It was the night of the new year. The first new moon of the lunar calendar hung in the sky with a bright silver gleam. Silver light illuminated the dark forest. The slaves hid in their mud huts, breaking their teeth as they gnawed on their millet rocks to sate their hunger. Meanwhile, guards and civil servants sat at tables celebrating by drinking and feasting. At the edge of a bench, a civil servant sat isolated from the others. He stared at a mud hut with a blank expression on his face.

‘I wonder how they’re faring.’

Below ground, in a small dark tunnel, Yan Chen was crawling to freedom at a snail’s pace, with Shanyang following him.

Yan Chen had been preparing to escape since he first became a slave. The discovery of the blue crystals and their power strengthened his desire to explore the world. He became even more determined to escape.

He started digging the tunnel during his second year of slavery by only using his bare hands. But he struggled to make any progress because of how arduous it was to dig through the dense and sticky soil.

The early stages of digging the tunnel had been a nightmare for Yan Chen. His hands and knuckles constantly cracked and bled with painful blisters forming all the time. Luckily for him, none of the guards became suspicious of how he ended up in that terrible state. They all believed Yan Chen was like other slaves that had given up on life and was working himself to death. 

The worst part was when he succumbed to an illness. For two whole months, he lost most of his strength. His weakened body prevented him from moving forward with his escape plans. If that suffering was not bad enough for Yan Chen, the guards whipped him every day he missed his daily quota. But they made sure to not leave any lasting injuries. That was because causing the death of a slave would cause a salary reduction.

Yan Chen gave up on the idea of escaping by digging a tunnel, deciding to escape instead by some other means. But then, he got his hands on a pickaxe. It happened during the same year he unearthed the blue crystals. Yan Chen had been experiencing the coldest winter of his life. Slaves died of hypothermia while working in and outside the mine. The casualties even included some of the guards and civil servants. Chaos erupted within the mining site as dozens died. Many others received injuries from staying outside too long. 

Yan Chen had thought of escaping while the guards were panicking. But he knew there was no chance he could escape with his current strength. So, he used the chaos to his advantage. With everyone afraid to go outside, Yan Chen went into the mine to “borrow” a pickaxe from one of the dead slaves. Everyone else unaware of his theft. Except for maybe Lao Shu.

After obtaining a pickaxe and gaining power from the crystals, Yan Chen’s tunnel-digging speed increased. Though he experienced a few minor problems. Parts of the tunnel collapsed because of his lack of experience. But, he continued to learn from his mistakes and improved over the years. Almost four years later, Yan Chen’s efforts paid off. He had constructed a stable tunnel that could fit him and Shanyang.

While Yan Chen reminisced about all the events that led up to his escape, an hour had already passed.

‘At our current pace, we should be able to reach the end of the tunnel in another half hour. Then we’ll have to spend around three days to exit the forest.’

Yan Chen clenched his fists and continued dragging his body over the cold soil, contemplating his two other backup plans in case the guards discovered he was missing.

Meanwhile, Shanyang continued moving behind Yan Chen. He didn’t know why they were playing inside a tunnel. But the goat followed Yan Chen because he would go wherever his friend went. He just hoped that there would be some food at the end of the tunnel. Shanyang’s eyes glazed over and drool dribbled out of his mouth as he thought about tasty fresh grass. Hay was nice and all, but fresh grass, oh, fresh grass was great. The memory of eating fresh grass was unforgettable. Juice literally burst out of the vibrant green blades of grass and the flavor was just amazing. Dry and bland old hay could not compare to the delicacy at all.

If he could, Shanyang would feast on fresh grass every day. But then, he thought that he might get bored from eating grass, so it would be nice to eat some yams and grains too. Shanyang licked his lips before moving faster to keep up with Yan Chen.

Three kilometers away from the iron mine, the layer of snow and soil broke away as a rusty pickaxe head emerged from the ground, revealing a hole. Soon after, Yan Chen’s head popped out. He looked around, searching for any potential dangers. After determining that the coast was clear, Yan Chen pulled himself out of the hole. Meanwhile, Shanyang clambered out with some help. He used the light of the new moon to locate a snow-covered road thirty meters away. A closer inspection revealed three sets of human footprints.

Yan Chen became wary of the potential threat. He decided that they would need to travel at least three hundred meters away from the road as a safety measure.

“Let’s go, Shanyang, we should be able to make it out of this damn forest in a few days if we’re lucky.”

At midnight of the lunar new year, a man and his four-legged companion started their journey through the cold and silent forest.

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“Just my damned luck.” Yan Chen cursed as he raced up a hill with Shanyang from three burly men slinging rocks at the pair.

‘How do they keep on finding us?’

The three men had been chasing Yan Chen and Shanyang for a whole day, hindering their journey out of the forest.

“Hey boy, we’ll give you a painless death if you give us that goat and everything you have.” One man shouted to Yan Chen while staring at Shanyang. He licked his lips with hunger as he thought about being able to eat fresh meat for the first time in years.

“No, I want to play with the boy’s body and then kill him.” The youngest-looking member of the group was licking his lips because of a different hunger. Although Yan Chen was covered in dirt, he looked attractive to someone who had not tasted women in months. He fantasized about seeing Yan Chen under his body, writhing in pain.

The other men looked at their youngest comrade with weird looks on their faces. They looked at each other, silently agreeing to keep their distance from him after discovering his... interesting preferences.

Yan Chen continued running up the hill as rocks whistled past his head. When he saw that they were nearly at the peak of the hill, he channeled the power in his body and formed a slab of ice. He grabbed Shanyang and jumped onto it, sliding down the hill. The three bandits attempted to hit the escaping pair with rocks. But Yan Chen and Shanyang had already disappeared from their line of sight.

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A few hundred meters away from the hill, behind a tree, sat Yan Chen. He leaned against the tree trunk, panting, weakened from the usage of his power. Shanyang licked his friend’s face, worried about his condition. He bit through the scaly outer bark of the tree and spat out some of the inner bark for Yan Chen to eat. 

Yan Chen rubbed the goat’s head and chewed on the nutritious bark, recovering some of his energy. He had determined that the three bandits were threats that would have to be eliminated. He was not confident that he and Shanyang could safely leave the forest if the bandits continued to pursue the pair. 

‘We’re going to have to attack at night.’ Yan Chen’s gaze sharpened as he planned for the bandits’ deaths. Meanwhile, Shanyang tore away at the tree bark, ecstatic that there were so many delicious treats in the forest.