Book 3: Chapter 36: The Choices of Others
The argument had lasted for nearly half an hour and Sen hadn’t gotten anywhere with Lifen. She’d dug in her heels about staying and the worst part was that Sen couldn’t refute most of what she was saying. Yet, he could also see tendrils of that same gray energy floating around her heart and her head. She might not have been completely brainwashed, but she had most certainly been influenced strongly by someone else. Sen wanted to be surprised, but he’d pieced together enough context clues to know that he’d been in that cultivation trance for months, maybe even as much as half a year. The old man and his followers had had plenty of time to reinforce their view of the world. Yet, the reasons she was giving him weren’t entirely without merit. Case in point.
“But I’ll be safe here,” she insisted. “No demonic cultivator will ever come this far out into the wilds looking for me. They don’t care about me. They just want to get at you. You said it yourself. There’s nowhere you can leave me that will be safe out in the regular world.”
“Maybe so. But there has to be a better choice than this cult.”
“It’s not a cult!” she screamed at him.
“Not wanting it to be a cult isn’t the same thing as it not being one. More to the point, did you forget how we ended up here? Did you forget that old man beat me within an inch of my life to force me to come here?”
“That was a misunderstanding,” said Lifen with absolute confidence.
“No, it wasn’t. He very clearly meant to force us to come here. And when we said no, he shattered my rib cage. If I hadn’t been a body cultivator, that hit would have killed me, Lifen.”
For the first time, she seemed uncertain. “I didn’t know that your injuries were that bad.”
“Of course, you didn’t because that’s how you wear someone’s resistance down. You keep them separated, alone, lonely. You make them so desperate for the company of others that they’ll do almost anything to get it.”
“So, you’re saying that the only reason I’m saying these things is because I was too weak and stupid to resist. Not like you and Lo Meifeng. The core cultivators. The ones that got picked to be special. Master Lan was right about you. You’re so sure you’re right about everything. So sure that you know what’s best. There’s no room for anyone else’s thoughts or ideas.”
Sen wanted to blame all of the poison that just spilled from Lifen’s lips on Lan Zi Rui, but he didn’t think he could. That dead man walking had no doubt helped put some spin on her words, but the naked jealousy Lifen felt toward him and Lo Meifeng looked and felt all too genuine. He’d seen hints and signs of it before. Cutting remarks here and there. He’d just thought it would pass. He’d assumed that, as she advanced, she would grow more comfortable with the nature and vagaries of cultivation as a process. It was clear that hadn’t happened, and Lan Zi Rui had had months to help stoke those flames. Oh, he was sure all would be forgiven if he decided to stay, but that was the trap.
The old man had created a situation where Sen would have to choose between going against his own better judgment or abandoning Lifen to whatever fate she would have with the cult. He understood now that no words he said would sway her. They had distorted the truth just enough, mixed it up just enough with her real feelings, that she was absolutely certain that he was wrong, and she was right. Even worse, he knew that he couldn’t just force her to leave with them. If he did, she’d see it as the kidnapping that Lan Zi Rui had actually committed. She’d leave and try to come back to the temple at the first opportunity, and probably get herself killed in the process. He'd been hemmed in by the choices of others. He regarded her for a moment, letting the silence build while he weighed his choices. He couldn’t do what he thought was right, but maybe he could provide her with a shield of sorts.
“Very well,” he said and started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” she demanded. “We’re not done.”
Sen looked back at her and said, “Aren’t we? I certainly am. Or did you have more insults you wanted to get off your chest before I go?”
“Go?” she asked, the reality that he was actually going to leave seeming to dawn on her. “What do you mean?”
“You say that you want to stay, then so be it. Being a cultivator is about choosing your path. If this is yours, then I have nothing more to say about it. I, however, have no interest in staying here with that creepy old man and his cult. So, I’m leaving.”
“He said you’d do this. That you’d pick advancing your own power over the good of the world.”
“The good of the world? What nonsense is that?”
“That’s what this place is. It’s a training ground for the righteous. It’s a place where we can learn to defend the world.”
“Defend the world? Really? That’s the line he gave you? Alright. When was the last time you saw someone leave on a mission or quest or journey to defend the world? For that matter, when was the last time you saw someone leave at all? What training are you getting to enhance your cultivation? What training is anyone getting in combat? Offensive qi techniques? Have you done anything but manual labor since you got here?”
“I’m still too new for that,” said Lifen with a defiant look.
“Too new? For combat training? Outer sect disciples who can barely condense qi get that kind of training. I don’t know what this temple was originally for, but that old man is a cancer that has infected this place.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” shouted Lifen. “He’s a good man. A better man than you’ll ever be!”
“When did I ever claim to be a good man?” asked Sen in a flat voice.
Lifen faltered at that. “I…I just meant…”
“I know what you meant,” said Sen in a tone that made Lifen flinch. “Let me tell you what a good man would do right now. A good man would try to make you leave because this place is compromised. A good man would die nobly trying to defeat Lan Zi Rui when he didn’t have the strength to do it. A good man would become a cautionary tale. So, no, I am not a good man. I’m going to do the practical thing. I’m going to leave you here, just like you’ve asked me to do. I’m going to go away and stay away. Then, when I have the strength, I’m going to come back here, murder that old thief, and burn this place to the ground if the heavens permit it. That’s what a practical man does.”
At that, Sen spun on his heel and covered the distance to where Lo Meifeng was quietly saying things to Lan Zi Rui that had made the man go very pale. When the old man saw Sen approaching, his eyes flicked to where Lifen still stood. He started to give Sen a satisfied smirk until he saw the black lightning flickering around the jian in Sen’s hand. Sen came to a halt less than ten feet from the pair.
“When I come back here,” said Sen in a calm, conversational voice, “and rest assured I am coming back, I will not find so much as a whisper of your energy on that girl. If I do find your energy on her, I will make your death the longest, most drawn out, most excruciating exercise in unspeakable agony that I can devise. Do you think I’m lying to you?”
The old man’s face twisted with rage until Sen casually touched the point of his jian to the wall of force that stood between him and the old man. The condensed power of Heaven’s Rebuke, the version he’d originally created, interacted with the energies of the wall. Sen felt the strain on his technique. He tapped into the qi in his core for the first time and slowly trickled it into jian and into the technique. He also carefully trickled in additional killing intent, keeping the technique locked in perfect control. The addition of more potent qi and extra killing intent was enough that the wall of force shattered. The old man’s head snapped back like he’d been hit with an uppercut. Sen still wasn’t sure exactly what kind of energy the old man was using, so he hadn’t been entirely certain that backlash would work the same way. He was happy that it did. He walked toward the old man.
“I truly hope you don’t think I’m lying.”
“It doesn’t matter,” coughed the old man. “It’s not like you can get out of here.”
“No?” said Sen. “Do you think I can’t recognize a formation when I see one?”
Once Sen had learned how to identify the old man’s energy, it had been easy enough to see it all over the temple compound. Most importantly, Sen had seen the shimmering curtain of energy around the compound. The old man had been so certain that Sen wouldn’t be able to actually leave, and that curtain explained why. While Sen couldn’t identify specifically what it was designed to do, he could make a few educated guesses. He’d be willing to bet the curtain only let out the people that Lan Zi Rui decided it would let out. He probably fed the people here some story about how only the righteous, meaning the most effectively brainwashed, could pass outside of the compound. When the old man heard the word formation, his eyes jerked up to Sen.
“Yeah,” said Sen. “I saw it.”
Then, he withdrew his killing intent so that he was only cycling lightning. Normally, that would be a mindlessly easy task for Sen, but not when he was directing nine distinct flows of it. Even with his newly improved ability to split his focus, that took work. He lifted his jian skyward and a bolt of lightning pierced the sky. Then, nine smaller bolts fell from on high onto specific points inside the temple compound. There were shouts and screams as nine carefully placed stone statues exploded into shards and dust. There was murmuring and confusion as the curtain of energy flickered into and out of visibility before it collapsed with an audible pop. Despite the casual way that Sen carried off the entire act, it had been a carefully calculated choice to destroy only nine of the statues. He needed enough of them gone to bring the curtain down so he and Lo Meifeng could leave. But he suspected that field did as much to keep powerful spirit beasts out as people in, so he didn’t want to bring it down forever.
“You wretched boy,” shouted Lan Zi Rui. “I’ll tear out your soul for this.”
“The heavens have already chastised you twice today. Are you really willing to test their patience again?”
Sen could almost watch as the corrupt old man tried to find a way to justify attacking them then and there. But the memory of those world-shaking thunderclaps was just too fresh in the man’s mind. He bared his teeth at Sen.
“Get out of my temple.”
Sen considered tossing off one last parting shot at the man, but he didn’t really want to fight the old man. The threat of heavenly retribution was a convenient bluff, but not one Sen had any confidence in. The heavens were a fickle ally at best. Sure, they hadn’t been happy with the old man trying to steal heavenly qi, but they had also let the old man capture Sen, Lifen, and Lo Meifeng in the first place. It was better to just leave before the old man’s rage faded enough for him to make the same calculations Sen just had. Sen turned to Lo Meifeng.
“Shall we?”
Her eyes shifted to a spot over Sen’s shoulder. He looked back and saw Lifen there directing a baleful look at him. He sighed and answered the unasked question.
“She’s not coming.”
Sen watched as a dozen unasked questions passed through Lo Meifeng’s mind. Then, her lips pressed into a hard line, and she nodded. Without a backward glance, the pair left the awful temple, the old cult leader, and his victims behind.
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