Rin Wi ran. That was all she could do at the moment. The immortal was not a creature she could keep pace with in battle.

Her copy couldn’t produce qi, but it had sucked up all of the immortal qi Rin had created during her enlightenment. Her dantians flashed, pulsating with a bit more of that dense immortal qi and while Rin Wi closed her meridians in an attempt to conserve it, it would hardly make a difference in the battle. She would, at best, accumulate a puddle while her copy maintained a pool.

It would be a battle of attrition and Rin Wi would lose.

Her feet peddled against the ground, using her movement technique to propel herself to the furthest edge of the region, but even there her copy waited.

“Weakness,” her copy said to her. “Running away from your duties, running from your own tribulation. You’re not worthy of immortality.”

The copy swung once more and once more Rin Wi dodged, but just barely. The copy was faster than her. She was outpaced in strength and speed, and impossibly outmatched in qi reservoirs.

There was no use.

“Have you given up?” The copy asked her with a smug smile. “Mere minutes since you’ve abandoned me and you fall?”

Rin Wi stood silently as she breathed.

“No,” she spat. “I haven’t given up.”

Rin Wi took a moment to take in a few breaths full of qi.

“I’m just wondering as to why I’m still alive,” she finished. “You could have killed me a thousand times over by now. I mean, you are effectively an immortal version of me, aren’t you? Your qi might be limited but even then, you outmatch me in every way.”

The copy kept staring at her, still and unbothered.

“And yet I’m still alive,” Rin Wi finished. “Why?”

The woman raised her blade to her side and swung. This time, the attack cut through the air. Though the blade didn’t touch Rin, the cut left its edges and immediately buried itself in her gut.

Rin Wi fell. A wave of pain came from her stomach. The strange qi flowed through her body, seeming eager to wreak havoc where it went. It was dense and destructive, tearing apart her meridians wherever it reached.

Rin Wi screamed, and liquid left her mouth. She coughed, choking on her own blood, struggling to breathe.

“And arrogant, oh so arrogant.” the clone mumbled as it walked towards her.

Then the clone grabbed her head and lifted it close to its own.

“I want you to suffer,” the dao angle whispered. “That’s why I haven’t yet killed you. Now run."

It threw Rin Wi across the land, tossing her further than the eye could see. Rin Wi didn’t fight it. She could barely register its words through the pain much less run.

But she could think. That was the gift of the servant, the gift of her past. Even when she was being punished she could think, that was Rin Wi's best trait. The pain was bad sure, but some of her punishments had been worse, and she’d gotten through those so truly, what was this predicament?

Rin Wi focused her mind on the invasive qi. It was spreading, but not nearly as fast as she thought it would and it was causing damage, but again, not nearly as fast as expected.

Why? She thought.

This was a blow from an immortal ranked being. She was an insect to this creature, an ant. No. Rin WI didn’t buy it’s I want you to suffer, statement.

That made no sense. This was a Dao Angel, not a person. It wasn’t capable of resentment, yet it was faking it, forcing her to run and be whittled down, little by little.

Why? She thought again.

She held herself still, pretending to be knocked out while she attacked the invasive qi within her. She retrieved her senses and buried them deep within herself. She sent qi into her eyes and ears, bursting the eardrums and forcefully ending her vision before the clone could catch up.

She didn’t know the power of an immortal, but she did know that the Servent Mothers could always tell whether you were sleeping or not by sensing the qi activity in your eyes and ears. Of course, they would die without qi but that would take time.

Then Rin Wi waited. She laid there for minutes, first five, then ten, and then twenty. Slowly working on whittling down at that immortal qi. She had no sense of the outside world aside from her skin, and even that wasn’t enough to let her figure out where the immortal was.

Rin WI thought silently during this time. What did she know of dao angels? What was their purpose? She’d had a few of them as customers back in the Divine Beast Emporium and the policy was to be kind but direct for them. They weren’t exactly people but more of a manifestation of human thought, beliefs made flesh.

Some were powerful, like the Angel of Death or the Angel of Time. Those creatures were said to be at the level of a God Imperium. What was it they said about these creatures? They weren’t the thing itself, more of a collective representation of how people viewed the thing.

But this dao angel was different. This wasn’t a collective reflection of humanity’s idea of servitude, this was her idea of servitude. It was her own insults the thing hurled at her, her own perspective and beliefs.

Her own qi as well.

Suddenly the invasive qi collapsed into her own, the difference between the two becoming unknowable. The realm had tried to force her own qi back into her through lightning and flame. The only reason it had stopped was because the dao angel had started to do the same.

Rin Wi’s eyes opened and her eardrums mended themselves, returning her to her senses. And sure enough, there was the dao angel staring down upon her.

Rin Wi smiled, slowly getting up to her feet. Her wounds leaked blood and pain still howled through her broken bones, but that was bearable. All pain was bearable.

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“End this,” Rin Wi spoke. “No more waiting for me to get up. Just end it.”

“Gladly,” the angel spoke raising its blade to swing.

And Rin Wi stood, waiting for the strike to cut down on her.

But it never did.

“You can’t kill me? Can you?” Rin Wi asked. “You’re not just a dao angel, you’re my dao angel.”

The clone didn’t speak, only looking at her with unbothered eyes.

“Why do we serve?” RIn Wi asked the clone.

“To live,” the clone answered. “To be useless is death.”

And there it was. Those words were the mantra she had repeated over and over again throughout her lifetime. Her mantra. And back then, those words were true.

We live to serve, and when we become useless, we die.

That had been her reality ever since she was taken up by the Servent Mothers. Those were the words that fueled her. The words that showed the only path forward throughout the subjection process.

When she had been recruited.

When she had to say goodbye to her family.

When she was forced to live centuries in training, knowing her parents and siblings had long since turned to dust.

When she finally forgot their faces and voices.

When all she wanted was death, but couldn’t even be given that release.

That was what had kept her alive.

Those words stood before her now, strict and angry. They had been abandoned, tossed to the side for a chance at freedom.

But it wasn’t just anger. Rin Wi looked at the creature before, truly studying its presence with her senses.

A dao was the path a cultivator chose to take. It was the thing that kept them alive and breathing, the hope that allowed them to struggle through the great expanse of torment and time.

Rin Wi had never gotten to choose hers. Her dao was the only one open to her, the dao of servitude. She couldn’t have done anything else. She wasn’t allowed to do anything else. She tried to fight for a time, but it was no use. She was broken in over and over again, and each time she was quicker to give up than the last, till eventually, the rebellion was nothing more than a quick thought in her head.

And in front of Rin Wi stood the part of her responsible for it all.

The Servant Mother within.

Rin Wi swung her cleaver, aiming for the thing's throat, but the clone sidestepped and stabbed. Her opposite’s blade cut through Rin’s stomach and out her back, the invasive qi flooding through her in an instant.

Rin swung her knife, and the kitchen utensil rushed towards the clone's throat, but again, her opponent dodged with ease.

A fist slammed into Rin’s face, unskewering her from the blade and away from her opponent. Her body flung past mountains and clouds before crashing deep into the earth.

Rin wanted to scream, but the pain wouldn’t let her. Her wound blazed in silent agony and her whole body radiated pain as the invasive qi ran throughout her body.

But she still lived.

The qi moved, piercing and penetrating her meridian pathways and the pain moved with it. It bit in and out of her like a worm squirming through the soil.

Rin Wi felt herself being torn asunder.

But still, she lived.

How? She thought. How am I still alive?

The qi bit again.

How am I still alive?

It bit harder as if it didn’t like those thoughts, but not enough for her to die.

Then it struck her.

It’s still my qi, isn’t it? She thought. It’s my power.

RIn Wi looked within and called the immortal qi. It refused, tugging away from her like an angry child, but she didn’t give up. She pulled again, demanding this time instead of asking and the qi relented.

It was like a dam had burst deep within her. The immortal reflection ran at her again and speared through her once more, but Rin Wi didn’t stop.

The pain was a distraction, the suffering was a mere illusion. The pain was there of course, but the hurt, the hurt wasn’t present. The qi wasn’t cutting through her meridians, it was reforming them. The qi was pushing her body beyond that of a mortal and into the immortal.

Her clone struck once more, this time with more fury and pain, but Rin Wi smiled through it.

You gotta end this, understand? the honored master had said.

This was not a battle of strength, nor was this a battle of qi or power. It was a battle of dao. It was a battle between who she was and who she strove to be.

“YOU BARELY COOKED IN THE EMPORIUM, AND YET YOU’D CAST ME ASIDE FOR THAT?” The Dao screamed.

“SOME VAGUE HOBBY YOU BARELY UNDERSTAND. YOU’LL THROW AWAY EVERYTHING YOU ARE FOR COOKING?”

There was no sword this time, just words, but they cut Rin just the same.

It was true, she was rejecting everything she was, everything she had been, just for some hobby she had picked up this very month. Centuries of suffering, of conditioning, and pain, all thrown away for what? A distraction?

“You can still become an immortal,” the clone spoke. “Just throw those blades away and be what you truly are. Think of how valuable you could be, how useful. You could prove yourself once and for all, and show yourself as the brightest. You’d be an immortal servant Rin, that’s beyond rare, no master would ever leave you!”

That was true. Immortal servants had to have a Dao, and a dao by nature, guided you above all things, even your master. So the only way one could get an immortal servant was if you somehow managed to ingrain the Dao of servitude upon a person.

It was what the Emporium aimed for, seeking to make the ultimate tools out of beasts and humans.

It was what Rin Wi had been aiming for.

She’d met an immortal servant once, and he had been treated like the most precious jewel in existence. He was wanted, perfect and refined, and his eyes were empty of pain or suffering.

He looked almost dead and Rin Wi was jealous.

Then the blades shuddered. The mortal weapons Rin Wi had almost forgotten about shook with indignation. The cleaver and the knife surged with energy, the Dao within them fighting against the servitude.

But it was no use. Rin was no cook, she was barely a person. Why had she chosen this measly Dao anyway?

“What do you feel up for then?” Medin’s voice echoed in her head.

The woman had asked her for her preference of chores and Rin Wi had chosen to cook. It was such a silly choice. Rin would have been far more effective at other tasks. Cleaning, butchering, security, she was much better suited for everything else aside from cooking.

But Rin Wi had chosen to cook.

Rin Wi Had Chosen.

Oh, RIn Wi thought in realization. It doesn’t matter why.

The choice hadn’t mattered. The dao hadn’t mattered. Nor did the efficiency or any other practical aspect of the choice. What mattered was that she had chosen it. She had picked the chore and she had picked the cleaver.

Her Dao of cooking wasn’t important because she liked it.

It was important because she had chosen it.

Rin Wi screamed and clung her blades, funneling as much of her own will as she could into the utensils. The brittle mortal blades had already been pushed far beyond their capability, but Rin Wi refused to let them break.

“WHY??” The immortal screamed. “WHY DO YOU FIGHT ME??”

Rin Wi pulled at its qi, drawing in her own immortal qi through pain and suffering. It couldn’t hurt her, it was her qi, after all, just a little bit different.

The dao angel shrieked as it lost power.

“WWHHHYY?” The angry thing screamed, stabbing at her in an attempt to kill.

Rin Wi smiled, absorbing every strike of qi selfishly.

“Because,” She said. “I want to.”