Book 13: Chapter 4: A Mere Province

The throne room was, to Sen’s surprise, substantially more ornate than the one that Jing was no doubt occupying at that very moment. Not that it bothered Sen. The man had to work somewhere, and it wasn’t like that room was being used for anything else. This throne room contained more gold and precious gems. The throne was intricately carved and inlaid with jade.

What a waste of resources

, thought Sen, dismissing the silly trappings of wealth. He let his gaze wander over the faces of the people gathered there. The woman sitting on the throne glared at him. She looked to be in her middle years. She was flanked to either side by a young man who resembled her. From the way they mimicked her glare, Sen assumed they were the princes.

There were others gathered near the throne. No doubt, they were nobles based on the finery of their robes. They didn’t take after the royal family and direct hostile looks at him. If anything, they all look terrified. He saw trembling hands, sweat on brows, and a staunch refusal to meet his gaze. He dismissed them as well. Sen found who he was looking for standing back from the throne in a small group. Three nascent soul cultivators who obscured their words behind a barrier of wind. It was a little irritating to be denied whatever information he might have gleaned from them.

Then again, he’d used the same tactic on many occasions precisely because it was so effective. It felt somehow petty to be irritated by the fact that they also saw value in the method. That tactic did suggest that they might be more dangerous than his usual opponents from the sects. It happened that way occasionally. Some elders and patriarchs seemed able to hold their pride in check for the sake of victory. As infuriating as prideful young masters could be, they were typically less work to subdue. It was just taxing on the psyche to put up with them for any length of time. He continued watching the nascent soul cultivators for most of a minute, but none of them seemed inclined to do anything. Yet. He turned his attention back to the throne. The minute his eyes touched those of the queen, she unleashed her fury on him.

“How dare you invade my country without provocation! Have you gone mad with power? Or were you always mad? You will remove your army and your cultivators from my lands at once!”

“

Your

lands?” asked Sen.

“Yes, my lands!” shouted the queen, slamming an open palm down on the arm of the chair.

Sen raised an eyebrow and said, “For you to say that, I can only assume that your generals and nobles have been lying to you.”

“What are you talking about?” snapped the queen. “Explain your meaning.”

“This country ceased to be yours long before I arrived. It was overrun with spirit beasts. You were doing nothing to combat them.”

“What

could

be done about them?”

“

I

found it simple enough to purge them from this kingdom. Beyond that, your nobles were settling into their own domains and preparing to declare their independence. I found stockpiles of food, weapons, and even gold. All at the expense of your commoners and, without doubt, your treasury. You were also doing nothing to combat that.”

That, it seemed, was new information to her. She glared around at the nobles in the room. Many of them were avoiding her gaze as much as Sen’s.

“Even if what you say is true—” started the queen.

“So, I purged them, seized the resources, and took possession of the people you’d been ignoring.”

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That set off a hornet’s nest of screaming from the gathered nobles. They didn’t care anymore whether their queen knew about their treachery. It would have been amusing if it hadn’t been so utterly counterproductive to survival. The queen and the princes were shouting at the nobles, who were shouting at him, each other, and maybe even the heavens. Sen thought that there was a good chance that they’d have started stabbing each other if any of them had been armed. What he wasn’t was surprised. Similar scenes had played out several times in other throne rooms when kings and queens discovered the extent of their nobles’ disloyalty. He let the chaos play out while his own people stood there in calm, disciplined silence.

None of this was new to them either. He even saw a few of the generals he’d permitted to accompany him grimacing at the sight. It was one thing to know that political games could undermine a country. It was something altogether different to watch as those games unraveled a nation right in front of them. He didn’t know if it would make them less prone to those games when they finally went home. All Sen could do was hope that they’d see this as the lesson he intended. Intrigue didn’t happen in isolation. It happened in the middle of other events. The ripples of those games could reach much farther than anyone expected. When he grew tired of the noise, Sen let a shadow of his killing intent loose. Silence descended.

“As you can see,” said Sen, picking up as though there had never been an interruption, “these haven’t been your lands in some time. I purged the spirit beasts. I control the territory. Your nobles are dead or traitors. Your army is defeated. Your generals are in my custody. This kingdom doesn’t exist anymore. It is a mere province of my empire.”

The queen was gritting her teeth, trying to force words out, but Sen’s killing intent kept her suppressed.

“All of that was simply a long way to say that your time on that throne is now over. And I have no need of a rebel, would-be queen in one of my provinces.”

The queen’s fury momentarily overcame her fear. She stood from the throne on trembling legs.

“How dare you?” she rasped.

Sen waved a hand. Three sharp cracks filled the silence in the room. The queen and the princes fell to the ground, their lifeless eyes staring at nothing. He let his gaze linger on the nobles. They were all trying to inch back from him.

“In truth, I don’t need traitorous nobles in one of my provinces, either,” announced Sen. “Gather them up and take them out of here. Spare the ones who aren’t on the list. I’ll at least give them a chance to survive.”

“Yes, Lord Lu,” barked one of the cultivators who had preceded him into the room.

The man gestured at the nobles as he pulled a literal list from inside his robes. As he studied the list, a mixture of cultivators and soldiers herded the now pleading, terrified nobles out of the room. A few soldiers were even sharp enough to remove the bodies of the royal family as part of that process. Sen caught the eye of one of the generals and nodded to those soldiers. The general nodded. It had become a habit for Sen to reward soldiers who showed beneficial initiative. After that, Sen turned his undivided attention onto the nascent soul cultivators who had made no move to intervene. It didn’t give him much hope for recruiting them if they cared

that little

about the mortal rulers of this kingdom.

For their part, those cultivators were no longer speaking to each other. They had their gazes firmly fixed on Sen, Master Feng, and Song Lan. They looked grim. Perhaps they had expected to confront Sen alone and kill him or force him into a favorable agreement. As things stood now, the best they could hope for was a more or less even fight. A fight that, if it happened, would more than likely leave this city and their sect compounds in ruins. To say nothing of killing their entire sects in the process.

Fights between two nascent soul cultivators were beyond destructive. With

six

of them locked in combat, it would pose a threat to every living thing within hundreds of miles. Unfortunately, such a fray would put everyone in Sen’s army in danger as well. Only pure stupidity would have let that fact escape their notice. Since they weren’t acting stupidly, he had to assume they were hoping to leverage his desire not to kill everyone to push some kind of bargain. One that would undoubtedly leave them with the autonomy they knew he intended to take from them. This too was a familiar scene to Sen’s people. So, they all swiftly left the room and closed the doors behind them.

“Well, it appears that it’s time for the sects to talk

at

me,” observed Sen. “Speak, and we’ll discover if you choose your words more carefully than that queen did.”