The guard doesn't pick up on her comment being anything but trivia.  "Trying to learn cultivation without a teacher typically either results in no effect at all or the would-be cultivator dying during the attempt.  Many people do break away from their sects to become rogue cultivators.  Most are decent enough, if no longer invited into wider cultivation society, but some join bandit groups and cause problems."

"No, it isn't heritable.  People choose to train their own children over those of strangers, is all."

"Ah, I see. ...The government wasn't involved in whatever violence damaged the town? Who was?"

"The Qishan Wen Sect.  They had been the most powerful cultivation sect for centuries, then their most recent leader Wen Ruohan decided that wasn't good enough and he was going to start killing off the other sects for total control of cultivation in the empire.  We've just come back from destroying them - Yunmeng Jiang and also most of the other sects, that is.  We all teamed up to fight.

"Though, the damage is mostly just to Lotus Pier.  The mundane town only had a few burned buildings.  There were a few distant Jiang relatives, and some townsfolk who'd tried to hide Jiang cultivators or who acted out after Lotus Pier was destroyed.  Not destroying too many unrelated mundane settlements is how Wen Ruohan kept from getting taken to task for his actions by the emperor.  Cultivation matters are usually left to cultivators to deal with, since cultivation and government don't mix."

That doesn't sound like any ruler Tisha's heard of. If he could rein them in, he would. They're not just useful monster-hunters. ...They also may care much less than she'd thought about the 'outlaw' thing.

"Why don't they mix?"

"Magic has no effect on the world within a few li of whoever holds the mandate of heaven.

"In some past ages, emperors attempted to manipulate the cultivation world, or cultivators attempted to manipulate the rulers.  Leaving each other alone except in extremity is the stable point that the world always seems to go back to and is therefore considered the will of the heavens."

"You can just tell who's the rightful ruler? Must not be many wars of succession. Or secession." Somehow that's even more bizarre than widespread magic.

"There have been wars of both kinds, though I wouldn't be surprised if they were much rarer here and less likely to succeed."

And speaking of the mundane people, though ones much closer by than the emperor, they have gotten far enough along the road to see the town.  It rises over the dock market much as Lotus Pier does, larger and intact.  The materials and architecture are much the same.

Huh, it's actually much less damaged.

"How often do sects fight?"

It sounded like this was unusual in degree, not in kind.

"If you count any fighting at all, there's usually something between a pair of minor sects every decade or so.  Accusations of theft, disagreements over who gets the right to what hunting ground or meditation spot, that sort of thing. 

"For larger sects, the Pingyang Yao sect had a violent fracturing around 200 years ago.  350 years ago was when the Langya Xiao sect was taken down for practicing forbidden cultivation techniques.  The last major war that had every sect fighting was around 650 years ago, during the formation of the Qishan Wen Sect."

The guard's tone when discussing the mundane government had been hesitant.  Here, she answers immediately and with confidence.  This is clearly where her education was focused.

"Remarkably peaceful. I suppose the hotheads have plenty of beasts to fight."

"Yes, and the beasts are far more impressive and worth fighting.  Though a list of wars is going to miss individuals picking fights.  There are plenty of those." 

"As with armed men anywhere. Or drunk ones."

"Or both," she agrees with a sigh. 

"Were you raised in the sect here?"

"No.  I was born in the Tingshan He Sect, then married into the Mianyang Hu Sect twelve years ago.  The last Sect Leader Hu was a close relative and ally of Yunmeng Jiang.  When Sect Leader Jiang began recruiting, he answered the call and we joined them in battle.  Everyone was impressed with Sect Leader Jiang's leadership despite his age, and were eager to join one of the great sects, so when the fighting was finished we packed the little that remained in Mianyang and formally joined the Jiang Sect."

"I'm guessing marriage ties are common, but the whole-sect incorporation part much less so?"

"We like marrying other cultivators, and we'd run out of unrelated sect-mates otherwise.  As for incorporation, it's less frequent but by no means rare.  Typically it happens in the opposite circumstance: a minor sect suffers some disaster and the survivors choose to find a sect to take them in rather than try to continue with only a few people."

"Hmm, there's nothing quite like that I've heard of. Noble families, countries, criminal gangs, small religions - none of them quite like sects. For the" crime "families who are closest, a small line which suffered disaster would be pounced on, not invited in."

"That can happen here, if the sect is unliked and lacks allies.  Another reason why marriage ties are smart."

"Oh, that makes a little more sense of it. I suppose the competition for resources is less steep if you're further apart. And that might do it."