Unintended Cultivator-Chapter 50Book 10: : I Never Understood

“Is he here?”

Lo Meifeng just stared at the man standing in front of her for several seconds. She recognized him. At least, his features held some vague resemblance to the man she remembered as Shi Ping. That was where the similarity ended. The Shi Ping of her memory was a plump, lazy, and generally cowardly person. His cultivation had been sound but altogether unimpressive. He was someone that she had considered destined for mediocrity, only given a lengthy lease on life by Lu Sen’s generosity in making an elixir that would help the man make the leap into core formation. She’d been silently against the idea out of a genuine concern that the tribulation that came with breaking through to another major stage would kill the man. Not so much because his body couldn’t handle it but because his will was so weak.

Yet, as hard as she looked for the cringing, sniveling, whining person who had aggravated her so much on that seemingly endless trip between the Clear Spring Sect and the capital, there was scarcely a trace. This man looked at her directly, and not with the sad, hopeless lust she recalled. There was a focused clarity and confidence in his gaze. He looked like a man who had worked very hard, seen some difficult things, and been tempered by those experiences. The plumpness had melted away to reveal a dense, compact strength. Even his cultivation had been transformed. It wasn’t the kind of radical transformation that Lu Sen seemed to go through every few years. Nor was it just the transition between stages. It felt more condensed and dangerously potent. She couldn’t help but wonder, What in the thousand hells happened to him?

“Well? Is he?” asked Shi Ping, a little impatience bleeding through.

It was only then that her shock at the transformation was broken, and she recalled he’d asked her a question. She took a beat to gather her thoughts before shaking her head.

“No. He isn’t here,” she answered.

“Of course, he isn’t,” said Shi Ping with a frown. “Very well. I’m sorry to have wasted your time. I know none of us have it to spare right now.”

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Shi Ping turned to leave, and a sudden thought occurred to Lo Meifeng. She doubted that Shi Ping could take Sen in a fight that the latter expected. However, Sen was as likely to be stunned by the other man’s transformation as she had. A hesitation like that would be the ideal and possibly only moment for someone to try to assassinate Sen without resistance. Not that Sen was unassailable. She lived in quiet dread that some nascent soul cultivator would kill him before he got the chance to break through again. She’d actually expected him to return the capital as a nascent soul cultivator.

It had been a bad surprise for her when he’d turned up still in the core formation stage. At least, his spirit cultivation was still there. She wasn’t as sure about his body cultivation. She’d heard about his little teaching moment at the palace when he’d cut down some cultivator who’d underestimated him. Still, if he could be caught off guard, even a core cultivator like Shi Ping could potentially kill him.

“Why are you looking for him?” asked Lo Meifeng. “As I recall, you don’t like him very much.”

She slipped a hand inside a sleeve to grasp the hilt of a dagger she kept secreted away there for unexpected problems. If she decided Shi Ping fell into that category, he wasn’t going to leave Lu Manor alive. The man glanced back at her, and his eyes moved to the sleeve of her robe. Right where she was holding the dagger. He has been through some things, she thought in surprise. The Shi Ping of old would never have noticed that little detail. He smiled, but it was a mirthless thing.

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“I never understood your loyalty to him. The way he treated you… Hells, the way he treated everybody,” said Shi Ping with a shake of his head. “He was always a ruthless bastard and self-righteous on top of it. Then, he puts on this face like his hands are somehow cleaner than everyone else in the world. It’s a true mystery to me how he can bear up under the weight of all that hypocrisy. I honestly thought you’d slit his throat one night.”

“He’s a complicated man,” she answered in a measured tone. “As for why I didn’t kill him in his sleep, that’s complicated too.”

“It would have to be. You can put your claws away, Lo Meifeng. You’re right about one thing. I don’t like him. I doubt I’ll ever like him. But I’m not blind to my own faults. I recognize that I was nothing but a burden and irritation to all of you. Frankly, I’m surprised you didn’t slit my throat.”

“Don’t think it never crossed my mind.”

If the man was shocked by that revelation, he did a good job of hiding it.

“I expect it’s crossing your mind right now. Anyway, despite all of his many, many flaws, I know Sen tried to help me. He trained with me. He even made that elixir to let me advance when I know he had bigger things on his mind. Whatever else I might be, I’m not devoid of gratitude.”

Lo Meifeng took a long moment to evaluate whether she thought he was being sincere. The entire conversation could have been an act, but she’d grown well-versed in recognizing subterfuge when she saw it. She wasn’t seeing it. She released her grip on the hilt and slid her hand out of the sleeve.

“I’m willing to tentatively accept that you’re being honest. If you’re not looking for some kind of petty revenge, why are you looking for him?”

“Isn’t it obvious? There’s about to be a lot of violence here, and he’s in charge of our side of it. However much I may dislike him, I’d dislike being dead even more. That means I need to do my part. Since I’m basically a wandering cultivator now, someone has to tell me where to go and hurl fire at all those spirit beasts.”

Lo Meifeng nodded in grudging agreement to that. She wasn’t sure if Sen was exactly the right person to tell Shi Ping where to go, but she wasn’t sure who the right person would be. There just hadn’t been enough time for anything like formal chains of command to be established. Sen had just assigned people to do things, and, out of an abundance of survival instinct, people were doing those things. Sects were generally operating as units, but even that had partially broken down based on present needs. Every cultivator with a smidge of talent using earth qi was at the wall. Cultivators from every sect that were good with formations were outside the walls setting a variety of traps, some of them under illusions provided by nine-tail foxes. She wasn’t at all comfortable with that arrangement, but Sen had vouched for them. The mortal soldiers were busy doing…She honestly wasn’t sure what they were doing. She just knew that they looked busy whenever she saw them.

“I can tell you where he is, but I doubt it will do you much good.”

Shi Ping’s brow furrowed at that, and he asked, “Why?”

“Apparently, the spirit beasts are making some kind of formation out there. Sen is of the opinion that, whatever it’s going to do, it won’t be good for the city. So, he’s busy trying to figure out a way to disrupt that.”

Shi Ping stood completely still for a moment before reaching a hand up and rubbing at his eyes. He remained silent and continued rubbing at his eyes for close to ten seconds. When his hand finally dropped back to his side, he gave Lo Meifeng a long-suffering look.

“He’s about to do something utterly insane and completely terrifying, isn’t he?”

Lo Meifeng grimaced and said, “He didn’t share the details with me, but I expect that’s the general shape of things to come.”

Heaving a great sigh, Shi Ping said, “I better go find him quickly. You know, before the madness descends.”