Ivor awoke chained up in a dark room with a door-shaped hole in one of the walls. “Goddamnit. Kidnapped in my sleep again, who would’ve thunk it? Huh… when you think about it, my cultivation has been filled with being taken to strange places in my sleep. I was knocked out, kidnapped, and brought to this new world by the Hobo, dragged to Samsara sect in my sleep by Klutz, literally taken into a dream where things could hurt me, twice at that, and now this. Fuck this, I’m done with being taken places in my sleep!”

Ivor pondered his journey so far, speeding up his thoughts with his liver meridian, and quickly came to a conclusion. “Now that I think about it, I said I wouldn’t play along to anyone’s whims anymore, but isn’t most of what I’ve done just reacting? Even when I cultivate, I’m just reacting to the threat of the beast waves. Fuck it, I’m done with reacting! No, that’s wrong… I know. I’m done with being kidnapped! More eloquent ways to put it, but that gets the sentiment across.”

A voice resounded from beyond the door as an unnaturally large silhouette gradually entered Ivor’s line of sight from beyond the door hole, shrouded in unnatural shadows. “Could you stop? I REALLY don’t give a shit. Anyways, I’m going to ransom you. I hope you’ll cooperate. I’ll have you know I’m halfway through qi infusion, and those chains can even restrain me, so don’t even think about escaping.”

Ivor chuckled a little before asking a question. “Qi infusion, huh? What’s your foundation?”

Before the shadow-shrouded man could answer, Ivor had bust through all the chains holding him. The broken parts were red hot; he had used his Inferno Yuan Fire to heat the metal, weakening it. He walked up to the shadowed man… and he didn’t stop. A kick broke the man’s right leg, and another their left. “I’m assuming that you thought I would have a 200-man foundation like you? Or maybe you thought I couldn’t break your chains. Maybe you were desperate. It’s pretty funny, honestly. You’re at qi infusion, and I’m four times as strong as you or something like that. I have a great physical strength foundation, but even somebody with a worse foundation than me would be fine against you.”

The man had been listening to Ivor this whole time. After Ivor finished, he spoke. “So you think I’m a dumbass, huh? Don’t answer; I already know. But wow, you didn’t notice those manacles, huh? Stop.”

The man popped a pill in his mouth as Ivor fell limply to the floor, his loud protests doing nothing to help. “That’s some bullshit! Turn off the manacles and fight me like a real cultivator - no, no, that’s not right. Good job on capturing me. I admit, you aren’t a complete dumbass. So… who are you with? It’s probably either a faction in desperate need of money who doesn’t give much of a shit about the sect rules, the most notable example of which are the cannibals, or another faction of the Renshen clan. However, if you were with the Renshen clan, then you probably would have been caught by Lian at the restaurant… so a cannibal, or someone else?”

The shadows dissipated, revealing a man so fat you couldn’t even make out his facial features. He attempted a polite bow before stopping for fear of falling over. “That’s right, I’m with the cannibals. Excuse my appearance, I cultivate the Dao of hunger. Pleased to meet you.”

Ivor narrowed his eyes, although his face being pressed against the floor wasn’t really conducive to the fat man seeing his expression. ”How the hell does someone at qi infusion use treasures anyway? Or were they charged by your patron. Probably that, which means the cannibals are led by someone at Qi Gathering or higher, huh? Makes sense, considering their size, and now that I think about it, the sect hasn’t gone for them, so they’re probably lead by someone at Spirit Cleansing. Oh well, no point talking about this, is there? I mean, why talk when I could be escaping.”

The fat man let out a guttural laugh. “Escape? How? If you didn’t manage to notice, you’re lying on the floor paralyzed right now.”

Ivor inhaled deeply before breathing out a cloud of greenish-red gas that quickly spread around the room. “It’s rather simple. I kill you, and then wait for the qi in the manacles to run out.”

A large foot separates Ivor’s face from the ground before sending him flying into the wall. A large, bloody, foot-shaped imprint was left in his face, distorting what seemed to have been a grin. However, the imprint began filling out; Ivor was healed in but a few seconds, although his bladder meridian was left half-empty. Ivor chuckled. “Thanks for helping me stand up.”

The cannibal’s eyes began to cloud from the poison and he charged out of the gas at Ivor, a shroud of shadows appearing around him. Ivor manifested yuan fire in his mouth before infusing it with heart fire, forming a blood-colored flame that he spit at the cannibal. The flame slammed into the cloak of shadows, causing it to collapse in a burst of darkness, but it quickly reformed.

A fist smashed into Ivor’s face, but instead of impacting it, the darkness chewed into it, eating the entirety of Ivor’s nose. When it hit his skull, it stopped, not eating into it or even cracking it, but the damage was done. Ivor groaned in pain. “Shit, that hurts!”

Thick, clear fluid burst out of the wound as it began healing, but there was something different about it this time. It crackled with energy, the lightning remaining from Ivor’s last excursion, and although it was devoured by the shadow cloak, it revealed the cannibal again.

The opening was just in time for Ivor to spit shining blue fire in their face again. The cannibal hollered in pain, falling to the floor and rolling around screaming as the skin on their face blackened and flaked off, leaving their flesh to be burned and mutilated by the fire. Immediately after, Ivor let out another cloud of poison gas from his lung meridian, driving his enemy even deeper into despair.

The shadow cloak appeared around the cannibal again, snuffing out the flames, but the damage was done. Their face was burned and the poison gas had slipped in through the bloody cracks in the layer of charred ash that was desperately attempting to stand in for skin. The cannibal screamed in fury. “I’ll kill you! Even if I don’t, the cannibals will kill you! We aren’t just some outliers who can’t get into the sect, we have BACKING!”

Ivor made an expression that gave off the vibe of a shrug, although he couldn’t move his shoulders, while at the same time wordlessly calling his foe an utter moron. “Yeah, dumbass, of course I know you have backing. Why else would nobody deal with the LITERAL CANNIBALS surrounding the city?! The only problem is that I have backing too. You literally kidnapped me to ransom me to my newfound backing. I understand you’re in immense pain, but this is a bit much. Shouldn’t cultivators try to keep their cool under pressure?”

The manacles on Ivor’s wrists and ankles each broke in two before falling to the floor. He began casually stretching, cracking his neck. “Ah, that’s nice. The restraints didn’t last very long, you know. Maybe you should look into getting better ones. Also, I can escape now. Oh, and thanks for teaching me a lesson. Even if somebody is weak enough to disgrace their faction, you can basically fuck up anyone with the right abilities.”

The cannibal had grown fed up with Ivor and thrust a shadow-covered hand toward his leg. Ivor jumped upward, avoiding the attack. His nose finished reforming, letting him wrinkle it. “That shadow cloak was dangerous. Guess I shouldn’t be casual about fighting up phases, even if you do have a shitty foundation. I thought it wasn’t a big deal compared to fighting up realms, but I should still be careful.”

The cannibal began trying to stand up, shadows forming around their right arm. Ivor kicked him in the face, smashing through his skull and killing him. “Really should have guarded your vital points.”

Ivor began walking out, leaving the dark room which turned out to be in the basement of a house outside Samsara city. Ivor began walking towards the city gate before tripping on a poorly placed rock and falling on his face.