Seph told his mother and Uncle Bruce the healer -who wasn’t really his uncle, all the young men of the village called him that out of respect, the children even called him Grandfather Bruce- his entire story from climbing the mountain, to meeting Lilith.

  Most of his journey was news to Lilith, who he had met at the end of the legacy trial.

  Meanwhile, Sun kept making goofy poses each time one of his exploits was mentioned. He was the only one who accompanied Seph throughout the entire journey, except for the illusion tests near the end. Which Seph didn’t mention, anyway.

  The young cultivator did intentionally leave out the detail of how he killed 100 of their neighbors; he couldn’t tell that truth to his mother; he couldn’t tell it to Uncle Bruce either.

  He didn’t know how he would explain 100 men disappearing at the night of his return as a yin cultivator to heal his mother.

  He didn’t even think it was safe for his mother to stay in the village anymore, as the truth was going to be revealed, eventually.

  Everything Seph said sounded unreal to his mother and the healer, but right in front of them was proof.

  The monkey that comprehends human’s speech, a girl that was wearing exotic clothes made of dragon scales, and not to forget her dragon which was sleeping and woke up mid conversation and freaked everyone the fuck out when Seph’s mother screamed once she noticed it move.

  Seph’s mother was a simple woman, and she couldn’t help but look at her son with pity; he lost his life to bring life to her. She felt guilty for how was her boy going to continue studying to become a scholar? How was he going to marry and bring her grandchildren?

  Her son’s fate might have been a complete unknown to her, but it was going to be wilder than anything she could have ever imagined.

  She suddenly asked him, her voice full of worry, “how will we explain to the other villagers how you look now?”

  Seph sighed deeply, he knew what he had to do, it broke his heart, but it was the only way to keep his mother safe, “Mother—I won’t be able to remain in the village anymore, yin cultivators like me can’t co-exist with the mortals. I need to leave and continue my path to become stronger, to protect myself from anyone that could do me harm.” He wanted to tell her she couldn’t continue living in the village as well, but he didn’t know how to say it. He needed a break to gather his thoughts.

  “But--” His mother was going to object, but he cut her by getting up suddenly.

  “I’ll make you all some tea, and then we will continue our conversation right after.”

  Seph didn’t even let anyone respond to what he said and rushed out of the room.

  Seph felt overwhelmed; he hadn’t thought of that, as his sole goal was getting back to his mother with medicine, but he had to leave her. He didn’t want to, but he had to.

  To make matters worse, she had to leave the village after the massacre he perpetrated.

  He wanted to think about how to approach the subject, how to tell her she needed to leave the house she has been living in since she got married.

  Unbeknownst to Seph and everyone in the village, though, a small dark blue slash was forming in the center of the village, and it was growing bigger with each passing minute.

  ***

  Seph went to a small study room they had; it was his father’s, and they never used it since he left.

  The room was full of dust, with a bookcase which carried books that were mostly for entertainment.

  There was also a small desk where his father sat to read. He doesn’t have memories of this room.

  It just seemed like the only place he could get away from everyone to think.

  Seph angrily kicked the dust on the floor out of frustration, as he posted with both hands on the wall while looking down, the tiredness of his journey finally catching up to him.

  He closed his eyes to relax and as he opened them once more; he noticed something on the ground.

  There were marks on the floor that usually point out that there was a door that was opened and closed frequently here, but he couldn’t see any doors. There was only the bookcase.

  Seph thought, could it be?

  He held the bookcase by both hands, and pulled it away from the wall, and true enough behind it there was a dark opening in the wall, with stairs descending underground behind it.

  Everything was so dim that it was a bad idea to go down, so he went to the hallway and took the lantern that was lighting the place.

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  He steeled his resolve and descended the stairs, which went down for about two floors’ worth of their one floor house until he found himself in a room as big as their entire house with wooden beams that supported the roof.

  Everything in the room looked nicer and more expensive than their entire house.

  A disk that was much bigger, that had about a hundred soul stones on top of it.

  Seph couldn’t believe his eyes, as the only people who used such stones were cultivators.

  This couldn’t be a coincidence, but Seph put the stones inside his spatial sack as he explored the rest of the room.

  The far-left corner of the room was a bookcase after bookcase, filled to the brim with books.

  Seph read their titles and found them all pertaining to different subjects about cultivation; they were academic books, not books for entertainment like the small bookcase in the study room.

  In the middle of the room, which was huge, there were eight pots of herbs, all of which were Vitality Grass.

  Seph couldn’t believe his eyes, as he said angrily, “God damn it! Who?... How... I could have avoided…”

  The young cultivator couldn’t finish a sentence and rightly so, if he knew about this secret room under their house, he would have never died and became a yin cultivator.

  He felt like screaming, but he didn’t want to attract attention to this room until he figured out its purpose, and who used it.

  Seph wondered, since this room is a secret room, would it count for his quest?

  He checked his Eye of the Appraiser quest.

  Quest

  Eye of the Appraise level 3

  *Sell Items worth 10000 spirit stones. *Find 10 secret places.

  Progress: 0/10000 Progress: 2/10

  Seph thought, okay this is great, now to find how this huge room came to be under our house, and how long it has been under them?

  Directly to Seph’s left, as he entered the room, there was an odd stone circle on the ground, covered with runes, and surrounded by eight little white stones that had a rune letter on each of them as well.

  Seph wondered what the use of the weird contraption was, and he used his eye of the appraiser on one of the small stones.

  Appraising…

  Name: Qi Condensation Stone

  Type: Condenser

  Quality: Rare

  Description: Good for cultivation caves; while this is not the best Qi condensation stone out there, these stones are consistent and cheap enough for aspiring cultivators to create their own haven of meditation.

  Effect: Gathers Qi energy from the surrounding area.

  At this moment, it dawned on Seph as he said, “Someone was using this big room for cultivation!” The cultivation books were already a clue, as well as the spirit stones, but not the vitality grass, though, since they were widely used. However, a circle of cultivation to condense Qi energy from the surrounding areas was a dead giveaway; he couldn’t doubt the obvious truth anymore.

  They have been in this house for 19 years; they never visited relatives for extended periods of time for someone to create such a sophisticated cultivation room under their house in their absence.

  The only suspect was his mysterious father, who left them when he was young.

  Seph’s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. “Did he leave us to continue his cultivation road? Is he still alive? The cultivation world is very dangerous; while our lives get extended, they could easily get snuffed out if we cross the wrong person or take a challenge we are not ready for. Will he ever return to look for us? And if I ever meet him, will we become friends or enemies? Would I even forgive him for leaving or not? We could become enemies because we are on two opposites paths of cultivation. Do I even forgive him for leaving my mother to tire herself with work to look after her only child?”

  Seph wanted to scream since this put even more pressure on himself than was already there, but he had to bottle his emotions once more.

  He carried each stone off the ground and put them in his spatial sack; he thought they could be sold for some spirit stones to finish his quest.

  This part of the room was completely empty, so Seph went back to the middle of the room and checked the vitality grass with his eye of the Appraiser.

  Appraising…

  Name: Vitality Grass.

  Type: alchemy material

  Quality: Super rare

  Description: Did you find an undiscovered land where no human has ever been before? This is the only way to find vitality grass that is this refined; one alchemist will have a field day working with this herb.

  Location: Found where no human has ever been before.

  Seph couldn’t believe his eyes; his Eye of the Appraiser skill seemed like it was forming a personality; it was becoming mouthy in an entertaining way.

  He didn’t feel that it was unhelpful the way it was now, since there really shouldn’t be a place where you go to find vitality grass that is this old with that logic.

  Seph didn’t waste any time as he picked the vitality grass and stashed them in his spatial sack as well.

  Other than the books which he couldn’t store in his spatial sack, there was nothing other than the desk, so he went back to give it a more thorough look.

  There were a few items that you would see on any desk, a few empty scrolls, an inkwell, a writing feather, the desk had a drawer as well, since the room looked bare, he didn’t expect to find anything inside the drawer, but he opened it anyway.

  Inside there was a single item, an ornate ring, it was made of silver, and didn’t have a gem or anything, and only had the letter S engraved on top of it.

  Seph thought, it can’t be S for Seph, right?

  He turned the ring on his palm but couldn’t find anything special about it; but then he used his appraising skill on it.

  Appraising…

  Name: Spatial Ring.

  Type: Magical Storage.

  Quality: Rare

  Magical ability: after infusing it with your unique energy once. It will be accessible to store various items. Can hold up to 1000 unique items, stacks of 1000 of each item. With limited space, some items count for more if they are spacious. They do, however, provide more space per item than the lower spatial sacks do.

  “Wow! Just the upgrade I was looking for! Screw fighting powers! More space for my loot is what’s important!” Seph was more excited by finding this spatial ring than anything else he found in the room, and rightly so, since the ring was more valuable than all the rest combined.

  He put the ring on his right ring finger and infused it with his energy.

  He looked inside it with bated breath, hoping to find anything left inside like what happened when he found the spatial sack, but he wasn’t so lucky this time.

  He thought, wouldn’t it be great if I could use the Eye of the Appraiser skill to scan the entire room for valuables with no need to check each item individually?

  He felt like he could be missing something here, but he was down there for a long time, and he wanted to leave before someone came looking for him and learned of this room.

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