"Take this."

  The Matriarch held out a small unassuming wooden box. It was unpolished, rough-hewn and looked like something a child would keep beetles or other insects in.

  "What is this?" Li Yu asked while taking it. He knew better than to refuse after his time here. It was heavy.

  "A seed," she said. "Not for the earth but for the self. If you ever find your soul cracking, if you ever find yourself on the brink of true dissipation. That death is coming for you no matter what you do. Swallow it then. It is an Amber of Timelessness. It will freeze your existence for one hundred years if you wish it to, protecting you from anything and everything. Even the judgment of the reaper himself. You can get out early but only you can decide when that time is prior to the one hundred years."

  Li Yu gasped at the description of the magical item. A life-saving treasure of that magnitude? It was legendary. No, it was beyond that.

  "Senior, I—"

  "Go!" she commanded. Like all the other elders she would not take no for an answer. Her voice was suddenly sharp and cracking like a whip. "Go before I change my mind and keep you here, stupid boy! And do not speak of this place. Do you understand?"

  "Yes. I swear it." Li Yu bowed deeply since he sensed the finality in her tone. He backed out of the cottage while clutching the box.

  Outside, the sunlight had taken on a golden late-afternoon hue. The girls, Bai Ruo and Si Luo, were waiting by the gate and were looking anxious.

  "Li Yu," Bai Ruo breathed a sigh of relief. "The pressure here... it was getting heavier."

  "We're leaving now. We have been here too long." Li Yu said shortly.

  He walked down the path toward the exit. The villagers were back at their tasks but the atmosphere had changed. They weren't smiling as broadly. There was a solemnity to their movements.

  As he passed the forge, Granny Tie stopped hammering. She didn't look at him but she struck the anvil once. A clear, ringing note that sounded like a farewell bell. "Remember what I taught you, brat," she grunted.

  Auntie Tu, the butcher, was wiping her cleaver. She looked up and her eyes were fierce. "Eat your meat. Don't let anyone bully you."

  Grandpa Hua, the herb gatherer, merely bowed from his waist among the flowers. Scholar Wen dipped her brush in acknowledgment. Grandma Gong, the hunter, nodded from the shadows of a tree.

  Li Yu stopped at the archway. He turned back, looking at the figures scattered across the idyllic landscape. He felt a lump in his throat he couldn't explain. He felt like he was leaving home, a home he had only known for such a short time.

  "Thank you!" Li Yu shouted, his voice carrying over the stream and the fields. "Thank you for your guidance! If fate allows, let us meet again one day!"

  He bowed deeply one last time and then turned and stepped through the archway.

  The transition was instant. The sweet air vanished, replaced by the mountain view that they had before coming in. All they could see was an empty village with some lights on. Nothing like the place they were just at.

  "We're out," Si Luo said. "It feels... empty out here. At least compared to there"

  "Let's move," Li Yu said. His expression hardened as he put his mask of indifference back on. He gave the village one last look and as he walked away a sudden tear fell from his eyes. He was surprised by it but deep down he felt he was leaving something behind.

  Inside the miniature realm, the moment the ripples of the spatial gate settled, the illusion of the idyllic village shattered.

  Auntie Tu, the burly, elderly butcher, straightened her back. Her grey hair turned a raven black, cascading down her back like a waterfall of ink. Her wrinkles smoothed out and revealing the face of a woman in her prime, possessing a beauty that was savage and terrifying.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Her leather apron dissolved into armor made of Dragon scales. The rusty cleaver in her hand shed its corrosion, revealing a blade that was blood-red and hummed with the screams of its victims.

  She was not a butcher. She was Tu the World-Severer, a War Goddess who had once depopulated an entire realm that tried to rebel.

  Granny Tie, the hunchbacked blacksmith, stood tall. She grew a head taller, her body filling out with divine power. Her hammer ignited with white celestial fire. She was Tie the Miracle-Forger, whose weapons were legendary artifacts across realms.

  Grandpa Hua, the gentle gardener, shed his skin like a snake. It revealed a youthful androgynous man surrounded by a halo of poisonous and healing miasma. He was the Poison and Medicine Sovereign Hua.

  One by one, the "elders" shed their disguises. The hunter, the weaver, the cook, the scholar. They reverted to their true forms—Generals, Sovereigns, Monarchs and more. Beings whose names were taboos in some places.

  They did not speak. They turned in unison toward the archway where Li Yu had vanished. And then those beings, who could crush the world that Li Yu knew, dropped to their knees.

  Thud.

  The sound of their knees hitting the ground shook the entire miniature realm.

  They pressed their foreheads to the ground, performing the highest, most subservient kowtow known to their hierarchy. It was not a bow of politeness. It was a bow of absolute loyalty and respect.

  "We send off the Young Lord!" they chanted in unison, their voices merging into a shockwave that rattled the barrier of the realm. Then they all stood up.

  From the central cottage, now a palace of understated but immeasurable grandeur—the Matriarch stepped out.

  She had not transformed. She remained an old woman, frail and hunched. She looked at the empty archway, her milky eyes gleaming with a terrifying intelligence.

  "He is becoming a fine young man," she whispered. The rasp in her voice was replaced by a tone of cold, calculating steel, though a hint of genuine warmth lingered at the edges.

  She looked down at her hand, where a single tear had fallen earlier when Li Yu was telling his life story. She clenched her fist, vaporizing the moisture.

  "I need to pass on his life story." she mused, a dry chuckle escaping her lips. "If I withhold the details... I will be punished."

  She looked up at the artificial sky of the miniature realm and her smile turned predatory. She and the other elders disappeared from this realm and arrived outside to where the empty village was. She waved her hand and the empty village disappeared and was replaced with plants and trees that were there before.

  “Go find one of these ‘Seven Sins.’ Just the one. We will make their group suffer for having hurt the young lord. Do not kill it. Capture it and bring it back to our secret realm. We will torture it on behalf of the young lord until he is strong enough to kill it himself.”

  “It will be my pleasure.” Tu the World-Severer replied, eager to take action. They had all heard the story.

  “Are you sure we should take action? We are not supposed to interfere. His parents were taken away by their respective forces against their wills. They were already heartbroken that they had to leave him behind. But they are duty bound to….” Tie the Miracle-Forger spoke out. “We already broke the rules before, providing him with a secret guardian like that. Out of curiosity, we broke the rules again this time to see him and how he is doing.”

  “Since it's been broken it will not hurt to break it one more time to get a bit of justice for the young lord. His parents will eventually break free and see their son again. Those damn old bastards that are stuck in their ways. Or else the boy wouldn’t need to be without his parents. We can’t take action either yet. That was the agreement that was settled on for the young lord’s current situation, the realm’s current situation.” The Matriarch responded.

  The elders all had their fist clenched and were extremely angry at the thought. Remembering what had happened and the injustice of it. However, they weren’t able to stop it as the bigger picture had to be seen.

  Then they were startled. A being had appeared suddenly to their right without anyone noticing how they got there. The Matriarch turned to look as it could only be one person in her mind.

  “Husband!” She leapt at him without any composure. Khaos caught her into his arms and gave her a big hug without letting go. “Wife… I have missed you.” He replied to her. The others dropped down on one knee “We greet the leader!”

  “Rise, no need for formalities.” Khaos responded and everyone got up. “You all have overstepped this time. I had to seal off this space so it could not be divined, karma-ed or anything else. You should know better.”

  “We were asked to, she wanted to know more about how he has been. I also missed you too, husband.” The Matriarch responded and had returned back to her real form. As Khaos looked like an ancestor of a sect had come out of a painting, she looked like a goddess from a painting that had come to life.

  “I’ve missed you as well. We are both young though, we are but mere children when you take our race’s average age into account. There will be time for us later. Right now, we have a bigger role to play. Be patient. All of you return to your tasks. Now, I must go and return to his side.” Khaos gave the Matriarch a deep kiss on the lips and disappeared.

  Soon after they all disappeared.

  Within just a few days and without Li Yu ever knowing it, one of the Seven Sins that he swore revenge on was captured and would be tortured day and night until Li Yu would meet it again.