The Slaves' Release

People are different; even among the lowliest of slaves, their expressions vary wildly when they learn they have been granted freedom.

Some are ecstatic, some incredulous, some blank, and others completely at a loss.

At this moment, in an open space near the woods beside the slave market outside Star-Gazing City, as Zhang Tie announced to the forty or fifty slaves he had purchased that they were now free, those slaves looked at him with all manner of gazes, their faces contorted in strange expressions.

Some slaves were so terrified that their faces turned deathly pale and their bodies trembled.

"No, no, I don't want freedom, I don't want to play this game anymore..." one slave shouted, his face filled with dread as he scanned the surrounding woods in a panic. "I know that as soon as I turn and run a certain distance, you young masters will hunt me down like a stray dog. I've experienced this before. Those men with the crossbows must be hiding nearby, right?"

Once this person spoke, the faces of the other slaves also grew panicked. They turned their heads to look around; it seemed they had all heard of such things. In some places, people would release slaves just to conduct a slave-hunting competition, using their lives for amusement. Being outside the city, this seemed like the perfect place for such a game.

Zhang Tie rolled his eyes, and even Da Vinci, standing to the side, looked at Zhang Tie with a helpless expression, his eyes seeming to say—see, this is how these slaves are!

Among the dozens of slaves, some were in a panic, but Zhang Tie noticed that a few appeared relatively composed. One man in particular, who had only one arm, a tall build, and was in his fifties with