Sen had been making excuses to avoid this task. He knew he’d been making excuses to avoid it. Of course, it helped that his excuses were, by and large, to do things like go train with Fu Ruolan, train the townspeople, evaluate Wu Meng Yao’s true skill level, and shore up some of her weaknesses. Most important to his way of thinking was spending time with Ai. In other words, he wasn’t inventing mindless goals or wasting time. It was just that he could have, at any point, taken a break from any of those things to go and deal with this particularly troublesome task. If only it didn’t involve cultivators. You’ve got to get over that, Sen reminded himself. If you’re opening your academy to them, you’re going to have to deal with them and all the things you don’t like about them. For all that, he still hoped that they would all decline when they found out the truth. Of course, that meant actually taking the step of talking with them. Sighing, Sen walked into the inn. He didn’t even bother looking at them. He just pointed.

“You, you, and you. Come with me,” he commanded, then turned and walked out.

They knew who he was. Half the town knew him on sight, even if they hadn’t spoken directly with him. So, it was a foregone conclusion that the cultivators who had been in town for weeks and weeks had made a point to learn who he was. Oddly, none of them had gotten anywhere near to the practice hall or even, as near as he could, spoken with any of the mortals he was training. He didn’t know if that was an overabundance of caution or just what they deemed a healthy measure of respect. He wasn’t sure what, if anything, he would have done if the cultivators had approached any of his mortal students. He supposed it would have depended on how those interactions had gone. If the cultivators had been polite, he expected he would have let it go. If they had been more like the majority of cultivators Sen had encountered over the years, he probably would have turned the whole thing into a bloody, painful object lesson before helping that cultivator leave town. If that help resulted in them bouncing down the stone road for half a mile, that would been very sad. For them.

His spiritual sense told him that the three had hesitated briefly, then hurried after him like ducklings chasing their mother. Now, they were walking along in his wake. Several times, he heard one or another of them take a breath like they intended to speak, only to change their minds at the last second. He led them out of town and to the practice hall. Sen had told the townspeople to take a day off, so there wouldn’t be any interruptions of this meeting unless something big happened. Although, with Uncle Kho and Auntie Caihong nearby, Sen felt a certain swell of pity for any spirit beast foolish enough to come looking for trouble. Uncle Kho would likely destroy it from a distance with lightning just to make sure the spirit beast didn’t disrupt whatever fun he and Auntie Caihong were having with Ai and Zhi.

Sen had initially felt like he was taking advantage of the elder cultivators since they always offered to look after the girls when some had something to do. When he’d suggested that he could take the girls for a day, he’d been met with such plaintive, hurt looks, that he’d felt compelled to explain that he didn’t want them to feel like he was using them. That had immediately soothed their feelings. Then, Auntie Caihong had metaphorically patted him on the head, told him he was a good kid, and shooed him out to go be productive. So, he had gone and fetched the cultivators who had been hanging around and acting like a mental lodestone for him. He took them inside the training hall, cycled almost unconsciously, and gestured. Three stone chairs rose from the floor. He turned to face them and sat. A fourth stone chair rose up to catch him.

“Sit,” he said.

The three cultivators traded glances before taking seats. Sen looked them over. They all had the air of perpetual youth about them that made guessing their actual ages problematic. The one to the left was a young man with intelligent, dark eyes, and odd, short-cropped hair that looked more red than black. To Sen, he felt like he was somewhere in late foundation formation. Sitting next to him was a positively tiny woman. She was so small that Sen might have mistaken her for a child if he’d been distracted. The chair was big enough that her feet just sort of dangled over the floor. He frowned and concentrated for a moment. The chair slowly reduced in height until her feet could rest comfortably on the floor. She inclined her head to him in thanks. He judged that she was hovering at the cusp of qi-gathering and foundation formation.

He turned his gaze to the last person and found himself grateful that there was at least one man in the trio. The woman in that chair looked at him with defiant blue eyes. He’d heard about blue eyes, light hair, and extremely pale complexions. He knew that they were more common beyond the Mountains of Sorrow. He’d just never seen them before, let alone all on one person. It was almost jarring and might have even left him off-balance if not for seeing Falling Leaf’s eyes so often over the years. She was the only core formation cultivator in the group, which suggested that she was much older than the other two and probably much older than Sen himself. He let the silence drag out for an uncomfortably long time, just to see how they’d react. The man and the tiny woman both started to fidget, but the blue-eyed woman never twitched. She just waited.

“Why are you here?” Sen asked.

The other two gave the blue-eyed woman surreptitious glances, clearly expecting her to take the lead in whatever discussion was about to happen. She didn’t disappoint them.

“I am here to learn from Judgment’s Gale,” she announced.

“Really?” said Sen.

“Yes,” she answered, confidence incarnate.

“And did he invite you?” Sen asked in a dangerous, casual voice.

She faltered at that. The man turned a shade of green, while the tiny woman seemed to be trying to make herself even smaller. Splotches of red appeared on the blue-eyed woman’s cheeks. It was a bit of a relief for Sen since it suggested that there might be a human being in there somewhere if he dug deep enough. He just looked at her and waited for an answer. He wasn’t about to let her off the hook.

“No,” she admitted.

“Yet, here you are. Here you all are. I won’t lie to you. The only reason you’re sitting here right now is that you behaved politely in town. This place is, for the moment, my home. I am protective of it. I have no tolerance for cultivators who believe that being cultivators gives them a right to abuse mortals. I have exceedingly limited tolerance for cultivators who believe that being in a sect makes them special. Any attempt to abuse the mortals here or to force those of a lower cultivation to do anything they do not wish to do will have lethal consequences. Have I been unclear in any way?”

The core cultivator and the red-haired guy both looked a little stunned as they shook their heads. The tiny woman, on the other hand, looked ecstatic, as if she’d gotten great news that she hadn’t expected. Sen continued.

“I said all of that for a reason. I’m about to tell you things you don’t want to hear. So, I wanted you to understand what happens if you make a bad decision afterward. Despite what you may think, I’m not starting a sect. Nor do I expect that I will ever want to start one. I am also not interested in taking on disciples.”This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“But… But I am very skilled,” objected the blue-eyed woman.

“Of course, you are,” said Sen. “You’re a core cultivator. You don’t reach the core formation stage if you’re incompetent. I’m not making a judgment on your worth as cultivators. There are a hundred sects out there that will be happy to do that. I’m informing you that no one who comes here looking for cultivation instruction will get it from me.”

The red-haired man finally piped up and swept his arm around at the training hall.

“Then, what’s all this?”

“This,” mused Sen, “is an academy. Or the beginnings of one. It will serve to train mortals and cultivators in the fine arts of wielding spears and jian.”

“Just weapons? No cultivation?” asked the tiny woman, finally deciding to join the conversation.

“Just weapons,” agreed Sen. “Or, for you, I suppose just the jian. Even with cultivator strength, I don’t believe a spear would serve you particularly well.”

The red-haired guy snickered a little and whispered, “Spears aren’t for tiny people.”

The tiny woman’s cheeks went bright red with either anger or embarrassment, and she stared down at her lap. That lasted until Sen let his auric imposition crash down on the man. He looked at the panicked face of the man who was struggling to draw so much as a breath beneath that crushing force.

“Her size is a fact,” said Sen. “A fact over which she clearly has no control. Your rudeness is entirely a choice. One with which I am wholly unimpressed.”

He turned his attention to the tiny woman who was staring at him like he was some kind of hero. He inclined his head to her.

“My apologies,” said Sen. “While you may not get what you wanted by coming here, you most certainly didn’t come to be insulted. Since it happened in my training hall, I will see to it that you receive appropriate compensation.”

“Thank you,” said the startled tiny woman.

Sen noticed the blue-eyed woman was watching all of this with keen interest. He finally turned his gaze back to the red-haired man, who was turning dark red. Sighing, Sen lifted the auric imposition. The barely conscious man slid out of the stone chair and lay on the floor gasping for breath. They all waited with varying degrees of interest while the red-haired man regained his breath and composure. Rising, the man cast a fearful look at Sen before turning to the tiny woman, clasping his hands before him, and bowing.

“I offer my sincerest apologies. I spoke carelessly and callously. It was unkind. I beg your forgiveness.”

Sen was impressed with that apology. There was no way to know what motivated it, but it sounded sincere. The tiny woman looked a little flustered by the words, but she managed a nod.

“Of course,” she murmured.

After the red-haired man sat again and refused to meet anyone’s eyes, Sen continued.

“I’m still deciding on exactly how I’ll decide who can and can’t join the academy. For the moment, I’m allowing any mortal or cultivator to join, assuming they have the strength to actually wield the weapons. The fees for cultivators are substantial since they require training from other cultivators. Cultivators that I must recruit and pay. While I don’t expect any one student to bear those costs alone, the fees will be in line with the costs. I may reduce those fees based on students providing other services.”

“Such as?” asked the blue-eyed woman with a suspicious look.

“We’re relatively deep in the wilds here. This town may be more or less safe from spirit beast attacks. It doesn’t mean others are. Cultivators can move fast enough to provide aid in an emergency if we can figure out a way to get messages between towns fast enough. The town can use a sturdier wall. Cultivator strength would speed up the process of building one. Things like that.”

“Oh,” said the woman, looking almost confused. “How practical.”

“My grandmother is a strong advocate for practicality. Now, the three of you know what is and, more importantly, what is not on the table. You can make your decisions accordingly.”

The red-haired guy almost ran for the door as soon as Sen finished speaking. The tiny woman went to leave, but Sen waved her over. She approached nervously like she wasn’t sure what to do or say. He led her away from the blue-eyed woman who seemed intent on staying and talking more.

“There’s still the matter of compensation for the insult,” said Sen. “Is there anything in particular that you need? A cultivation resource for your breakthrough, perhaps?”

“I… I just… I don’t know,” she said, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

Sen frowned before a possibility struck him. “No master to guide you?”

“There was a woman, in my village, that taught me some things. But I’m farther along than she ever got.”

Sen nodded. “I see. So, now you’re in the world trying to figure out your path forward. May I examine your dantian and channels?”

The woman blushed like Sen had suggested something altogether different.

“Alright,” she squeaked.

It barely took him three seconds to learn what he needed to learn. Her dantian and qi channels looked to be in good condition. Whatever the woman from her village had taught her, it had been sound. She was focused mostly on water, but he thought that she had some affinity for wood as well. He resisted the urge to give her advice and then thought better of it. He could blatantly ignore his own rules this one time because of what that fool had done. He also saw that all it would take to push her from qi-gathering to foundation formation was the tiniest nudge. He could make her something right here that would do the job. He nodded, mostly so she’d have some sign that he was done.

“You’re familiar with tribulations?” he asked.

She looked very, very nervous at the word. “Yes. The heavens send lightning to test you?”

“That’s more or less true,” said Sen as he pulled out his pot and created a stand from stone for it to sit on. “There are some things you may not know about but should. Tribulations are most common at the transition between major stages of cultivation, like the one you’re at. Tribulations don’t happen every time someone moves between stages. I’ve been through several advancements where there was no tribulation. The lightning also isn’t the same for everyone. The heavens adjust the tribulation to your advancement. If you’re strong and your early foundations are good, which yours are, it’s highly probable that you’ll survive one.”

As he spoke, Sen created fire beneath the pot and began summoning things from his storage ring. He realized that he hadn’t been using alchemy to make anything new for a long time now. He missed it. He also saw that his words had helped to sap some of the fear in the tiny woman’s expression. Sen thought that ignorance about something like the nature of tribulations was probably almost as dangerous to a cultivator as having a shoddy foundation. He chose the ingredients he used with care, striking a balance between wood and water qi-attributed plants and reagents.

“You may also be under the impression that you must choose only one qi type and focus on that,” said Sen. “That’s patently untrue.”

He held up his left hand while using his right to continue stirring what was in the pot. Over his left hand, a ball of water appeared, followed by a sphere of fire, then shadow, and then lightning.

“That focus on only kind of qi is traditional but not a requirement. You have a natural water affinity, but you also have a wood affinity. Don’t discard that second affinity unless you have no interest in it.”

The tiny woman was staring at his left hand in pure awe, and even the blue-eyed woman had moved closer at that display.

“I don’t know any wood cycling techniques,” said the woman.

“They’re simple enough to find,” said Sen, focusing on the pot for a moment to allow his intuition to guide the process more fully. “I’ll find one for you. Consider it part of your compensation.”

Satisfied that what he’d made would be enough to push her into foundation formation and maybe help her along a little, Sen removed the pot from over the fire that existed only because he wanted it to. He bled the heat from the elixir and filtered the final product through a cheesecloth and into a stone vial. He sealed the vial and handed it to the woman.

“That should be sufficient to move you into foundation formation,” he said.

“What about the tribulation?” she asked.

“There’s no predicting them, but you should take that elixir away from buildings and other people. I can’t interfere with a tribulation. When you’re ready to take that, though, I can go with you away from town. Make sure nothing interferes.”

The woman wore such a look of profound relief that it made Sen uncomfortable.

“Thank you!” said the tiny woman.

“You’re welcome,” said Sen.

Seemingly at a loss, the tiny woman bowed and hurried away, cradling the vial in her hands. Sen turned to face the blue-eyed woman.

“Yes?”

“Some might say that was excessive compensation for the insult.”

Sen shrugged. “I can compensate her as much as I feel is necessary.”

“That was a kind thing you did for her.”

“Which part?” asked Sen, reaching down to pick up his pot.

“All of it.”

Sen looked up, but the blue-eyed woman was already gone.