“She’s really yours, isn’t she?” asked Shen Mingxia.

Sen looked at her briefly before returning his attention to Liu Ai and Li Zhi. The girls were running around outside the galehouse he had erected adjacent to the practice hall. While he didn’t think any spirit beast would be stupid enough to try to snatch one of them with him looming nearby, he wasn’t about to take any chances with their lives. Not that he’d let them stay outside too long. He had the sense that the winter weather was drawing to a close, but it wasn’t done with them yet. Even if he could stand outside in it without worry, he was keenly aware of how fragile those small lives were.

“What makes you ask that?”

Instead of answering, she just stood next to him and observed the girls’ free-spirited play. “It’s the way you watch over her. It’s obvious. Even when you aren’t looking at her, you always know where she is. Then, there’s—”

Sen lifted an eyebrow at her. “I know why you think it. I’m curious what made you ask. Simple curiosity? Orders from Wu Meng Yao? Reconnaissance for your sect?”

Shen Mingxia’s expression tightened for a moment before she sighed. “Wu Meng Yao is, how to put it, aware that you prefer my company to hers. But she hasn’t asked me to try to get information out of you.”

“Gods, I hope she doesn’t think that you’ll somehow charm me into liking the Soaring Skies Sect with a nice smile.”

“Nothing so pointless,” said Shen Mingxia, flashing that nice smile at him. “I think she might be hoping that I’ll charm you into liking her a little better.”

“I like Wu Meng Yao just fine. I always liked her. If all she wanted was to be my friend, everything would be fine. It’s her intentions I find problematic.”

“You say that like her intentions are evil.”

Sen laughed a little at that. “I know they aren’t evil. They’re just misguided.”

“You know she’s not a bad person. You don’t need to humiliate her with this made-up mission. You could give her something real to do. Are you honestly telling me that there’s nothing you can think of that she could do for you? She’s not some nobody foundation formation cultivator like me. She’s a core cultivator.”

Sen bit back an angry reply. They’d been talking around the problem for the last month, but this was the first time either of them had directly addressed it. Plus, that word, humiliate, had given him pause. He hadn’t thought about it in quite that way. Sen definitely wanted to aggravate Wu Meng Yao enough that she’d give up on her ridiculous ideas about balancing the scales between them and go home. Still, he questioned if the imaginary task he’d handed out would really end in some kind of shame. Yeah, he admitted to himself, it would be humiliating. Not scar her for life humiliation, but it would still leave a wound. He had to give Shen Mingxia some credit for standing up to him. To describe the difference in their cultivation as stark would be radically understating things. By calling him out about what he’d planned, she wasn’t risking simply annoying him. She was risking death. At least, that’s what she’d be doing if she was dealing with some sect core cultivator. She probably suspected that he wouldn’t do something terrible to her, but those were shaky grounds to take a risk on. Especially when you were taking a risk on someone else’s behalf.

“Don’t sell foundation formation short,” chided Sen. “Some of the things I’m famous for happened when I was a foundation formation cultivator.”

“I’m aware. I was there for one of those of things,” said Shen Mingxia. “The difference is that I am not you.”

“I assure you that’s a blessing. And just what would you suggest I have Wu Meng Yao do? I could have her run more errands like that trip to the capital to buy weapons and deliver messages. How many more of those do you think it’d take before she felt like she’d done enough?”

Shen Mingxia grimaced. “A lot more.”

“That was my thinking as well.”Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Let her join your sect,” said an exasperated Shen Mingxia, “for a while anyway. Say she’s a visiting elder who’s here to teach.”

Sen felt his jaw drop as he fully turned to look at the woman. “What in the world are you talking about? I don’t have a sect.”

Shen Mingxia arched an eyebrow at him, turned, and gave the practice hall a long look. She faced him again.

“You will. Soon. You must know that there are already cultivators in town just trying to work up the nerve to come and ask.”

“I know about the cultivators. I was thinking it was about time to encourage them to move on. They’ve been behaved so far, but we all know that won’t last.”

The expression on her face wasn’t quite pity, but it was close enough to make Sen’s skin crawl.

“You could chase them away, but they won’t be the last. You’re too famous. They’ll just keep coming because who wouldn’t want to be taught by the Heavens’ Scouring Blade?”

“Please tell me that’s something you just made up. Please, please tell me that no one else actually calls me that.”

“Oh, they do. I know a bunch more if you want to hear them.”

“I’d really rather not.”

“I think my favorite may be the Hand of Chaos,” said Shen Mingxia with a gleeful little grin.

“I am begging you. Please stop.”

“Alright. I’ll stop taunting you. The point still stands, though. This problem isn’t going away unless you go back to traveling constantly.”

“It’s not like that’s a real solution. I mean, obviously, traveling didn’t do much to keep me out of trouble,” complained Sen.

“There you go. May as well just start a sect,” said Shen Mingxia, “and let Wu Meng Yao be useful in it.”

“I don’t want a sect. I hate sects.”

“Yes, what a terrible life you lead. So famous and talented that people will come to you, shower you with gifts and money, and all for the chance to learn at your feet. It’s a real tough road you’re on there.”

“Wait? What are you talking about? Gifts and money?”

Shen Mingxia gave him a look that said he was being exceptionally slow on the uptake. “Yes, of course, they brought gifts and money. How else are they supposed to convince the mighty and elusive Judgment’s Gale to take them on as students? The time-honored tradition of bribery. I assume that’s how most sects finance themselves when they first get started. If nothing else, it’ll make it cheaper to help the mortals protect their town.”

That brought Sen up short. He truly did not have any interest in teaching other cultivators anything, but the idea of using their resources to support things he did care about held a certain appeal. Of course, if he took their money, he’d be obligated to actually teach them things. It would give Wu Meng Yao something to do, though. That came with the pitfall that she’d still be around, but at least she’d be busy with something. She didn’t lurk quite as much as Fu Ruolan had used to lurk, but she was pretty bad about it. He did worry about getting distracted from his initial goal of training up the local mortals, but the reality was that most of them had gone as far as they were ever going to go with the spear. It wasn’t a lack of willingness. There just came a point where someone reached the limits of their native talent and physical ability. There were a few standout talents that he could take farther, but that was more on them to put in the work than it was on him to do anything.

“I don’t know anything about training cultivators,” said Sen, trying to deflect the conversation.

“But you had vast experience in training mortals and setting up a system for them to defend their town from spirit beasts?”

“Does it matter that I just don’t want to?”

“Sure. If you don’t want to, don’t do it. Just understand that people are people, cultivators or not. If you say no all the time, it will discourage some, but it will make others even more determined.”

“Great,” muttered Sen with zero enthusiasm.

Shen Mingxia laughed. “Okay. I had my say. I won’t bother you about this anymore.”

“Ever?” asked Sen with a lot more enthusiasm.

She gave him another of those nice smiles and said, “Today.”

Sen gave her a sour look before his head turned to the north, and he grunted to himself. Shen Mingxia gave him a questioning look. He held up a hand to keep her from asking anything immediately.

“Ai! Zhi! It’s time to go inside!”

The girls gave him the pouty looks that sometimes made him relent, but Sen just waved them over. They took a little longer than was necessary, but they came over. He squatted down so he wasn’t towering over them.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Both girls grew visibly happier at that question and nodded.

“Okay, well, you should head inside because I’m going to make us all something really delicious soon. Plus, we’ll even have a special guest with us.”

“Who?” asked Ai with curiosity burning in her eyes. “Is it Auntie Mingxia?”

“She’s certainly welcome to join us, but that isn’t who I meant. I meant her,” said Sen as he pointed.

Fu Ruolan stepped out of the forest and glanced around. She gave Mingxia a cool, neutral look before she directed a bright smile at Ai.

“Auntie Ru!” squealed Ai, rushing over to tackle the nascent soul cultivator’s leg in a hug.

Zhi had walked in Ai’s wake but seemed more hesitant. That hesitance vanished when Fu Ruolan snuck the children some small candies that she’d gotten somewhere. Sen studiously pretended not to see it happening. Sen noticed Shen Mingxia trembling, pale-faced, and silently mouthing the words Auntie Ru.

“You feeling okay?” asked Sen.

“No warning that a nascent soul cultivator was about to descend on us? You really are an ass, sometimes,” growled Shen Mingxia.