Arrival at the village.

That night, Darius tossed and turned in his bed clearly having difficulty drifting into sleep. Each time he closed his eyes, he would see his parents. Darius who had lived for up to thirty-six years in his previous life didn't really feel familial love towards his new “parents”. Instead, he felt gratitude towards them for taking care of him all this time.

The reason why he was unable to fall asleep was because of the guilt he felt for leaving them behind even though the was nothing he could have done.

Although his parents knew he was an outworlder, they still treated him like one of theirs. He felt like he had ruined their lives even though he had no say in his reincarnation. He wondered if they were still alive or if they had been killed.

After hours of tossing and turning, he finally fell asleep. In his sleep, he began to dream, he returned to the northern continent, to the day before he was discovered. Darius was awoken by his butler. He lived in the mansion along with the butler and a few maids. His parents were generals of the army of the northern continent hence they rarely lived at home and had to be at the army most of the time.

He began to get ready for the academy. Moments later, he left the mansion on a horse, charging towards the academy. At the academy, there were lessons on history, combat, military tactics and cultivation.

Darius took the cultivation lessons as he hadn't awakened his elemental sea yet. The cultivation classes taught lessons on how to gather elemental essence from the environment in order to shatter the barrier around the elemental sea in order to awaken.

After lessons, students between the ages of 10 through 15 try to shatter the barrier in various chambers with elemental essence. Darius entered one of the chambers along with several classmates hoping to awaken.

After several hours, he came out of the chamber not successful bet he felt he was close. And just like that, he returned home, practiced combat techniques with his butler until late in the evening. He ate dinner, reviewed his lessons for the day and went to bed right after. His parents would be coming back home the next day and he did not want to be in bed when they arrived.

The next day, Darius woke up earlier than usual only to be met with disappointment. His parents were not back yet. Darius felt awkward, why would a thirty six year old man be all giddy about his parents return. Not to mention, they were not his actual parents. He suspected it had something to do with the former soul of the body he now possessed. He tossed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he left for school.

At school everything went the same as usual. Then it was time for Darius and his classmates to enter the chamber. He entered feeling optimistic he was was going to successfully awaken today.

He sat in the lotus position and began to attack the barrier with elemental essence. A few minutes in, multiple cracks began to appear on the barrier. Suddenly, he heard a loud scream. He opened his and realised he was levitating, he looked at his colleagues and realised they all appeared to be skeletons.

His heart sank, he knew his identity had been exposed.

That was because, when his vision appeared this way, the notorious eyes of the outworlder had appeared.

Immediately, he bolted towards the door. He had to escape or his end would be certain death. Unfortunately for him, there were students all over the academy grounds and as he dashed towards his horse, many students recognised his eyes. Some of the female students began to scream while others stood stunned in place.

All the screaming alarmed the teachers who began to question the students. Darius had gotten to his horse at this moment. He paused for a moment and began to contemplate whether to go home or escape somewhere else. He decided to take a gamble that his parents had returned and they could aid in his escape. He jumped on the horse and charged straight to his house.

Everything around him still appeared to be in an x-ray state. So in order not to get noticed, he would close his eyes whenever he got close to someone. Soon, he arrived at his house. Fortunately for him, his parents were standing on the balcony chatting with each other.

They noticed him rushing the house, they looked eachother in the eye and began to rush downstairs to meet him.

Darius opened the door before they could reach it and when they saw his eyes, their hearts sunk. They could roughly guess what had happened. They looked each other in the eye as Darius nodded.

Darius’ father frowned as he said “ we have to leave. Grab anything you might need, we leave in two minutes”. The three of them split up and rushed into separate rooms. About two minutes later, the three of them emerged from the rooms, each of them equipped with a satchel. They charged out of the building towards the horse stables. Each of them got on a horse and rushed out of the compound.

They headed towards the border between the northern continent and the eastern desert. The eastern desert was also known as the “lawless continent”. Unlike the other continents the Eastern desert was not ruled by the imperial court but by a ragtag group of mercenaries.

Although they were not as powerful as the imperial court, they would cause mayhem anytime the imperial court tried to take control of the continent. Since the imperial court preached righteousness, they would withdraw when the damage caused reached the innocent inhabitants of the continent. A place where the long arm of the imperial court could not reach was the best place to escape to.

During the escape, Darius narrated all that happened to his parents. Although information on outworlders was widespread, not every detail about them was known, which is why Darius found himself in this situation. He had no way of knowing what would happen when he tried to awaken.

The journey was eerily quiet, everyone knew danger would be upon them any minute now.

Back at the academy, there was widespread clamour as the news spread. The teachers urged the students to calm down as the imperial court had been informed and an envoy would be arriving soon.

About an hour later, an envoy named Barthon arrived with 20 other soldiers from the imperial court. The headmaster of the academy invited them in but Barthon tactlessly rejected him. He directly began to question the headmaster. After a few minutes of questions and answers, Barthon and his men headed towards the Amel household.

Upon reaching the house, the twenty men spread out towards the neighbouring households with Barthon entering the Amel household. A few minutes later, he exited the building with a frown on his face. He realised the house was completely empty, he knew he wouldn't find Darius or his parents but he hoped there would be some servants he could question however, the house was entirely empty.

Suddenly, an idea dawned on him. He guessed that the only place they could escape to was the eastern desert.

He summoned his underlings as they rushed towards the border between the northern continent and the eastern desert.

On the way to the border, Darius and his parents slowed down their travel speed as they contemplated how to get through the border. The security at the border was rigid considering what was on the other side of the border. Darius' parents decided to force their way through the border. It would take about thirty six hours until they reached the border so they had time to properly plan the escape.

Thirty six hours later, Darius and his parents arrived at the border. They split up each of them moving towards the opposite side of the border. The plan was, Darius' mother, who was a fire essence user, would create a big explosion to draw everyone's attention, then Darius’ father who went along with him would toss him over the long border wall a distance away to facilitate his escape. Then his parents would force their way through and catch up with him.

Darius thought the plan was a bit sloppy but his parents didn't want to kill anyone and this was the best they came up with. Darius prioritised his survival so he went along with it. Fortunately for Darius, the plan has worked so far.

Unfortunately for his parents, they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of soldiers. To make things worse, Barthon and his men arrived not long after. Their only choice was to prolong the fight so that Darius would have enough time to escape.

Darius guessed something went wrong when after walking for several hours his parents had still not caught up. Darius walked for several days, he ran out of food and water a long time ago. Fortunately, when he felt he couldn't go on any further, he saw a village in the distance.