Old Man

Cain raised his head with curiosity, "You were?"

The old man nodded, "Aye. We were a group of Mixed Bloods trying to create a home for our people in a valley. In the first decade, we saved many of our people, and our settlement grew.

"However, one day, the Dominion found out about the valley. It wasn't a week before we were invaded. At that time, our leader was also a cultivator. He was in the Growth Stage, one step away from the next. Yet the Eight Demon Sealing Elders came. We were doomed. Yet hope sprang, leader broke through to the Enlightenment Stage.

"I wasn't there, I was sent flying defending our leader. I learned afterward our leader died self-destructing fighting the Demon Sealing Sect's Sect Leader. At that point, none were left, I returned but all I saw were bodies. 

"My best friend, who brought me to the valley, died as well. I was a coward and left, making my way here. People cheered about the event. To them, we were just devils trying to destroy their lives, but we only ever wanted to finally start our own."

The old man went silent as he lowered his head and looked at his stew, muttering, "Francis always liked making stew...."

To the old man's side, the young girl looked blankly at her Grandpa. She never heard any of this, she seemed to be looking at a stranger.

Cain knit his brows, "Why are you telling me this?"

The old man laughed and put another spoonful of stew in his mouth. "Why not? Hah.... I can't lie, I hope that you stay here. The world is too big and far too scary for Mixed Bloods like us. Just stay here. This is the only place we might ever have just like that valley...."

...

Cain sat in his room. He was thinking.

'Stay here...I want to, it's peaceful. But I can't...I can't possibly stay here. I'm different from them, I don't belong in this territory, and I still need to find my home. Where was it? Now that I think about it, I forget its name....'

Standing up, Cain clutched his head and walked towards a window. Whenever he tried to remember something his head would ache, and he relived it with a cool wind.

"Forget it. I'll just stay here for a few more months until I reach the Growth Stage. The Heavenly Mandate has more Heavenly Energy than I know what to do with. It won't be long until I reach the next stage."

...

Cain polished his sword in his room, he did it every day religiously before he would go out and work.

'It reached the 5th Tier after devouring Sun Xiang and his remaining Mystical Beast Souls. As an Artifact, the Power it can wield and its natural abilities increased by a lot, I could easily kill Growth Stage Cultivators with a little elbow grease.'

Leaving the house, Cain made his way to the fields where he met with one of the workers.

The worker saw him and waved. "Hey Cain, we need sap, the hoes are loosening up a bit. Can you go get some?"

"Sure, I'll be back in a bit." Turning around Cain walked down the field and into the Crystal Bark Forest.

Not many people knew, but underneath the crystals that grew in the trees, there was a special sap that was excellent for making tea and keeping tools together, the farm used it for almost everything, even the furniture was used with the sap.

Making his way to the first tree, Cain took a carving knife and removed the crystals. Almost immediately a lusterless sap gushed from the bark and Cain collected it in a clay jar.

One by one he visited different trees and took the sap, sometimes he would be attacked by crystal lizards, who ate the crystals and drank the sap to survive, but even to normal humans they weren't much and had the fatal weakness of being distracted by the crystals.

Throwing a few, they would gather and fight all the while Cain peacefully collected sap. After an hour, Cain filled the jar. 

"Stop!" A powerful voice came from behind him. The animals and crystal lizards ran away, shuddering.

Cain shifted his body to see a cultivator with the markings of the Unmoved Spirit Sect on their clothes.

"You! You are from the Slave Farm, right? Have you people taken in anyone recently."

Cain shook his head, "Lord Immortal I do not know. You would have to ask around."

"Don't tell me you can't tell if someone was new or not, you all work together!" The Cultivator flew towards Cain and grabbed him by the throat. "Tell me what you know now!"

'It seems the search has already gotten this far....'

Cain sighed and anger rose as his voice turned ominous.

"A mere Founding Stage dares!"

His hand moved quickly as Spiritual Qi sprouted from his fingertips and turned into silky wires that wrapped around the Disciple, they couldn't even get a word in before they were sliced to pieces.

Looking at the corpse Cain waited a few moments before turning to leave, he ran back, leaving behind the clay jar.

...

"Grandpa, have you seen Cain? I didn't see him in the fields?"

The old man tasted his stew before adding in a few spices and vegetables. "Oh? Check if he's in his room?"

"Okay!" The girl smiled and went to the room Cain was living in, as she opened the door she gasped to see Cain packing his bags with some clothes.

"Cain?"

He turned to look at her, but he only shot a glance before walking past and moving towards the entrance.

"Old man, I have to go. They've found me."

The old man's eyes sparkled as he frowned. "Found you? How is that possible? It should still be a few months before they even look this far if you came from a wealthy family."

A voice erupted from the sky as powerful as thunder, "Slave Farm! We have reason and suspicion to believe you are housing the Imperial Demon. Surrender him now!"

The old man's eyes froze as his face stiffened, "Imperial....Imperial Demon? How? What?"

Cain frowned as well, "Cultivators move faster than mortals, I bet they've checked the other borders. Seeing as I killed one of their Disciples, they concluded I must be here."

'No matter what I did that Disciple was going to have to disappear after he saw me. Damn it, I liked living here....'

The old man's eyes regained their intelligence as he stared at Cain, "Boy...you killed the Emperor? Are you injured still?"

Cain mulled over his thoughts before responding, "Yes. I am no better than a Peak Founding Stage Cultivator at the moment."

The old man blankly looked at him as he began to whisper, "Hope....hope for Mixed Bloods."

His voice grew louder, "Boy, you know my story, you know what the purebloods do to us! You must quickly leave! Go to the Dominion, they hold the most land and cities, it will be easy to hide there! In the pantry is a tunnel that will take you deep into the forest, head east and in two days you'll reach the Dominion! Go!"

Cain wasn't a stingy person, he held in the curiosity to ask why there was a tunnel and used common sense. He ran into the pantry and never returned.

The old man smiled, "To think I was lucky enough to find hope for us. Even if my story didn't touch his heart, he, as a mixed blood, must wish for us to be free! It is only natural! Haha! Valley Master! Francis! I have found someone to help our people, even if he is a so-called Demon, weren't we as well? HAHAHA! I can join you now!"

"Grandpa...." The girl at the end of the hallway was scared, her Grandpa seemed to turn into an evil demon, his brows becoming thicker as his smile widened crazily and his eyes burned like infernos.

The old man gazed at his granddaughter. "Hah. I never wished to do this but now I must. Forgive me, I should have never taken you out of greed, but I need you now, my Granddaughter, to complete what must be done!"

The girl's expression worsened.