“He’s still following us,” said Falling Leaf.

“I know,” said Sen, stopping in place. “Stay here. I’m going to go deal with this. We don’t have time for this kind of distraction.”

Sen turned on his heel and started back the way they had come. He’d been putting up with the not-at-all-stealthy stalker who had been dogging their heels for nearly half the day. He’d hoped that the man would just get bored or sick of dealing with the spirit beasts Sen kept sending his way, but the stranger had proven a bit more persistent than Sen would like. If the fool wouldn’t take the not even remotely subtle hints that had been put in his path, Sen would take a more direct approach toward dealing with the problem. It only took him ten minutes of fast walking to find the man walking very nearly in their footprints. It took the stranger longer to realize Sen was waiting for him, jian in hand. When he did finally notice Sen, he gave Sen a big smile.

“Well, now that there aren’t those pesky formations in between us, we can have a civilized talk.”

“Are you under the mistaken impression that the formations being gone makes you safer?”

“This posturing is ridiculous. I’m of a higher cultivation level than you. You can’t do anything to me.”

“That’s what the nascent soul cultivator I killed thought too. I expect that the dozens of core cultivators with a higher cultivation than me that I killed had that exact thought as well. Yet, here I am. People infinitely more dangerous than you have failed to get what they wanted from me. So, I’m going to say this once. Turn around. Go back to wherever you came from. Never bother me again.”

For the first time, the stranger seemed to really pause and consider what Sen had just said. It seemed to leave a sour taste in the man’s mouth.

“And if I don’t?”

“Then, you’ll never bother anyone again. And you strike me as the kind of man who likes to bother people. Make the smart choice.”

“You don’t even know what I want,” said the stranger, trying to reclaim some of the affability he’d shown before.

“Why do you think that matters?” asked Sen. “You don’t have anything I want, which is the part that matters to me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that, because you already tried to pull the I’m stronger than you nonsense. That means that you want something, and you thought I’d get it for you. I imagine you thought that you’d take it from me by force after the fact.”

“You have a very dim view of people.”

“That's just because people have done such a good job of being lying, scheming, murderous pieces of shit. Especially cultivators. Most especially sect cultivators. Yes, I know you’re from a sect. It’s written all over you, and I’m not impressed.”

“How did you know?”

“I was tired last night, so I didn’t piece it together right away. But only someone under orders, someone monumentally stupid, or both tempts the anger of someone like me. If you’re under orders, then you’re taking them from someone. That suggests a sect, but it’s not conclusive. Then, there’s your general air of self-satisfaction and your assumption of superiority. That was the real giveaway. People from sects are always arrogant to the point of being morons, and that’s coming from someone who has more than a passing relationship with misplaced arrogance. Plus, I’ve seen this approach before. You try to come off as all friendly, but deep down you think every wandering cultivator is there for your benefit or not worth the time of day. So, please, spare me the pitch and the threats. Just go.”

The stranger regarded Sen in silence for a moment before he shook his head. “They were right about you. You really do see everyone, absolutely everyone, that you don’t love like family as a threat.”

Sen frowned at the man. He’d changed. It had been almost imperceptible, but the unearned arrogance, the false superiority had disappeared like it had never been there. This did nothing to reassure Sen, who started cycling for half a dozen different qi types. The stranger pointed at Sen.

“Case in point. You don’t know what to make of me now, so you assume I’m a threat.”

Sen said nothing. Instead, he prepared to activate his qinggong technique. If the stranger so much as twitched in his direction, Sen was going to end this conversation permanently.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The stranger sighed. “Even now, you’re not going to ask any questions?”

“Questions would give you the false impression that I want to know you, or about you, or about whatever it is you came here for. I don’t. I’m here on business of my own. When that’s done, I’ll leave. That is all I care about.”

“So, no room in your life for new people? No room for curiosity?”

Sen barked out a bitter laugh. “Do you have any idea what happened the last time I let new people into my life?”

“Yes. There was a rather abrupt change in official power in the capital. Along with the destruction of an old, powerful, deeply entrenched criminal organization.”

Sen lifted an eyebrow. “So, you know about that. Good. Then it will make perfect sense to you when I say that there is, in fact, no room in my life for new people. I’m particularly disinterested in people who make their introduction under a veil of lies.”

“I simply wished,” began the man before Sen cut him off.

“Don’t explain. I truly do not care. I wouldn’t believe anything you said now anyway.”

“Would you have believed me if I’d just told you who I was right at the start?”

“No.”

That answer seemed to cause the stranger legitimate pain. “A life without any trust is no way to live.”

“But it is a way to survive. And in this appalling world where might is the first, last, and only arbiter of right, that’s the absolute best any of us can hope for,” said Sen.

“You truly believe that, don’t you?”

“Believe? I don’t believe anything. I know it. I’ve lived it. I don’t know what fantasy you grew up in. But if you believe anything else, you are a fool who will get cut down by someone who doesn’t share your naivety.”

“Someone like you?”

Sen hesitated at that. It was a more meaningful question than it sounded right at first. Sen was quite confident that he didn’t share the man’s worldview. All that blather about trust told him that much. Sen had seen firsthand that trust should be given rarely and only when the other person had earned it. He was willing to admit that his sense of what earning it meant had gotten increasingly difficult to meet. He also knew that was a reaction to the staggering number of people who utterly failed to meet even a minimum level of decency in his eyes. Yet, there was a meaningful gap between not trusting people and killing people because you didn’t trust them. He’d let a lot of people he didn’t trust go on breathing. For Sen, it was largely about the situation.

“That depends entirely on you,” said Sen, after thinking it over. “If you interfere with my purpose here, I will kill you. If you go on your way and leave me be, I have no interest in you one way or the other.”

“And you consider following you interfering with your purpose?”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“I’m pretty sure you can figure that out on your own,” said Sen. “I doubt you’d have gotten as far as you have as a cultivator if you can’t put that one together.”

The stranger nodded in acknowledgment. “Since you won’t extend me even an ounce of trust, I may as well be your enemy. Having an enemy at your back is a distraction. You already have plenty of dangers to face on this mountain, and a distraction could prove fatal. Hence, I’m interfering.”

“Precisely.”

“If you think that, why haven’t you attacked me already?”

“Because I don’t like killing people. I’ve already done more of it than I ever imagined I’d have to. I won’t hesitate if I must, but I’m not looking for excuses to leave blood on the ground. So, if you decide to leave, I’m inclined to let you.”

“If I actually were your enemy, wouldn’t that just give me an opportunity to go get more people than you can kill?”

Sen felt something drain away from his emotional state, which meant it drained away from his face. He couldn’t identify exactly what it was, but he felt it go. It left him feeling hollow inside, empty, and remorseless. The stranger saw it go and the blood drained from his face. When Sen spoke, he could almost feel the winter chill in his own tone.

“You don’t know that many people.”

The stranger swallowed hard and said, “No, I don’t imagine I do. Very well. I will leave you be.”

“That’s for the best.”

“Perhaps we will meet again,” said the stranger with more than a little hesitance. “Perhaps it will be somewhere less fraught.”

“I’m not looking for new friends.”

The man nodded. “That’s very clear. It doesn’t mean you don’t need them. In case we meet again, my name is Yan Zixin.”

Sen pointedly looked back down the mountain. “Goodbye, Yan Zixin.”

Sen kept track of the man with his spiritual sense until he was nearly a mile away down the hill. Satisfied that man was leaving or at least planning on keeping his distance, Sen walked back to where he’d left Falling Leaf. He found her throwing rocks at a bird that circled high overhead, although he thought the word throwing undersold what was happening. The rocks were leaving her hand at speeds well in excess of a crossbow bolt. Sen was about to suggest that it was a futile endeavor with the bird circling so far above, but then he saw the bird careen out of control toward the ground. He lifted an eyebrow at Falling Leaf.

“It was bothering me earlier,” she said. “What happened?”

“I encouraged him to leave. He took that advice.”

Falling Leaf looked surprised. “Unusually wise.”

Sen frowned. “I don’t think he came for a fight.”

“Why did he come?”

“To get my measure, maybe? I’m not certain. I am relatively confident that I didn’t hear one honest word from his mouth. Even so, I don’t think he’s a right now problem.”

“But you think he will be a problem?”

Sen nodded. “Down the road, yes. But I decided not to borrow trouble, for once. He left. That’s enough.”

“You should have killed him.”

“What? Why is that?” asked Sen.

“He took your measure, but you didn’t take his. You left a possible enemy you don’t understand behind you. That’s always dangerous.”

Sen tried to think of a good objection, but he didn’t have one. He had let someone go that he didn’t understand. He’d just wanted to avoid adding to the pile of bodies he’d left in his wake. He’d also wanted to get back to the task at hand. It had seemed like a good strategy in the moment. Looking back, though, he couldn’t help but wonder if Falling Leaf was right.