Unintended Cultivator
Book 11: Chapter 28: This Is The Challenge

By the next morning, Sen still hadn’t come up with something nice he could do for the dozen people he’d been borderline torturing. Regardless of that personal failure, he had been leaving them largely to their own devices in terms of training. They thought he had at least. He’d been checking up on them far more frequently than they would have credited. With his basic physical senses undergoing further enhancement when he broke through to the nascent soul realm, all he needed to do was fly to a certain height and just look at them. Even from a couple of hundred feet up, he could still see what they were doing with an almost shocking level of clarity.

He’d gotten so good at it that he could usually fly up, observe, and get back to the ground in less than a minute. It wasn’t even an interruption to his day since he could just go outside between irritating tasks at the palace. He’d half expected them to become complacent without his direct supervision, but they’d proven him wrong. His rather specific instructions about how to spend their time had been followed for the most part. There had been a few occasions when one or more of them was obviously putting in less than a full effort, but that never lasted. Sen wasn’t sure if it was due to legitimate self-discipline or fear, but they were doing as they’d been told. While the ambiguity of it bothered him a little, he’d decided that he wouldn’t dig too deeply into their motives as long as they did the work.

However, leaving anyone alone for too long when they were practicing new things was a good way to sabotage their training. It was disgustingly easy for errors in form to go unnoticed. Those errors swiftly got cemented into place as bad habits. Sen had been forced to break plenty of his own bad habits over the years. That was how he knew that he didn’t want to put in the massive effort required to break bad habits in other people. He wouldn’t shirk the chore if it proved absolutely unavoidable, but it was better to train them properly and avoid that headache altogether. With that in mind, he entered the secluded courtyard.

His presence wasn’t so unusual that it caused them to stare, but they did all straighten up and face him. He hadn’t learned their names yet. With a start, he realized that he hadn’t even asked their names. Well, I guess I set that expectation already, he thought. I’ll ask for their names if they make it through this training. Maybe, I’ll make it ceremonial, like I planned it that way from the start. He briefly tried to convince himself that could be the nice thing Grandmother Lu had suggested, but soon abandoned the effort. He didn’t need her to tell him that wasn’t what she meant.

“You’ve all been doing as I asked,” he said. “Mostly.”

He watched as a few of them glanced away, and one woman’s cheeks went a little red in embarrassment. He waved a hand as if to brush the matter aside. Having them distracted with worry about some non-existent future punishment wouldn’t be productive. He continued.

“Still, while drilling is valuable, I’m sure you’re aware that the true test is in combat. You have been sparring with each other, which is good, but it’s time to find out how much you’re truly learned.”

Sen held out a hand and summoned a spear. It wasn’t a spear fit for a cultivator, let alone a nascent soul cultivator. It was a common spear that he’d claimed from the army camp, just like the ones these former soldiers had trained and fought with. He made a show of looking it over before tossing it to the nearest man.

“Lord Lu?” asked the man, confusion in his close-set eyes.

The man spent an absurd amount of time looking the spear over. He surreptitiously peeked at the others, no doubt pleading for help with his eyes. Sen watched as they lifted their shoulders a fraction of an inch or gave almost imperceptible shakes of their heads. With a helpless expression, the man held the spear out to Sen.

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“It appears to be an average spear, Lord Lu.”

Sen took the spear and nodded.

“Good. That’s what it should look like because that’s what it is. I just wanted you to get a look at it so you know I’m not being outrageously unfair.”

“I don’t understand,” said the man.

“I mean to test you. All of you. I won’t hurl you against spirit beasts. It would be flatly unfair to pit you against other soldiers now. So, you’re going to fight me.”

Sen watched as despair took them all. It was, on balance, a reasonable reaction. Mortals against any cultivator was generally a losing battle. He lifted the hand not holding the spear to draw their attention. He didn’t want that despair taking root.

“I don’t expect you to defeat a cultivator,” Sen explained. “I don’t even expect you to fight cultivators in the normal course of events. So, I will not be using qi techniques against you. I will not be using a powerful weapon. I will also restrict my speed and strength to what a mortal with superior training might achieve.”

The despair didn’t lift from their faces entirely, but it did crack, and hope bled through those cracks. It still wasn’t going to be a fair fight. Sen could restrict his speed and strength, but he couldn’t restrict his senses. He also couldn’t restrict his thinking back down to mortal levels. Those limitations did, however, give them at least a chance at landing a blow on him. Just because he saw a blow coming or heard an attack, it didn’t mean he could react fast enough to avoid them all. Probably.

“This is the challenge,” he announced. “Separate into two groups of six each. Each group will be given an opportunity to attack me. Victory is achieved if any of you land a blow on me. You cannot hurt me with your weapons. So, don’t hold back. You’re only harming yourself if you do.”

There was a pregnant pause before one of the women hesitantly asked, “Is there a prize if we win?”

Sen hadn’t considered that since he didn’t expect any of them to actually pull it off. Still, he supposed that there should be some kind of reward in it for them. He remembered Grandmother Lu lecturing him about how deeply mortals valued money. He summoned six gold coins from a storage ring and held them out where everyone could see them. Their eyes went very wide. Six gold coins were a fortune to soldiers who had been paid in silver monthly. He walked over and placed the gold coins on a bench near the courtyard walls.

“Six gold coins to anyone who lands a blow. One gold each to the rest of their team.”

While everyone still looked very nervous, he also saw glints of excitement in some of their eyes. He wasn’t even confident that it was the gold that truly sparked their excitement so much as the prospect of a prize. That was something worth keeping in mind. He waited patiently as they sorted themselves into two groups. Sen had considered doing it himself, but he was curious to see how they handled it. If they were smart, they’d aim for a mix of strengths and weaknesses. That would suggest that at least one of them was a natural leader and had good instincts. If they weren’t smart, all of the strongest fighters would end up in one group. That would suggest an absence of good leadership that he’d have to remedy in some way.

The results were mixed. There was a clear power struggle between one of the men and one of the women. The man was trying to stack all the strongest people in one group. His group. The woman was advocating for the mixed approach that Sen thought was the wiser move. He remained silent and let them argue about it. He was curious to see how it played out. For the moment, it seemed that the woman had earned more trust from the rest of the group. They divided according to her recommendations. Interesting, thought Sen. He also found it interesting that the woman opted to let the group with her main rival go first.

His opinion of her went way up. Letting the other guy’s group go first meant that she got to sit back and observe. That would tell her if Sen stuck with the rules he set out, which could alter her strategy a lot. It would also let her get a feel for his rhythm and any favorite tactics he might employ. That’s very smart, thought Sen with appreciation. He was still doing his best not to make premature judgments about any of them. He didn’t want to start playing favorites, even unintentionally, but he knew he would pay a little more attention to her. He suspected that she had a good chance of ending up in charge of this little group.

When it looked like everyone was ready, Sen walked over to the center of the courtyard. The six people in the first group spread out around in a loose circle. The man who had lost the battle of wills for leadership positioned himself directly in front of Sen. The circling maneuver was an obvious tactic. It just wasn’t necessarily a wise one. It could restrict his movements, but it came at the cost of diluting their fighting strength at any specific point in the circle. Sen held his spear in both hands, as he’d been taught.

“Whenever you’re prepared,” he said.

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