Chapter 64: Problem Solving
Sen studied the group of noble brats for a moment. He let his senses extend just enough to get a read on them. They were all cultivators, but all of them were also still in the qi condensing stage. He frowned a touch at that. Shouldn’t they be farther along, he wondered. Then, he let it go. It didn’t matter if they should be farther along or not. They were where they were, and that was middle qi condensing at best. While Sen knew better than to disregard numbers, he wasn’t sure why they thought giving him a hard time would prove a good plan. Did they think he wouldn’t fight back just because they came in a group? Sen focused. Deal with the most immediate problem first. He turned to Zhang Muchen.
“You should go ahead. I’ll catch up with you there.”
The older servant looked like he very much wanted to take that order, but he said. “I should inform Mistress Lu.”
“No, don’t bother her with this. There’s nothing she can do. This is a cultivator matter. As I said, go on ahead. I’ll catch up when I can.”
The man gave Sen a deeply grateful look, a very hasty bow, and then vanished. Sen turned his attention back to the waiting noble brats. They glared at him, while he just looked at them with an impassive face. Apparently unable to bear the silence, the Mayor’s son took a step forward, sticking out his chest like he thought it made him look impressive.
“Nothing to say?” demanded the mayor’s son.
“About what?” Sen asked, feeling perplexed.
The mayor’s son pointed his finger at Sen as if to accuse him of something. Then, it finally seemed to dawn on the man that all he had done was yell two words at Sen. While the fool tried to think of something to say, Sen wondered how they’d tracked him down so fast. He had spent a while in with Grandmother Lu, but not that long. He wondered if it was the guard at the gate. That made the most sense. They could have been under orders or been bribed to tell the mayor or the mayor’s son if Sen ever came back. Sen decided that it probably didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he was going to go and kill the man.
“It’s time for you to pay for sticking your nose into the business of your betters.”
Sen was swiftly growing tired of the posturing fool. “Then, perhaps you should go tell my betters that I’m here.”
Whatever the idiot had been expecting, that wasn’t it, because he stumbled over his words for several seconds. “I meant me!”
“Really? So, you came here to challenge me to a duel?”
“A duel? I don’t duel street trash.”
“Ah. So, you came here with all your friends to prove you’re a coward. Very well. Get on with it, then.”
Sen accessed his storage ring and brought out his spear. If he was going to fight with seven people, he might as well enjoy a reach advantage. The sight of the spear seemed to give the group pause, which Sen took full advantage of. By the time any of them recovered enough to move, Sen had covered most of the distance between him and them. The mayor’s son stepped back, his eyes going wide, and jerked a dao free from its scabbard. He started to say something as he pointed the sword at Sen.
“Striking Serpent-,” was as far as he got.
Sen infused the spearhead with metal qi and brought it down on the dao. The spear barely registered any resistance as it sheared the dao off at the hilt. It also broke whatever technique the mayor’s son was trying to enact. Sen didn’t wait to see what the backlash did. He spun away, casually catching the injured man across the side of the head with the butt end of the spear. Sen felt he’d been a little slow on the attack, but none of the lackeys had really reacted yet. Two of them were staring down at the mayor’s son with their jaws hanging open. Another had managed to pull a jian free, but they couldn’t take their eyes off the two pieces of dao on the ground. Two more had apparently remembered urgent business elsewhere because they were slowly backing away from the fight. Sen kept half an eye on the last one, the biggest of the group, while he dealt with the others.
A swift thrust with the spear ended with the jian wielder screaming and trying to plug the new hole that went straight through his sword arm. Sen ignored the screaming guy for a moment and shattered the ankle of one of the idiots staring down at the mayor’s son. The other staring idiot finally remembered that there was a fight happening around him. That one pulled out a pair of short fighting axes. Sen eyed them with curiosity even as he sent a kick back into the screaming guy that sent him rolling away and groaning. Sen thought it made for a nice change of pace from the screaming. He casually blocked a series of strikes from the axes while he sensed the two cowards getting farther away than he wanted them to. He sent a pair of wind blades after them and was rewarded with the sight of two arcs of blood rising into the air from their lacerated backs. The momentary lapse in screaming ended as those two bled and writhed on the ground.
That sight of his friend bleeding all over the place was apparently more than the axe wielder had signed on for. He started backing away, his eyes traveling from the bleeding men to Sen’s calm demeanor, then to the big man who had yet to even move. Sen had decided that none of these people were walking from this fight they picked without consequence. He sent a slashing attack that was little more than a blur. Two axe heads spun into the air. The axe wielder was still staring at the severed hafts of his weapons when Sen drove the spearhead into the meaty part of the man’s left leg. Sen did do the man the courtesy of not severing anything truly important. He didn’t even nick the bone. Although no one would have known that from the shrieks the man let out when jerked the spear free. Sen glanced around at the collection of bleeding, moaning, and unconscious bodies strewn around him. He didn’t feel good about any of it, but he didn’t feel bad either. Falling Leaf had been right. They had come and he had fought because he had to.
Sen turned his attention to the last of the lackeys. The big man did as Sen had just done and surveyed the damage. The big man frowned as he regarded Sen.
“You didn’t used to be this dangerous,” said the man a in deep voice.
“Funny. You are all exactly the cowards I remember you being.”
The big man’s face started to contort with anger, but then his face cleared. He let out a frustrated noise and his shoulders slumped. “I suppose it looks that way to you.”
“It doesn’t look any way. If you attack someone seven-on-one, you are cowards.”
“I didn’t attack you,” said the man in an even voice.
Sen started to reply but made himself stop. He made himself think. It was true. The big man hadn’t so much as moved during the rest of the altercation. His presence was an implied threat, but it had only ever been implied. If they fought now, it would be an honorable exchange. Sen took a moment to gather his thoughts by ripping a piece of robe off the mayor’s son and cleaning the spearhead. He eyed the big man and didn’t see any obvious weapons.
“You specialize in unarmed combat?” Sen asked.
“I do,” said the big man.
Sen put the spear back in his storage ring. There was a part of him that just wanted to knock the big man unconscious and call it a day. It would be easier. It would be cleaner. It would be simpler. Yet, there was something tugging at him. It wasn’t as strong as that pull to the East, but it was still there. Sen simply couldn’t shake the sense that there was something he was supposed to do, something that included the big man. Sen looked from the big man to the mayor’s son, and then back again. He took a stab in the dark.
“You don’t much care for him do you?”
There was an almost imperceptible shake of the big man’s head. “I am bound to him.”
Sen let those words sink in and really considered them. “A debt?”
An almost imperceptible nod. “My family.”
So, probably some kind of financial debt. Sen could help with that. He had a storage ring overflowing with beast cores. The real question was, did he want to help this man? Sen didn’t mind the idea of good deeds, but he was no saint. Nor he did plan on becoming one. While he let his conscience wrestle with that problem, he gestured at the big man.
“Well, I suppose we should get on with it.”
The big man nodded and strode over to Sen. There was no art in the man’s movements. Sen saw none of the grace that he expected from years of training. The big man was simple in that he was brute force. He lifted one of his big fists and cocked it back.
“Thunderous Avalanche Strike.”
The big fist shot forward toward Sen’s face like a flesh hammer. Then, it was stopped cold by Sen’s palm. The big man grunted in what was obvious pain. Sen leaned in like he was gloating over the man’s failure.
“If I could free you, what would you do?”
“Leave,” hissed the big man. “I’d leave.”
“And do what?”
The big man looked Sen straight in the eye. “Be like you. Be a wandering cultivator.”
“How much does your family owe?”
“One thousand silver tael.”
It was a ridiculous, nigh-impossible sum for most families. Sen couldn’t even imagine how such a debt could be created in the first place, but the how didn’t matter. It was a sum that Sen could afford. It wouldn’t even be that big a blow to his theoretical personal wealth, although the value of beast cores was less predictable than gold, silver, or rice for that matter.
“Very well,” said Sen.
Then he punched the big man in the chest. The big man flew several feet back through the air before his bulk crashed into the ground. Sen watched as the big man wheezed and coughed. He let the man catch his breath before he walked over and crouched down.
“Do you have a storage treasure?” Sen asked.
The big man wheezed out something that sounded like it might be a no. Sen wasn’t surprised, but it would have made life easier if the big man did.
“Visit Grandmother Lu’s. I’ll leave you what you need there. Then, I’ll expect to meet you out there on the road somewhere. Do not make me regret this choice.”
“I won’t, senior brother.”
Sen gave the man a slight nod of acknowledgment, stood, and walked away. It wasn’t his responsibility to treat their wounds. As far as he was concerned, they were self-inflicted.
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