Inside the room, Luo stood by the door and scanned his surroundings using his 'Origin sense'.

'Three females, all with a Demon Print'

He scanned the entire house, creating a 4D mental image of his surroundings and all the beings within his range.

After acquiring his new heart, he noticed significant changes in himself, including his Origin sense. It gained new features that it didn't possess before, such as the ability to scan the surroundings. Now, he could not only feel the people OE's, but also directly transmit a 4D image to his mind. This allowed him to feel the dimensional tissue, so even if somebody was hiding between cracks of space, Luo could sense them. In addition, he could now use his ability to discern danger through his Origin sense.

After ensuring that the females were inside their rooms, he slowly opened the door without making any sound and stepped outside. Although Sarah referred to this as a village, it is nothing like one.

The houses and facilities in the entire village were constructed using a metal that resembled wood in color. The technology used was highly advanced, possibly on par with laboratories on Earth. The buildings featured sliding doors with touchpads, like even holographic screens were placed in each room.

This was a one-story house, with four rooms, each occupied by a female. Sarah especially transported him to this empty room. Luo walked to the door, keeping his Origin sense on. Now that he had reached the entrance, he could sense the outside more clearly.

'As planned, nobody is around outside at this time'

After reaching the door, he put his hand on the handle and tried to open it manually. As he expected, it didn't work. He would have to wait for that 'time' for the door to open by itself, but by then it would be too late already.

'I guess, I'll just try it'

Luo stood in front of the door, closed his eyes, and focused his Origin sense on the spatial fiber directly in front of him.

'Okay, let's do it slowly, just like this.'

He thought as he extended his right hand with a claw-like gesture, as if trying to catch something. As he did this, he extracted his own new OE from his second heart and directed it towards his arms, then focused it on his palm, following the same shape as before.

*Rip!*

'There we go'

Unlike before, now that his hand was surrounded by OE, it magically hooked onto something in thin air. Luo could feel the resistance of the spatial fiber on his fingertip. He smoothly brought his hand down in a ripping motion, revealing a one-meter-tall rip in space.

'Nice, it went quite smoothly'

He thought as he stepped inside the crevice.

Just outside the house, in a narrow alley, a hand covered in dark violet energy suddenly extended from thin air. It slowly descended, ripping an almost identical tear into space from which Luo emerged. As soon as he stepped out, the tear immediately restored itself back to normal.

'The range is still quite limited, and I need to improve my proficiency.'

Luo was contemplating the various applications of his newfound powers. After experiencing multiple teleportations and gaining a deeper understanding of space, he devised a new technique which he named it [Stellar Claw], his energy can now directly interfere with space so he used it to wrap his hand and tear spatial tissue, creating a passage that connects to another location. However, the technique has its limitations, such as its range being restricted to the range of his Origin sense.

Luo stood tall in the alley without any need to hide. He was confident that nobody was around at this time. He tapped his wrist guard, prompting a holographic map to appear with dots marking his location and other places. This place was huge, although it was called a village, it is closer to a city. The area was enclosed by sixty meters tall metallic walls on all sides aside from the northern side where a large mountain range was situated.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The village was divided into three main zones. The first one was the living quarters, followed by the breeding zone. The deepest zone, which was also closest to the cave located at the bottom of the mountain, was the kindergarten where they raised the kids, 'The real farm'.

Currently, Luo was just a few streets away from reaching the goal zone where the kids were. He looked down at his waist, where a gourd was placed. Unlike his high-tech uniform, this gourd didn't stand out much, but it reminded him of what Sarah had said.

"Remember Luo, you need to wait for the right time. If you were to just rush in and rescue each batch one by one you would be caught in no time"

"That is why we wait until they are grouped up here"

Sarah pointed with her finger to a huge factory-like building, the closest one to the cave.

Luo didn't dwell on his thoughts for long and ripped a space tear again, disappearing into it.

Somewhere else, a young girl lost in her thoughts leans on the wall and looking out of the window at the bunch of kids playing ahead.

'It's tomorrow huh, our coming-of-age ceremony'

Thinking about that, she couldn't help but feel uneasy as if something was telling her not to go.

'Weird, I should be rather excited. It is the day I will finally become an adult'

'The day I have been waiting for'

Her thoughts were cut off as a pale white hand settled on her shoulder. A bit startled, she hurriedly turned around to check who it was.

"Mother!"

Behind her was a middle-aged brown-haired lady who looked at her with a light grin.

"Are you excited? You must have waited so long for this day, right?"

The lady held her daughter's hands as she said.

The young girl's heart was racing every time she thought of this coming-of-age ceremony, but she didn't show it on her face and responded with a radiant smile

"Yeah, I can't wait anymore"

The mother brought the young girl into her embrace. She whispered in her ear

"Oh my, your mother is also excited, and is eager for you to finally be `ONE OF US´"

When she said the part later, the young girl's heart palpitated harder than ever, but she hugged her tighter to hide her pained expression.

'She smells like nuts again'

The girl noticed the familiar smell her mother had every time she came back.

After a while the mother detached from the hug while gently kissing the forehead of her daughter, she then turned around and walked out. But as the mother turned around her expression changed as her eyes became hazy, the same ones as those Luo saw with Sarah.

The young girl looked at the receding back of her mother, more specifically her neck which had a weird kind of spider tattoo there. She thought

'Ever since that mark appeared there's something about her that feels__'

"Saya, come and play with us"

Her thoughts were cut off again by the kids calling for her to come play with them. She stepped outside and joined the kids with a radiant smile. She tossed aside all her worries, not even noticing the pair of murky eyes looking at them from the window.

*Bip,bip,bip*

The alarm kicked off by Saya's head waking her up. She didn't take long to wake up as she began preparing herself.

'I'm ready, let's wake the kids up'

Saya came down to each room and woke all the seven children up and got them ready. Before long they were all at the front of the house ready to depart.

"There she is."

She looked to her left where a levitating vehicle was closing in. It looked like a bus but more refined. The vehicle stopped right before the group, opening its doors and the mother could be seen inside the driver's seat.

Vroom

After all the kids got on, the bus sped north towards the mountains.

'I'm back again'

It didn't take long for them to arrive. As Saya looked at the building ahead which looked like some old Japanese wooden temple connected to the cave, reminiscing about her old friends she couldn't help but remember what her mother said back then.

'Listen Saya, your friends have gone to a better place as they passed the coming-of-age ceremony'

'Then why didn't I pass it too?' (Young Saya)

'We all are different Saya, you need to grow up first then you will surely pass it'

Back then, this was the reason her mother told her after all the kids who grew up with her disappeared inside the cave and never came back. Ironically, they were all boys, but the innocent Saya didn't know any better, even though now she began suspecting that something is certainly wrong with this ceremony, but she can't even fathom what is happening beyond that temple.

'It seems the others have arrived first'

Saya instantly spotted some of her old acquaintances with their own groups once she got off. The four groups each had around one or two young females, and the kids' numbers ranged from five to fifteen. Upon seeing their group get off the young girls also noticed Saya as they walked towards her

"It has been a while Saya"

"How are you doing?"

Saya smiled at the young girls as they engaged in a conversation. Upon inspecting them up close Saya could spot the anxiety in their actions and voices.

'They must have noticed too'

She concluded that they too must have noticed the strange atmosphere.

*DING DING DING*

The bell sound coming from the temple cut them off and prompted them to group up in orderly manner.

The temple doors slowly opened as four adults walked out. They were the mothers of each group.

"Oh, our dear children, the long-awaited day has finally arrived, the day your fates will be …"

After a short speech, the mothers said in a unified tone

"LET THE CEREMONY BEGIN"

'It has begun again'

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The temple is referred from 'Horyuji temple'

[Stellar Claw]: Uses the energy provided by the second heart which apparently can interfere with void, to cover his hand into a claw that he uses to rip the spatial fiber creating space tears ( can be considered a mini version of space cracks)