Once they reentered the city, Sen gave Lifen a sheepish look.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?”

“I don’t think I did you or the Silver Crane any favors there.”

“I don’t care.”

Sen was so shocked that he stopped walking. “You don’t care?”

Lifen, who had taken a few more steps, turned back to him. “Don’t misunderstand. I’ll care tomorrow. It’s almost certainly going to be a problem.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine the sect is going to like any of that.”

“They won’t,” she agreed before she gave him a big smile. “Today, though, I don’t care. Today, I get to be satisfied that someone who meant to shame me is suffering. Today, I get to be an empress.”

Sen was quiet for a moment before he laughed and gave Lifen a bow. “Indeed, your imperial majesty. Shall I escort you back to the palace?”

“Yes, I grow weary of the sun. Let us return,” she answered in imperious tones before she started giggling at their faux seriousness.

Sen was happy that there weren’t more sect members hanging around to bother them, mostly because he didn’t trust himself to not send them back to their masters with grievous injuries. He’d had every intention of being polite, of treating the sects with caution, but that went out the window when those fools started issuing orders and insults. Sen was willing to meet people halfway if it meant avoiding unnecessary violence. It was something else entirely to give lackeys a free pass to say whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted. Still, that meant that he was going to have to deal with the problem of the Soaring Skies sect. He hadn’t wanted to get involved with them, but it seemed that there was no getting around it. They weren’t going to leave him be, not after that display on the beach.

More importantly, he didn’t want to drag the people at the Silver Crane into his problems. Although, he feared it might well be too late for that. Those two on the beach had clearly known who Lifen was, at least by reputation. That meant that the Silver Crane as a whole was likely to become a target for reprisals if the Soaring Skies elders decided that they wanted to send a message at least. Sen supposed that would be the real test. If they did send people, then Uncle Kho would be proven right. The honor of sects was nothing but a mirage to hide their evil. If they didn’t send people, Sen might have to extend them a little bit more faith. He honestly wasn’t sure which he would prefer.

If it was the former, then he could find himself in something of a war. Sen doubted he would survive a conflict like that. He recognized that he was potent for his cultivation stage and could punch above his weight. That didn’t mean he could trade blows with peak core cultivators or nascent soul stage cultivators. Cultivators who had advanced that far would crush him as an afterthought. Of course, he would die with at least one solace in his heart. When word eventually reached Master Feng, Uncle Kho, and Auntie Caihong, it was unlikely that anyone from the Soaring Skies sect would survive the cataclysm that would fall on them.

Of course, that plan did have some drawbacks. One, he would have to die. He didn’t know for sure, but Sen assumed that it was hard to be smug when you were dead. Two, he didn’t actually hate everyone from the Soaring Skies sect. He didn’t think particularly well of the lackeys from the beach. He could take or leave Changpu. The other Soaring Skies sect members he’d met out on the road were a different story. Wang Chao hadn’t left a particularly bad impression on Sen. The man might be a little lazy when he was doing things he didn’t want to do, but that was a pretty minor character flaw in Sen’s opinion. He’d liked Song Ling because she’d been straightforward. He truly didn’t want to see any harm come to Wu Meng Yao. Of the group, she was the one who had made the best impression on him. She’d been sincere, held to her convictions, and almost honest to a fault. No, he didn’t want to see harm come to them.

So, he needed to find some other way to deal with the sect that didn’t involve summoning absolute destruction to their doorstep. Before any of that, though, he needed to get Lifen back to her mother and whatever lecture awaited them there. Then, he had to make sure that the brothel survived the night. If retribution were going to come, he suspected it would come swiftly. As Sen looked around for a rickshaw to return them to the Silver Crane, Sun Lifen walked close to him, smiling at everyone and looking like she’d just been handed an actual throne. Sen didn’t begrudge her that happiness, so he kept his thoughts to himself as they rode back. Once they got to the brothel, though, Lifen looked a lot less happy and a lot more nervous. Sen eyed her for a moment.

“This is going to be bad, isn’t it?” he asked.

Lifen looked like she really wanted to deny it, but she reluctantly nodded. “Yeah. It’s going to be bad.”

“Well, waiting won’t make it any better. Let’s just get it over with.”

The two walked up to the door and entered together. Really, though Sen, how bad could actually be?

***

An hour later, Sen knew how bad it could be. Lifen’s mother hadn’t been angry. No, anger was much, much too kind of a word to describe the woman’s emotional state. She was livid. She was infuriated. She was enraged. And she directed all of it at Lifen and Sen. After the first few seconds of yelling, Sen understood that there was nothing to be done until after the woman had vented her feelings on the matter. As the minutes ticked away, he’d started to wonder if she would ever run out of fury. When, at last, she wound down her tirade, she glared at the two of them.

“Well, do you two have anything to say for yourselves?” she demanded.

Sen and Lifen traded a quick look and came to a mute agreement that Lifen would do the talking. She told the story in concise terms, starting with their visit to Grandmother Lu’s, then on to Sen’s moment of enlightenment on the beach, and ending with the confrontation on the beach. Sen thought he came out sounding a bit more heroic than he’d actually been, but he considered that it might have looked a little different from the outside. Or maybe Lifen just knew how she needed to present things to her mother. Whatever the reason, Sen didn’t try to correct the story. Once the story wound down to a close, silence reigned Sun Lifen’s mother processed all of the implications.

When she finally spoke, it was in strained tones. “This isn’t good.”

“I’d suggest that you close your doors for the night,” offered Sen.

“Why?” asked the older woman, her eyes suspicious.

“If they send people tonight, it will help to ensure that I don’t accidentally kill the wrong people.”

“Kill?” asked Lifen.

“It’s not a guarantee that the sect will send people. If they do, though, they won’t be coming here to scare you. They’ll be coming here to kill you, and likely burn this place to the ground. If they do, I intend to stop them. For your part, though,” said Sen, gesturing at Lifen’s mother, “you aren’t going to want your customers here getting caught in the middle. For that matter, it’d probably be best if your employees were somewhere else as well. Is there somewhere they can go?”

“No. I mean, a few of them have places they can go, but most of them live here.”

“Complicated,” murmured Sen. “Do you have guards here?”

“We keep some body cultivators around to encourage unruly guests to behave. They aren’t a match for sect cultivators.”

“I don’t expect them to fight,” said Sen. “You probably will want to send them out to get as much water as you can get. If a fire starts in here, you’re going to want to be able to put it out fast.”

“Should we fortify somehow?” Lifen asked.

Sen shook his head. “It wouldn’t help. Anything you could set up in the next few hours wouldn’t even slow them down. I’ll set up some formations that should help.”

“What if you left?” asked Lifen’s mother.

Sen considered the woman. He could see that she was looking for a way out of this mess. He didn’t blame her for thinking that if Sen was gone the trouble might follow him.

“Do you really think that will help?” Sen asked.

“No, but I’m not sure what making a stand here will accomplish either.”

“Right now, I have very little leverage with the Soaring Skies sect,” said Sen. “Granted, if they don’t send anyone, it’ll open up some other options. If they do send people, though, well, that’s an opportunity to manufacture some leverage.”

“How so?”

“If they send people here and I leave a big pile of corpses in the street, that’s bad for any organization. It makes them look weak or incompetent or like they just don’t care about their disciples. Rumors like that have a way of sticking around. Makes recruiting harder. It makes people trust the sect leadership less. Granted, it’s not an overnight thing, but it’s still bad for them. Mostly, though, it should encourage whoever they send next to talk, rather than fight. Once the real talking starts, there’s a fair chance that I can shut this whole thing down.”

“How?” asked Lifen.

“I’ll say two names.”

“You think two names can stop all of this?” Lifen’s mother asked.

Sen raised an eyebrow at her. “If they’re the right names, I know they will.”