Unintended Cultivator-Chapter 32Book 10: : Last Minute Details

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.”

“I thought that was because you hated sects.”

“That was one reason. It wasn’t the only reason.”

“Any other orders oh vaguely benevolent patriarch?” asked Sua Xing Xing.

“I want you to expand that experiment with growing crops faster. I know you don’t think it’s ready, but winter is coming on fast. We’re going to run out of warm weather. We need to be growing food, not testing for every possible way it can go wrong. Even if we don’t necessarily need the food here, I’d be willing to bet that food is going to be a crisis in the capital. If the city holds off the spirit beasts, I want a supply of food that we can bring in. I don’t mean to save all those people just to watch them starve.”

Sua Xing Xing paled at those words.

“We can’t possibly feed a city the size of the capital for the entire winter. Not without starving everyone here.”

“I understand that. You also said that there was some kind of plan to overcome the problem of growing food in the cold.”

“Well, there is, but there’s no way to know if that’s going to work until it actually gets cold.”

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“Make sure that whatever is needed to start that project is in place as soon as possible. If it does work, and we can combine those methods, we can set up something similar in the capital. Something on a bigger scale. People might not eat well. But at least they’ll eat.”

Sen could see the doubt on Sua Xing Xing’s face. He thought that part of it was doubt in the experiments, but he thought some of it was doubt in her ability to manage all of the work that had been dumped on her. Plus, there was the implicit pressure of mass starvation in the capital if these experiments failed. He felt a little bad putting that pressure on her, but someone had to shoulder it. He couldn’t do it because he had to go and make sure that all those people survived long enough to worry about starvation. That didn’t leave many options.

“I’ll see to it,” she said in a weak voice.

“I know it’s a lot,” said Sen. “I’m sure that this isn’t what you imagined things would be like if I started a sect. To be fair, I’d hoped that this war with the spirit beasts wouldn’t happen for another decade or, even better, another five decades. I don’t expect you to accomplish miracles.”

“Thank the heavens for that,” said Sua Xing Xing looking slightly less overwhelmed.

“I only expect you to try to accomplish them,” said Sen with a bit of a grin.

“Thanks,” said Sua Xing Xing with exactly zero sincerity. “Anything else?”

Sen thought it over for a moment and finally said, “Don’t die.”

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“Good advice for us all, I’d think.”

Most of the other conversations had before leaving were short and consisted primarily of him giving them an order or two or simply announcing that he was leaving for the capital. Even his discussion with Glimmer of Night had been short.

“I need to go to the capital.”

“Why?” asked the spiderkin.

“To stop the spirit beasts from wiping out all those people.”

“Sensible enough. Should I continue work on the nodes?”

“As much as you can. I’d appreciate it.”

That was it. The spider went back to work, and Sen went off to have his hardest goodbye. He had considered asking Glimmer of Night to accompany him to the capital but decided that it was best to keep that work secret for the moment. Anything that would do so much to level the field between the humans and the spirit beasts would draw a lot of attention. If Sen could avoid providing such an obvious target, he would. Besides, if Glimmer of Night went with him, the spider would inevitably be drawn into the fighting. If he died on the battlefield, all hope of creating a means of instant communication would die with him. That was a risk that was not worth taking. Plus, his contributions would be felt on the battlefield all the same. The spider had made a hobby of converting beast cores into cracked cores when he wanted a break. Sen was taking a storage ring with close to two thousand of the things with him. He doubted they were enough to turn the tide of that battle on their own, but they would be a nasty surprise.

He arrived at Auntie Caihong’s galehouse to find her and Ai outside. They seemed to be pretending that they weren’t waiting for him. He watched his daughter playing for a little while and tried to sear this image into his mind. While he wanted to preserve humanity as a whole, this was his real reason for taking up Master Feng’s mad idea. He wanted to preserve a world where his daughter, and someday her daughter or son, could play in relative peace. If he couldn’t preserve that world, then he would do everything he could to make it. He had to push away the deep reluctance to leave. He was perfectly capable of standing there and basking in Ai’s happiness for as long as she’d tolerate it, but he knew he couldn’t do that. He only allowed himself a few minutes before he announced himself with a gentle cough. Ai’s head whipped around and a bright, joyful smile lit her face. She rushed over to him.

“Hello, little orchid,” he said, scooping her up and giving her a hug.

“Papa, I drew an orchid!” Ai proclaimed with an urgent pointing motion at a spot on the ground.

Sen dutifully walked over to the spot to investigate her picture. He assumed it would just be a random flower. It turned out she really had drawn a crude orchid in the dirt with a small stick. He snuck a suspicious look at Auntie Caihong who smiled at him with a completely untrustworthy look of innocence.

“So you did! And you did such a good job of it too! I’m very proud of you.”

Ai beamed at the praise and gave him a hug around the neck that would have choked a mortal. He didn’t mind. He sat down in the chair next to Auntie Caihong and simply talked with her and Ai about trivial things for a little while. A few moments of peace to help carry me through what’s to come, he told himself. Because he dreaded it so, the moment when he needed to go arrived far too swiftly. Ai recognized the change in his expression or mood or just the general air around him. She didn’t cry, for which he was deeply grateful, but he could tell that she was trying to put on a brave face for him. He knelt on the ground next to her and gave her his gentlest smile.

“I want you to listen to Auntie Caihong. You do whatever she tells you to do.”

“I will,” said Ai. “Promise.”

“I know you will. I love you very much, little orchid.”

“I love you too, Papa,” said Ai with a bit of lip quivering.

Sen opened his arms. Ai threw herself forward and clung to him for a long time before she finally pulled back.

“Come home soon,” she said in a way that sounded like it was halfway to being a question.

“I’ll come as soon as I can. Promise.”

He stood reluctantly and turned to Auntie Caihong. She came in for a much briefer hug.

“This will be hard,” she told him. “Stay the course.”

He nodded and said, “Take care of Ai.”

“I will,” said Auntie Caihong.

Nothing in her expression changed, but the look in her eyes was enough to make Sen want to shudder. Whatever else was coming, his daughter would be safe. Before he could talk himself out of it, Sen formed a qi platform beneath his feet, rose into the air, and raced off in the direction of the capital.