“Do you know something that I don’t?” asked Li Yi Nuo.

“Probably,” answered Sen. “Then again, I imagine you know some things that I don’t. So, we’re probably even.”

“You know that isn’t what I meant.”

Sen could see the obvious frustration on the woman’s face and tried to not take too much petty pleasure from it. Once she started asking questions, she seemed to forget how they ended up having the conversation. Sen hadn’t forgotten, though. He didn’t intend to let it slip his mind, either.

“No, I don’t believe I know anything specific about ascension that you don’t.”

“That’s hard to believe, as you seem very confident that you’re going to ascend when nearly every other cultivator alive is merely hoping that they might ascend.”

“Believe me or don’t believe me. I can’t do much about that. I also can’t speak to what other cultivators believe about their chances of ascension. All I can tell you is that I’m pretty sure I got the same explanation about ascension as everyone else. You climb the ranks of the nascent soul stage and, if you reach the peak, you ascend. That sound about right?”

“More or less,” conceded Li Yi Nuo. “I think the only meaningful difference I heard was that if you reach the peak you must ascend. That the world will make you ascend whether you want to or not.”

“I hadn’t heard that,” said Sen, thinking about Master Feng. “I doubt it’s quite that cut-and-dried, though.”

“Why?”

“Because when is anything in life that cut-and-dried? Everything else in the world happens with some level of uncertainty but this one thing is absolute. I don’t buy it.”

“They say there’s an exception to everything.”

“Maybe,” said Sen.

When Li Yi Nuo didn’t immediately say something else, Sen did nothing to encourage the conversation. He gave it five minutes of increasingly awkward silence before he went to stand up. He’d only brought her along to make sure that she was healing up properly. Having given her an elixir and a meal, he was confident she was going to be fine. Or she’d be fine enough that whatever healing pills and elixirs she’d undoubtedly brought with her would be sufficient to finish the job. It probably wouldn’t get her sect completely off his back, but he hoped that his restraint and nominal courtesy would translate into a little bit of goodwill. Answering an extended round of questions, on the other hand, wasn’t something he was enjoying. Just as importantly, he didn’t think she was getting all that much out of it. However, the moment she realized he intended to go do something else, she seemed to scour her mind for something else to say.

“Who trained you in the spear? Was it your master?”

“Do you actually care or are you just looking for a way to keep me engaged in this conversation? Keep me talking until you work up the nerve to ask me something you think I won’t like or won’t answer unless you build up a rapport?”

She sighed. “Both.”

“No, my master didn’t teach me the spear. I had a different teacher for that.”

“You learned from a true master of the spear.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I learned from a true master of the spear, and you beat me,” said Li Yi Nuo.

There was no arrogance in her voice. It was a statement to her. Just one more fact about the universe that occupied her mind. He considered her briefly before he inclined his head.

“He is a true master, but don’t give me too much credit. I have advantages you don’t,” said Sen, then his eyebrows went up as he got it. “That’s what you want to know about.”

“You’re a dual cultivator, right? Spirit and body cultivation?”The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Sen gave her an even look. “If you thought to ask the question, you already know the answer.”

She hesitated and then rushed forward with the question she’d apparently been hanging onto for the entire conversation.

“How do you beat someone like, well, you?”

“You can’t seriously be asking me to tell your sect how to beat me.”

“No! That isn’t what I-” she shook her head. “I’m not asking for them. I’m asking for me.”

“Telling you is the same as telling them. Not that they necessarily need that information. I’m confident that there are elders in your sect who are perfectly capable of killing me if they really put their mind to it or catch me off guard. Still, it’s not to my benefit to help arm them against me.”

“That’s not what this is about,” insisted Li Yi Nuo.

“Then what it is about, Li Yi Nuo of the Vermilion Blade Sect?”

“Why do you always say my name like that?”

“It’s so I never forget who you serve and where your real loyalties lie.”

Li Yi Nuo squinted at him like she couldn’t make out his features. “You aren’t always like this?”

“Like what?”

“I saw you with that farmer and with that woman whose child you saved. You were kind to them.”

“And?” asked Sen.

“So why be like this with me? So unforgiving. So hard.”

“They’re mortals. Life is cruel to mortals and often for no reason. A small kindness that costs me next to nothing can be a miracle for them. You are a cultivator, from a sect, and the Jianghu is a hard world. You should know this. After all, we face the heavens alone. Surely, your master taught you that.”

Li Yi Nuo sat up straighter in her chair. “Every cultivator knows that we face the heavens alone, but I’m not looking for help to face the heavens.”

“What are you looking for from me? What is it that you think I can help you do that no one in the Vermilion Blade Sect can help you with?”

“It’s not that they can’t. They won’t. I had a friend, Xia. We joined the sect at the same time. Trained together as outer disciples. We watched out for each other.”

Sen pursed his lips as he thought over what he’d just heard, but he picked out the most relevant word before long.

“Had,” he said.

“What?”

“You said that you had a friend. I take it she died.”

“She didn’t die. She was butchered.”

Sen nodded. “So, you want to take righteous vengeance on the person who did it.”

“Why shouldn’t I want that?” demanded Li Yi Nuo, her voice harsh and angry.

“Easy. I’ve taken plenty of vengeance. I’m not judging you for wanting it. The part I don’t understand is where I,” Sen paused. “Oh, I get it now. She was killed by a dual cultivator like me. But you didn’t know that I was a dual cultivator when you came looking for me. Damn it. Please tell me you don’t see all of this as a fortunate encounter.”

Li Yi Nuo looked a little abashed. “Of course not.”

“Yeah. Right. So, your friend dies and you want revenge, but no one will help you. Not even your master, apparently. The question is why?”

“My master wants me to have a more peaceful path.”

“So, if I had to guess, he probably had a brutal climb to where he is today. He knows what it means and doesn’t want that for you. Am I close?”

She nodded. “Something like that.”

“Of course, you’re in a sect. There’s bound to be some hardened warriors there who know the ins and outs of fighting dual cultivators, but you say they won’t help you either. So, whoever it is, it must be someone that your sect doesn’t want you to go after. Which means there are some kind of sect politics involved. A young master of a rival sect, perhaps?”

Li Yi Nuo looked like she was going to object to the description, but she finally nodded. “Close enough.”

“So, your elders issue a quiet decree from on high that nobody can help you with this particular problem and your friend becomes a sacrifice in the name of inter-sect peace.”

“Yes.”

“Then, this mission comes along, and all of sudden you have access to a dual cultivator. A famous and powerful dual cultivator with lots of ridiculous stories going around about how he punishes the corrupt and guilty.”

“Yes,” whispered Li Yi Nuo while her cheeks turned bright red.

Sen pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is a nightmare.”

“Please. If you help me, I’ll never tell anyone what you teach me. I’ll take a vow before the heavens to remain silent.”

“You must realize that the smart thing for me to do here is to send you on your way. If I actually do what you want, your master is going to be furious with me about it. I’m not sure I’d even blame him. Given how good you are with a spear, I’m not feeling great about the prospect of making your master an enemy for life.”

“He won’t be angry that you taught me things.”

“I’m not worried about offending him by teaching you something. I’m worried about what will happen if I do teach you something and you die trying to get revenge.”

Sen stood up from the table and walked over to the fireplace. He stared down in the flames. He could feel the sect woman staring at him, willing him to agree to do what she wanted. Sen looked over to her.

“I’m not going to decide right now,” he said and raised his hand to stop the outburst he saw was coming. “I’m not going to decide right now, and you don’t want me to. If I decided now, the answer would be no. It will probably still be no tomorrow, but I’m willing to sleep on it for a night.”

Li Yi Nuo sat rigidly still in her chair, clearly forcing herself not to say anything until she was sure she could trust the words that would come out of her mouth. In the end, she nodded.

“I guess I’ll take a maybe over an outright no.”

Sen gave the door to the galehouse a longing look. Leaving seemed very appealing to him right about then. He could be long gone and, without the compass that he destroyed, it would take her a long, long time to find him. Rubbing his temples, Sen had the same thought again. This is a nightmare.