"To clarify what I think I understood: if someone successfully pickpocketed or robbed me, and I find out who they are—I can take my stuff back by force if I see them again in a public place, but if they don't have it on them, I shouldn't try to break into their sect. I'm assuming that gets me in trouble with the whole sect. Can I intimidate them until they go back to get my stuff and return it to me...? I can see a lot of ways that's inviting trouble, but if I'm in a pinch."

She tilts her head.

"Also, it might be useful to understand what things do and do not get me in trouble with the whole sect, as opposed to a specific sect member. I expect it's mostly common sense, but if there are any unintuitive edge cases?"

"That sounds about right? Intimidating them might be a spotty strategy but nobody would think you're monstrous for it. Sect trouble- Stealing secret knowledge or rare valuable things is the big one that will definitely get you in trouble with the whole sect. Anything else, frustratingly, it depends on how aggressive the sect in question is. You have to feel out their reputations. Some are bandit gangs with pretensions. Some are trying to be righteous and mostly succeeding. A lot are somewhere in the middle. Hmm..."

"When I was in the qi condensation phase, I couldn't yet take human shape, but I spent a lot of time sneaking into a small local sect- The Clay Pit School- And using their qi gathering formation when they weren't using it, at night. I knew they would chase me off if they saw me, and I knew I was stealing, sort of, but it was an animalistic conception of it. Ah, yes, the secret buried food. I will take it and run away, I'm so clever and smart! Well, they noticed the spirit stones powering the thing were depleting much faster, and set out a trap for me. A core formation elder waiting, hidden, for me to sneak in and cultivate there once again."

"He gave me two options. One, I let him study my cultivation method for a month, show him how I got through the defensive formation, and do menial chores in penance - I was a fox, so it was more about them being awful than actually doing anything of use. Two, he kills me and refines my body into fire and wind aligned cultivation pills. Obviously, I chose the first thing. He swore an oath to the Heavenly Dao about it, and something in me knew that was - sincere. You can feel it. I'm still not sure if it was pity that motivated him, thoughts of karma, or genuine curiosity. Something like five spirit stones... Ultimately a fairly cheap price for a core formation elder. The whole sect was very cold to me, and I don't really blame them. I would not be surprised if, any random sect, even nominally righteous ones, just murdered me on the spot about it instead."

Rebecca is quiet for a few seconds.

"I'm not sure if I should say I'm sorry that happened to you, since it sounds like you might have come out of the deal for the better. But I'm glad the elder didn't kill you." She looks troubled. "If it were a human of equivalent cultivation, would a random sect have killed you? Or was it because..."

"I really don't know. I spent that time terrified and confused but it was also when I first started actually understanding. Why there are laws, and sects, and - rules, money, cities - It's all a blur now."

She nods.

After a pause: "How long ago was that, now? I don't know how—is there an umbrella term for beings like you, through their entire ascending path?—how you age."

She takes deep breaths.

"Diremonsters. Spirit beasts are animals that have some spiritual power, some qi, within them. Diremonsters are spirit beasts who have gained awareness- Most just stick with the law of the jungle. I wasn't happy like that, I wanted safety, and that seems to be the motivation for most diremonsters that enter society. Ascended animals are diremonsters who have learned to take human form.

...And this was somewhere between... Twenty and thirty years ago, probably. It didn't occur to me to track the time like that until about ten years ago. Even after the Clay Pit let me go, I spent most of my time alone. Occasionally spooking some mortals into giving me tribute in exchange for protection, and avoiding other cultivators in case they also wanted to catch me. A few did come nosing around now and again. I'd hear them talking about how spirit fox fur is very valuable and either kill them preemptively or run for weeks."

So Wen is chronologically almost as old as her, or older. Rebecca was ready for that, but it still feels strange. And for the rest of it, she doesn't need Backchannel to interpret for this one.

"Those who hunt other thinking beings as resources..." She shakes her head. "I hesitate to declare people intrinsically deserving of death, but certainly some are more deserving than others. One does what one must to survive. You're a good sort."

(It's not as if there's anyone around to judge the irony.)

"Oh, am I? I suppose. Charitably, they may have thought I wasn't sapient. Though it sounds a little bit like you've faced the realities of life too, where you come from. If nothing else, being a protector will inevitably get... Messy."

"If you could transform into human shape—or did they only hear rumors and not realize—that would make it better, I suppose. Back where I came from, we had slavers, organ harvesters and worse. It's one thing to kill and harm for survival or out of ignorance, another to do it out of knowing greed or perverse pleasure. I spent twenty years learning and teaching to navigate the messiness of my home. Now I'm here, I suppose I'll need to relearn a lot."

"I wouldn't know. It seems to me that people are people wherever you are. I've crossed mountains, jungles, snowy places, swamps and lakes, and the general shape of things tends to stay the same?"

"People are people, but their expression is shaped by the structure of society and opportunities around them. Those of true evil and true good do exist, but for most people who end up as bandits, thieves, corrupt officials, or—demonic cultivators—or heroes or righteous elders or good mayors, it's less their inborn character and more their circumstances that make them so, is it not? One born into a bandit camp is more likely to become a bandit. The difference between empires with corrupt and honest governments isn't that the children in one empire are born more honest than in another, but because of the design of checks and balances in the administration, because of the Emperor's commitment to rooting out corruption, or simply because some cultures teach and uphold virtues better than others.

"That kind of perspective isn't as relevant when you're on the ground walking your own path, compared to being an governer commanding from up high, but—I think it still is relevant.

"When I defeated those demonic cultivators yesterday, I didn't know if I should kill or spare them. Because I didn't know what demonic cultivation is, but also: Did they become demonic cultivators because it was their way to survive, or because they relished in power and cruelty? Is it possible for demonic cultivators to reform, and are there institutions to help them do that? How likely was it that they'd go on to hurt more people if I let them live? One of the Blood Tree Sect cultivators turned herself in this morning, having dissipated her cultivation and swearing to become a Buddhist monk. I didn't know those things were possible. If I had, maybe I would have offered it to the others I defeated—I have the ability to verify such oaths, to an extent.

"The people who hunt diremonsters: Do they know their prey is sapient, or do they simply not care? Do 'righteous' sects condone their behavior? Does imperial law permit it? Do the imperial legislators know and not care, or are the cultivators too powerful to be bound by the law? Are there factions for and against the hunting of diremonsters? That tells me, if I see some in the woods, whether I should be tying up and lecturing fools, slaying them where they stand, or capturing them to deliver to someone. Or, if I'm more serious about solving the problem, if I should be spreading knowledge in the world, playing politics to get the laws changed, or attempting to empower the law to uphold its code."

"I don't really know about this... Organization stuff. It all goes over my head. Maybe 'cause I haven't got chances to learn, or been very interested in it. Mostly I'm interested in what society can do for me and how to stay safe... Well, in Three Jades it would be 'royal' not 'imperial'. I think the nearest 'empire' is across the lake. And in Three Jades it's more that the sect elders are honored advisors to the king, who is himself a former Three Jades Sect member, so. You can imagine that the laws favor the Three Jades Sect. From what I've heard, officially the killing of diremonsters is accepted under the same conditions as the killing of another cultivator- If they attack you or mortals, it's acceptable. But also, one can claim that the diremonster they were hunting was eating people more easily than that the random person they murdered was a demonic cultivator, or that she was actually just a dumb spirit beast.

I've actually been rescued by a Nascent Soul elder from Three Jades in the past, enforcing the law against murder against some independents. But only because I managed to evade and hold my own for the first thirty seconds until there was too much noise to ignore... But in the state of Qing, diremonsters are expressly considered menaces and threats, with a public bounty on them like any other spirit beast. Fully ascended animals are reluctantly tolerated. So, in Three Jades probably lecturing some idiots, in Qing... There's nobody to deliver them to who'd consider it a problem. It's hard to imprison cultivators. Also... Most diremonsters wouldn't consider it a problem to be hunted?"

She nods through the explanation on law.

"That's good, for the Three Jades. I suppose I'm used to thinking this way because I had a leadership position at home, but also because when I first started...

"I was part of the first generation to have powers. We had no existing place in society. Everything we did was setting precedent. All the world's eyes were one us, and every person I saved or accidentally hurt, every mistake I made, it was proving one faction right or another wrong, changing minds and... it was like every move slightly tilted the whole future in a different direction. Playing politics was the only way to secure our place.

"Here we're concerned on the lower level more, as you said. But part it's still things I need to learn. Who not to offend and how. When to escalate and not. The hierarchy of power.

"I admit I'm confused why diremonsters don't consider it a problem to be hunted, or—is it just that they think it normal, or do they benefit from it indirectly somehow...?"

"...Appearances. So tedious. Reputation, crafts, politics. Don't you want to just lash out and eat something, not caring about any of that, sometimes? ...It's normal and most wouldn't want it any other way. Also, if you win you can eat what was hunting you. If they want to go join human society, they can. Usually."

She snorts.

"It is tedious, isn't it? It was novel for a while, when I was younger. But these days in the middle of meetings I just want to jump out the window and go for a few rounds with Leviathan. That's a city-destroying giant water lizard that no one's ever managed to defeat, though we've tried very hard."

What she's not saying is that the fighting eventually wore on her as well, perhaps even faster than the politicking. And some days all left that she wanted was to shut the door, turn off the lights, lie down in her overpriced ergonomic chair and... stop.

"I suppose if the diremonsters are fine with it, who am I to say otherwise? I can certainly see the appeal of simplicity."

"It's not quite always so simple, but yes." 

She sighs.

"...Some take comfort in the cycle of reincarnation, but I can't really imagine that some future person with none of my memories is me."

"I'm of a similar opinion," says Rebecca.

After a pause:

"...At home people theorized about reincarnation, but common belief now is that we simply cease to exist after our body passes. Is the cycle something observable here? How does it work?"

"I don't really know for sure but a lot of people are quite confident, and you hear about reincarnated immortals- Tribulation Immortals, not Celestial Immortals- Recovering their memories over time, and raids on Hell to recover great sages, and the Great Solar Alliance used augury and travelled millions of li, to find the reincarnation of their leader."

"That's interesting. 'Hell' is... the word is used to refer to many things, in my home; what does it mean here? By your understanding, what determines the path one leads after death?"

"Karmic sin and karmic merit. Notoriously difficult to get a solid read on without specific arts for it, usually ones designed to interact with souls. Ghost cultivators are scary. Murder, torture, rape, grave desecration, and so on are sins. Charity, kindness, healing, guiding spirits onward, and punishing evildoers are merits. I was told once that I have slight karmic merit. Probably mostly from fighting demonic cultivators."

"Where do people commonly believe they pass into, for different levels of karmic sin and merit, and what happens there? I've heard different accounts of the cycle of reincarnation."

"There are dozens of Hells, each different from the last- You suffer there, until your sin is expunged, then you're reincarnated. Those with karmic merit... I don't know. It doesn't come up as much. Maybe they go somewhere for a while, maybe they just reincarnate."

"I see."

Better than some interpretations of the Christian Hell. And it puts the comment about letting the counts of Hell sort them out in context.

"Back to what you said about stealing secret knowledge from sects: does it still count as stealing if I learn something by observing a sect member execute a technique in a public, or if I buy the knowledge from someone else who stole it, either knowingly or unknowingly?"