It had been three days since Shao Qing’s loss at the martial conference. He had been confined to a remote hamlet owned by the Kang Clan. Besides him, around a dozen low-ranked servants of the Kang Clan stayed at the hamlet, taking care of various tasks. On top of maintaining the hamlet, these servants provided for his needs. Mortal servants took care of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, whilst several cultivators guarded the area in order to prevent the Shao Clan from retrieving him. Shao Qing’s current task consisted of one simple command: “Stay put and don't cause any trouble”. This situation made him hopeful- he was in a terrible situation, but for the time being he was being treated not as a servant, but as a hostage. ...Or an “honored guest”, if one preferred the veiled terms that were so often used in politics. Either way, it meant that all he could do was wait. Things were out of his control.

Shao Qing’s captivity continued uninterrupted for more than a week. During this time he tested the limits of his soul contract, and the order he’d been previously given. On the bright side, the contract seemed loose- Orders seemed to depend on his truthful interpretation of them, and as long as he made a good faith effort to obey them it didn’t seem like the contract would punish him. He’d been told to “stay put”, but he didn't have to literally stand still all day. While he couldn’t go to the nearby town, he could wander the hamlet and the surrounding forest without any trouble. Unfortunately he wasn't dumb enough to believe that going back home was 'staying put' as long as he intended on coming back later- otherwise the clan would restrain him at home and find some way to free him from the contract.

On the other hand, some restrictions didn’t need to be made explicit to take effect. Shao Qing had some expectations of what a ‘loyal, diligent servant’ acted like, and that meant there were some things he implicitly couldn’t do. For example, attacking the weakest of the guards the Kang Clan had assigned to him- when he considered the idea he felt a slight twinge of pain in his soul that he knew would become MUCH worse if he actually did anything. As for other restrictions inherent to his soul contract, he could make guesses, but was currently unable to verify many of them. Until a convenient opportunity to test these theories came about, they weren’t much more than idle speculation.

Ten days after the soul contract was signed, the Kang Clan sent an envoy to the hamlet. Shao Qing was informed that the Shao Clan and the Kang Clan were in the midst of negotiations, and that for the time being he would stay at the Shao Clan’s ‘headquarters’: The Ironwood Estate. During that period he would be forbidden from cultivating. Shao Qing sighed upon hearing this order. He’d expected it- the best way to ruin a young talent was to prevent him from cultivating during his prime- but it was still disappointing. Well, it wasn’t all that bad. He was still several years away from breaking through to Acupoint Opening anyways, so it didn't affect him immediately. He could focus on battle techniques for a while. He just hoped that the negotiations would come to an end soon.

Over a month passed. As Shao Qing blankly flipped through a book on the fundamentals of movement techniques he heard a knock at the door. He responded without looking away from his book. “Come in.” A hunched, lanky man entered the room- Shao Qing’s “Late” Acupoint Opening bodyguard. “The negotiations regarding your situation have ended. This will be goodbye.” Shao Qing closed the book and jumped up, ecstatic. “Should I pack my things then? Or will it still be a few days before the handover?” A wide grin covered the bodyguard’s face as he shook his head. “You’ve misunderstood me. The negotiations have concluded, so you no longer need a bodyguard whilst on Kang Clan premises. You’re still staying here.”

Staying here… for how long? Shao Qing felt his mouth go dry, and it took a few seconds before he mustered up the courage to ask. The bodyguard pretended to think for a moment. “How long, how long… I believe they agreed on 20 years, with a provision allowing you to break through to Acupoint Opening in 15?” A vaguely confused, angry noise escaped from Shao Qing’s mouth as a wave of despair rushed over him. He needed to sit down. At his rate of cultivation he’d make his breakthrough around 34, so if they delayed it until he was 45 he’d be losing 11 years. 11 whole years. Or was it 16? He didn’t even know if he’d be allowed to cultivate for the five years following. Shao Qing glanced up, wanting to ask, but the bodyguard was already gone. Bastard. When he got out of here he was getting back at him, Acupoint Opening cultivator or not. A lackey like him couldn’t mock the future second-in-command of the Shao Clan and get away with it.

“Another failure… I thought something might have changed after breaking through.” Shao Qing let out an annoyed grumble as he scooped a pile of black sludge out of his pill furnace and went to dispose of it. For the past 15 years he had been focusing on honing his alchemy and battle techniques. Both were somewhat constrained by his cultivation, but that constraint made him get… creative. While he was stuck in Dantian Creation he’d discovered a few novel techniques that allowed him to stretch his qi further during the pill-forging process, and his qi manipulation had also advanced by leaps and bounds. He was happy about this… but it still didn’t make up for his lowered cultivation. He’d have to work like hell to make up for it once he got out of here. If he could make up for it.

Shao Qing shook the negative thoughts out of his head and prepared another set of ingredients. He hadn’t had access to any alchemical supplies when he arrived, but since a formal agreement was hashed out the Shao Clan had provided him with plenty of resources. Maybe they were planning to groom him into the clan’s head alchemist in case he couldn’t reach the Grand Elders' level. Regardless of their intentions, this support had allowed him to go in some interesting directions of research without having to care about the monetary costs behind his failures- a boon Shao Qing would make ample use of with little else to do.

Of course he was adept at creating the traditional pills- cultivation aids mostly- but that wasn’t what he was most interested in. Since he’d been branded with a soul contract he was naturally interested in pills that interacted with the soul. This field was actually relatively popular, but only among more advanced cultivators. Unfortunately, while Shao Qing had made a lot of theoretical progress in this field, the practical applications of his research were astonishingly little. He was nowhere near reaching Soul Foundation and lacked the amount of qi needed to make most soul-related pills, as well as the natural understanding of the soul that came with such a cultivation level. Thus, for the time being, this research was mainly him satisfying his own curiosities.

Besides soul-related pills, Shao Qing’s second favorite area of alchemical research were so-called battle ‘pills’. Not the sort that boosted your cultivation or battle strength for a short time (although those were also useful, albeit with some major drawbacks), but the type that could be directly used in battle. Mostly poison and explosives, although there were certainly more exotic types of these devices. Some of this research was rather dangerous, but the Kang Clan were obligated to keep him alive, and he was more than willing to take advantage of that. He’d gotten more than his fair share of free protection during these experiments, although with his growing experience he needed it less and less. A shame really, since he considered any time the Kang Clan’s cultivators wasted protecting him an achievement on his behalf.

Tsk, failed again. Although he did gain quite a bit from how it failed, so he supposed it wasn’t all bad. He only had three sets of ingredients left for that pill… he’d leave it for now. Since his understanding of the soul was a bit lacking, he’d need more qi if he ever wanted to make it. Maybe he’d try again once he’d opened ten acupoints.

“What do you mean the agreement is being renegotiated. You said Clan Head Qun would come to dissolve the soul contract in a month. Are you trying to start a war with the Shao Clan?!” The messenger seemed uncomfortable, and almost guilty. After being stared down by Shao Qing for several seconds, he provided an answer. “It’s not that the Kang Clan has any intention of reneging on our agreement… but part of it was that the head of the Shao Clan, Shao Fu, would provide us a favor. Unfortunately he’s dead, and as you should be aware, your clan currently doesn’t have any other Soul Cleansing cultivators who could fulfill the agreement. Please understand.”

“The old man is dead?! What the hell happened?!” “An ancient beast with cultivation equal to the 2nd Cleansing awoke in the area. The surrounding forces were crippled in the process of stopping it. If you want more details you’ll have to investigate yourself, I don’t know all that much.” The man practically ran out after saying this, not eager to continue this awkward conversation any longer. Shao Qing remained, silently standing there.

After a couple years with no news regarding further negotiations, Shao Qing grew to accept his fate. He didn’t know the specifics of the situation, but the Shao Clan was going through rough times, and they didn’t have the effort to spare to free him. Hell, for all he knew he could be better off here- he had no idea how bad the situation back home was. For now, at least, he was in a peaceful state of limbo, seemingly forgotten about by both sides. Although if the clan weakened too much… this unstable balance could be upset. He was aware that the Kang Clan was only leaving him to his own devices due to their respect for the Shao Clan. If that was gone then maybe he’d wake up one day and really become a servant.

That day arrived 30 years after the soul contract was signed. After a year of radio silence from his clan, Shao Qing received some support from them: A life-saving charm, a massive shipment of alchemical ingredients, and an Acupoint Opening grade paint brush that was useful for performing the clan’s battle techniques. Given the circumstances, Shao Qing could only interpret it as a goodbye to him. They were giving him one final bit of support before they had to give up on him completely. On the same day as all of this arrived, the Kang Clan assigned their first formal mission to him. Whatever had happened at home, it was enough to strip away his protective halo.

53 more years passed. Shao Qing was a loyal, diligent servant of the Kang Clan. He concocted pills, went on missions, and was forced to risk his life several times. On one such occasion, the life-saving charm the Shao Clan had sent served its purpose. During these years he was a tool, not a human.

On one dreary evening, Shao Qing was conducting experiments on soul-related pills in his workshop. The workshop wasn’t particularly fancy, and it had cost quite a few contribution points to get the formations set up, but it was his. A bright blue light flashed from his pill furnace before a small explosion rushed out from it. A set of complex lines on the floor briefly lit up with qi, helping to restrain the explosion. Shao Qing let out a pained moan as he stumbled away from the pill furnace.

“It rebounded towards my soul yet again. Once I rest I should concoct some soul recovery pills. I’m not wasting my contribution points on the crap the clan makes…” Shao Qing stopped muttering to himself mid-sentence, a confused expression coming over his face. After a minute the confusion turned to excitement, and then joy.

The 113 year-old man hopped around like an excited child, visibly shaking, in his alchemical workshop. Through some miracle, his botched pill concoction had damaged just the right area of his soul to break his soul contract.

He was free! After 83 years of being chained up, he was finally free!