I’ll have to clear the air about those three fools

, thought Sen.

Otherwise

,

it’ll always be hanging over any interactions I have with the Vermilion Blade Sect

. With that in mind, Sen sent someone to fetch Bahn Huizhong. The man arrived quickly and looked around the plain room with a little surprise.

“I expected something a bit grander,” admitted the sect elder.

“I wouldn’t know how to do that, even if I wanted to. I guess I could find someone to handle that for me. It just seems like a waste of resources.”

“It is, but that doesn’t seem to stop anyone.”

Sen gestured at the empty seat across from him. Bahn Huizhong sat. Sen took a little amusement in the man’s expression of surprise when Sen poured them both tea. They both gave the tea a few moments, not so much to cool but out of ingrained habit, and then drank. Sen broke the silence first, eager to be done with that task.

“I expect you have questions about what happened to those three cultivators from your sect. I’m sure that I would in your position.”

Bahn Huizhong hesitated for a moment before he nodded.

“Yes. There are questions that the other elders will expect me to ask. At the very least, there are uncertainties about the nature of events.”

“You may not like the answers. They don’t cast your sect members in a particularly good light.”

“The truth is rarely a pretty or clean thing.”

“Very well, Elder Bahn of the Vermilion Blade Sect. Let me tell you a story.”

Sen laid out the events as he remembered them. He started with the plague village and the seemingly endless funeral pyres. He talked about his state of mind afterward, how the world around him was something he barely noticed. Finally, he described his interaction with the Vermilion Blade Sect members he’d stumbled across. He gave a general description of the technique he’d used on them, and why it had been impossible for him or anyone else to remove it.

“If I’d understood what it would do them, I would have just killed them. It would have been kinder,” said Sen.

Sen sipped a fresh cup of tea while Elder Bahn considered the details of what he’d heard. The man’s response could well be anything from fury to indifference, and none of the possibilities would shock Sen. He still wasn’t sure how he should feel about that encounter. He certainly felt a degree of responsibility for inflicting more suffering than he’d meant to, but he wasn’t sure if he’d even been sane at the time. Just how much guilt and responsibility he truly bore remained an open question to him. It also wasn’t a question he expected he would ever get a clear answer to. A sigh from the other man drew Sen out of his own thoughts. He regarded the elder with a patient expression, curious how the man would judge him.

“I don’t think there’s a single part of that story that isn’t troubling,” said Bahn Huizhong. “If our disciples are truly acting that way when beyond the elders’ gazes, though, it’s hard to imagine anyone else with your strength would have tolerated it. It’s also painfully obvious that you could have simply killed them outright. I won’t pretend that I find what you did to them anything less than disturbing. They all eventually found ways to die by their own hands.”

Sen grimaced and nodded.

“I guess that was the most likely outcome, given what I understand about the technique now.”

“Have you used that technique again?” asked Elder Bahn.

Sen heard something hard in the man’s voice. He supposed it was a valid question. If Sen was running around and using that technique on people all the time, then any remorse he expressed would look counterfeit.

“Yes, but not in the same way, not often, and not on anything or anyone I didn’t intend to kill promptly.”

The elder didn’t seem entirely satisfied with that answer, but Sen thought he’d accept it, eventually. No cultivator was going to simply discard a tool

that

useful, especially with what was coming. Just as importantly, every cultivator could use their abilities and techniques to do ugly things. Sen wasn’t special in that regard. The sect elder made a resigned noise.

“I suppose this matter is truly closed.”

“You don’t seem satisfied with that.”

“Would you be, in my position?”

“No,” admitted Sen. “I doubt I would be.”

Bahn Huizhong lifted an eyebrow at Sen.

“No attempt to convince me you were in the right?”

“Would it change anything? I could say that I didn’t go looking for the fight. I could say they brought it on themselves. I could even say that I didn’t know what was going to happen to them, but I already said all of those things. I think you know that I was telling the truth. So, what else can I say?”

“I don’t suppose there’s anything you could say. I’m not even sure it’s you I’m frustrated with. I just know the other elders won’t be happy, but I guess they weren’t happy already. So, nothing really changes.”

“Then, it isn’t to be war between your sect and me? I don’t need to watch out for idiots showing up and demanding duels all the time?”

“We’re not that stupid. They do a good job of hiding it, but I’ve felt four nascent soul cultivators in the area. It doesn’t take much of a genius to figure out who at least three of them are. Challenging you is challenging them, and that’s just inviting death.”

Sen doubted it was quite that straightforward, but there was some truth in there.

“Peace between us,” said Sen, overjoyed to be done with the awkward conversation.

“It’ll be an uncomfortable peace for a good long while,” warned Bahn Huizhong.

“No doubt, but at least it’s a situation where everyone lives.”

“Fair enough.”