“Shi Ping, come with me,” said Sen, striding down the road ahead of the others.
Shi Ping fell in next to him without a word. The man had become a functional mute since making the choice to come with them. He’d answer questions directly put to him, but rarely volunteered to contribute to any conversation, even the most casual and frivolous conversations. Sen wished that he didn’t enjoy the man’s silence so much, because it made him inclined to just let the fire cultivator not participate in conversations. He knew some of that was just an overreaction to all the complaining and whining Shi Ping had done before. Sen also knew he was going to have to get over it. Letting Shi Ping self-isolate wasn’t going to end well, because it meant the man was bottling everything up. That could work for a while, but would eventually lead to an explosion. They walked for a good five minutes, leaving the others well behind, before Sen stepped off the road and leaned against a tree. Shi Ping eyed him.
Bracing himself internally, Sen said, “For the next ten minutes, you’re allowed to say anything you want without retribution from me or anyone else.”
Shi Ping jerked at those words. For a several seconds, he didn’t say anything. His eyes were wide and confused, probably looking for some kind of trap. He glanced around them. It took Sen a minute to realize that the man was probably looking for Lo Meifeng. It had become apparent during training that the woman frightened Shi Ping in some intangible way that Sen did not. Once he’d reassured himself that no one was waiting around to behead him at the first negative word, Shi Ping took a breath and glared at Sen. Then, a wellspring of anger and misery exploded from Shi Ping’s mouth. The words came so fast and were often so garbled that Sen only caught about half of what the man said, but it was enough to get the gist.
Shi Ping had a lot to say about Sen, his character, his training methods, and the brutal pace of travel. Yet, the litany of complaints that Sen been expecting about things like food and being forced to sleep in tents never appeared. Toward the end, when the torrent had slowed, Shi Ping became more understandable.
“You’re such a self-righteous prick. You know that? It’s like you think that because you think something, that’s the moral high ground. I don’t think you’ve ever thought that you were wrong about anything! Let me tell you, you’re not so clean and pure as you think. You’re not always right!
“And who raised you, anyway? The way you treat people is unbelievable. It’s obvious that Lo Meifeng would do just about anything to get back into your good graces. What do you do? You give her just enough hope that it might happen, one day, that she keeps following you around. That’s not just callous, it’s monumentally stupid with someone that damn dangerous. One day, she’s going to wake up and realize what you’re doing. When that happens, you’re going to wake up dead.
“And the way you’re stringing along that girl from Clear Spring sect is just cruel, or sick, or both. She’s so infatuated with you that she hasn’t figured out that you don’t intend for it to go anywhere. Although, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you’re not going to let it go anywhere. When I decided to stay, I knew what I was signing on for. I knew it was going to be miserable. Can you say the same thing for them?”
Shi Ping’s chest was heaving from the non-stop rant he’d just gone on. Sen waited to see if the man had anything else he wanted to get off his chest.
“Anything else?” asked Sen.
“It’s an injustice on a cosmic scale that you’re that much better looking than me.”
“That’s probably fair. Feel better?”
Shi Ping’s shoulders slumped in weariness, although Sen suspected it more emotional than physical. “A little. Was there a point to all of this?”
“I wanted the whining and petty complaining to stop. It did, and I appreciate that. I also realize that not every complaint is petty and things build up. Everyone needs ways of venting their frustrations and anger. I learned that the hard way. If you don’t, you end up with a heart demon. Not an experience I recommend, by the way.”
“A heart demon?” asked Shi Ping.
Sen hadn’t explained many of the specifics of his trip out into the wilds, but he thought there might be some benefit to sharing that tidbit with Shi Ping. Sen nodded.
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“What? You didn’t think I was naturally that angry and volatile, did you?”
“Actually, I did,” said Shi Ping, looking a little pale.
“You were just wondering how close I came to killing you under its influence, aren’t you?”
Shi Ping reluctantly nodded. “I was.”
“Closer than you’d like to know,” said Sen. “Well, I’m glad that that’s all out of the way.”
“You aren’t going to respond to any of that rant?”
“Do you really want me to?”
“Yeah. I don’t understand you. Maybe it will help.”
Sen thought it over. Shi Ping hadn’t been completely wrong about any of it, but he hadn’t been completely right about almost anything. Sen sorted through his thoughts and nodded.
“Alright. First, the training I’m putting you through is a very watered-down version of a tiny piece of the training I went through. I used to train like that every day, except I did it ten to twelve hours a day. So, anytime you think I’m pushing you hard, imagine going for another eight to ten hours. Next, everyone always thinks they’re right and in the right. So, there’s nothing special or unusual about me thinking the same thing. I’m also well aware that I’m no beacon of righteousness. I’ve compromised, and I know exactly what I compromised.
“As for who raised me, it was no one. No one at all raised me. I grew up living on the streets. So, I guess you could say that I raised myself. As for Lo Meifeng and Chan Yu Ming, there is a lot of context to those situations that you don’t know about. No, I don’t intend to explain that context. Suffice it to say that none of what I’m doing is quite as callous or as cruel as you imagine. I’ll also remind you that I declined to bring Chan Yu Ming along when we first set out. She came looking for me, not the other way around. “
Shi Ping straightened a little at that last part. “I forgot about that.”
“I thought you might have. So, feel like you understand me a little better?”
With a sigh, Shi Ping shook his head. “No. Not even a little. But I can’t say that you didn’t try. So, back to the others?”
“Oh, we’re not done with the venting part of the day yet.”
“We’re not?”
“Nope. Those spirit beasts you weren’t paying attention to are going to attack us in about five seconds.”
“Spirit beasts? What spirit beasts?”
Sen felt Shi Ping start to unfurl his spiritual sense, but it was too late. A massive snake with a body as thick around as Sen’s leg shot out of the trees toward Shi Ping. With its jaw stretched wide open, even Sen found the sight of it a bit unsettling. Of course, Sen wasn’t saddled with a crippling fear of snakes either. He closed the distance and batted the snake to one side before it could clamp its jaws around the petrified Shi Ping. The fire cultivator was standing there, his eyes wide, body trembling. Sen slapped him across the face.
“Fight or die, Shi Ping.”
The slap seemed to rouse Shi Ping, who glared first at Sen, and then at the snake that had almost ambushed the fire cultivator. Shi Ping drew his jian and started cycling up fire qi. Sen left Shi Ping to his fight, and went off to delay the rest of the spirit snakes. Sen could have simply killed them all, but he’d thought that would prove a wasted opportunity when he realized that snakes were trying to sneak up on them. So, Sen danced between the snakes’ striking bites as he used wind and water qi to redirect their venom qi techniques. Each time Shi Ping managed to kill one, Sen would let one or two more slip in that direction. Sen observed the fire cultivator closely, watching to see if the new training was taking or not as the man fought. He saw some progress. Shi Ping’s control was better, his form tighter, and he was incorporating fire qi techniques to distract or kill.
All in all, Sen was satisfied with the progress he was seeing. It wasn’t transformative progress, but it didn’t need to be. Even if Shi Ping wasn’t experiencing any moments of enlightenment about combat or the jian, he was at least better prepared to survive future fights. And, as much as Sen wished there wouldn’t be future fights, he knew those were useless wishes. Cycling up metal qi, Sen gestured. The head of every remaining snake separated from its body. Shi Ping stared at the sudden appearance of snake corpses and then turned burning eyes on Sen.
“You could have done that for the beginning?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because there was nothing for me to learn by doing that. Letting you fight them gave you ample opportunities to learn.”
“Am I still allowed to complain?”
“Sure,” said Sen in amusement.
“I hate you.”
“Was I wrong?”
“No, which is why I hate you.”
Sen shook his head. “Well, hate me while you collect the beast cores.”
“Why am I,” started Shi Ping before he visibly stopped himself. “Fine.”
Sen waited to see if Shi Ping would fall back and start complaining anyway. When he didn’t, Sen decided that a reward might be order.
“It’s not all bad. If you collect the cores, you get to keep them.”
Shi Ping brightened up at that. Every cultivator knew that there was a bit of money to be made from beast cores. “Really?”
“Really. Besides, are you really going to tell me you won’t take some pleasure in cutting these things up?”
Shi Ping got a contemplative look on his face. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“Well, get to it. The sooner you’re done, the sooner we get back and I start dinner.”
At the mention of the word dinner, Shi Ping all but pounced on the nearest snake corpse. Sen smiled inside a little. While the fire cultivator might refrain from complaining about food all the time, he still enjoyed it a great deal. And, when it came to motivation, Sen used what he had.