Johansen Jack.
A strange name for a strange man.
Still, even as the mortals celebrated raucously in the village inn, Guo An held her peace. She’d been offered a position of honor at the head of the main table, just to the right of the mysterious hidden master himself. And that was what he was. A hidden master. His queer armor held no markings reminiscent of any sects she knew. Likewise, the power required to defeat the wolf in single combat… well, she knew a number of elders back home that would have struggled to replicate the feat.
Defeat the wolf? Easily. In a single blow? Less so.
And the less said about the ensuing light show the better. With a single wave of his hands, lightning had leapt from his fingers and all of the attacking beasts had simply… dropped dead.
All while leaving the villagers untouched.
She could scarcely even begin to fathom the monstrous control – and power – required to accomplish such a feat.
All while appearing as a mortal to this Guo An’s senses, she thought, eying the man as discreetly as she could while he spoke in quiet tones with the village chief.
Even placed as close to him as she was, there wasn’t even a hint of the power she knew dwelled within. Even as he expressed it in the form of lightning, she couldn’t.
It boggled the mind.
So she was on her best behavior, even as part of her begged to pepper the male – and wasn’t that fact doubly queer? – with as many questions as possible.
Like why he is bothering to cater to the whims of these mortals? she thought as he let out a surprisingly boisterous laugh at whatever the mortal chief had said.
Truth be told, she had thought he would leave the moment the village was saved. That was the most common result of a hidden master’s appearance. One that was well perpetuated in mortal and cultivator plays. It was a classic setup. In the hero’s darkest hour, the day would be saved by a passing expert. An expert who would leave as quickly and mysteriously as they had arrived.
It was a well-worn trope, but one that held a grain of truth.
Hidden Masters by their very nature were oft divorced from the affairs of the lower world, instead choosing to focus on the art of cultivation to the exclusion of all else. As such, acts of charity or wroth were often borne of a whim on their part - and as a result, as fleeting as the impetus that created them.
With that in mind, she had hoped to catch him as he left.
Only he hadn’t left.
He had stayed! Even going so far as to help in the clean-up, much to the bemusement – and concern – of the mortals present. Not that he seemed to notice, casually the throwing bodies of the downed animals into a pile. One that now stood in the village center like some grizzly tableau. Even the massive wolf now stood atop it, as callously tossed aside as any of the other lower beasts.
…The man hadn’t even checked for the spirit beast’s core.
And now he celebrated gregariously in a manner that she would dub… shameful if attributed to any other.
Here she dared not. Power forgave a great many sins, and the man across from her was very powerful indeed.
“So attacks like this don’t happen often around these parts?” The man’s voice was a gruff baritone that nonetheless held a slightly more youthful tenor than his power might suggest.
Oh, he was no callow youth, but he was no wizened elder either.
Instead, he had the proud features of a man in his prime. Past the tenderness of youth, certainly, yet not quite into the beginnings of middle age. His coloring was likewise rather exotic. That he was possessed of pale skin, blue eyes and flaxen hair wasn’t too surprising. The Empire held a great many peoples within its borders after all. Still, it was rare to see a man of the Northern Mountain Tribes so far south.
“Not at all, great cultivator, never before has this lowly one seen such ferocity from the beasts that call our fair valley home.” The chief spoke respectfully, head bowed. “Nor have I ever seen animals that should have been both hunter and hunted work in unison.” He turned to a young woman down the table. “Li, have you ever seen the like of it?”
The woman, one of her hands still wrapped in bloodied bandages, shook her head. “Can’t say I have, chief. Wolves and deer working together? Rabbits and foxes? Sounds like something out of a mad playwright’s dream.”
The man next to her, his arm swaddled to his chest, poked distractedly at the roasted rabbit before him.
“Ha, working together? I’d say that’s a pretty charitable way of describing it. It’s more like every beast in the valley independently decided that we needed to die, and didn’t much care about anything else beyond that. Empress above, the damn things were trampling each other trying to get through the gate.”
Guo An bristled at the disrespect the man was showing before a hidden master, in both his cadence and his refusal to look up while he spoke. Fortunately for him, the woman next to him was far more aware of the proper way of things, as she elbowed him none too subtly in the side.
That seemed to be enough to remind the surly mortal of their situation, as he turned to the master and rapidly paled. “Ah, my apologies for my… careless words, master cultivator. Please forgive this lowly one’s lack of, uh, courtly manners.”
His head was near touching the table, he bowed so low. Not that the man he was speaking to even seemed to notice. Instead, the blonde haired man was rubbing at the rough stubble that had begun to form on his chin, as if in consideration.
“So, you were just talking about your troubles with the local mine. The flooding.”
The chief was all too eager to leap onto the distraction. “Yes, a rather unfortunate thing that. Still, we’ll get it sorted soon enough. It’s why we founded the town after all. The veins run deep here and are flush with different metals. We also do a brisk trade of furs and wheat.”
“Oh, what sort of metals?” The man asked, genuine interest in his tone.
Guo An resisted the urge to sigh as Master Johansen asked yet another question in a long line of questions on some rather mundane topics.
The disposition of nearby villages. The situation with the local sects. The goings on of the Empire as a whole.
How long has he been in seclusion that even a lowly village chief is more informed than he? Guo An couldn’t help but wonder. Were that he would only ask this young mistress instead. She would be happy to answer all his questions with far greater clarity than this… mortal.
Well… so long as those questions were on matters of actual import and not say, the population of a nearby fishing village.
Because why would she ever need to know that? Why did it even matter? Mortals were mortals.
Alas, he had yet to speak a single word to her. Oh, his eyes had certainly roamed over her once or twice since he had sat down – and hadn’t her traitorous body tingled when he did! - but he had yet made no attempt to speak to her.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
And this young mistress dares not approach first, she thought glumly.
Resisting the urge to do something so uncouth as to lay her head on the table, her ears perked up as she realised that while she had been lamenting the heaven’s many cruelties, the topic of the nearby conversation had changed once more.
To something that should have been of interest to a cultivator.
“The Northern Wall has been breached you say?” Master Johansen said, a single gauntleted hand running through the bristles on his chin. “That sounds bad.”
“Yes.” The very deliberate understatement seemed to give the chief pause. “It is… very bad.”
Because how else might one describe an invasion by millions of Unfettered into the very heart of the Celestial Empire - with one of the greatest villains in history at their head?
Catastrophic or apocalyptic might have been more apt in Guo An’s opinion, but she was content to keep that thought to herself.
“And this is what caused the animals to go berserk?” The hidden master continued carelessly.
Guo An stilled. Could the man not sense it himself? The ill-stench of Instinctual Ki in the air?
Perhaps not, she thought. Perhaps it’s so beneath him that he has failed to notice?
The chief coughed awkwardly, eyes darting toward her before back to the veritable monster in front of him. “This lowly one could not say. Matters of ki are beyond his ken.”
“Fair enough.” The man in question shrugged carelessly.
Guo An saw her opportunity though. Taking a calculated risk, she leaned forward.
…Only for her body to choose that moment to embarrass her in the worst way possible. Such was the noise that her traitorous stomach let out that it carried clear across the inn.
Oh Empress above, kill me now, she thought as the conversation around her dragged to a halt.
It wasn’t even her fault! Her lower cultivation meant she was required to gorge herself on such lowly sundries! Already a stack of plates stood before her, and she knew that before the night was through there would be many more.
Yet her body still clamoured for more to refuel the energies she had expended over the last week of constant battle. Were it not for the fact that the mortals should have been honoured to serve her, she might have felt some shame in putting a no doubt sizable dent in their supplies.
By contrast, the master had partaken of nothing. Which was not too surprising. Higher cultivators had little need of food. Many did still eat, and with great gusto, but it was for pleasure rather than need. Something the simple palate of peasant food provided little of, divest of spice, seasonings or ki as it was.
Fortunately for her pride, her gorging would not result in the village going without anytime soon. Not with the veritable smorgasbord of rations that had been left out by the attack. No, the animal attack meant that the village would be eating well for many a moon yet.
“What are you all gawking at, eh?” Master Johansen laughed. “Nothing wrong with a gal with a healthy appetite.”
Even as An’s face flared - which made her damn eye throb! - the conversation around her resumed with a haste that bordered on unseemly, as every mortal present found themselves interested in anything that wasn’t her.
“Eat up girly.” The hidden master enthused. “I saw you busting your ass out there. Taking an opportunity to eat your fill as a reward for your efforts is the least you deserve.”
She nodded meekly, ignoring the mingling sensation of relief and mortification that filled her at his… straightforward words.
Her appetite, beyond that of even her fellow initiates, had ever been a topic of ridicule amongst her fellow cultivators. Many saw it as a result of a lacking foundation in her Dao, despite there being zero evidence toward that being the case.
If anything, her appetite was a result of her extra efforts!
…So she was pleased that the man across from her could see that.
And with those words, her plans to head north had been scrapped. How could she continue as she had been, knowing that a powerful cultivator was here alone in this backwater? He had no students with him that she could see. And if that truly was the case, perhaps she might be able to convince him to take her on as a disciple!
Or even a servant, she reluctantly admitted.
After all, when master and student travelled as a pair, the two roles were not so distinct as one might think. Much to the lamentations of a great many filial disciples over the years.
Admittedly, some part of her rankled to see the freedom that she had fought so hard for given away so freely, but that was squashed by the part of her that saw the opportunity present.
To meet a hidden master in a village like this? In her darkest hour? When doom seemed certain? What could one see in that but the subtle machinations of fate?
Never mind the fact that said hidden master was a man. For that was a fact her unconscious mind kept tripping over. Sure, she had seen a few male cultivators back home, but only from a distance, and never alone. After all, male cultivators of any worth were a well-kept and guarded resource.
To see one unaccompanied…
Well, it just wasn’t done. As the idiom went, ‘even a garden snake might be tempted by the dragon’s hoard if left unguarded’.
“Speaking of which.” The man turned back to the village chief. “While I was glad to see everyone chipping in to defend their home, I couldn’t help but notice that only the lovely lady seemed to be, well, equipped for the task. If you’d had a few more guards of her calibre doubt you’d have had any need of me at all.”
Once more, An cursed the fact that she flushed at the hidden master’s praise, even as her temper indignantly flared at the notion she was somehow employed by a village as small as this.
Fortunately for her, the village chief was quick to correct the hidden master’s erroneous conclusion. Even if the man seemed positively terrified at the prospect of doing so. “Ah, as much as this lowly one would hate to contradict the great master, the young mistress is not employed by the village in any long term capacity, per se. Her defence of our fair home was entirely a result of her beneficent nature.”
Master Johansen paused at that, before slowly raising one eyebrow as he looked over at her once more – and if her eyes didn’t deceive her - did so with fresh eyes. “Of her own accord, you say?”
She determinedly didn’t flush under the great cultivator’s gaze this time, calling upon her experiences within the Cloudy Shore Sect to keep her features as placid as possible. As a young mistress should always strive to do. She was no blushing mortal village girl after all. She was a Cultivator Initiate of the Second Realm.
“A most beneficent soul indeed.” The man murmured.
…Well, perhaps this young mistress can forgive his earlier erroneous assumption, she thought, spooning more rice into her mouth.
Still, now that the hidden master had his eyes upon her, she could raise a topic of conversation that was of no small interest to her.
“My thanks for your praise, Master Johansen.” She bowed. “Though if you would spare this young mistress a single extra moment of your time, she would beg a question of you?”
The man frowned a little, and for a heartstopping moment An wondered if she might have overstepped. Fortunately, said frown lasted for but a second before the man relaxed.
“Aye, I should have expected as much - and I reckon you’ve earned it.”
“My thanks once more, Master Johansen.” She bowed low. “As to this young mistress’s question, she would humbly ask your intent for the downed spirit beast?”
Whatever question the man had been expecting, it clearly wasn’t that, given the way his thick eyebrows quirked somewhat comically.
“That big bastard of a wolf?” He asked. “Beyond figuring out what it was eating to get that large, I had no plans for it beyond leaving it to rot.”
Guo An resisted the small shiver that ran though her at his words.
What a monster, she thought. To consider the spirit beast’s core not even worth collecting.
“May I have it?”
The words had slipped from her mouth before she could stop them. After all, without her sect, she needed cultivation tools, and the wolf’s core would be a princely one.
The man paused, cocking his head. “Sure, do whatever you want with it.”
Guo An bowed so low her head actually touched the table. “This lowly initiate thanks Elder Johansen for his kindness.”
“That’s alright,” he said slowly. “As I said, it was only going to go to waste otherwise.”
Guo An cautiously raised her head, ready to thank him again, but the man’s gaze had already switched back to the village chief.
“So you apparently had this girlie here ready to chip in, but no standing guards that I could see?” He paused. “Seems risky.”
The chief could only rub his hands nervously - a comical sight in a man so large as the half-ox. “We are far from anything, master cultivator. The Empire has little interest in our fair Jiangshi, and our small militia was more than up to the task of seeing off any animals or men of ill repute that might trouble us…”
“You’ve got no oversight from the authorities at all?” If Guo An’s ears didn’t deceive her, she detected what might have been a hint of wistfulness in the man’s tone. “That must be rather freeing.”
For the first time that evening, the village chief forgot his fear, the massive ox-man’s chest puffing up with pride.
“We are a self-sufficient folk out here in Jiangshi.” Suddenly, he looked a little rueful. “Well, recent events excluded, master cultivators.” He regained his confidence though as he continued. “But you are correct, Master Johansen. We see little of Empire proper out here in our little valley. At least, not beyond the tax collectors. Though they are an unfortunate reality for any citizen of the empire. However, so long as we pay the tithe on time, no one seems to much care what we do.”
“For better or worse it seems.” Master Johansen hummed thoughtfully.
The chief shrugged once more, unable – or unwilling - to argue the master’s point.
Suddenly the blonde man perked up, as if an idea had just come to him.
“Alright, if that’s the case, then I’ve decided something.” He stood up, his massive stature towering over the dinner table, causing many of the villagers present to stiffen at the sudden movement from the obscenely powerful cultivator.
Not that Master Johansen seemed to notice, even as his eyes roamed over all of them.
“I’ve decided that I like this town so I’m going to make it mine.”
Guo An could only stare, along with every other mortal present as silence reigned in the inn at the… interesting proclamation.
Then her stomach grumbled.
Loudly.