Book 5: Chapter 48: Deferred Anger

Book 5: Chapter 48: Deferred Anger

You should stay inside for this, said Sen as he stood from the table.

Why? asked Lo Meifeng.

Because whatever trouble is out there, its not here for you. No point in dragging you into my problems any deeper.

Oh, said Lo Meifeng. I dont plan to get involved. I just plan on watching.

Sen gave her a look. Watching?

Well, I have to assume that someone has made some catastrophic misjudgment about you. It should be entertaining to watch you correct that.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Suit yourself, said Sen as he walked over to the door and stepped outside onto the porch.

Sen hadnt been entirely sure what to expect when he walked out the door, so he wasnt really surprised by what he saw. Chan Yu Ming was standing out in the street, flanked by half a dozen people. A swift scan revealed them to all be middle core formation or higher, although there were no nascent soul cultivators in the mix. Sen gave them all a thoughtful look. There was one incredibly bulky man who had an eager, arrogant expression on his face as if he was certain that Sens reputation was all talk and no action. The others looked warier, ever nervous, but Sen let his gaze settle on the face of Chan Yu Ming. She was glaring at him, her fists clenched at her side.

Did you really think you could come back here and not have to face me? she demanded.

Dont you mean you and your six friends? asked Sen his tone indifferent.

You murdered my father! she screamed at him.

No. I didnt. But make no mistake, said Sen, his voice and expression going devoid of any human emotion, I would have slit his throat without a second thought because he had it coming, and you know it.

The noise that Chan Yu Ming made was less a human scream than a howl of animal fury. She charged at Sen, drawing her jian and slashing at him with it. There had been a time when the pair had been more or less evenly matched, assuming Sen stuck purely to swordsmanship. Since his advancement in both body cultivation and solidifying a new layer to his core, that balance had shifted dramatically in his favor. That was something that he was happy about because Sen didnt want to kill her. Hed had some time to think about how she might see things. While Sen didnt have parents, he did have Master Feng, Auntie Caihong, and Uncle Kho. He had heard stories about them. While none of them had done things that compared in sheer disgusting awfulness to what Chan Yu Mings father had done, they had all left rivers of corpses in their wake.

Given how many mistakes Sen himself had made, he had to assume that they had all made mistakes in their early days, killed people they shouldnt have, and left more than one loved one with a thirst for vengeance. Their ascent to the heights of the nascent soul stage had insulated them in all practical ways from anyone actually taking that vengeance. Yet, Sen had still considered how he would have felt if someone did manage to kill one of them. Hed asked himself if he would care why theyd done it. The answer was no. He wouldnt care why. He wouldnt even ask why. Hed just start planning his own vengeance. Sen recognized that these were the exact patterns that created blood feuds, but he also knew he wouldnt care about that either. If someone took Master Feng, Uncle Kho, or Auntie Caihong from him, there would be no peace. If it took a hundred years, or a thousand, he would hunt them down. Knowing those things about himself, he couldnt bring himself to hold Chan Yu Mings rage against her. He wouldnt just let her kill him, but he wasnt going to deprive her of life if he could avoid it. And, he could avoid it.

All of that time hed spent focusing on unarmed combat served him well as he stepped, slid, bent, and twisted out of the way of Chan Yu Mings attacks. He never struck back, just moved himself out of the way, his hands calmly clasped behind his back. Sometimes she missed by inches and sometimes by barely a hair, but she always missed. Sen watched the frustration mounting in her face as she realized that her hard-won skills with the jian werent enough to even wound him, let alone kill him. The attacks became wilder, less controlled, and less effective as she tried to replace skill with speed and brute force. He felt her qi swirl and adopted a similar defensive stance.

She tried to split him open with water blades or run him through with hardened water spears. He deflected the attacks, taking care to drive them down into the street, up into the air, or into the defensive formations protecting Lo Meifengs home. While she might not care at the moment, Sen knew Chan Yu Ming well enough to know that she would care a great deal afterward if she killed innocents in her bid to kill him. She was driven by fury at him, not indifference toward life. The failure of those attacks to reach him seemed to drive the woman to the point of true madness.

Why wont you fight me, you bastard!

She threw herself at him, abandoning any pretense of defense, and putting it all into a thrust meant to drive the blade through his heart. Realizing that he needed to put a stop to this fight before Chan Yu Ming did something that he couldnt protect the innocents from, he stood his ground. As the jian lanced toward his heart, he reached out and grabbed the blade, stopping its forward momentum between one heartbeat and the next. He used his enhanced speed to seize her hand and pull it away from the hilt of the sword. While she wouldnt have had time to even realize it, Sen knew her forward motion would have slid her unprotected hand along the razor edge of the blade. Instead, her body crashed against his and was thrown back.

She lay on the ground in a daze for a second or two before her senses came back to her. She looked around with wild eyes for her jian before she saw it still grasped in Sens immutable grip. For a moment, she simply gazed up at the blade in disbelief before she seemed to collapse in on herself, a look of utter despair on her face. While Sen was well aware that his skills with other people were lopsided, at best, even he knew that there was nothing that he could do in that moment that wouldnt make it worse. As he looked on, helpless, Chan Yu Ming broke down into sobs of anguish and grief that Sen suspected had been held at bay since the day her father died. He felt it as Lo Meifeng came to stand next to him. He looked over at her. Lo Meifengs attention was on the princess and the expression she wore wasnt compassionate, but he thought he saw a little understanding there. He silently held out the jian. Lo Meifeng plucked the blade from his hand.

Go find something to do, she told him. Ill see to this.