It seed the shaven-headed cultivator understood his patriarch well enough. Barely an hour passed before the doors to the throne room crashed open. A man who only appeared to be a few years older than Sen stord in, his eyes burning with rage. Since Sen had at least half-expected sothing like this, he’d ordered the cultivators guarding the door not to stop any livid cultivators. There was no point in them getting injured for nothing.
“Where is Lu Sen?” roared the cultivator.
“Do you an his imperial majesty, Emperor Lu?” asked Xu Xiao Dan in an unconcerned voice.
The cultivator narrowed his eyes at the presence of the forr patriarch. Then, he let his eyes wander through the room. Sen could see him counting nascent soul cultivators. A brief, tiny flicker of pity went through Sen when the other cultivator saw Master Feng. The elder cultivator was giving the furious patriarch a chilly smile from across the room. It occurred to Sen that he hadn’t actually asked his teacher if he had any grudges with this man. Still, he couldn’t let his teacher fight all of his battles for him. He had to do these things for himself at least so of the ti. Otherwise, the stories about being propped up by his teachers wouldn’t just be stories; they’d be the truth.
“I see that your manners are no better than your junior’s,” observed Sen.
“Where is he?” demanded the other cultivator.
Sen slowly let his face fall into a mask of contempt and said, “You seem to believe that I owe you explanations. I owe nothing to the forr patriarch of a fallen sect. More to the point, if you continue to behave in this way in my throne room, you will be able to count the remaining seconds of your life on three fingers.”
“Two fingers, Sen,” said Master Feng in a cheery tone. “Two fingers.”
The wrathful man sneered and asked, “You’ll have your teacher kill because you’re that afraid of a real challenge?”
“I’ll let others kill you because that’s what you do with rabid animals. You have them killed. You’ve been barking and snarling since you arrived. How else should I treat you?”
“You should know to respect—”
“By the heavens,” said Sen, his voice like iron, “if you refer to yourself as my better, I will have you restrained. I will poison your cultivation. Then, I will have you beaten to death over the course of a week by foundation formation cultivators.”
It seed the man thought there was a decent chance that Sen could make good on that threat, because he closed his mouth. Plus, if Sen could follow through, it would be a particularly humiliating way for a nascent soul cultivator to die. It was one thing to fall to another nascent soul cultivator. It was sothing else entirely to be bludgeoned into the next life by cultivators who were so much weaker. Sen would have threatened to have qi-gathering cultivators do it, just to ramp up the potential humiliation. He just wasn’t sure they could actually kill a nascent soul cultivator that way. Even a crippled one. Still, the threat had done its job.
“Oh, good,” said Sen. “You’ve finally found your manners. I take it from that badge that you used to be in charge of the Divine Blade Sect?”
Li Qui Yue had given him the nas of the major sects in the city. They were the Divine Blade Sect, the Harmonious Forest Sect, and the Roaring Tiger Sect. The badge this man wore had a sword backed by what was probably supposed to be the night sky. Sen had expected that if a patriarch or matriarch was going to appear, they would co from the Divine Blade Sect or Roaring Tiger Sect. The focus on violence was in their sect nas. He’d have been genuinely shocked if soone had appeared from the Harmonious Forest Sect. Not that they would necessarily lack in martial skills, but the na suggested that they focused their attention elsewhere.
“I am in charge of the Divine Blade Sect,” said the man through clenched teeth.
“No,” said Sen, shaking his head. “Regardless of anything that may happen in the next hour, your sect is finished. It was finished the mont you abandoned humanity to hide behind your walls. You just didn’t realize it.”
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“I suspect people might see things differently if I kill you. I challenge you, Lu Sen!”
“And why should he take that challenge?” asked Master Feng. “He has nothing to gain but the dubious pleasure of getting your blood all over him. I’ll be happy to handle this trash, Sen.”
“I appreciate that offer, but he did challenge . Foolish though that challenge was.”
Sen had been studying the Divine Blade patriarch while they spoke. He’d been baffled by what he was sensing at first. As a rule, people were either nascent soul cultivators or they were core cultivators. This man seed to be sothing in between. But he’d recalled Master Feng saying that there were rare cases like this. It was usually the result of soone receiving an enlightennt, but only about part of their cultivation path. They were usually called half-step nascent soul cultivators. Sen had naturally assud that made them less dangerous than a true nascent soul cultivator. That, it turned out, was a limited and potentially disastrous assumption. Thinking back, he tried to rember exactly what Master Feng had said.
“On balance, yes, a nascent soul cultivator is more powerful than a half-step nascent soul cultivator, but only on balance. While you may have greater speed and strength, you have no idea how far that enlightennt pushed so aspect of their cultivation. They might actually be faster, or stronger, or have a technique more powerful than anything you can do. In a long enough battle, the nascent soul cultivator almost always wins by attrition. But the half-step cultivator will know that. They’ll have a strategy that lets them maximize their chances of an early victory. The first twenty seconds of a fight with them is always the most dangerous.”
“Then, you accept my challenge?” demanded the forr patriarch of the Divine Blade Sect.
“Not without setting terms. If you win, you get what you want because I’ll be dead. However, as Fate’s Razor pointed out, I have nothing to gain from simply accepting your challenge. I don’t care about you, so your death isn’t a prize. As things stand, all my victory gets is a useless corpse. I need sothing better if I win.”
“What do you want?”
“Service,” said Sen.
“What?”
“If I win, you give a vow to the heavens that you’ll serve and my family.”
“For how long?”
Sen just lifted an eyebrow at the man as if to say, You really need to answer that?
The other cultivator grimaced and said, “The rest of my life.”
“It only seems fair,” said Sen. “After all, the rest of that life will only exist if I spare you.”
“And why shouldn’t I put the sa terms on you?”
“Because the only way you’re going to defeat is if you kill .”
“And you think I can’t make you kill if I’m going to lose.”
Sen had to think that over for a few monts. Then, he shrugged.
“If you do, you can die with the satisfaction of knowing that you managed to exceed my expectations.”
A look that was almost amusent crossed the other man’s face before he said, “This one is Wu Yong.”
“This one is Lu Sen. We should take our duel beyond the walls. I see little need to ravage the city while we settle matters.”
Wu Yong looked as though he might object, but then he shook his head.
“I suppose there isn’t. If we’re to go, let us go. I’d prefer to settle this quickly.”
“Very well,” said Sen, turning and gesturing to a wall.
The stone seed to lt away, leaving a hole to the outside. Sen walked over and stepped through the hole. He settled on the qi platform and turned to look at Wu Yong. The man looked a little stunned at Sen’s casual display of mastery.
“Will you use your own qi platform, or should I carry us both?” asked Sen.
He was a little surprised when Wu Yong walked over to the hole and stepped onto the qi platform.
“Why spend my power when I don’t need to?” asked the half-step cultivator.
“Practical. My grandmother would approve,” answered Sen.
The other man studied Sen for a mont, no doubt looking for mockery. Finding none, he answered.
“So would mine.”
Sen moved the qi platform out of the way so a few other cultivators could use the hole to exit the room. Then, he sealed the wall with another gesture. So of the commoners stared at the flying cultivators. A few children even pointed, although their parents hurriedly pushed their hands down. As they flew, Sen wondered if this was a better way of handling the sects. Probably not, he thought after so consideration. Most patriarchs and matriarchs would simply never agree to it, either too proud or too certain of their own victory. Still, he thought it might be worth trying. It could probably save him so trouble. He was not enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting all those duels, though.
With nothing obstructing their way, it didn’t take long for them to fly over the city walls. Sen carried them a few miles away before he set them on the ground. He wasn’t planning on using big, destructive techniques. His qi reserves were still far too low for his comfort. That didn’t an that Wu Yong would show similar restraint with his techniques. That extra bit of room served two purposes. First, it let him focus on the fight completely. Second, it ensured that no unwitting mortal without a part in the conflict fell to a stray fireball or bolt of lightning. Sen looked on with interest as Wu Yong summoned two jian from a storage treasure. For reasons he didn’t entirely understand, most cultivators only used one blade. Perhaps it was just a matter of training.
Drawing his own swords, he inclined his head to the other man and said, “When you’re ready.”
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