The world distorted around them as they were getting out until they could see the actual village once more.

  Lilith looked behind her, scared, but the monsters hadn’t followed them yet.

  It seemed there was something stopping them all from pouring out into the outside world. Which begged the question, how did the scars of fate become such a tremendous problem if you could just wait for the monsters outside and take them out one by one?

  Or maybe the scar of fate just needed to stabilize before it allowed all the monsters to get out at the same time.

  Regardless, Seph and Lilith wouldn’t wait around to find out as they held hands and ran towards the slope of the village.

  They said nothing until Seph asked, “Is my mother okay?”

  “She is; I made sure she was the first to leave. She is probably leading the exodus. We can catch up to them, so you can see her again, and make sure she finds a good place in the next village.”

  Seph gave her a bow of gratitude, and they both headed for the villagers.

  As they caught up to them, Seph made his way to the head of the group, while Lilith stayed behind to make sure they didn’t get ambushed by monsters.

  Once he was close enough, and saw his mother walking—surprisingly she walked with more vigor than the healer, who was younger by ten years.

  Seph thought her youthfulness must be because of the potion of longevity, which cured all her illnesses, must have also included reinvigorating her bone structure or something.

  The young man sighed a deep sigh of relief as he slowed his stride; his heart finally relaxed its constant pounding inside his chest. He felt he had finally succeeded in his quest.

  Not only was his mother safe, but she was also headed for a new village, where his crime of massacring his neighbors wouldn’t come back and harm her, since the villagers might assume they died because of the scar of fate.

  ***

  Once everyone got to the new village, it was early morning already, most of the village was awake, and they looked with trepidation to the coming mass of tired people.

  Someone from the village ran back towards their chief to call for him, and the chief came with some of his guards to learn what was the reason for this mass exodus.

  Seph was too obvious as an undead cultivator, but all this time he had his back towards the villagers, so nobody could really get a good look at his face.

  Meanwhile, Lilith wasn’t that much different from humans, an advantage she got from being purebred from two yin cultivators.

  She figured Seph would need to talk with the new village chief, so she got out a hood she was keeping in her spatial ring. It was a magical item that not only covered half your face and the top of your head; it made the visible half unrecognizable. A person could look at Seph wearing it and they wouldn’t even remember any of his features.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  She gave it to Seph, telling him to cover his face, and he did.

  As they got closer, the new village chief shouted for them to halt.

  The old village chief was with them, but he was tired from the long journey.

  Seph as expected and for the benefit of his mother stepped forward and spoke with the chief, “Greetings elder, we come from the village by the mountain, a scar of fate opened up there, and all the villagers had to flee here hoping for refuge.”

  The chief gave them a look over, he noticed how tired and scared they all looked to be, and he mellowed and sighed before saying, “But my son, my village doesn’t have enough lodgings for all these people, and we don’t have enough spare food either, I am afraid they will have to choose a few of them to remain here while the rest continue forward to the next village.”

  Seph nodded in understanding, but then he scanned the village with his eyes, before saying, “I see you have enough spaces for new houses, the villagers that are with me might look tired, but there are many capable men among them, after a good night sleep they can start building houses for their own, and in a couple of weeks everyone will have a house here. I’ll finance the money for the materials, and not only that, I’ll give you enough money to send people over to the next town to buy food for everyone. I know there are a lot of villagers here, but they will only help to grow your village and enrich it.”

  The elder looked at the substantial number of villagers as he cocked an eyebrow before saying, “How can you finance houses and food for all these people at your young age?”

  Seph smiled under his hood before saying, “I am sure you noticed the brave fighting monkey on my shoulder, and the battle attire of my beautiful friend here. We are cultivators; money is no problem for us.” As Seph said that, he got out the five gold nuggets he had left; his heart didn’t even ache for parting with them. He thought it was a small price to pay for the crime of killing his neighbors.

  Murmurs rose all around Seph as people either told each other about the fact that he was a cultivator, or spoke of how much gold he just got out of nowhere at all, they heard tales of spatial sacks and spatial rings of the cultivators of legend, but they thought they were just that, legends.

  The chief looked very surprised by the nuggets of gold, and his guards started automatically salivating once they laid eyes on the gold.

  They were rendered speechless as Lilith said under her breath, “Show off.”

  Seph chuckled quietly before he broke the chief’s silence by saying, “This is also a great opportunity for able workers in your village; you can pay them to help my people build houses. Everyone benefits, and not only that. As soon as I heal from my wounds, I’ll go back to the scar of fate and close it myself; there will be no fear from the monsters to reach all the way over here. They won’t get enough time.”

  The chief coughed before saying, “You build a strong case, young master. I will see to it myself that everyone is taken care of.”

  Seph turned and ushered his mother over before saying, “This is my mother; please take care of her. Also, you can make use of our healer, Uncle Bruce, and our village chief. You can both oversee operations in two different empty sides of the village as the younger generation build the new houses.”

  The healer and the old village chief stepped forward as the healer said, “Don’t worry Seph will take care of your mother, and help where we can, we are so grateful for you spending so much money to take care of everyone not just your family.”

  The chief of Seph’s village responded, “We are his family, doofus! Seph has always been loyal to our village and was very helpful to us over the years as a water carrier. I am so glad I allowed you to have this job, Seph; it made a strong, humble man out of you.”

  Seph felt he wasn’t worthy of the praise, as the massacre he perpetrated still tore at his heartstrings, but he forced himself to say, “Thanks both of you, as you know, our place as cultivators isn’t here, so we have to leave, please take care of my mother and everyone. I’ll come back and check on you after I get help from my fellow cultivators to close the scar of fate.”

  Seph’s mother had one arm around his body the entire time he spoke; she was so proud of her son and the man he became.

  She felt sorry for his fate, especially that she thought he wouldn’t be able to marry now, but she knew he could make the best of his circumstances.

  She pulled him in for a hug and held him tightly; he almost shed a tear at one point. He didn’t even think they would have a moment like this again.

  It was all worth it. Seph thought to himself.

  https://discord.gg/SmC7v3jb