Unintended Cultivator

Chapter 33: The Mountain (2)

The reality of what was in front of him didn’t really drive home for Sen until he walked out of the gate, considered his options, and started off in an eastern direction. Until then, there had been a haze of unreality about the whole idea. That haze of unreality hadn’t been helped by the sudden arrival of Ma Caihong, Master Feng’s abrupt culling of the local spirit beast population, or having his own technique broken so thoroughly. He’d mostly slept through the time when he would have worried about what came next. Then, there had been that flurry of preparation. Thinking back about it, Sen wondered if Uncle Kho and Ma Caihong had kept him busy and distracted to keep his mind occupied. If it had been a plan, it had worked.

He supposed that some of his casualness had stemmed from all those times when he and Uncle Kho went looking for herbs and plants. Sen had always felt safe enough on those trips, but he’d also had Uncle Kho there, no doubt scaring off anything that thought about attacking them. This time, though, Sen was alone. As the manor disappeared behind him, Sen became increasingly aware of how alone he was. Back in Orchard’s Reach, he’d spent most of his time alone. It wasn’t that he wanted to be alone. He just learned that it was a lot easier for one kid to hide. The trick he used to stay hidden, when he could do it at all, only worked for him.

When he’d started learning about cultivation, he’d halfway hoped that the hiding trick was something he could learn to extend to other people. The more he learned, the better he grasped how impossible that was. While Sen didn’t fully understand what he was doing to hide, he knew it had to do with his energy and his aura specifically. Something about the way he pulled those things inside himself shielded him. While Master Feng had suggested Sen might be able to do something with similar results to other people, eventually, the trick would only work for him as it stood. As the semi-tamed forest around the manor gave way to untamed forest, Sen felt very glad that he had that trick at his disposal. He knew it wouldn’t hide his scent, but Uncle Kho told him that a lot of spirit beasts tracked qi instead of scents. Sen recognized that it was a flimsy shield, but he’d rather have a flimsy shield than no shield at all.

Yet, for all his worrying, nothing happened all morning. The hours passed in rather uncomfortable silence as Sen covered miles of distance. If anything, the whole mountain felt like it was holding its breath. Of course, covering that distance also impressed on him that the trip was longer than he'd first thought. He’d always known that mountain was big. Yet, the true size of it was a bit hard to really keep in his head. He’d been far too distracted on the trip up the mountain to really pay attention. Since then, he hadn’t given it much attention. As the cold certainty that this trip could well take days and days, the fear finally settled over Sen. He was out on the mountain, alone, until he reached that cave. He felt his hands shaking and clenched them in anger.

“No,” he whispered. “Master Feng killed all of the most dangerous beasts already. I might have to fight, but this isn’t suicide.”

With that bit of self-reassurance, Sen found a comfortable rock to perch on and pulled a bit of food out of his storage ring. As if the food was a summoning charm, Falling Leaf was sitting next to him. She peered up at him with her hopeful, pleading eyes. Sen gaped at the ghost panther. Had she been following him this entire time? Then, relief flooded through him. He wasn’t completely alone. He didn’t really expect the big cat to do any fighting. He wasn’t even sure if he’d want her to. While she was terrifyingly fast at chasing down the food that Sen threw her, he’d never actually seen her do anything even remotely violent. For all he knew, if she tried to intervene in a fight, it could get her killed. He didn’t think he could live with that. He realized that he’d been lost in his own thoughts for a while when Falling Leaf nudged the hand with the food in it.

“Alright, alright,” Sen mock grumbled. “You big mooch.”

He passed her some of the food and watched in amusement as she flopped down to chew and lick at the meat. He settled in to eat his own lunch, feeling much better about being out on the mountain.

***

That good feeling lasted until late afternoon. That’s when the first attack came. Sen was passing through a clearing when he heard a sound like metal on stone ahead. He stopped moving and looked around. On the far side of the clearing, he saw a beast that vaguely reminded him of a goat. Of course, he’d never seen a goat with shiny metal hooves and a lone metal horn protruding from its head before. Sen found himself wishing he’d asked a lot more questions about spirit beasts. He’d always meant to, but it had never felt like a priority. He resolved then and there, if he got back, he’d ask lots of questions or at least ask Uncle Kho if he had some scrolls about them. Unfortunately, that future knowledge couldn’t help him know if this beast was naturally aggressive or just territorial. Sen wondered if he could avoid the problem by simply leaving.

Sen took one step backward and got his answer. The goat charged at him, lowering its head with the obvious intent to gore Sen. For one interminable second, Sen froze. Then, years of training took over. He cycled his qi through his channels, and it almost got him killed. Sen felt the qi rush out into his channels. Then, it ran out into other channels. He froze again. Sen’s mind raced as he tried to figure out what was happening. New channels, he wondered. No, old channels. His mind went back to that second cleansing pill he’d taken. He remembered now that it burned through some kind of blockages in channels he hadn’t known about. Since then, though, his qi hadn’t gone into them. Why would it now? The sight of the goat almost at striking distance jarred him back to reality. He didn’t have time to draw his sword or even to activate a technique.

Instead, Sen did what he liked the best. He redirected. He knew he had to wait until it was almost too late. Otherwise, the timing would be off. He forced a slow breath out, turned out of the way, planted a hand on the side of the goat’s head, and pushed. He expected to knock the goat off course. Instead, he launched himself away from the goat. Since he hadn’t expected it, Sen hadn’t prepared for the sudden motion. His arms pinwheeled a few times, then his feet connected with the ground. Momentum carried him over onto the ground and into a painful, sprawling tumble. In the middle of that misery, he finally put two and two together. Ma Caihong’s alchemical potion. It had to be that. She’d made some vague comments about it maybe improving his cultivation. He gritted his teeth as a large tree finally arrested his motion.

“You kind of undersold it,” he muttered to the far distance Ma Caihong.

As much pain as he was in, he’d been drilled hard by Master Feng. He forced himself up to his feet. If you stayed down, your opponent would capitalize on it. Sen had no desire to find himself beneath those metal hooves. As Sen regained his feet, he was relieved to find that the tumble hadn’t dislodged the sword on his hip. He looked across the clearing to where the goat had turned and was preparing to charge again. He tried to remember what he’d learned about qi aspects. The goat had an obvious metal attunement. What was metal weak to? He knew it was weak to fire, but Sen wasn’t all that eager to start throwing fire around in a forest. With a sigh, Sen resigned himself to doing it the hard way. He drew his jian, cycled metal qi, and pressed that power into the blade. He just hoped that this extra strength would be enough to see him through.

As the goat bore down on him again, Sen’s focus tightened. He let the distractions fall away. The forest noises quieted in his ears until all he heard were the hooves. The sky, the trees, the undergrowth, it all faded from his view. He let the thudding of his own panicked heartbeat drop away as well. In the end, the only things left in Sen’s universe were himself, his jian, and the goat. Sen could see the tiny sparks the goat’s hooves created as they hit small stones. He could see the rectangular pupils of its eyes. He could hear the air exploding from its nostrils. Then, Sen’s body was sidestepping and the jian rose in a perfect arc. Sensory information crashed down on Sen. It dazed him for a brief moment. Then, he saw what he had done. The goat's body was on the ground. Its head lay several feet away.

Sen just stared at the dead spirit beast while his racing heart and labored breathing slowly returned to something more like normal. He didn’t know how he felt about what he’d done. Given a choice, he’d have left the beast to its business. He shook that thought off. It hadn’t given him that choice. It had only given him a choice between surviving and dying. Sen had chosen to live. Deep inside of Sen, far from his conscious mind, a tiny flame flickered to life.