Sen had thought that traveling alone again might feel different now that he was subject to someone else’s will. And he supposed there had been a heady sense of extra freedom for the first couple of hours. Yet, Fu Ruolan’s demands on him had thus far been extremely light. She hadn’t needed to put him under any pressure because the situation was taking care of that all by itself. He’d pushed himself hard, probably harder than had been safe or wise, but it also meant that he’d still largely felt in charge of himself in a big-picture sort of way. Plus, he’d done so much traveling that there was very little about the experience that was new. He did have to clear away some snow now and then, and he put up far fewer galehouses. Those had mostly been for the benefit of those traveling with him, not something he did for himself. So, he quickly fell back into old routines, traveling fast during the day and setting up a basic camp at night, complete with dangerous defensive and offensive formations, along with a qi-gathering formation.

The new layer to his core had drained away all of the liquid qi in his dantian, so it made sense for him to gather as much qi as he could while he was in the wilds. The qi there was already denser, and the formation made it even thicker. It significantly sped up the pace of his recovery, although nothing would ever make refilling a dantian after forming a new layer to his core a fast process. Still, he would settle for faster and be happy. Of course, there were important differences during this trip. Nearly all the traveling he’d done since leaving the mountain had been done under a cloud of some kind of threat. Looking back, he suspected he’d imagined that some of those threats were more dire than they were in truth, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d believed in the threats. Certainly, the threats from the demonic cultivators had been real, and the threat to his life from his own body cultivation had proven much more pressing and dangerous than he’d understood.

The prospect of hovering doom no longer dogged his every step. He could stop for a time if he wished. He knew he needed to get back to Fu Ruolan and whatever she’d train him in next, but if it took him four months instead of three, he doubted the millennia-old cultivator would even notice. She’d all but told him that she didn’t notice time passing with any kind of sharp acuity. It left Sen largely free to explore as he wished. Except, he didn’t really feel like exploring. There were still many things he wished to see, but the kingdom had largely proven a place that was hostile to wandering cultivators in general, and hostile to him specifically. In the back of his head, he had the notion that if he did go exploring, it would just end with him stuck in some conflict that would force him to do something drastic and violent. So, he remained fixed on his goals. His first goal was the capital.

Sen had rather thought that the local spirit beast population might try something with him moving through the wilds alone, but it seemed that his last confrontation with them had an impression. While he felt spirit beasts from time to time and even saw them on occasion, they all fled as soon as they took note of him. He let them go. He wasn’t looking for more beast cores, and he’d lost his taste for killing spirit beasts long ago. With nothing attacking him, though, it left him free to practice, which was the thing he needed more than anything else. Every night, he practiced something. At first, it was mostly his unarmed combat forms. He’d been doing them the longest, so they were the easiest option for him to adapt to his newfound strength and speed. Yet, he didn’t focus on strength or speed. He spent all of his time and effort on control. Adding speed and strength meant nothing if he couldn’t be absolutely certain that he knew where and how a blow would land.

There’s no rush, he reminded himself. You didn’t learn these forms in a day. You won’t adapt them in a day. Instead, he trusted in the process and in his instincts. Bit by bit, he felt himself relearn the thousand tiny ways that a body moved to execute a punch, a kick, and a block. As that knowledge slowly filtered into his mind and burned itself into his body, he felt himself relax. While the process of body cultivation theoretically happened in small, short bursts, Sen found the process substantially less straightforward. The body went through most of the changes all in one fell swoop, but it didn’t stop then. After that, he had found that even months later, it was still going through countless micro-changes based on the things he was or wasn’t doing. So, the persistent practice wasn’t just about mastering the changes, but refining them so they served him and his needs most effectively.

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Of course, it wasn’t just his body that changed. Adding another layer to his core was, in some ways, an even more startling difference. Every technique threatened to run out of control on him. He hadn’t just taken a step forward or at least it didn’t feel that way. When he had been younger and wondering what it must be like to be a nascent soul cultivator, the power he held now was what he had imagined. He wasn’t sure if that suggested a lack of imagination on his part or if moving into the nascent soul realm truly meant entering some other kind of world that his mind just wasn’t prepared to comprehend. As it stood, he worked just as diligently trying to relearn control with his qi techniques. That, fortunately, was easier in some ways. It was a pure power increase, rather than a fundamental change in how his qi interacted with the world. The interactions remained the same. He simply needed to get a handle on how much less he needed to use to accomplish the same ends, and what it meant if he stretched himself.

By the time the capital city came into sight, Sen felt far better prepared to navigate any conflicts that might come his way. He still had a lot of practice ahead of him, but those lingering fears that he might accidentally kill someone were put to rest. If he killed someone, it would have to be intentional. Not that he had any plans to kill anyone. His intention was to spend a day in the capital, at most, and see exactly one person. While he’d entertained the possibility of seeing the king, he couldn’t think of a good way to do that without accidentally announcing his presence to people he didn’t plan to see on this trip. He didn’t think that the prince would tell anyone that Sen asked him not to tell, but the castle was full of people who were good at listening. If word got around that Judgment’s Gale had returned to the capital, it might be cause for celebration, but it might also be cause for a riot. Sen wanted no part of either possibility. Visiting the king was something that he’d have to do, but he was content to let that happen someday a little farther into the future. A year just wasn’t that long for everyone to have moved on to other concerns. Sen thought that returning for an official visit after his time with Fu Ruolan was probably the best course of action.

So, Sen slipped into the city quietly amid the many merchant wagons carrying the food and other necessities that kept the city running in the cold, desolate days of winter. The guards barely gave him a look as he walked by, and Sen soon found himself walking on streets that were both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He hadn’t been gentle with the streets or buildings during his various fights that last time he’d visited the city. He saw entirely new structures in places where he expected to see repairs. The urge to go explore was strong in those moments. He particularly wanted to visit the part of the city that the Shadow Eagle Talon Syndicate had controlled. If the king had been on task, he’d have taken control of that part of the city as soon as he realized that the old criminal organization was gone. If he didn’t, Sen suspected some other and probably less savory organization would have filled that void. His readings of history had been clear that someone will always fill empty places in a power structure. Smart rulers made sure it was their own people who took those roles, but they often left it for too long only to find themselves with a different problem.

Of course, the last thing he should do is go wandering around in that part of the city. While he expected that most of the Shadow Eagle Talon Syndicate members who survived had fled the city, there could still be plenty of people there who would recognize him on sight, and then he’d be back to that riot he wanted to avoid. As much as Sen had allowed his story to become a weapon that he could use against other people, it was a method that had drawbacks. He was always going to have to be careful visiting places where he’d done something substantial. It would be troublesome, but it was too late to change things in the capital. He had been very visible during his last visit. It might not be so bad in other places. He could probably get away with openly visiting most places in Emperor’s Bay. There, he’d just need to steer clear of the sects and one or two specific streets. Some intangible tension went out of Sen when he saw the house that had, ever so briefly, belonged to him.

That tension returned when he saw that the formations were all active. It wasn’t an impediment to him, but that they were active at all was concerning. Lo Meifeng shouldn’t have needed anything that powerful to keep herself safe. Frowning, Sen scanned the immediate area with his spiritual sense. He didn’t find anything that looked or felt out of place. Keeping his senses active, he walked straight through the formations and walked up to the front door. He gave the door three sharp raps and turned to scan the area again. Lo Meifeng wasn’t prone to overreactions, which made Sen feel like he must be missing something. When he heard the door open behind him, he gave the street one last glare before he turned and gave Lo Meifeng a bright smile.

“So, how are things?” he asked in a tone so nonchalant it was obnoxious.