Chapter 480: (Interlude) Returning Home

Sam was returning home—to the farm where it had all begun a year ago. He had wandered off from home and encountered a monster that had hunted him down. As he cowered under a rock, facing death, Stella saved his life at the last possible moment. That night, his life was put on a new path.

One where he would overcome his weakness that had led him to need saving.

He had been given a delusional goal: to climb Red Vine Peak, and in return, he would be taught the secrets of cultivation. A senseless goal for a mortal farmer's boy.

But he was told by Stella that he had potential. Day and night, he trained to realize that potential. His family thought he was crazy as he showed no results. They started to demand that he return to working on the farm, but he persevered and was rewarded when Stella revisited him, gifting him a truffle that unlocked the potential he had been promised.

It had been months since then.

The muddy country road squelched underfoot as he passed through vast swathes of fields. Farmers he had known since childhood were slaving away, salvaging what they could from their harvest now that the storm had gone and the endless blue sky loomed overhead.

Despite the lovely weather, nervousness festered in the pit of his stomach. In his hand, he was clutching a parchment that had been delivered to his home atop White Stone Peak by an old neighbor who had traveled to Ashfallen City to sell some produce. Confused, he had opened it then and there.

It had been written by his father with a single request: to return home urgently.

The reason wasn't given, and he wondered if his crafty dad had done that on purpose to ensure he would take the trip.

"Sam!" A voice shouted his name in the distance.

Looking away from the many farmers hard at work, he saw one of his little sisters dashing down the muddy path toward him. "Suki!" he called out with a grin. Naturally, he bent down and spread out his arms, accepting the speedy little demon in a hug.

"I missed you," Suki said, burying her face in his chest.

"Yeah?" Sam said, patting her head. "How's Mom and Dad? Do you know why I was called back?"

Suki looked up at him. "To see me, obviously," she smiled triumphantly.

"Hilarious, Suki, but I'm serious," Sam said, putting her down. "Where is Dad?"

"At home waiting for you. It's been days since we sent that letter." Suki grabbed his finger and began dragging him toward their house just over the hill. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Okay, okay. I'm coming," Sam laughed. "Geez, slow down, will you? When did you get so fast?"

Getting dragged over the hill by Suki, he was confronted with the horizon before him, dominated by the towering grey wall that was supposed to protect the farms from random monsters roaming the wilderness. Yet, ever since that incident, the impassable wall no longer felt so secure. At the base of the hill was a gathering of houses with trails of lazy smoke rising from their chimneys, surrounded by fields and the great forest.

"Look who I found!" Suki shouted, and his family looked up from their work to see him. Excitement adorned their faces as the younger members of the family rushed up to meet him while his parents awaited him near their house.

Barry, his father, met his gaze with a serious expression Sam had never seen before. His eyes seemed darkened from exhaustion, and even his usually bright-faced mother seemed tired.

It's serious, then, Sam concluded.

"Brother, what happened to you?" Suki asked as she poked him. The nerves faded away as he looked down at his demon of a little sister.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, chuckling to himself. "I just went away for a few months. Why are you squinting at me like that—hey, stop poking me."

"Mhm," Suki crossed her arms and looked him up and down. "You got a lot taller, brother."

"Well, yeah... I'm still growing. I'd hope I get taller," Sam shrugged.

Suki pulled back the sleeve of his Ashfallen Sect-issued cloak. "You also got more muscles."

He grinned. "Of course. I've been training a lot."

Suki shook her head. "Dad trains a lot, and he never changes this much. What happened to you brother?"

"I just... cultivated?" Sam said as he looked down at his muscular arm. He had been so focused on his goal and rate of progression that he had never really stopped to think about his changes. Suki was right—he had grown a head taller in a few short months, and his muscles outshone any mortal he had seen working the fields. Even the miners didn't come to his level. Yet, to him, his bodily changes were nothing compared to his soul.

If Suki was impressed by this, wait until she saw him shift the earth with his will.

Sam said hello to his other siblings and extended family members before making his way to his parents' hut.

"I'm home," Sam said, pausing before his father. They were almost the same height now. His father silently nodded before gesturing for him to follow him inside.

The warm welcome washed away and was replaced with an unspoken tension that hung in the air. Even Sam's younger siblings gathered behind him quieted. He followed his father inside with concern. Just what had happened while he was gone? He glanced around. The home he had grown up in felt oddly empty. Things were packed up into crates that lined the walls. Only the table he had dined from every evening remained as the centerpiece of the room.

"Have a seat, Sam," Barry said as he took a seat for himself.

"What's this about, Dad?" Sam asked as he also took a seat.

"I'll be blunt. Uncle Ron was out checking the fields after the storm cleared and didn't return. I joined a search party, and we found... part of him."

Sam felt his chest tightening. Uncle Ron had been one of his favorite people in the whole family. "Which part?" he asked hesitantly, unsure if he wanted the answer. He knew the Ashfallen Sect had outstanding healing capabilities. If enough of Uncle Ron remained, maybe he could be saved...

"Only his bloodied leg in a ditch and the shovel he had taken. We assume he was attacked by a monster. Delving deeper, that's when we found not just one but multiple breaches in the wall. The monsters... they are here already," Barry said, gesturing around the room. "That's why everything is packed. I called you back here to help with the evacuation."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"The monsters are here already?" Sam gulped. "But why? The beast tide shouldn't have reached here yet."

Barry shook his head. "You're right, it hasn't. If it had, we would all be dead already. During the last beast tide I fled as a child, my parents called it the murders before the flood. The monsters that had kept their distance from humans and stayed out in the wilderness feel the beast tide closing in and begin lashing out at humans. Compared to the horrors of the beast tide, we are dealing with a handful of monsters at most that we might even be able to deal with as mortals when grouped up. I'm talking about mutated rabbits or small demonic insects." Barry leaned over the table. "But with the fields needing to be tended to, we have no choice but to split up, sealing our fate and putting everyone's lives at risk."

He paused, his gaze hardened even more as he glanced to the side. "Your mother also almost died."

Sam's eyes widened, and he looked at his mother in shock, who was standing beside the doorway. "Mom? Are you alright? How did you survive?"

"I ran to one of those demonic trees that are dotting the forest. It protected me," his mother said quietly, looking at the floor with trembling eyes. "It was terrifying, Sam. Some kind of mutated wolf. I only survived because I was a dozen meters from the demonic tree, and it somehow scared off the monster by angrily rustling its leaves. I—I..." the words got stuck in her throat.

Barry rose from his chair and went to confront his wife.

"I thought I was going to die," she sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "I thought I'd never get to see you again, Sam. I'd just be another mortal dead to monsters that's forgotten about..."

"No, Mom," Sam got up and embraced his mother in a tight hug. "That's not how cultivators think at all. At least, I don't. There's been a big movement. More and more mortals are getting the opportunity to become cultivators now—basically anyone can."

"Why did you leave us then, Sam?"

"I..." Sam started but fell silent. There were an uncountable number of reasons, but in the end, they were all selfish. He couldn't progress out here at the speed he wanted. He hadn't liked the way his family didn't support his vision, and he'd felt like they were holding him back. But now that he held his sobbing mother in his embrace, knowing she could have died... those reasons didn't feel important. He hugged her tighter. "I'm sorry, Mom. I should have come back sooner. I wanted to get stronger, so I went to live on the mountain with the other cultivators. But I'm here now, okay? Can you forgive me?"

His mother didn't reply, but she nodded against his chest.

Sam's jaw tightened in anger. How dare those monsters reduce his family to this. Also, where was the Ashfallen Sect?

"Did you ask for help from the Ashfallen Sect?" he asked his father.

Barry nodded. "Of course. The entire village submitted formal requests for assistance, but the response was delayed due to the storm. That's when I sent the letter asking you to return, as I knew what was coming. A cultivator from the Redclaw family came and hunted a few monsters when the storm cleared but left soon after, saying it was safe. It was after that Uncle Ron died, and we found the holes, and the situation escalated faster than I thought it would."

Sam had dealt with the Redclaw family before. While they were decent toward mortals for a noble family, he imagined the cultivator sent out here on pest control duty for some farmers had done the bare minimum before returning to the mountain and their cultivation. Hunting down every small demonic monster was a laborious task that even he wouldn't want to do.

"I spent twenty years slaving away to raise enough funds to get my family out of here when the beast tide arrives, just to be told that service is no longer available and the Ashfallen Sect plans to remain," Barry hissed under his breath, his jaw clenched with rage. "Now this happens. Uncle Ron is dead, and your mother almost left us. What are they doing?"

Sam understood his father's frustration but also felt compelled to tell him all the good the Ashfallen Sect was doing. But now didn't seem like a good time, and it would be better if he saw it firsthand.

"Let me escort you all safely to Ashfallen City. It's under the Ashfallen Sect's direct protection; they even have a guardian spirit tree that watches over the city, and it's overflowing with cultivators. Okay? You will all be safe there."

His father clamped a hand on his shoulder and stared right into his eyes. His tired expression relaxed a little. "You're a good son, Sam. Thank you for coming back for us. A little peace and safety sounds wonderful right now."

"No," Sam shook his head. "I should have returned sooner. I knew it likely wasn't safe out here, but I was too focused on myself. Come on, I'll lead the way—"

He was interrupted by a sudden scream outside the hut. He exchanged a quick look with his father before dashing outside. The curtain that served as the door wafted over his body, and he was greeted with a chaotic scene. His family was running back and screaming. One of his uncles was pinned to the ground by a large black-furred wolf with red eyes. He had the metal handle of a shovel wedged in the monster's snarling mouth as he tried to wrestle the beast off him.

The ground cracked beneath Sam as he moved without thinking, his Soul Core flaring to life, wreathing his drawn-back fist in earthly flames. He closed the gap in a second, delivering his fist into the monster's face with as much force as he could muster. The monster's head exploded as if a cannonball had hit it, and the rest of its ruined body followed, flying backward and landing in a bloodied heap on the road that led into the forest. Dead.

He let out the breath he had been holding, adrenaline and Qi filling his body. Without pause, he dashed forward, his eyes darting as he scanned the treeline. That monster had been weak. It had no reason to throw away its life like that unless stronger monsters had given it no choice but to clear the path for them.

Perhaps running forward into an unknown number of enemies was foolish, but Sam felt the thrill of battle calling to him and sensed the gazes of his family on his back. The earth Qi pulsing through his muscles whispered promises of impenetrable fortitude, and he felt like he could take on the world.

The heavens seemed to take that as a challenge.

A dozen wolves, stronger than the first, leaped out of the darkness of the forest. Darkened fur and beady red eyes glared at him. They encircled him, snarling and gnashing their teeth.

Sam did not falter. Instead, he bathed his body in earthly soul flames and launched himself at the nearest wolf. Compared to the tournament he had fought in, this was nothing. They were just a bunch of dumb mutts. A well-placed uppercut delivered the same brutal strength as before, exploding the wolf's head and sending its decapitated corpse spiraling backward. While he was distracted, a wolf pounced on his back and dug its claws into his flesh. Sam roared in pain as he flung it over his shoulder, tackled it to the ground, and beat it to death.

The following brawl couldn't have lasted more than ten minutes, but to Sam, it felt like a lifetime. As he finally put down the last of the wolves by prying its jaw open and tearing it apart, all of the strength left his body. He folded backward and ended up lying on his back, looking up at the sky—groaning in pain. His black cloak, embroidered with the mark of the All-Seeing Eye, was torn, revealing his bloodied and shredded flesh below.

Yet there was a massive grin on his face. All that training, cultivating, suffering, and fighting... had been for this moment. He could hear the squelching footsteps of his family running toward him.

A head appeared in his view.

"Brother, you were AWESOME!" Suki was beaming like he had never seen before. "You were like those cultivators in the stories! So cool! How can you punch that hard? Does it not hurt your hand to kill the wolves like that? Wait, you're bleeding. Are you okay—Ah!" Before she could say more, she was pulled back, and he could hear his mother telling her to give him space.

"Are you alright, son?" his father asked, towering over him and offering a hand. Sam tried to reach up for the hand, but his arm fell limply at his side.

"Not really," he wheezed out with a smile. "I don't think I can move for a while."

Barry leaned down and grunted as he lifted him from the mud. "Honestly, you always were a reckless one," he lightly smiled, "but you saved us, son. Thank you."

Sam groaned in pain. "You're welcome..."

His father smirked.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked.

"Nothing," Barry said, looking forward. "I'm just thinking about how I'm going to recite this story to our neighbors. How my son triumphed in a life-and-death brawl with fifty wolves!"

"Dad... there were like ten of them, not fifty."

Barry laughed. "Small details, son. Ten, twenty, fifty—what's the difference? They couldn't kill a single one, so who are they to say I'm bullshitting?"

Sam was about to point out that he couldn't kill one either but decided to let his dad enjoy the moment. After some rest, a medicinal bath, a cultivation session, and some pills, he should be in good enough form to help his family evacuate.

As he made it to his parents' hut, his head rolled to the side, and he looked past the looming gray wall at the storm on the horizon, flashing with endless divine lightning. While the storm overhead had been wiped out by the Ashfallen Sect for now, the ever-present reminder of the looming threat remained.

If he had to guess, it was only days away.

The beast tide was coming, whether they liked it or not.

Ashfallen Sect and the All-Seeing Eye, we are all depending on you, Sam silently prayed in his mind as he looked around at his family. I'll do my small part down here, protecting the common folk. So please... save us.