The resting quarters were dark and tranquil. The very dead of night. Aro slept at a bottom bunk-bed, tossing and turning in his dreams.

The wide and golden savannah stretched oppressively before him. Behind him, shrouded in shadows, stalked the Wanya, a terrible aura surrounding him as it closed in. Aro ran, but the path ahead of him stretched endlessly as he ran. He made no progress, but the Wanya gained ground rapidly.

Closer…

And closer…

Aro turned around and looked at the Wanya shrouded in shadows and tried to make out its details, but as much as he tried to look, the shadows wouldn’t let up.

He accepted his death in the giant maw of the Wanya, and once it closed its mouth, Aro felt it. The scar-tattoo on his chest that signified the face of the ratel lit up. The blood in his body began to circulate rapidly until it began to glow underneath his skin. The Wanya opened its mouth, and Aro was reborn, baptized in the belly of the beast.

Aro woke up. Claws on his fingertips receded slowly, and he could feel his fangs shrink until he regained his humanity.

“Brothers and sisters!” He shouted. His compatriots woke up slowly, and one lit a candle as all eyes fell on Aro. The wiry-haired boy got out from his bed and stood up.

“I am reborn! The ratel has awakened in me!”

Murmurs arose like a wildfire while there were yells of protest.

“Impossible! The Jadeites sealed us when we were captured! We are unable to awaken!” One said. Aro simply chuckled as he unleashed his claws with outstretched hands

“Is this enough evidence, brothers and sisters?”

His compatriots began to flock around him, feeling at his muscles and his claws.

“…but how is this possible?”

Aro smiled. “The old man… he was telling the truth!”

“An old man?” One of them, a woman, asked. “Who is he?”

“A Dao Seeker…”

--

Wang Gen wasn’t aware of all that he had until he had lost it. The ability to drink wine at his leisure, unspoiled food and good water, good plumbing and a soft bed to lay on. Only after realizing that he had so much did he realize that he shouldn’t want for anything. That night all those perceived years ago with the woman that blew his mind… He didn’t need to relive it.

Rather, he didn’t want to. The desire that took over his soul was every bit as oppressive as it was invasive. Wang Gen was a new man. No longer a slave, and no longer a slaver. Standing in front of the hundreds of dark-skinned men and women that he had forced into labor, he held up a single jade slip.

“Upon meditating on my sins, I realize today that to possess a slave is tantamount to the worst of sins. I shall not dilly-dally on this. You are all free, henceforth!”

With one hand, he crushed the jade slip into dust, sending a wave of stinging pain through all the slaves, eliciting yelps and cries.

“I warn you, however, not to stir any trouble within the city. Otherwise, we will be forced to use violence, and five thousand soldiers are more than a match for five hundred slaves.”

The Kawans, no longer inhibited by their seals, circulated ma through their bodies, glowing a faint red underneath their skin from their countless blood-vessels. Without a single show of exertion, they all tore off the chained balls on their legs.

And far up in the air, Lao Chen and Lin-Lin soared, watching it happen.

“Father… was it truly wise of you to be so heavy-handed?” asked his daughter as she crossed her arms. “A decade of torment? Really?”

Lao Chen sighed. “These are five hundred manumissions down there, and were it not for me, they would each experience a fate like Wang Gen’s decade several times over. This is compounded by how many there are. Tell me, is one person’s decade of torment equal to five hundred people’s century, more or less, of torment?”

“Did he still have to suffer so?” Lin-Lin asked. Lao Chen held his chin contemplatively.

“Maybe there was another way. Maybe I could have done more to persuade him… No one should experience what he experienced, but in my power, I imposed it on him. Perhaps I am a hypocrite?”

The crowd of Kawans down below celebrated raucously as friends and family embraced and lovers kissed. There was no talk of vengeance in the air, only the sweet bliss of freedom. Lao Chen felt pride in his heart at what he had caused, but Lin-Lin’s point nonetheless bore fruit. He could have done something better, instead of risking permanent mental damage on a misguided hero.

Nonetheless, the slaves were free, and his job was done. Making sure that he was undetected, Lao Chen appeared within the crowd, seeking out Aro, intent on a proposition.

The Kawans danced between themselves in several circles, gleeful beyond belief, when Lao Chen appeared. Some began to throw him ugly looks until Aro pushed himself forward and hugged Lao Chen with as much force as he could exert.

“A million thanks for your service, Dao Seeker! If there’s anything I could possibly do!”

Lao Chen laughed, shaking his head. “You said that despite your freedom, the Jade Empire will still enslave you eventually. Is that true?”

Aro’s good mood dimmed somewhat but bounced right back as he shook his head dismissively. “Back home, we have a saying: Tomorrow’s problem is for tomorrow’s you! Let us celebrate your actions!”

Lao Chen smiled. “I am here to propose something. You may live in the village which I hail from for the time being, until you find a way to return to your true home!”

Aro’s celebratory mood dimmed as he looked solemnly at Lao Chen, tears gushing freely.

“This is too much, elder…”

Lao Chen shook his head. “You won’t be freeloading while you’re there! Of course, you’ll have to help out, but on my word, you will not be enslaved while you are there… I’m a bit of a celebrity there, you should know…”

Lao Chen pulled a couple of things out of his bag of holding. A map and a wooden block the size of his fist, engraved with the characters for his name.

“Show the block to the village chief once you arrive,” Lao Chen handed him the block. “And the location is more or less in the circled place on the map.”

Aro’s tears spilled all the way.

“Oh! And you’ll need money on the way, will you not?” Just as Lao Chen reached into his bag of holding, Aro held it and shook his head.

“You have done far more than enough elder. Please, let us inconvenience you no more,” Aro pleaded, but Lao Chen understood.

“I will be off, then,” Lao Chen replied. “Safe travels.”

Lao Chen disappeared in the crowd, and in the blink of an eye, appeared next to Lin-Lin.

“Now, daughter… what occupied your time while in this port?” Lao Chen asked curiously.

“Botany,” she replied simply.

--

Wang Gen had met with the captain of the slave-ship, and after explaining his change of heart, the man left sourly, grumbling about country hicks, but Wang Gen disregarded his grumbling.

The slaves had all gathered their paraphernalia, and while some did voluntary work to earn a little money, most of them prepared to travel elsewhere, now uninhibited by the oppressive seals that crippled them.

The townspeople, however, weren’t as receptive towards their slaves’ freedom. After all, they counted on them to earn money, and now that they were free, their town would not receive as much money, but Wang Gen turned them a deaf ear. None of them knew the horrors of slavery as well as he did, and they had no idea what they were talking about.

In his study, dozens of ledgers were stacked above each other. He was in the process of writing several letters to several acquaintances, hoping to strike a trade-deal with anyone of them.

He heard footsteps behind him, prompting him to turn around.

He saw her. The divine whore.

With a snort, he turned around and focused on his writing.

“Begone. I am working,” he scoffed at her, surprising her profoundly.

“What?”

“I do not require your services at the moment. Leave me.”

The woman stopped in her tracks.

“You… do not require my services?”

Wang Gen sighed before standing up to face her.

“I apologize for taking advantage of your beauty, but there are better ways to make a living than to sell your body. Please, I no longer require you.”

The woman was wide-eyed in sheer disbelief. Her disbelief slowly turned into raging anger as Qi began to swirl around her wildly, her Dao threatening to gush out and envelop the whole area.

“You do not overcome my lust this easily, child,” the woman seethed. “On your knees.”

Wang Gen fell on his knees, unable to withstand the unbridled power that she exuded.

“A-an expert? Oh, forgive me!”

The woman scoffed. “You refuse my advances, my advances, you tell me to leave, and now you apologize? Will you surrender yourself to me unwillingly?”

“No! I mean, yes! I mean-”

The woman snorted. “Silence. Obviously, someone helped you dispel your Poison of Desire. Speak.”

Wang Gen shook his head. “I don’t know his name! You have to believe me!”

“When did you see him?!”

Wang Gen swallowed before replying. “He came to me in my dreams. Outside of them, I never saw him.”

“What did he do?” The woman seethed.

“He…” Wang stopped talking, afraid that he would be trapped in another decade of slavery and torment. “Ah…”

“Speak”

“A… a decade of slavery… in a single night! He shattered my soul and restored the pieces in just one night… through fire and torment, I was healed of… of your vileness!”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Very well… He broke my plaything. I suppose I have no other use for you now, young master.”

Above her head, a mouth was conjured. The lips were scarlet red and lusciously plump, almost enticingly so. The mouth opened, and Wang Gen stood up, approaching it.

“Yes, my darling… come closer…”

At that moment, Lao Chen appeared between the two, from thin air, Primordial Wood Staff in hand. He did not carry his signature bags of holding or steel ring, carrying with him only his weapon, and the clothes he wore.

With a thrust, Lao Chen extended the staff right into the mouth, dispersing it. The woman beneath it glared. Lao Chen waved dismissively towards Wang Gen, putting him to sleep.

“Who are you?”

“Someone who doesn’t approve of your toying with people!”

The woman smiled coyly. “Wait… you’re the new guy. Well, I suppose I’ll be the one greeting you.”

Lao Chen raised an eyebrow. “I suppose you sensed the emanations of the Dao the day I advanced?”

“Tell you what, newbie! I forgive you!”

Lao Chen narrowed his eyes. “I am forgiven? For what, might I ask?”

The woman laughed. “For ruining my pet project, of course! Enough talk, however. I’ll take you to the Great One this instant. Let us leave these children.”

Lao Chen shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple, lady. Be gone, or I will be forced to resort to violence.”

“Ohoho, is that true, now, young boy?”

Then, she moved. Lao Chen was much too slow to prevent the blow, but he moved just far enough to the side to reduce the damage.

As it stood, he only lost his arm from the shoulder and down.

Lao Chen gasped in agony.

“I don’t have to take you in alive. I only need to grab you by your Nascent Soul and leave.”

Lao Chen’s eyes widened. Far above, frolicking in the clouds, Lao Chen sensed her. Lin-Lin. With a mental command, Lao Chen explained his situation. Grave danger. Flee as far as you can, for I might die.

Lao Lin knew exactly what to do. She flew west, as far as her borrowed cultivation base could take her.

Steeling his resolve, Lao Chen regenerated an ethereal Qi arm using the Yang Arm to create it. In the blink of an eye, Lao Chen gestured.

The woman simply smirked. “Now what?”

“You underestimate my prowess, young lady.”

Exerting all the remaining Qi in his cultivation base, Lao Chen’s eyes shifted. One pitch black and one glowing white.

The woman’s expression shifted.

“What-”

“One million years of torment!” Lao Chen channeled his Dao and pushed towards her, and finally, after taking him as a threat, the woman summoned a Taotie in front of her, a fiend consisting of pure lust.

“Devour!” The woman did the same.

The material world did not shift at all.

The Qi, however, dispersed from a hundred li away, and every expert above the Core Formation stage from a thousand li away could feel the reverberations.

In the aftermath was the woman, bedraggled and weakened considerably, yet somehow with a face that oozed pure, unbridled pleasure. Lao Chen, however, was just a bloody smear on the floor, the fragments of his bones being the only evidence that he had lived just moments later.

“Oh no…” The woman gasped… “I destroyed his Nascent Soul.”

Biting her thumb deeply, until reaching the bone, her mind raced. “I will have to face down the Great One’s wrath…”

With a few gestures, the woman disappeared in a swirl of pink mist.

--

In the sky, many hundred li west, Lin-Lin, with her father's bags on her back, felt the overbearing, yet kind presence of her father easily settling in right next to her pseudo-soul. She grimaced in fear.

"Someone killed him?"