The mistress of the orphanage gave Sen an appalled look, but he didn’t give her a chance to object. He swiftly walked over to boy, created a qi platform beneath them both, and flew away. He didn’t fly too quickly, though. The last thing he wanted was to send the boy careening to his death on the streets below. A few seconds later, the imperial guards took up formation around them, which caused the boy’s eyes to go very wide. Sen just flew them around at random for a little while until it lost its novelty for the boy. It was only then that Sen asked the important question.
“Do you know where this Chen Hai is?”
They boy looked around. Trying to understand where he was from the above the buildings was clearly giving him some trouble. Sen was about to take them back down when a light of recognition sparked in the boy’s eyes. He pointed. It took a little while and a bit of backtracking, but they eventually found the right place. Sen had the guards hang back a little while he observed the place. It took a few minutes before he understood he was looking at a brothel, and not the kind that most people want to go to. This hadn’t been what Sen expected. His jaw tightened.
“Describe this man to me,” Sen ordered.
“He’s big. Fat. He has a beard and bad teeth,” said the boy.
Sen suppressed the annoyed noise that he wanted to make. That description could potentially describe a great many people. He’d just have to wait and have the boy point him out. Sen waved his guards to come closer and pointed at the building.
“Bring me the people in charge there. I want them alive.”
“Yes, Lord Lu,” said the guard.
Sen could see the man was confused about why elite core cultivators were about to burst into a brothel. To his credit, the guard didn’t ask any questions. He just gestured to a few of the other guards. Sen lowered to the qi platform to the street so they could observe. There was a brief burst of noise as the cultivators took control of the building. Then, they started dragging people out. He saw the boy tense up when a particularly fat and unconscious man was tossed into the stree. From start to finish, it took the guards approximately one minute. After that, people who had been customers and the women who worked there were ushered out.
The ease of it all struck Sen. Anyone with power could have done this. He hadn’t even needed to participate. All it took was an order and one minute of minor effort by his guards. This was a kind of power he didn’t always appreciate. Sen might have continued down that line of thought, but he was brought out of it by a shocked cry from the boy.
“Bao Yu!”
The boy ran across the street and threw his arms around a girl who couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven. Sen felt his jaw clench when he saw the vacant, almost dead look in her eyes. Those were eyes that had seen things they shouldn’t have. The boy kept talking to the girl. Sen could hear the sounds, but the words were garbled beyond recognition. For a few moments that felt like an eternity, the girl didn’t even blink. Only then did a pale shadow of life returned to her eyes.
“Ling Yun,” mumbled the girl.
“It’s me,” said the boy.
The girl, Bao Yu, slowly lifted her arms and wrapped them around her brother. Loosely at first, as though she didn’t trust that he was real, and then desperately. Her shoulders hitched. Once. Twice.
“Ling Yun!”
That was when she began to wail. It wasn’t a noise that any child should make. It was like a tsunami that tried to carry all the pain and fear that she had pushed down out into the world. Sen thought that it was the damning sound he had ever heard. It damned him as much as anyone else. Whatever had been done to her had happened in his city, under the watch of his people, and nothing had been done. The reasonable part of him wanted to say that no one could watch everything. He’d grown up knowing that crime and indecency were just as much a part of life as breathing. No one could stop all of it. The fact that there was anything like order in the city was nothing short of miraculous. The unreasonable part of him wanted to break things and shout at the people he’d left in charge of this city. One of his guards came over to him and bowed.
“It has been done, Lord Lu.”
Sen could see all of the questions in the man’s eyes.
“Speak freely.”
“Lord Lu,” said the man with no little hesitation. “It has been done, but why has it been done?”
Sen pointed at Bao Yu, who was still sobbing into her brother’s robes.
“Because of them.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“I suppose this seems trivial. Maybe it even is trivial compared to the war, but it’s not trivial to them. To them, this is more important than any battle we fought in places they’ve never heard of. They don’t care how many spirit beasts we’ve killed or how well we’ve mastered a technique. The only thing that little girl cares about is that her brother came to get her. The only things he cares about right now is that his sister is alive and getting revenge. Now, let me ask you this. Looking at them, do you feel like we’ve wasted our time?”
The guard studied the children for a moment, before he seemed to take in the whole scene before them.
“No, Lord Lu.”
Sen suspected that the man might be giving the answer he thought Sen wanted to hear, but maybe not. Cultivators had surprised him before. Some of them almost seemed human at times. More human than Sen was allowed to be in many situations.
“Shall we prepare to depart?” asked the guard.
“Not yet. There are one or two things left to do here before we go.”
Sen crossed the street to wear the fat man was sprawled on the ground before he called out, “Ling Yun. Come here.”
It took some convincing for Bao Yu to release her brother. It ultimately took one of the women who worked in the brothel coming over to stand with her. Once that was done, the boy hurried over, clearly worried that making the emperor wait was going to prove a lethal mistake. He almost tripped while trying to bow and jog at the same time.
“Lord Lu!” the boy almost shouted.
“There is still the matter of your revenge.”
The panic bled away from Ling Yun’s face to be replaced with a much more sober look. Sen gave the unconscious man a kick. That seemed to rouse the man enough to look up. He saw the boy before he saw Sen.
“You little bastard. I’ll—”
“You’re in no position to make threats,” said Sen before looking at the boy. “This is man you want to kill, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” hissed the boy.
Sen nodded and said, “If you want to do it with your own hands, I’ll let you. But—”
“Who do you think you are?” roared the man.
He tried to rise only to find a blade at his throat being held by one of Sen’s guards. The guard spoke before Sen could.
“You, you unworthy dog, are in the presence of the nascent soul cultivator, Lu Sen, the emperor of mankind. Do not speak again.”
The man went completely white in the face while Sen continued on as though nothing had happened.
“If you wish to end his life with your own hands, I’ll let you, but will you listen to this senior’s advice?”
The boy tore his hate-filled eyes away from the terrified man on the ground.
“Yes, Lord Lu.”
“Do not be too quick to take a life. This man will die today. That is my vow to you. But I would not see you stain your hands with blood so soon. Especially in front of your sister.”
Up until that last part, Sen could tell he wasn’t getting through to the boy. At the mention of his sister, though, Ling Yun looked at the girl. She was hugging herself and tears were still sliding down her cheeks. Standing there like that, she looked terribly alone to Sen’s eyes.
“But as I said, the choice is yours.”
The boy looked back and forth between the man he wanted to kill and sister he wanted to protect. After the better part of a minute, Ling Yun spoke.
“I don’t need to do it.”
With that, he hurried back to his sister, who clutched at him. Sen thought that was a good choice. He glanced at the guard, who pulled the blade away from the man’s neck.
“You are Chen Hai?”
“Yes, Lord Lu,” whispered the man.
Sen nodded and drew one of his jian.
“Please, have mercy, Lord Lu.”
Sen stared down at the man in disgust.
“You seemed confused, Chen Hai. This is mercy. If those children weren’t here, I would do far worse than simply killing you.”
Before the man could speak again, Sen’s sword flickered out and removed his head. Sen looked over to where the women who worked in the brothel were standing. Bao Yu hadn’t been the only child in the place. He looked at the nearest guard.
“Wait for me to take the women and children away, then execute the rest. Make it memorable.”
The guard bowed and said, “It will be done as you say, Lord Lu.”