Unintended Cultivator

Sen had used a bit of earth qi to make a miniature replica of the Twisted Blade Sect’s compound. He walked the others through what he’d figured out about the sect’s zones of control, or lack thereof, as well as the more obvious security measures. He discussed what he saw as the main potential stumbling blocks. At the top of that list was the challenge of getting close enough to assess any formations they had in place in and around the walls. The stationary guards on the walls, as well as the patrolling guards, would make that an interesting exercise in stealth. Not that he necessarily thought getting past them would be beyond his abilities, but it was never wise to blindly assume something like that.

More pressing was his lack of knowledge about the formations themselves. Just because the sect seemed disinterested in things like formations now, it didn’t mean they’d always felt that way. If they’d had someone like Uncle Kho in the sect a thousand years ago, there could very well be hideously lethal formations in place that were still perfectly functional. Sen would need to get close enough to trigger them if he wanted to look at them. Of course, he might discover that the sect really was filled with people who disregarded anything but personal strength and had put in formations that any child could get around. Regardless of which way things turned out to be, it would be a delicate balance until he understood exactly what he was dealing with there.

He covered a few obvious problems like the number of people in the sect, which would make not getting physically seen difficult. There was also the challenge of having so many buildings to deal with, only some of which Sen wanted to turn into poisonous hellscapes. He wanted to, as far as possible, preserve the libraries, the armory, and buildings with alchemical resources in them. There was no benefit in destroying those when he could potentially secure manuals, medicinal plants, reagents, and superior weapons. While the sect presumably had other treasures, he doubted they were stored in a building. Those would certainly be kept in storage treasures. He supposed he’d have to collect those from the dead. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time, he thought. Having provided a general overview to everyone, he decided the best thing to do was ask for input.

“Thoughts?”

Falling Leaf and Glimmer of Night were both still studying the miniature version of the sect, so it was Uncle Kho who spoke first.

“I assume you don’t want to simply kick open the gates and rain death on them,” said the elder cultivator.

“Not if I can help it. While I’m pretty sure that would work for you, I don’t like my odds of survival if I try that. I figure it’s best to do as much of this as possible as though you weren’t here. That way, you’re not tied up doing something if we really need you to step in.”

“That’s likely a wise way to handle it. Still, that’s a lot of people to deal with on your own.”

“I plan on reducing those numbers before anything even remotely like fighting starts.”

“I’m playing to my strengths,” admitted Sen. “If everyone dies before I have to engage in some kind of melee, I still win.”

“There is still the matter of the formations around the sect.”

“I can likely bypass those,” said Sen. “With so few people who can shadow walk, the odds that these fools have defenses in place to stop it are almost nonexistent.”

“True. Even I never bothered with—” Uncle Kho trailed off before he shot a look at Falling Leaf. “Is that how you always got into the courtyard?”

The ghost panther looked at Uncle Kho and shook her head.

“Not shadow walking. Not exactly.”

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“Then, how?” he demanded.

She gave him a thoughtful look and asked, “Do you truly wish to know?”

Uncle Kho looked like he meant to shake the answer out of Falling Leaf for a moment before he seemed to reconsider. He stood there in quiet contemplation for almost ten seconds before he answered.

“No.”

“If you can get inside,” said Falling Leaf turning her attention to Sen, “what will you do?”

“Lots of things. Ideally, I’ll be able to alter their formations to do something helpful for us, but that depends on what kind of formations are in place. Beyond that, I’m going to turn the entire compound into a poisoned deathtrap.” ȑ

“You won’t get everyone,” observed Falling Leaf.

“I won’t,” agreed Sen. “But if I time it right, I’ll get enough to turn an unwinnable fight into one we can win.”

“You’ll have to target the elders, specifically. Assuming you can get close enough for that, do you have something that will kill them?” asked Uncle Kho.

“I have a lot more than something. I have about two dozen somethings. It’s just going to take time to get it all into place. It’s not like I can leave bottles of poisons just sitting around in plain view.”

“It sounds like you plan on doing most of this by yourself,” said Uncle Kho with an unhappy look on his face.

“That was the plan, yes. If I’m careful, I can walk through their entire compound and no one will sense me. I just need to avoid being seen.”

“I can’t help with that, but I have something that might prove useful in the fight after.”

“What’s that?” asked Sen.

The spider deposited a pile of rocks that he’d apparently just had sitting in his storage ring on the ground. Web qi lanced out of the spider’s hand onto the stone. With a twisting motion, Glimmer of Night turned and threw the web. At first, it was just a shapeless mass in the air. Then, the spider spread his fingers wide. The web spread apart with the stones dispersed throughout. The web soon intersected with trees, but Sen got the general idea. He just wasn’t sure about the value of it. He opened his mouth to say so, but Glimmer of Night spoke first.

“Now, instead of stones, what if we used these?”

The spider summoned a cracked core from his storage ring, and Sen immediately understood exactly how dangerous such a tactic would be. Instead of dropping one cracked core on one person or a small group, they could drop a dozen of them on a large group. Sen struggled to picture exactly what all of those overlapping explosions of different qi would do, but it was enough to understand that it would be both terrible and deadly. Sen nodded in approval.

“That should prove excellent for disrupting any group tactics they might try,” he said.

Falling Leaf continued to stare at the miniature compound.

“You’ll have to stay in their compound for days to accomplish what you want,” she said.

“I know. That’s the most tenuous part of this whole thing. I’m not entirely certain my hiding ability will hold out for that long. I can always slip into a shadow if it gets to be too draining, but my understanding is that I only get a limited amount of time in there.”

“Have you tested it?” asked Uncle Kho.

“On a limited basis. I’m okay for up to half an hour. That annoyed Fu Ruolan quite a bit. I didn’t dare test it for longer than that. No one knows anything for sure about the place you go when you shadow walk. I’m not eager to experiment when there’s basically no one who can come and get me if things go wrong. Essentially, it’s long enough to give me a break, but it’s not like I can sleep there.”

“What if your plan fails?” asked Glimmer of Night.

If the question had come from anyone else, Sen might have read it as a criticism and taken offense. He’d known the spider long enough to know that Glimmer of Night was just asking for information. Fortunately, it was a question that Sen had given some thought. His plan did rely on a lot of things going right for him, or at least not going completely wrong. If the whole thing fell apart, though, he did have another plan. He just didn’t like it very much because it wasn’t something he’d dared to test.

“If that happens, we go with Uncle Kho’s rain death plan. You’ll know it’s happening because things will get very, very loud.”

“What does that mean?” asked Uncle Kho.

“I told you about what happens when I use Heavens’ Rebuke but imbalance it, right?”

“I do.”

“Well, I haven’t tried something like that in a long time, but I don’t have any reason to believe it’s going to be weaker. If I start throwing something like that around, you’ll know it immediately. The effects aren’t subtle.”

“Why not start with that? Simple plans are far less prone to failure.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure how often I can do it. Plus, it’s almost as much of a danger to me as it is to everyone else. There’s a reason I don’t use it all the time. If I get it wrong, you’ll be storming that sect to retrieve what’s left of my body.”

“I suppose that’s a good reason to be cautious with it,” said Uncle Kho in an amused tone. “When do you mean to start your infiltration?”

Sen considered what he could see of the sky overhead. It was maybe edging into early afternoon.

“Tonight,” he answered. “I have a few long days ahead of me, so I’m going to get some sleep first.”