1. Backward World

Inside an isolated room of an underground prison, seated and tied to a sturdy wooden chair is a young boy roughly ten years of age. All nails removed, left eye pierced, teeth shattered, numerous lacerations and blood dripping all over his bruised body.

And despite the gruesome condition of his body, a huge and bald burly man slowly and continuously tortures him like a piece of wood being chiseled so carefully that countless of his bones had been shattered yet the boy is miraculously alive.

After twisting the boy’s index finger, the burly man whose hands could easily squish a watermelon grabbed the boy's head and slowly asked the same question.

"Tell me everything that happened?"

His voice was deep and inexplicably menacing but the boy seem unresponsive and not because he has insurmountable will but because he had already succumbed into desperation.

After a few hours of torture, the man was not surprised and stared at the boy’s lifeless eye which seemingly had been drained tears. He could tell the boy’s final thought would drift any moment soon but nevertheless, he had a few more ideas to torment the boy.

Devoid of any emotions, the burly man released his hand and coldly looked down on the grotesque and almost dismembered body of the innocent boy. He knew it is senseless to continue further but his job is to extract information until the boy takes his last breath.

As a trained torturer, he is confident the boy has not uttered a single lie and said everything, however he remains unconvinced for everything that came from the boy's mouth are all gibberish that he himself may be questioned if he relays the result.

While there is crystal recording ball capturing every moments of his actions, he is beginning to worry should someone question the credibility of this session.

Seeing the boy on his final moments, he took out a rectangular wooden box and placed it on the boy's thigh, mumbled an incantation and a black worm as thick as a thumb and the size of a ruler came crawling out of the lid then he calmly said, "This worm is pregnant and will eat anything before it lays eggs."

In hopes of getting a better response, he asked one final time, "Tell me what happened and where did the masked man…".

BANG!

Before the torturer finished his sentence, the metallic door has been kicked from the outside causing it to be thrown against the wall creating a deafening sound which surprised and petrified the torturer like a tiny kitten.

The burly man moved to his side and looked towards the entrance scared and trembling by the sudden pressure that surrounded his entire body.

“YOU!”

Following that moment, a murderous aura filled the room as an old man entered the room. Dressed in fine quality violet robe, he scanned the boy with his divine sense.

*Exhale

Relieved that the boy is still breathing, he waived his hand and a sliver of his aura extended and materialized surrounding the hungry worm and pasted it on to the wall.

*Pssk!

Seeing that the boy has lost consciousness, the old man retracted his aura and touched the boy's forehead and began vitality transference. Then he slowly opened the boy's mouth and fed him a green-like substance.

The boy had already passed out that the old man had to guide his aura to ensure the medicine is ingested and not even a minute, the boy’s wounds began to recover.

Seeing the healing effects of the mysterious medicine, the old man retracted his aura and said, "I have invited a Core Formation expert from Twin River Spirit sect and will arrive in less than ten days to perform soul search on this boy. Tell Alchemist Dego to craft a Meridian Restoration Pill and force it to this boy when he wakes up. He needs to be at Qi Sensing Phase for us to be able to see his soul’s memories.”

The burly man having relieved from that suffocating pressure then inquired, "Grand Elder, I do not understand."

"Allow him to recover his cultivation powers and continue making him talk. Just make sure he does not die", replied the old man then left.

A day later, the boy regained his consciousness. He wished it was just a bad dream however the wound in his body have not completely healed making him realize of his predicament.

“No!!!”

The fear from that unspeakable torture immediately made him weep.

Fear and despair began to consume him but no matter how helpless things had become, deep within his consciousness is a will to live. Like candle light that is about to be blown away, hope fueled his desire to free himself and live.

He cried and cried but after a few moments of self realization, he knew his tears won’t help him get away.

The boy calmed himself and within the gloomy dim room, he slowly inspected his body.

“Yes!”

The boy exclaimed after confirming his cultivation powers has been restored and on top of that, the spatial earring behind his ear did not go missing.

He poured his Qi to activate a Formation on his spatial earring. The boy did not have time question or celebrate why the earring was not confiscated but if he could read the mind of his abductors, someone certainly noticed it but the earring looked like a regular ornament that no one expected it to be a spatial storage tool. And even if it were, they knew that it will have a very limited space but never had they thought that the limited space contained more spatial storage items.

The boy then retrieved the spatial ring he used to store the body of Horned Flame Lion. He wants to retrieve the headless body of the beast out but its body will not fit the room and he may be crushed to death if taken out. He extended his aura and with perfect Qi control, he extracted blood from that headless body while inside the spatial space.

He took out another storage ring to retrieve a cauldron and Alchemy materials and began to concoct a medicine he believed might save him.

The boy clenched his teeth and concentrated and after around fifteen minutes, a glass of bluish red liquid was produced. He has yet to find out if the solution in his hand would give him the power he needs like he had read in the past.

He wanted to drink it immediately but he hesitated when the bottle touched his lips.

NO!

Just when he thought he had gained courage, his hopes vanished when the thought of confronting his torturer enter his mind.

He cowered in corner and began crying again.

“Please, no!!!”

Under extreme psychological the boy lost consciousness and laid on the ground.

CLACK!

CLACK!

CLACK!

The boy was woken up the crackling noises which sounded like a door being opened. He looked around and unaware of how much time passed, he can hear that someone is approaching as footsteps echoed from the hallway and signifying he will yet to be tortured again.

He stored back all the items he took out earlier then picked up the bottle of medicine he concocted and stared at it one final time. As the sound of the footsteps became louder, the boy opened his mouth.

*Exhale

Out of desperation, the boy drank the blue liquid. He then took out a Magical Beast Crystal from his ring then forcefully inserted it just right above his sternum and activated the Formation within the crystal and sat down to meditate.

Then, moments later, the burly man showed up and opened his cell.

"Do you want this to stop? All you need to do is tell us everything that happened."

HUH?

The burly man was surprised as the boy who looked liked meditating earlier suddenly dropped to his knees and rolled on a corner gasping for air as if suffering from stomachache.

“You think acting will work?”

The man coldly laughed as the boy started convulsing and keeps rolling on the floor however upon closer inspection, he realized that the boy really is in pain. He does not know what is going on but he believed that his elder may have had visited earlier and fed the boy something so he decided to tie him again to a chair and torture him later.

“Don’t be excited, alright? Just take it easy and we’ll have another round later, alright?” The burly man threatened and left the cell.

The truth is that even if the boy is tortured, he would not feel other forms of inflicted pain.

Moments after he drank the blue liquid, an unbearable pain ran throughout his body. Out of his expectations, the liquid induced a much more terrifying pain compared to his initial experience of the torture. He wanted to pass out, but every part of his body is liked being burned and punctured at the same time and the pain is continuously becoming more intense.

Arggghhh!!!

The boy was once again thrown into the abyss of extreme pain that he wanted to beg his death.

“Please, kill me!!”

Arggghhh!!!

He shouted and prayed for god’s mercy and after a few hours, his voice became raspy and he is still groans from seemingly unendurable pain.

Every moment felt like eternity and having suffered enough, he stopped moving and patiently waited for death.

Not knowing how much time has passed, the pain became less intense and when the pain subsided, the boy had fallen sleep.

A few hours later, the boy woke up from immense thirst. And out of instinct, he extended his Qi aura towards his surrounding for water. Having found nothing, he checked his spatial rings but there is only a bottle of an unknown wine. He gulped its content and if he had been a normal man, he could easily been satiated but the boy was still not satisfied that he looks like ready to drink on a random river.

“Huh, Huh”

The boy breathed like a hungry beast and unable to find anything, he noticed the blood of the headless Horned Flame Lion within one of his spatial rings.

Driven by extreme thirst, the boy extended his aura and shaped it like hands and extracted a few liters from the body of the lion. Though the lion was dead days ago, its blood is still warm due to it being infected with a parasitic Essence Flame.

As the boy drank blood, his mind became clearer and can only think about escaping. Earlier, his mind was devastated from psychological trauma from being tortured but having experienced a more terrifying pain, his mind overcame the first hurdle of fear.

He clenched his teeth in of hopes of vengeance. He cursed and wished to be able to kill everyone.

The boy stood in the middle of his cell as he contemplated on every bit of useful strategy he could muster from his past life.

That's right. He knows he had a prior life but the memories he has from earth are all fragmented.

Never had he thought that he’d be reincarnated to another world. If only he had another chance, he could have had avoided this predicament.

Only six years when he came to this world and luck has never been on his side. If only he had been born into a loving and caring family.

CLACK!

CLACK!

CLACK!

When the boy heard the main door was opened, he looked towards the direction of the sound. His gaze felt like it could pierce through the walls.