Chapter 40

It was very unusual, but the demon beast remained standing in the same position he was in when he killed the judge and showed no motivation to escape from the human experts present as if it had planned this all out from the beginning. From far away, screams could be heard as several elders looked over in the direction they were coming from.

Using the opportunity, the demon beast finally moved and was able to take down two of the elders until the rest surrounded it once more while allowing five more to be sent over to investigate the screaming since it showed no signs of stopping. Something was definitely wrong, and even Timothy felt a cold shiver running down his spine.

"You all could either capture me and risk having everyone within this village killed by my minions, or you could release me here and now and accept your losses. Choose now while I still have the ability to quell their thirst for human flesh and blood!" the demon beast said out loud while looking directly at the mayor of Boulder Village who stood with the elders of the various clans.

Before he could even say anything, an elder who had a very deep cut on his chest returned. This elder was one of the several who looked to investigate what was happening due to the screaming. "Mayor, there are too many of them and they are all at least of the Intermediate stage as demon beasts, I am afraid our village may be destroyed!" the elder reported before fainting on the spot.

Taking a quick scan around to the other elders who were nodding even though in their hearts, they coveted revenge. It was clear that it may have been this demon beast they have now cornered, who ordered the original attack onto their village and caused not only many losses, but who had firmly shaken their overall strength and ability to even function as a village within the Bark Kingdom!

"It pains me to say this, but as long as you make a Heavenly Oath that you will leave with your minions and leave our Boulder Village alone for at least five years, I will accept your terms and allow you to leave as you are with not a scratch on you." the mayor told the demon beast as he clenched his fist so tightly that a pop could be heard.

"Deal. Besides, it is not like I am the only intelligent demon beast in these parts. Five years may seem long to you humans, but to us demon beasts, it will feel like taking a nap. I may be leaving but remember this, Bark Kingdom's days are numbered!" it replied as it flew into the air after it turned back into its original form of an eagle like creature.

"All of you head out and check on our losses. I do not know how to fix what has happened, and I will need some time to figure things out. As for you Keith, make a trip to Bark City. Our only chance now is to send word of what occurred here to the Emperor and pray that he has a way to deal with all of this which is still unlikely." the mayor ordered his assistant who was of the Advance stage of cultivation as well as the elders.

He may have listened to his master, but Timothy was extremely worried about his family. It was currently unknown to him if they were killed or not during this attack or Martin's condition since he was guarding Boulder Village. His master had yet to explain to him his reasoning for telling him to remain present during this exchange, and in a way, he did not care about the reason because he may have been able to protect his family.

Since it had ended and Jacob was safe as well, Timothy immediately headed out of the area to search for his family. As he looked around the village, Timothy noticed that the buildings were not torn down but that there were many bodies littering the streets with fresh blood still pouring out of them.

There were many individuals who had died, but there were even more who were injured. It looked as if once the spectators had left, the village guards did at the same time and took to protect those who were much weaker or ordinary humans. Still, Timothy could not see any clues to where his family was.

"It would be wise to make your way to Mist City as soon as possible with that Jacob. If you are able to raise enough wealth, you might be able to hire some more guards to handle protecting your family." Master Sei told Timothy mentally, as if he was trying to help his disciple plan ahead, but also to ease his heart.

Earlier, he made it very clear that the heavens would make it harder for his disciple to move forward in his cultivation compared to his peers, but within his explanation of the situation, he also mentioned the possibility that his family would be lost during this journey. It was unclear to even him if having the ability were to cause Timothy to have such bad luck, that his family would have been killed, or even worse, taken as hostages or dinner!

Deep down, Timothy felt that he would rather have remained without this heaven defying ability and to live a life with his family regardless of hardships instead of having them die off without him being able to do anything to prevent it. If it weren't for his master, Timothy would have followed his family and may have been able to at least act to protect them with the sheer amount of items and equipment he had.

"Timothy?" someone called out who was sitting near a pile of cultivators that were being checked out one by one by one of the doctors who lived in Boulder Village. Hearing this voice, he looked over to see who it was, and luckily, it was actually Martin!