~~ The Departure
He came out of the cave.
The four women, behind him, followed. Their robes, restored, their bodies composed, their faces — the vacant, devoted, broken faces of women whose minds had been rewritten — were there. They walked. Like loyal pets. Like devoted disciples. Like women who had seen the future and had embraced it.
The crowd, the soldiers, the cultivators who had been waiting outside, looked. The Emperor, walking out of the cave, his hands behind his back, his expression calm, was there. The four women, behind him, were there.
The Reincarnation Pool — the entire pool, the water, the ancient liquid, the entire inheritance of the Jade Sect's Fairy — was gone. Absorbed. Stored in his dimensional pocket. The entire pool. Every drop.
The soldiers, the cultivators, the commanders, saw. The empty cavern, the dry basin, the bare stone where the legendary pool had been — all of it, visible. The pool was gone. Taken. By the Emperor.
