Yawu's Escape

Being an independent city-state whose primary source of income was commerce, Cang'An was a melting pot of peoples of various cultures. As it was situated south to the kingdom of Yong, north-east to the kingdom of Du, east of the wildlands and west of Eastern Lanxing, people of all tribes and class visited and lived within its tall city walls.

The people of Yong had a long history of constant back-and-forth fighting with the western barbarian tribes such as the Linhu tribe and the Beidi Sanhe tribe as a consequence of their close borders. Throughout Yong's existence, there had been many times when they subjugated the tribal chieftains, assimilating them as vassals and ushering in times of brief but much needed peace. Other times, however, it was the tribal chieftains who had pushed back against Yong and launched their own offensives. In either scenario, the ownership of many of the cities closest to the border had switched hands countless times and as a result, the culture of both barbarian and Yong had interchanged and mixed together, while still managing to retain their distinct identities.

The barbarians were talented in shamanism and beast mastery, often employing the powers of both the living and the dead to launch spiritual attacks against their foes, while their tamed beasts wrought havoc amongst enemy lines. As a result, Yong's armies which were originally composed of infantry were modified and adapted to combat this, with Yong's royal family ordering the construction and engineering of colossal siege weapons to neutralise the barbarian beast hordes before they could close the distance and cause any damage.

And interestingly enough, Yong began to assimilate some of the barbarian practices. Shamanism became popular amongst many of Yong's cultivators due to its versatile applications. Not only did shamanism allow a cultivator to harness spirits of life, death and nature, it allowed cultivators of singular innate elemental qi to briefly assume the powers of other elements as well, improving their ability to adapt to the situation.

An antagonistic response to the barbarian shamans was the sudden rise of exorcism. As an easily accessible skill for any cultivator that was not only relatively cheap to dabble in but also highly cost-effective, it became even more widespread than shamanism. Using the power of purchased or self-drawn talismans, the cultivator could, similarly to alchemical pills, strengthen themselves through enhancements to various properties such as qi density, qi replenishment rate, muscle strength and so on. Though the effects of a low grade pill were significantly higher than that of a low grade talisman, talismans generally had no negative side affect aside from their material costs, whereas a pill would induce pill poisoning depending on the skill of the alchemist who produced it.

Compared to pills, talismans were also broader in scope. While pills could effectively only be applied to oneself or an ally, talismans could also be activated on an adversary. Offensive talismans, such as a flameburst talisman, would ignite the recipient, covering them in sticky fire that could not be put out by any ordinary means. Other talismans that were more supplementary, like the confusion talisman, could apply mental confusion to the target, causing them to mistake friend for foe, to activate the wrong mystic arts and so on, so forth.

This difference mainly came from the method of application of the two things. Pills had to be ingested through the mouth, while talismans merely had to make contact with the body and be remotely activated with qi. Clearly, the act of throwing a talisman was more convenient compared to holding the opponent down, inserting the pill and making sure they swallowed it cleanly. With that much control over the enemy, one would be better off directly running them through with a blade instead.

There was another category of talismans that specialised in dealing with spirits, souls and entities of the yin polarity known as exorcist talismans. Unlike regular talismans, each exorcist talisman had a much higher required level of both skill and knowledge to draw correctly. Unlike a flameburst talisman, which dealt its damage in an indiscriminate manner, each exorcist talisman had to be tailored towards a specific target and so required intimate knowledge of the target's biology… or lack thereof.

To put into perspective the level of complexity involved in exorcism and its various talismans, take zombies for example. While the term 'zombie' was fairly well-known, even amongst the mortal populace, they were actually a rather diverse group of yin entities. The common foot soldier equivalent of a zombie, the hairy hopping zombie, was rather uninteresting. Designing a 'one size fits all' talisman to deal with them was no problem. 

But as the ranks progressed, zombies became progressively rarer and weirder and as a result, each type of zombie would require a new type of specialised talisman. As the corresponding zombie became stronger, the price of said talisman would increase too, since the materials required would inevitably become harder to obtain and more valuable as a result. And to produce a talisman to target a zombie king, well, the majority of talisman makers would not even be able to afford to draw one even after expending their entire life savings.

Each zombie king was a sentient monster of unfathomable power, all unique and different to other zombie kings in many ways. Similarly to their diversity, their methods of forming were diverse as well, with some forming naturally through the concentration of yin and death energy amongst zombie hordes, while others formed artificially at the hands of a cultivator turning themselves or someone else into one.

Returning to the topic. Due to their frequent interactions with the barbarian tribes, be that during war or peace time, culture, wealth and even people had been exchanged between both sides. The constant seizure of lands and cities saw the mingling of both ethnic groups, with the unwanted product being mixed-blooded hybrids. Despite the close similarity between Yong and the barbarian tribes that became more and more alike as the two continued to interact, mixed-bloods were often shunned and outcast. 

With each skirmish between the two sides, it was the allegiance of the mixed-bloods that was called into question. One side of the family practised the scholarly arts and swordsmanship, while the other drew runes in the mud and fought with wooden clubs and rattan shields. One side lived in siheyuan villas, while the other rolled about in dirt and excrement, sharing their living quarters with animals.

While this was an inaccurate generalisation of the barbarian lifestyle, it aptly pictured the sentiment of the people of Yong towards the barbarians.

And it was something that Yawu felt keenly. Throughout her life, she had been the recipient of discrimination and hatred, not only from the neighbours, but from her own family as well. She was an unwanted child, born from her mother's unfortunate encounter with a barbarian soldier over a decade ago. The first few years as a baby and toddler, it had been hard to notice, but as she grew, her alien features began to emerge and the news got around quickly.

Her mother was naturally ashamed to have spawned a half-breed barbarian child, while her father, not the soldier, but the one that owned the roof over her head, was equally as unwelcoming. Her half siblings treated her worse than dirt, openly bullying her and stealing what meagre possessions she had managed to scrounge for herself, while her parents treated her worse than their slaves, often making her do the dirtiest work.

But unlike many others who were in similar situations to her, she did not feel remorse, anger or self-pity. In fact, when she distanced herself and looked at things from a wider angle, she felt lucky that her parents hadn't just directly left her on a hill to die or sold her off as a slave instead.

Certainly, she didn't like her parents, but she understood that they had shown her the tiniest bit of mercy and that she did not hate them either. But regardless of her ambivalent feelings towards this life, she knew that at the first chance that arrived, she would leave and never look back.

Her current name, Yawu, was what she had renamed herself, her original Yong-style name of You Yawu remoulded into one that resembled the names of the barbarians who her family hated so much.

Her opportunity came one day after a large family banquet, after everyone aside from her had drunk themselves into a stupor, incapable of telling left from right.

Taking advantage of their weakness, she carried only the clothes on her back, a wooden training sword which she had stolen from her half brother and a small knapsack containing some bread and fruits. She left at dawn, travelling as an urchin in search of a better life. During the day, she foraged as she travelled while at night, she cuddled up beneath whatever she could find. At best, it was the unattended stable of a nearby inn, at worst, it was beneath the starry sky.

And after what seemed like a lifetime of travelling, barely managing to survive day to day with the little amount of food she could manage to gather, she was greeted with the sight of a widening road and bustling activity. Excitedly, she followed it, the towering walls of Cang'An city quickly filling her vision.

The smells, the sounds, the view. Everything was so different to Yong! Her world which was originally gloomy and grey became filled with colour and activity. In a practised manner, she ignored the curious, the disdainful and the mocking looks directed at her as she strolled meekly up to the nearest member of the city guard.

His interest raised, the city guardsman raised an eyebrow, following his colleague's gesture. Looking at her slanted eyes, her lush eyelashes and her ovular face, despite all of the dirt and grime that masked her other features, the guardsman knew at a glance that this was either a barbarian or a hybrid.

But unlike Yawu's family, who hated not only her and her blood, or the people of Yong, who desired nothing more than to raze the wilderness and the barbarians that resided within it, the people of Cang'An were tolerant of strangers. Being the hodgepodge of cultures and races that it was, to them, Yawu was just another urchin girl making a tough living. Her poverty came first, while her heritage came second.

This was in stark contrast to Yong, where her heritage came first and everything else was overshadowed by the tags of 'bastard child', 'financial burden', 'disgrace to the family name' and so on. Yawu couldn't help but smile.

"Another beggar, eh? The east entrance is only open to registered citizens at the moment. I'm afraid you'll have to make your way over to the west entrance. Without citizenship, your kind of people are only allowed in the west quadrant, I'm afraid." The guard said in a neutral tone.

Despite his unkind words, Yawu didn't mind it one bit. Strangely, being discriminated against and mistreated due to her poverty felt new and refreshing compared to what she was used to before. Going off from that, it was likely that the derisive looks she'd received on her way over had been due to her admittedly unclean and dirty body, a result of living under the skies for far too long.

"Thank you for the help." She replied with a slight croak. Due to the lack of speaking over the duration of her journey, her throat had gotten rusty- a rather natural development.

The guard's gaze softened. It was unknown what he was thinking, but Yawu assumed that he was feeling pity or some other similar emotion. Quickly, her guess was proven right when he procured a small loaf of oily bread from his satchel, motioning for her to take it.

"Actually, as someone who came from a poor family, I too have been acquainted with hunger before. Take it, before I change my mind." He said. As Yawu received it reverently and with a hint of surprise, he glanced up at the queue of visitors that was beginning to build up ahead. "The trip to the west entrance from here is quite long. If you're willing to wait for me to finish my shift, I can help bring you in from here if you'd like."

Yawu looked up in disbelief. All she had done was move out of Yong and all of a sudden, her treatment at the hands of others had taken a complete reversal. She sat to the side, uncaring of manners or appearance, gnawing and tearing at the bread like a rabid dog, prompting a few of the guards and visitors to chuckle in response.

But she didn't care. With her first proper meal in a long time, Yawu felt that life had begun to take a brighter turn. Hopefully, for good.