Book 12: Chapter 14: A Hand Will Suffice
The next few weeks turned into a grueling routine for Sen, if not the army as a whole. He supposed this was all pretty normal for them. They’d break camp early in the day, eke out ten or fifteen miles of marching, and then set up camp again. Sen had taken to going out with the cultivators to burn great swathes of the wilds as they marched. That forced most of the remaining spirit beasts in those areas out into the open, where they were killed. It also seemed to discourage the spirit beasts left behind from the force that attacked the city from doing anything too foolish. He was, however, occasionally forced to step in and end an ambush when it proved too much for the cultivators.
Yet, for him and even more for Falling Leaf, the tedium of it was grating. They were both used to moving much, much faster when they traveled. Even the other cultivators seemed frustrated by the pace. Sen did take this extended slog through the wilds as a chance to give the mortal soldiers an opportunity to train against some of the weaker spirit beasts. It had not gone as well as he would have hoped. Some of it was simple fear. The mortals were terrified of any spirit beast. It didn’t seem to matter if he told them that spirit beasts were weak. They all reacted like they were on the verge of panic. He finally went through the cultivators until he found a particularly weak foundation formation cultivator.
“This cultivator possesses approximately the same strength as ten mortals,” said Sen. “She’s very early in her cultivator training. She will face a weak spirit beast by herself.”
Sen knew the cultivator was still going to be more than a match for the spirit beast, but he had to convince the mortals that not every spirit beast was capable of destroying entire cities. The mortal soldiers all traded uncertain glances, but no one said anything. Sen released the spirit beast he’d been holding in place with a cage of air qi. It attacked the nearest thing, which happened to be the foundation formation cultivator. The battle went on for perhaps five minutes before the cultivator finally slew it. Sen hadn’t been impressed with the cultivator’s performance, but felt he owed the woman something for helping. He’d gotten a feel for her cultivation while she’d fought. He looked through his many storage rings and finally came up with a natural treasure that ought to help her.
“I appreciate your help,” he told her, and summoned the treasure.
“Thank you, Lord Lu!” she shouted when he handed it to her.
After a moment of thought, he pointed to a nearby spot and said, “You should probably absorb that right now.”
He was confident that some senior disciple would decide she didn’t warrant the treasure. But, if she absorbed it while he was nearby, nobody could say a word about it. She seemed to understand his thinking and promptly sat down with the treasure cupped in her hands. Sen turned his attention back to the soldiers.
“Now, I don’t expect any one of you to do what she just did. I do expect that fifty of you ought to be able to fight one, weak spirit beast. You’ll face worse on the battlefields to come. You should take advantage of this time to gain experience when there is help nearby.”
Some of the soldiers had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. Sen looked to the officer in charge, who shouted orders. The soldiers swiftly organized into five ranks of ten. Sen wasn’t sure that was the optimal choice for this kind of fight, but it was what they knew. He’d let them practice this way and build confidence. When the officer signaled that they were ready, Sen released a second spirit beast he’d been holding in place and used bursts of air and shifting stones to drive it toward the soldiers. With their fears at least partially allayed, they made a much better showing.They used spears to keep it at bay and to injure it. Some of the soldiers carried large shields. They would work in small groups to push the spirit beast back when it managed to close the distance, before switching back to their spears. In the end, they did manage to kill it, which led to wild cheering. Sen thought they were congratulating themselves a little too much, but he kept that thought to himself. He went over and looked at the slain spirit beast as though he was evaluating the corpse. The reality was that he wanted to give himself a little more time to think of something positive to say that was also true. Their performance had been barely adequate.
The people at Gale’s Bastion would have killed it with three or four people and in half the time. Again, he thought it best to keep that information to himself. He had to keep reminding himself that none of these mortals had spent time wandering the wilds on Uncle Kho’s mountain, or enjoyed training directly from him in how to slay spirit beasts. He could only expect so much from them. Even the ones who had been on the walls of the city had cultivators nearby at the time. They’d also been fighting from the high ground. He also couldn’t discount that they’d seen a truly appalling number of their fellow soldier die to those spirit beasts.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Well done,” he said to the group.
They had done a good job of lining up, so they didn’t need to know that’s what he was complimenting them on. That set off more excited cheering. Sen let them rest for half an hour before having them fight another spirit beast. The second fight went much smoother. They’d been crippled more by their lack of confidence than by their lack of skill. Now that they knew they could actually win, they seemed to fall back more on their training. They also did a better job of cycling in fresh soldiers, so more people got experience. Sen wouldn’t have called it impressive progress, but it was progress.
After that, he let them return to the army while he stood watch over the foundation formation cultivator who was deep in her cultivation. He took a position high above so he could keep a visual watch and not just rely on his spiritual sense. As far as that sense could reach, he could see a great deal farther if his vision wasn’t obstructed by things like very tall trees. It turned out to be a good thing that he didn’t wander off, because some other sect members eventually came looking for the woman he’d borrowed. He started to make his way down toward them and caught one of them trying to make a life-ending mistake.
“She doesn’t deserve that treasure. If she found it, she should have brought it back and given it to us. I’ll remedy that mistake before she wastes what’s left of it.”
“Will you now?” asked Sen from directly above them.
The man who’d been reaching out to take the natural treasure yanked his hand back and stumbled away from the woman. Sen landed next to the cultivator whose trance was so complete that she seemed to be wholly unaware of the situation unfolding around her.
“Lord Lu. I was just—” started the man.
“Stealing,” finished Sen. “And stealing from a junior in your own sect, at that. Where is your shame?”
“I—”
“It was a rhetorical question,” snapped Sen, making them all flinch. “I know where it is. You let your greed push it aside. But that does beg the question, what should I do to someone who meant to take what I have given?”
The thieving cultivator shrank back and said, “You gave her that treasure.”
“Not that it should matter, but I did. The last time someone tried to steal from me, I relieved him of an arm. I’ll grant you that this isn’t exactly the same. You didn’t try to steal directly from me. I suppose that taking an arm would be excessive.”
The cultivator sagged in relief.
“Thank you, Lord Lu.”
Sen smiled at him and said, “Of course. I think a hand will suffice. I’ll even let you choose which hand.”
Sen never looked away from the cultivator, but he saw the others who had arrived with the man backing away. It was like they’d discovered that he’d caught some terrible, contagious illness that they didn’t want. Sen waited for a full minute before he sighed and unsheathed his jian.
“I suppose that means you want me to choose. That’s fine,” said Sen.
“Wait!” the cultivator almost shouted. “Isn’t there some other way to resolve this?”
“I don’t know. Is there? If you’d snatched the treasure as you meant to, you would have disrupted her cultivation trance. That might have caused a fatal qi deviation. Something I’m confident you already knew. So, what can you do to make up for that?”
What followed was a desperate piling up of everything in the man’s storage ring and coin pouch. At a cold glare from Sen, the storage ring itself was added to the pile. He gave the pile a critical look.
“It’s not enough,” said Sen.
“Lord Lu,” choked the man before Sen turned that glare on the other cultivators.
“You were all going to stand there and let him do it. What will you do to make amends?”
They didn’t hesitate for a second before emptying their storage rings and pouches of anything that might be of value. He thought about making them give up their storage rings as well, then dismissed the notion. This was already going to turn into a headache. No need to make it worse. Still, no need to let them off too easily. He frowned at the pile for much longer than necessary before he put his jian away.
“Very well,” he said. “Now, leave my sight, and understand that I will not be this merciful a second time.”
The cultivators fled as fast as their qinggong techniques would carry them. Sen summoned a chair and a table from a storage ring before moving everything he’d blackmailed from the cultivators onto the table. He idly sorted the goods, putting things into three piles based on his understanding of the woman’s cultivation. There were things that were likely to be useful. Things that might be useful. The last pile consisted of things that probably wouldn’t be useful for her. Not that he intended to keep any of it. Exactly none of it held any value for him, but sorting it was a way to occupy his time while he waited for her trance to end.
A few hours later, he felt her make a minor breakthrough. He glanced her way. Her eyes fluttered open before they went wide. She jumped up in excitement.
“I broke through!” she exclaimed.
“You did,” said Sen.
She whirled, saw him sitting there, and tried to bow. Sen waved that off.
“This is going to be one of those situations where it’s good and bad,” said Sen. “You broke through. That’s good. You can’t return to your sect. Depending on how much you like your sect, that could be bad.”
“What? Why?” she asked.
Sen gave her an abbreviated retelling of what had happened.
“But where will I go?” she asked.
“This is at least partially my fault, so you can always join my sect. If you want to, that is. I think I’ve got some robes in one of my storage rings. It’ll probably help discourage any of them from bothering you.”
“Join your sect?” she asked.
“If you want to,” repeated Sen before gesturing at the table. “Also, this stuff is yours now.”
The woman looked at the table and her eyes bulged. Sen didn’t think any of it warranted that reaction, but it had been quite a while since he’d been a foundation formation cultivator. Maybe this is what it feels like to start getting old, mused Sen.