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Unintended Cultivator Vol 12: Chapter 13– Special Rock
🕑 Added 2025-05-09 04:02:47 +0000 UTCSen stood up from the table where all the generals and other senior officers sat. He’d endured their transparent attempts to ingratiate themselves to him for at least…He was pretty sure he’d suffered through it for three or four minutes. Now, he was done. All of the army officers were staring at him with concerned expressions. He let his gaze move from face to face before he finally spoke.
“This will not happen again,” he informed them.
“Lord Lu?” asked one of the generals.
“The cultivators learned this lesson the hard way. I’m giving you the chance to learn it the easy way. You are not capable of swaying me to your side. You cannot ingratiate yourselves to me. No matter how much flattery you throw at me, it will not gain your masters my favor. You lost any hope of gaining my trust and respect before we ever marched. You did it by being greedy, self-serving, short-sighted, and weak. The very best you can hope for is to not worsen my opinion of you.
“And be aware, if you do manage to lower my opinion, I will execute you on the spot. If your subordinates prove equally useless, I will execute them. This will continue until I find someone who is more interested in performing their role well than pursuing stillborn political ends. So, this will not happen again. You will not waste my time by organizing dinners that only serve your already-doomed purpose of trying to win me over.”
“Lord Lu,” said a different general in a tight voice. “You dishonor us.”
“You dishonored yourselves long before I arrived. No. I simply informed you of the truth you face. If I had intended to dishonor you, I would have given you that speech in front of the entire army. All of that being said, I doubt most of you will choose to learn this lesson the easy way. I estimate that I’ll be forced to execute at least half of you before we reach Emperor’s Bay. There is some good news. Well, it’s good news for me. All of those executions should weed out the last of you who are too stupid to realize that your masters don’t matter anymore. Everyone answers to me. You. Them. Everyone. Now, before one of you says something that speeds up those executions, get out.”
The officers left the tent, almost all of them with expressions of barely contained fury. Sen sat back down, picked up his cup of wine, and sipped at it.
“That wasn’t very political,” said Misty Peak, stepping out of her illusion near a corner of the tent.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” said Sen, forming a wind barrier to block their words from being overheard.
The fox-woman walked over to a small table, poured herself a cup of wine, and joined him at the table.
“I know you don’t like them, but you might need them. Armies need leaders to function.”
Sen shook his head and said, “I never needed them. I just needed them out of the capital. It’s hard to have a coup when you’d need to march your soldiers for months to reach the city you want to claim.”
She studied him for a moment before her eyes widened.
“You’re hoping that all of them to die in this war.”
“No. I mean to ensure that all of them die in this war. By the time it’s done, I’ll have nothing but officers who are loyal to me.”
“What if they try to take their troops and leave.”
“Didn’t you just hear me talk about how I’d execute them? None of them can hope to move fast enough to get away from me, let alone back to the capital with troops. Besides, I can hear them making their little plans and forming their strategies. I also hear what the soldiers are saying. Those generals do not enjoy nearly as much loyalty from their troops as they imagine they do.”
“So, you’d let them try just to give yourself an excuse?”
Sen took a sip of his wine.
“Yes. I would.”
“That’s—” she trailed off.
“Ruthless?” asked Sen.
“I was looking for a stronger word, but yes. That’s ruthless.”
“Why leave enemies behind when you can arrange for their deaths by making them come with you?”
“Who said that?”
Sen thought it over before he said, “Every tyrant who ever lived, I imagine.”
Misty Peak laughed.
“I thought you were going to say Feng Ming.”
“I don’t know if he ever said it, but I’m sure he’d approve of it. He’s more ruthless than I could ever dream of being.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. He’s had a lot longer to practice.”
“I wasn’t trying to set a goal,” said Sen with a chuckle. “Besides, the world was a different place when he was my age.”
“Not really.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve talked with my grandfather,” answered Misty Peak. “He’s not quite as old a monster as your master is, but he’s been around a very long time. The way he tells it, things were different back then, but they weren’t that different. People haven’t really changed. The same things that make people stupid now—greed, self-interest, jealousy—made people stupid then.”
“There’s just one problem with all of that.”
“Which is?”
“It all hinges on trusting things that Laughing River said, and who in their right mind does that?”
“That’s a very fair point,” said Misty Peak with a laugh. “He is the most accomplished liar, well, probably ever. Certainly, the most accomplished liar either of us is likely to meet in this world.”
After a moment or two, Sen recalled something that he’d been meaning to ask about for a while.
“Did he ever ascend? I mean, I went through a lot of trouble to get that rock for him.”
“You mean that impossibly valuable spatial treasure?”
“Yeah, his special rock. Did he use it to ascend like he said he was going to?”
Her expression didn’t change. She just lifted her cup and took a sip of wine. Sen still felt something shift in the fox-woman, though. Rubbing his face with his hands, he tried to decide if this was something he needed to know about. I could just let it go, he thought. The problem was that, unlike even a year or two before, he couldn’t ignore extremely powerful old monsters wandering around and doing things. He was in charge now. That meant he actually needed to know.
“What’s he doing instead of ascending?” asked Sen in a tired voice.
“I never said—” started Misty Peak.
“Oh, by the thousand hells, just tell me.”
“I don’t know exactly what he’s doing. I’ve heard rumors, but they’re just rumors. You, of all people, know how reliable those are.”
“What are the rumors?”
She took a few more sips of her wine before giving him a grumpy look.
“Don’t blame me if these aren’t true.”
“Speak,” said Sen.
“Supposedly, he’s been going around and killing the other nine-tail foxes who said he betrayed us.”
Sen let himself sit with that and its implications for a minute.
“So, he’s basically killing all of your elders?”
Misty Peak offered a helpless shrug and said, “Maybe.”
“Is he really that powerful?”
“Oh, yes,” she said with much more certainty. “He is to the nine-tail foxes what your teachers are to cultivators.”
“Of course, he is. Why do I feel like none of this is good news?”
“Probably because you learned basic reasoning skills.”
“That might do it,” agreed Sen. “You know what? I think all of that sounds like a tomorrow problem. In fact, it may even be a next year problem.”
“How so?”
“I don’t have to worry about what he’s doing until it affects what I’m doing. We might even get through this whole war without me needing to worry about him.”
“Do you really think that’s going to happen?” asked a skeptical Misty Peak.
“There is exactly no chance that’s going to happen, but I think we’re probably safe for the next few days. And, I’m choosing to view that as a victory.”
“To the next few days,” said Misty Peak, lifting her glass.
“To the next few days,” echoed Sen, lifting his own glass.
Comments
Angela Roberts
Well this should be a *fun* reunion.
Drew G
Besides, I [can] hear them making their little plans and forming their strategies. I also hear what the soldiers are saying. Those generals do [not] enjoy nearly as much loyalty from their troops as they imagine they do.”
gary lutz
And now I just want to see them arrive in Emperors Bay 👀
Kanyau
TYftC
