A Dragon's Homecoming

"No, I don't think sex, drugs, or alcohol are unique to me. Hell, I don't think that's unique to anyone, really. If you want to question why I act like it's so taboo, then look no further than my father. He spent all of his time telling me how I had to be a suitable heir, how I had to live up to my family name. Tsu Clan this, legendary that. I found honor in my heritage but he robbed me of feeling pleasure in life in pursuit of nothing but rigorous training until I was exhausted. Exclusive focus on cultivation is what he was all about. Hell at the cost of a loving romance with a fellow cultivator I met, he forced me to cut all contact with her because he thought she'd get in the way of my training."

Zhang leaned back into the chair as he tilted his head. Calypso was a feisty one. Hell, he found himself reminiscing on his sworn brother, Vanyel. She wasted no time in laying into him on his views, albeit she didn't quite understand the context of his history enough to know why he viewed things in such a way that felt so against her views of the wulin and their nature. He hadn't actually learned to enjoy life until he went to Japan. He was free, he was alive.

He could drink anything he wanted. He could smoke. He could sleep with any woman - occasionally a male if he got curious - and not care about the consequences. If anything, Zhang now matched the outlaw nature she spoke so fervently of.

"Until I left his household, I didn't know what it meant to live like an outlaw. It was purely cultivation at all times. I went to Japan thinking all of my actions were morally wrong because of him but... you know what? I got to live life. I fought, I got into trouble, I had lots of sex, and I made many memories with my fellow men in the yakuza world. If that's what it means to be alive, then dammit, I lived one hell of a life."

He exhaled as he gazed at her with genuine emotion in expression.

"And for the record, Zhang Shen is a proud degenerate. Without restraint. That said, I do need help, Calypso. I want to live in this world the way other cultivators do. I want to savor the joys and passions of life while I cultivate and rise through otherworldly realms of strength I came here to see my sister but I'd be a liar to say I don't want to prove my father wrong. I want to show him that the so-called "failure" is no failure at all."