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Unintended Cultivator Vol 11: Chapter 8 – Like A Merchant
🕑 Added 2025-01-08 04:04:18 +0000 UTC“Is that— Is that— Is that your primary affinity?” said Jin Bohai, stumbling over his own words
“Well—” began Sen before he stopped himself.
First, he wasn’t sure that was information he wanted to share. Second, and perhaps more importantly, he wasn’t actually certain anymore. It was one of his stronger affinities, but was it his main affinity? Sen looked inward. Back when he’d still had a core, it had been easier to evaluate those kinds of things. Now that his nascent soul had merged with his body, his qi was all just sort of there, everywhere inside him, undifferentiated and omnipresent. On top of that, he wasn’t entirely confident about what, if anything, he might have absorbed in those last desperate moments of consciousness after his attack on the spirit beast formation. Anything he absorbed might have changed things.
He wasn’t sure it was even possible to sort out how much affinity he had for what anymore. Nor was Sen entirely convinced that affinities were as locked in stone as many cultivators believed. Early on, he’d struggled to summon lightning, but it was just so damned effective against so many things that he’d kept using it. Now, Sen thought he was closing the gap with Uncle Kho. He didn’t think that would be possible if affinities were something that was fixed at birth. Of course, he’d worked pretty hard at keeping his cultivation flexible and never entirely closing the door on anything for which he had even a minor affinity. That probably made it easier.
He was a bit unhappy that it was so widely known that he wasn’t stuck using just one kind of qi. It was the kind of thing that made for a nasty surprise, but he supposed that secret had been out for a while. Anyone who didn’t know before the battle at the capital damned well knew now. Ultimately, Sen just shrugged. He decided that a bit of uncertainty was a good thing for the more powerful nascent soul cultivator. Well, it was good for Sen. They were allies but the strength of that alliance was tenuous and untested. The less confident the Fu Ruolan’s master felt about a victory in a hypothetical fight with him, the more comfortable Sen would feel.
It was obvious the non-answer didn’t please Jin Bohai by the sour expression on the man’s face, but he kept any complaints to himself. As much as he might want to treat Sen as a junior and have Sen treat him as an honored teacher, that simply wasn’t going to happen. Sen would learn from the other cultivator if he could, but he’d never tolerate the kind of power imbalance that a master-student relationship would entail. It required too much trust. There wouldn’t be enough time for them to form that kind of bond. Sen had too much to do. Beyond that, they were both too powerful to relinquish that much control to another person. Jin Bohai would have to settle for being a peer and nothing more.
“I would be interested in an exchange of knowledge,” said Sen. “I have no doubt that you possess many valuable insights about the use of shadow qi. I’m just not sure what I can offer you in return that would be of equal value. Is there a particular pill or elixir that you require? I have been trained by arguably the two best alchemists alive. I expect I can meet any need you have in that regard.”
Jin Bohai seemed to like that even less. He clearly wanted to cultivate a personal relationship. Maybe even one that involved some kind of debt on Sen’s part. By framing it as little more than a business transaction with mutual and equal benefit at its center, Sen made it clear he had no intention of being put in such a position. The knowledge that Jin Bohai clearly had to offer about shadow qi was a temptation. Sen knew better than most the scarcity of such information. He also knew that he had only scratched the surface of what was possible with it. The opportunity to pose questions to someone who had worked with shadow qi for hundred or even thousands of years was something for which Sen would pay dearly and gladly, but he would not pay it in personal debt.
“Who trained this paranoia into you?” asked Jin Bohai. “To avoid even a hint of a personal obligation is… It is—”
“Wise,” interrupted Lai Dongmei.
“Easy for you to say when you already have such a potent string tied to the man,” snapped Jin Bohai.
Judging by the look of icy calm on Lai Dongmei’s face, it was entirely possible that he was about to witness an argument between nascent soul cultivators escalate into a violent conflict. He needed to cut off that possibility, and he needed to do it now. Sen doubted the capital would survive the fight. He hadn’t gone through all the trouble of saving the place just to let these two destroy it.
“Fu Ruolan,” said Sen quickly.
“What?” asked Jin Bohai and Lai Dongmei at the same time.
“You asked me who trained this paranoia into me. It was Fu Ruolan. She was very strident about it. Very insistent that I consider how people might use me. It’s almost as though she was once in debt to someone and lived to regret it,” said Sen while staring hard at Jin Bohai.
The man flinched a little under that stare. Sen didn’t think it was guilt, at least not the kind of direct guilt of someone who had abused their position in some way. But he thought that the man knew something about what had caused Fu Ruolan such deep and abiding pain. Perhaps Jin Bohai had failed to properly protect his student from someone in the far-distant past. Maybe he’d only found out about it after the fact, when there might be gratifying revenge to take but the damage was already done. Sen was a little curious, but he didn’t mean to extort Fu Ruolan’s history out of someone else. She’d tell him if she ever decided she wanted him to know. Jin Bohai’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but Sen waved a dismissive hand.
“I’m not interested in other people’s secrets,” he said. “Particularly secrets that don’t involve me in any way. You asked who trained me to be paranoid. I answered you. Now, back to the matter at hand. What do you wish in exchange for your knowledge? I’d be happy to have it if we can come to an acceptable accommodation.”
“I don’t mean to haggle like a merchant with you,” said Jin Bohai in a disdainful tone.
“Like a merchant,” repeated Sen in a very soft voice. “A merchant like my grandmother? Is that what you meant?”
Lai Dongmei took three swift steps back from the two men, although her expression retained that same icy calm expression. That move on her part, maybe even more than Sen’s words, seemed to tell Jin Bohai exactly how far he had stepped over a line. A line that wise people tread very carefully around. He lifted a hand as though to ward off a blow.
“I spoke in haste,” said the nascent soul cultivator.
“Yes,” said Sen as killing intent started leaking from him. “You most certainly did.”
When his killing intent touched Jin Bohai, the man didn’t fall into convulsions or start bleeding from his eyes as weaker cultivators often did. However, all of the blood drained from his face, leaving him with the countenance of someone who had only left their sickbed very recently. While Sen had never experienced his own killing intent, he knew what had gone into its creation. He hadn’t built it over long years of fights that were carefully managed by sect seniors. It had been made in the heat of lethal conflicts that he had survived. His killing intent was forged of implacable will and death.
Sen clamped down hard on his instinct to simply attack the man. Acting without thought had occasionally brought about victory but frequently at far too high a cost. Those hard lessons had taught him at least a little patience. Behind his anger, he also recognized that this was an opportunity. Jin Bohai’s ill-considered words had changed the landscape of their previous negotiation. He had been looking to indebt Sen to him, but now he was the one who needed to make amends.
“Lord Lu—” began Jin Bohai.
“You have insulted my family and their trade,” said Sen.
“They were but hasty words,” said the man, an edge of desperation in his voice.
“More than one person has died over such hasty words, and ones far less insulting. Haven’t they?”
Jin Bohai looked like he was trying to think of an answer that wouldn’t damn him immediately, but he offered a grudging nod.
“They have, Lord Lu.”
“So, how will you right this insult?”
Sen saw the moment when Jin Bohai recognized what was happening. It wasn’t subtle. It was basically blackmail, not that Sen felt even a smidge of guilt about it. He hadn’t been the one throwing around insults. He’d been negotiating in good faith. The other nascent soul cultivator looked briefly angry, then offended, and finally relieved. This wasn’t what Jin Bohai had wanted, but it was a way to avoid making Sen an enemy for life. More salient to the immediate future, it let him avoid making Sen’s allies his enemies for life. A life that might prove exceptionally brief depending on how those allies felt about Lu Jia.
“Lord Lu,” said Jin Bohai as he bowed, “perhaps I can interest you in some instruction in the use of shadow qi.”
Sen stared at the man for ten full seconds before he said, “It’s a start.”
Comments
Sean Shivers
That's what repeated trauma does to folks. This is probably going a bit far but he was being honest when he said he didn't have any more room for politics today... And then gets approached by someone trying to do cultivator politics.
ben regnard
Sen is kind of an asshole these days isn't he?
Angela Roberts
Makes total sense.
Presten
"Lai Dongmei took three swift steps back" This line is such a powerful characterization to me. I think it is incredibly important to understand the nature and depth of the relationship between someone you care deeply about, and their parental figures. To be very specific, for a woman to understand the depth and strength of a man's love for his mother. I think the better someone understands that relationship, the deeper the love for that person is. To me this line is such an exceptional way to show that Lai Dongmei has a very clear understanding of how much Sen loves his grama. Hope this little ramble made sense.
BigFun
This came up before when talking about getting ingredients for alchemy out of the deep wilds. Some of those other alchemists were stronger, but had almost zero combat training or experience. Their power was completely not intended for fighting, where a massive amount of Sen's time has been fighting & training for fighting and killing stuff. Another place we see this is Sen's killing intent, his is quite potent compared to others in part due to the massive trial by combat he went through to earn it and the additional battles since.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Angela Roberts
IndyBart, yes, that!
IndyBart
Reminds me of all the Ghostbusters stuck on an elevator taking small steps to get away from a potential explosion that would level a building.
Magisch
Starting genuine, real, long term beef with Sen is just not survivable at this point. I don't think there's a single human who could get away safe from that atm.
Bunny Waffles
I do kinda like how it gives you an idea of how while Nascent Soul cultivators on this realm of existence may be old hands at cultivator bullshit, at the same time that means that they have had an extra long time to fossilize into certain modes of thinking and strategies to deal with others. Which is fine when you are dealing with a rather small and fairly unchanging group of people at the same power level and then having everyone else a rung or several below you. Less fine when you have to deal with an anomaly like Sen that rockets up to your power level in a timeframe that is a mere fraction of what you are used to dealing with and has both extreme personal strength, about the only backing that really matters at this level, and a way of thinking and relationships that have been forged on an accelerated timescale and so hasn't become divorced from that which Sen came from, unlike a "normal" Nascent Soul cultivator and their normal extreme length of time as far as advancing from mortal to the peak goes. TL;DR - Dude has gotten WAY too used to dealing with the same very old people and appears to have lost the quick mental flexibility that is needed for dealing with a whippersnapper who could give him a run for his money and even if he lost, his mentors would then cream the unfortunate aggressor.
BelligerentGnu
That title immediately got Madonna stuck in my head.
Emily Gurnavage
That did throw me off a bit when Sen mentioned just how much Jin eclipses him in strength last chapter, when most of the evidence is to the contrary so far. And Sen being cautious of a fight this chapter. Not that one would be a good idea. If Jin, Lai, and the other 3 nascent soul cultivators (NSC) in the capitol couldn't defend the city when Sen was able to do it alone, how are they more powerful than him? Everything he does keeps impressing them massively and Sen just casually crippled the guy bad enough with killing intent that he could have gotten at least a good hit in. . We could consider that Sen does weird shit with qi, and is special there. So maybe he means stronger physically? Like arm wrestling or sword fighting without qi use? Except Sen is the only currently known dual NSC, so his body strengthening should be leaps and bounds above even his senior NSC because they all only focused on core cultivation. But then we get back to qi, which we already have been shown Sen is significantly stronger and better at using than them. So just what is it that Sen thinks they are stronger than him in? Is Sen not realizing how ridiculously high he soared when he broke through and genuinely doesn't realize they are allnweaker than him? Or ARE they actually stronger, and its just perhaps not being conveyed the best recently? Hm. My head cannon for now shall be Sen just not fully realizing. Maybe he needs to spar with his masters when they next meet.
Emily Gurnavage
The sneaky snake is learnin. That was an entertaining one all around though. I wonder if this teaching will help lead to the breakthrough needed for the communication system.
Angela Roberts
That, was a rollercoaster! And a master class in turning the tables. I reread, "Lai Dongmei took three steps backwards" several times bc it so perfectly encapsulates the moment. And while I can understand that treating a youngster as an equal is difficult, (I mean if I had to treat a 6yo as such is be fuming) but if said youngster had just killed thousands of beasts in a single attack and had the backing of literal monsters, perhaps, just st perhaps, Jin Bohai could've modified his approach to suit the circumstances. Sheesh!!
CentaureHeart
That dude needs a lesson on building personal relationships. Hard d1 roll on that interaction.
Codered999
His teachers that have met her greatly enjoy his grandmother's wit and personality.
Derek Walker
I’m always curious when sen says other cultivators are stronger. Seems like his metric is always way off. Jin Bohai likely couldn’t come close to ending the spirit beast attack like Sen, and if Sen used all his tricks (killing intent, soul attack, Heavens rebuke, + a dozen other ones) it doesn’t even seem like a close fight.
