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Unintended Cultivator V8: Chapter 14 – No One Important
🕑 Added 2024-04-03 20:53:46 +0000 UTCSen had meant to end it. When he saw Tseun Rong take to the sky, he could just sense the defeat in the man. It was a retreat. He considered just letting the coward go. Sen was injured and, no matter how detached he felt, he knew that simply surviving a direct battle with a nascent soul cultivator was practically a miracle in its own right. But that figure fleeing into the sky had threatened everything and everyone Sen loved. Sen knew it was a hollow threat, even if Tseun Rong apparently didn’t. If that idiot went looking for trouble, killing him wouldn’t even be a challenge for Uncle Kho. Sen literally couldn’t imagine what Auntie Caihong would do to him, but terms like unspeakable and cautionary tale sprang immediately to mind. That the threat was hollow didn’t change the fact that it had been made. Tseun Rong had threatened Sen’s daughter, his little girl. His own words rang in his ears. No survivors. And Wu Gang wasn't the only person who knew how to keep his word. Sen used air qi to make his voice carry to Tseun Rong.
“No. You don’t get to leave.”
Maybe it was those words, that hint of warning, but when Sen unleashed Heavens’ Rebuke, Tseun Rong had changed course. Instead of lancing through the man’s chest the way Sen intended, it cleaved the man’s legs from his body. The severed limbs fell away even as momentum carried the nascent soul cultivator higher into the air. The trauma alone would have shattered the necessary concentration to keep a technique moving. To say nothing of how Heavens’ Rebuke would continue to ravage the man’s body. The loss of those limbs would have sundered qi channels. While what was left of his body would retain the resilience of a nascent soul cultivator, Tseun Rong would never cycle qi again. Not without the kind of intervention that generally only happened in stories. Sen could just let it play out now. The man would die. Except, he didn’t want to let it just happen. Some of his emotions were starting to bleed through again. The anger over those threats, the frustration over these escalating battles, colored his decision.
Sen launched himself into the air on a qi platform. He caught up to the nascent soul cultivator just as gravity was beginning to reassert itself. Sen seized Tseun Rong by the throat, cutting of the wails of torment. He pulled the man close and shook him until Tseun Rong managed to focus on Sen’s face.
“Does the sky make you feel safe?” asked Sen, releasing the control he maintained over the divine qi in his skin. “It shouldn’t. The sky is mine.”
Tseun Rong’s eyes went wide as Sen began to glow. Sen used every bit of strength he could dredge from his reinforced body and used it to hurl the maimed cultivator even higher into the air. Sen sped after the man, his fists crashing into Tseun Rong’s body, pushing them both higher and higher until the details of the landscape below started to blur together. A fist of hardened air captured Tseun Rong and held the man aloft, as Sen glowered for several feet away.
“You don’t—” mumbled Tseun Rong before coughing up a mouthful of blood. “You don’t have to do this.”
Sen felt his scorn rise. Now, now this bastard wanted to talk, to reason, to negotiate. Tseun Rong wasn’t the problem, just a symptom. Sen knew that, but he couldn’t help but feel like this man, who had mere minutes before threatened slavery and death for complete strangers, represented all that Sen hated. This man had embraced everything that made sects and cultivation a misery for mortals, for wandering cultivators, and even for their own juniors. Sen wanted to stand in judgment of this man. Instead, he looked down at the town far below. He was shocked by how soft his own voice was when he spoke.
“Do you understand just how insignificant you are? Do you grasp that this world,” said Sen, sweeping his arm in a wide arc, “has no more use for you? Do you realize that you will not be missed?”
“No. No,” said Tseun Rong around another mouthful of blood.
“I was just going to kill you, but you ran to sky. This is the domain of the heavens, at least symbolically. So, rather than kill you, I think a tribulation is in order.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sen didn’t answer. He just smiled as he let lightning qi pass through his skin, picking up just a touch of divine qi, before it started leaping and crackling around them. The intensity of that lightning storm built and built and built until the air itself seemed ready to ignite under the pressure. The light was so bright that Sen doubted anyone but him and nascent soul cultivators could see through it. He could see that it was casting the world below in an unearthly luminescence. Tseun Rong started to thrash in his bonds, desperate to escape from what was coming for him. It was useless effort. Had the nascent soul cultivator still been able to cycle, still been able to turn all of that qi inside of him to practical use, he might have escaped. In his present condition, he was a fish, well and truly caught on the hook. Sen waited until the desperate, flickering hope in the man’s eyes faded and died.
Anger flared on Tseun Rong’s face as he said, “At least, tell me who you really are.”
A brief flash of amusement passed through Sen as he thought of something he hadn’t said in a while. He directed a small smile at the other cultivator.
“Oh, me,” said Sen. “I’m no one important.”
Sen imagined that those words were the last thing that Tseun Rong ever knew as counterfeit tribulation lightning bolts crashed into the nascent soul cultivator by the dozens. It didn’t take Sen long to realize that he’d overdone it. Tseun Rong was dead, long dead, and there was still a lot of lightning crackling around him. He frowned. He didn’t want to just waste all of that lightning or send it down into the wilds at some random location. If Fu Ruolan had taught him anything, it was that you really didn’t know who might be living there. The last thing he needed was another nascent soul cultivator looking to pick a fight with him. Then, Sen remembered that Tseun Rong hadn’t been the only threat. He’d just been the biggest one. Sen let himself plummet toward the ground, dragging both Tseun Rong and the lightning in his wake. It was possible that a storage treasure had survived Sen’s tribulation, and anything a nascent soul cultivator had tucked away was probably worth having.
As the ground rushed up to meet him, Sen realized how it must look. A glowing figure descending from on high, a funnel of lightning trailing behind him. No wonder the mortals think that cultivators are gods, thought Sen ruefully as he unwillingly contributed to that falsehood. The damage was already done though. Sen let his spiritual sense expand before him, picking out where Glimmer of Night and the others were making a stand. It seemed the fighting had resumed once Sen took the battle into the sky. He adjusted his course and, because he was the student of Feng Ming and had a responsibility to his teacher’s reputation, he upped the glow in his skin as much as he could just before he came to a stop over the heads of his companions. The enemy cultivators stumbled back from the glow that Sen let recede back into his skin at just the right pace. He gave them just enough time to see what was left of Tseun Rong, to register the fact of his death, before the lightning caught up. Under Sen’s careful direction, it plunged down in a wave of crackling destruction. Where there had been enemies, all that remained were charred bodies and scorched bones.
Sen hovered in the air for another moment. Lightning was powerful, but wasn’t the most accurate thing ever, even when directed by an expert. It had a tendency to fork out and hit things that you didn’t want it to hit. With a moment of concentration, Sen extinguished dozens of small fires that had broken out in the surrounding forest. He didn’t want to burn down the trees or the town, for that matter. Sen released Tseun Rong’s body and let it flop down to the ground while he lowered himself much more gently. With the fight truly over, the utter focus on survival that Sen had been maintaining started to slip away. It was, of course, replaced with pain. The moment his feet touched the ground, his injured leg started howling with pain. As did the injury to his arm, the deep slice on his face, and the many, many cuts that he’d gotten when destroying that ice spear.
On top of that, everything ached, and Sen felt wrung out, like he’d been spent himself completely dry of qi. He looked around at everyone, almost mechanically noting their injuries. Shen Mingxia looked to be in pretty bad shape, and Wu Gang only looked marginally better. Long Jia Wei had what appeared to be mostly superficial injuries. Glimmer of Night, on the other hand, had an almost visible shine of health and vitality. Sen blinked a few times. Had the spider gotten stronger somehow? Sen shook that off and finally noticed the looks that Shen Mingxia, Wu Gang, and Long Jia Wei were giving him. Glimmer of Night, bless that spider’s heart, seemed as disinterested as ever. Before he could decide what to say, a fresh wave of pain made Sen stagger and lean against a tree for support.
“Wow,” said Sen. “This really hurts.”
Comments
Rhysal
Reminds me of Kaladin, " you sent him to the sky to die, but the sky is my domain"
Eric Dontigney
Wow. You guys give me way too much credit. I only WISH I had it together enough to think up something that cool. Which thunder deity was this?
Newbie_101
I did a bit of browsing recently to support my crazy theory that Sen is actually from heaven and did you know that there is a Chinese deity of Thunder that is supposed to strike the wicked and his wife is the goddess of lightning and illuminates the way to make sure he hits the right people? Apparently they have a son that grew up among mortals. It's not a perfect fit, but I keep thinking how not-very-fake Sen's tribulation lightning is...
Sanctum
Wait till that person learns that they really should be afraid of their own shadow!
Eric Dontigney
Good call. i fixed it.
zero
So now, Sen, you are so strong. You are able to impose your will on the world, and only a handful of people could stop you. And yet you are more subject to the wills of others than Wu Gang! If you hate the jianghu so much, do something about it. But I don't think you'll be able to by your path of force.
Jason Hardman
"And Wu Gang was the only person who knew how to keep his word." Can't help but feel that that sentence has the opposite meaning than intended?
Sid
I can't wait until at one point just for demonstration purposes Sen and Uncle Kho spar or show off together. Uncle kho calling lighting strikes while Sen in the air just spits out that line to bunch of sect cultivators😂
Vaughn Fredericks
Ok Sen, make your check; you get +20 to the roll due to Tribulation Lightning
Aggammenonn
Didn't have to use poison this time
Abdulaziz ALRumaih
Thanks for the great chapter It was a really good pay off
Wes Brown
I can't wait to learn who's fault this is and what they're going to do when he comes for them, bad boys and girls.
Wes Brown
*pile of heads
Eric Dontigney
Yeah, that was a fun little callback.
Charles Lash Jr
Thanks for posting this chapter early
Sanctum
Most likely they were watching, close enough to the city
Magisch
Sen is getting his intimidation game on. Very effective
AA
I think this is the arc where Sen takes a page out of Master Feng and Uncle Kho's book. Raze the earth of all all the families and sects that decided he was a target they would aim at both those that gave the orders and those who took the contracts. I would love to see a bunch of chapters from the victims POV....ROFL
Austin
Kinda hoping for a POV from the people who sent the charred guy now. Maybe Sen will store the corpse in a ring and dump it at their feet.
Eric Dontigney
Schedule is a strong word for it. I'm pretty much committed to posting a chapter or two every day, but the actual timing of those posts is variable. It really just depends on what other obligations I have on a given day, which of them cannot be done outside of business hours, and whether or not my brain decides i need another migraine. Like, right now, I have to go get my taxes filed and take my cat to see a vet for her annual checkup, which are definitely business hours errands. I've got edits on Volume 5 to look over, which can happen any time in the day, but that I can't really put off for too long. I'm taking ice skating classes (which happen in the evening), and that means finding public skate hours outside of class to practice (which are always during the day). Granted, I'm lucky that my job (writing) lets me work around those things, but sticking to a strict posting schedule has proven almost impossible for me for the last six months.
IndyBart
So when Sen arrives and the king ask how his trip was I’d love for him to just pull out a bag in front of everyone and just pour out a pile of empty storage rings onto the ground so that he and everyone else knew the price that was paid in loss of humanity and life for Sen to make the trip.
Peter Smith
Honestly just keeps getting better and better. Love the “I’m no one important” again as well.
Jacob Welty
Man this guy really pumps out the chapters it’s my first month and the chapter release schedule is a mystery to me but dang it more then I thought it would be
Den
“Does the sky make you feel safe?” asked Sen, releasing the control he maintained over the divine qi in his skin. “It shouldn’t. The sky is mine.” I peed myself a little
