Sen stepped onto the street from the inn. It had been a little disappointing. Some mild regret over not bringing Lo Meifeng with him stirred in his heart. The woman had a gift for finding good inns. Dismissing the merely adequate meal he’d had for breakfast, he started walking toward the harbor. He was ready to finish this journey to visit Elder Bo. Sen couldn’t figure out why the turtle wanted to see him again, and he mostly didn’t care. He’d show up, let the turtle take a look, and be on his way again. No more elixirs I don’t understand, thought Sen with a shudder. He was fully prepared to lie through his teeth that he had abandoned alchemy altogether if the turtle tried to coax him into making something. Their last fortuitous encounter had been more of a calamitous encounter to Sen’s mind. No need to repeat the mistakes of the past.

It didn’t take Sen long to sense the people following him. A brief look with his spiritual sense told him they were core formation cultivators. They’re early stage if I’m not mistaken, he thought. Best to just be done with it. Turning on his heel, he fixed his gaze on a pair of sect cultivators. It was a man and woman with the annoyingly difficult to determine ages of cultivators. Sen didn’t do anything overtly hostile, but he did rest his hand on the hilt of his jian. Sen reasoned that should be enough to let them know that he was ready for violence, but not eager for it. The woman gave the man an annoyed look.

“I told you we should just introduce ourselves,” she said.

“How was I supposed to know he’d spot us immediately?” complained the man.

“By listening to any of the stories about the man,” said the woman.

The pair continued to bicker with each other in a way that made Sen wonder if they were related. He listened with mild amusement for a full minute as they sniped at each other before he loudly cleared his throat. The man and woman both looked over at him before the woman glared at the man and hit him in the arm with the back of her hand.

“Now look what you did,” said the woman.

“Me?” demanded the man with an incredulous look. “What about you?”

“What about me?” she asked with a dangerous glint in her eye.

Sen decided to take pity on the man. “While this is all quite entertaining, I have somewhere to be shortly. I intend to be there.”

With one last furious glare at the man, the woman marched over to Sen. “Forgive my brother. He’s been struck in the head many times.”

The man rolled his eyes in a long-suffering way before he walked over to join his sister.

“Forgive her. She’s forgotten that politeness is a virtue in her old age,” said the man, eliciting an outraged look from the woman. “I am Hu Deming. This is my sister, Hu Li Na.”

Sen gave the pair a wary nod as he continued to scan the area. He wasn’t expecting a trap, but he supposed that was why most traps worked.

“Lu Sen.”

The woman’s eyes went wide and she burst out with, “Are you Judgment’s Gale?”

Sen looked from her to her brother. She looked excited. The brother looked skeptical. Sen was just confused because he couldn’t decide what to make of them. He also realized that simply staring at them wasn’t going to answer any of his questions.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Yes,” he said. “Some call me that.”

Hu Li Na shot her brother a look of pure triumph before she turned that excited gaze back on him. “Is it true that you fought an entire sect to the death in Emperor’s Bay?”

“What? No, of course not.”

It was Hu Deming’s turn to shoot a triumphant look at his sister. “I told you!”

“It was just a dozen or so sect members,” said Sen. “Well, maybe two dozen. Oh, and an elder.”

Hu Li Na’s eyes were positively glowing. Hu Deming’s mouth was hanging open a little.

“You fought a sect elder?” exclaimed Hu Li Na.

“I did. I didn’t want to, but he wasn’t really taking no for an answer.”

“What happened?” asked Hu Deming.

Sen cocked his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re still here. How did you convince the elder to let you go?”

Sen lifted an eyebrow. “By killing him.”

He Deming was staring at him in a vaguely creepy, slack-jawed sort of way, which Sen decided was a good sign that he should disengage from the very odd conversation. Before he could execute his masterful plan, the woman piped up again.

“Is it true that you fought a beast tide?”

“Sure,” said Sen in a distracted tone. “A bunch of times. You can’t avoid it if you go deep enough into the wilds.”

“You’ve been into the deep wilds?” she asked with true awe in her voice.

“I have.”

“Is it true that…” started Hu Li Na before Sen lifted a hand to cut her off.

“I don’t wish to be rude, but I truly have somewhere to be.”

The woman gave him a wounded look that Sen had no idea what he was supposed to do with.

“I’m sure that they’ll understand,” she said hopefully.

“I’m afraid that my ship is due to leave,” clarified Sen.

“But,” started the woman.

“Li Na,” said Hu Deming in a sharp tone. “You know the ships have to leave with the tide.”

“I know, but when will I ever get a chance like this again? It’s not like famous wandering cultivators who battle beast tides and demonic cabals show up here every day.”

“You’re both core cultivators,” said Sen. “I’m sure you had more than a few battles.”

Hu Li Na shook her head. “We go out and fight spirit beasts if they’re too dangerous for the local villages, duel other cultivators sometimes, but nothing like the things you’ve done.”

Sen gave her a serious look that made the woman stand up a little straighter.

“Then, I am glad for you. It seems that you sowed karma much more wisely in your past lives than I did. Mine has been a path of much pain for myself and others. Yet, the things I’m most proud of, I didn’t accomplish with a sword. I accomplished them with these,” said Sen, withdrawing two of his better healing elixirs from a storage ring and pressing them into the woman’s hand.

Hu Li Na glanced down at the stone vials. Sen felt her spiritual sense pass over the elixirs. What she sensed in the vials made her stagger a little. She looked at Sen with a rapidly shifting expression.

“These are a—” she began.

“A way to sow more good karma,” said Sen, glancing up at the sky. “Now, I must go.”

Sen nodded at the pair and walked away, leaving the brother and sister staring after him with dumbfounded expressions. Sen hurried over to the harbor making liberal use of his qinggong technique to make up the time he’d lost talking with the very strange brother and sister. He saw the captain giving the sky an unhappy look that smoothed out as soon as he saw Sen. A pair of sailors pulled the gangplank onto the ship after he stepped aboard and secured it while Sen walked over to the captain. The older man gave Sen a nod.

“I never did ask,” said the captain, “why do you want to go back to that cove?”

Sen offered the man a rueful smile. “I’m just keeping an appointment.”

The captain seemed to accept that answer without feeling the need to ask more. The man had a pleased look on his face.

“You seem happy,” observed Sen.

“There are fair winds today and no signs of a storm. That’s always welcome news on a ship.”

Sen gave the sky a considering look before he accepted the words without feeling a need to ask more. If the captain said it was good weather for sailing, Sen believed him. Soon after, the real work of getting the ship out to sea began. Sen retreated to a spot on the deck that he remembered would keep him out of the way while the sailors worked. He felt the tug of recent sorrow on his heart, but he kept his eyes turned to the ocean. His emotions were sharp and fresh, but the ocean was vast enough to soothe even that pain. As the ship took on a gentle rise and fall over the water, a faint smile tugged at Sen’s lips. Perhaps there would be storms in the future but, for that moment, there was no storm to plague him.