Chapter 9 A Walk and a Talk

Chin hated cultivators. Most mortals did, but Chin was different. You’d think he’d be the least bit concerned, but Chin just looked over the boy’s slumbering body with annoyance, giving him the same glaring frown he had given him back when they first saw each other. We had moved the guy back into the inn and put him up in one of the bigger rooms. Well, I had moved him, Chin just stared and frowned during the whole process.

"Will he be able to wake up?" Chin Chin asked.

"Eventually,” I answered.

Chin just looked down, unconvinced.

"Well, he’s not moving,” he noted. "Or breathing."

"He’s fine, it’s just qi exhaustion, nothing too serious."

"Not breathing is something serious," Chin Chin replied.

"For mortals maybe, but he’s at the second stage. He could hold his breath for hours."

Chin Chin looked up from the sleeping man’s body and turned to me.

"When will he leave then?"

"When he wakes up, whenever that is, I guess."

“No sooner?” Chin grumbled.

“Would you prefer I toss the sleeping man across the desert or something?”

He looked at me, his face questioning if that was a valid option.

“No,” I answered.

"You did this to him?" Chin asked.

"He did this to himself,” I protested. “And again, he’ll be fine. It’s just a little qi exhaustion. He’ll be up and talking in a few minutes.”

But Chin just kept staring at the boy like he was already dead, his head shaking back and forth in disapproval. Thankfully, the cultivator decided to wake up right then, saving me from Chin’s silent accusations. The boy’s eyes opened wide and he bolted upright like a mouse trap. His hands reached around him in a clutching matter, an instinct to reach for his sword as his eyes scanned the room, first looking over at Chin and then at me.

There was a moment of concern before the boy's eyes widened in fear. He kowtowed instantly, slamming his head against the old wooden floor.

"This foolish junior begs for forgiveness. My actions are irredeemable and my face is no more than a rug in the rain before your presence. Truly, I have eyes but I do not see Mount Tai.”

I could see a small pool of blood expanding from where his head had hit the ground.

"It’s fine kid, it's fine," I said, approaching him to pull his head off the floor.

The kid’s body was trembling when I touched him. His aura was trembling with fear and terror.

"Child," I said, putting a firm grasp on his shoulder.

“I took no insult from your actions,” I commented, changing my tone to be all Honored Master, cultivator-like.

Chin looked over at me, one of his eyebrows raised in question at my tone. I ignored him and presumed with the wise-old master way of speaking.

"Thank-arghm- Thank you honored master. Your mercy is a gift I shall cherish."

The kid blinked several times, pushing back the tears and doing his best to look hardened. He looked young, about seventeen from what I could tell. He had hair that hung just below his ears, and his frame, while muscular, still had a lot of filling out to do. He looked like a worker, like someone I’d see learning a trade or still doing farm chores. I could imagine seeing him delivering milk from his father’s farm or managing the furnace at his uncle’s smithy. And yet here he was in front of me, quivering and ready to die. Living was tied with honor and insults came with death in this world. I forgot that these days.

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"Nothing serious," Chin Chin grumbled, frowning at the blood stain on the floor.

"I too share blame in this misunderstanding, hiding my power from a junior was bound to cause confusion. You have no need to apologize.”

The boy, still not looking me in the eyes, gave a small nod.

"And you did hold back until the end, didn’t you? You had no intentions of truly hurting me, even though from your perspective, I was just a delusional mortal?"

His face cringed a little before he nodded again.

"Then what makes you think that I won’t do the same for you?"

The kid finally stopped looking at the floor and raised his eyes to the door.

"This junior apologizes for his trespasses.”

He was still trying to give me face, even though I had just explained that I was to blame, he wouldn’t accept it. He probably thought my apology was just a show of humility and not an actual apology.

"Well, not to me kid, so you don’t have to worry about that. Just try to relax and get some rest for now."

He nodded, his aura finally seeming to calm down.

"Nothing serious at all," Chin Chin remarked outside of the room.

"I haven’t talked to many cultivators recently. I forget just how strict the lifestyle can be with some sects."

"Mhm, makes me want to ban all of them. Fear like that, it’s not natural. It shouldn’t be bred, not in children like him," Chin Chin replied.

I nodded slightly as we walked forward. I sometimes missed the grandeur of the cultivation world, but moments like these reminded me of why I left.

"Well Chin, you’re going to have to get used to a few of them popping by to say hello and all of that."

Chin Chin grimaced.

"Don’t worry, they won’t give you any trouble. I’ve made sure that none of you can get hurt in this valley, so glare at them all you want, they won’t touch ya."

His face softened at those words. The valley was contained in the Great Desert Strip, which was 3,000 miles wide and 20,000 miles long. The Strip itself weaved around the land quite a bit and served as a separation of territory for some of the major sects here. But no one had ever laid claim to the strip, mainly because it was useless and had no value. It produced no qi, had no natural spiritual beasts to harvest, and was an overall waste of land, so no one ever came here, unless they were crossing from one sect’s territory to another. And even then, most of them would choose to fly over or teleport across the distance, only cultivators who couldn’t fly or teleport ever came across this village, and those were mainly mercantile clans who were practically mortals themselves.

"Well, they better not bother with my farming then," Chin Chin grumbled.

"Why would they do that?"

"Don’t know. But you do it enough as it is."

I snorted. We walked through the village for a while, wandering around different areas for no particular reason. Chin Chin just dragged along, I didn’t know if it was because he was just trying to be a friend or if he just wanted to know what I would do with that cultivator kid. Chin was weird like that. There were times when I knew he would rather be doing something else, but he would force himself to be with people instead. I’d seen it with me, with his wife, and even with his kids. I think it was his weird way of caring about people and being there for them when he thought they needed him.

"Hey Chin, how would you like some more cultivators in this village? Ones that would be on your side?"

"I wouldn’t like that one bit," He snapped.

"They wouldn’t be the type you’re normally used to, and they’re pretty strong too probably stronger than-"

"I don’t care about how strong they are or what they’re like. I feel bad for the poor lad, but it’s hard enough having one of these bastards sleep here for the night. I can’t imagine living with them."

"They aren’t like the one you know, Chin. These girls were practically slaves before they came here, they’re more like commoners than cultivators.”

Chin frowned but held off on another immediate disapproval, instead looking out at the farmlands in the distance.

“They can work?”

“If you train them to,” I answered.

"How old are they?"

"No older than twenty. And Chin, they have no sense of self at all, no values, no beliefs, no aspirations. They’ve been taught to be as malleable as can be, so I’d need you to help them build up some sense of self."

Chin wondered for a moment, rubbing his hand on his chin in consideration.

“You can’t help them with that?" he asked.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “They practically worship me. They see me the same mortals do.”

Chin nodded, having finally understood my dilemma. I could see his brain running through the scenarios. Chin was stubborn, that was true, but he was also a good man. He had morals, and even if farming sometimes took priority over humans, he did genuinely want the best for people, especially for the children.

"Why me? Why here? Why not toss them out into the world and let them make what they will of it themselves?"

"I don’t trust them to not become someone else's servant, also they know things about me that I would prefer don’t get out to certain sects."

"What would I even do with them?"

"I don’t know. Talk to them? Give them jobs? Assign them chores maybe? Just give them a normal life for a while and see how they react. I just want them to not be servants for a while and to think for themselves."

Chin Chin looked down at the ground for a moment, before he turned and looked back up at me.

“Okay, but only if they get paid by the hour, and not by the work they do. And they have to be reasonable, none of that restaurant nonsense. And they have to do other chores besides plowing, like milking and threshing wheat, as well as….”

Chin went on and on, making a long list of criteria, and I listened