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.
Yet despite the gruesome condition of his body, two huge hands continuously tortures him like sapling of tree being carefully chiseled slowly taking away its life.
"Tell me everything that happened." A burly man whose hands could easily squish a watermelon grabbed the boy's head and whispered near the boy’s ear. The man’s voice was soft but it was deep and menacing even an insect would tremble but to the boy who has been tortured for hours, it sounded like lullaby.
Unresponsive, the boy slowly succumbed into desperation.
The bald man looked into the boy’s lifeless eye.
Like a psychopath, he smiled as his method was once again proven effective. He has lost count as to how many people had gone through his torture. Some starts with insurmountable will and some could endure the most painful and excruciating wounds but in the end, like every man he killed be it innocent or guilty, they all pleaded to die.
Is it bad to inflict pain to someone?
Is it evil to kill another man?
Is it immoral to let someone suffer the cruelest form of torture?
Devoid of any emotions, the burly man reminded himself that conscience and morals have no place for tormentors like him. It is his duty to extract information and if he becomes apparition to excel at what he does, then unlucky are those who are fated to meet him.
“Let’s see…” Looking at the boy’s eyes which had been drained of tears, he could tell the boy’s final thoughts would drift any moment soon and while he had a few more ideas to play the boy, it was time to place an end to this boy’s misery.
As a trained torturer, he is confident the boy has not uttered a single lie and he can tell the boy is innocent as well but the problem is the information he gathered. In essence, it would be considered useless and his master may question his ability but thanks to the crystal recording ball on the wall which captured the session, no one should question the credibility of his work.
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.
"This worm is pregnant and will eat anything before it lays eggs." Even if the boy is unresponsive, the bald man let the worm crawl on the grotesque and almost dismembered body of the innocent boy.
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 causing the man to move to the side and upon seeing the person at the entrance, he immediately in one knee.
“Is he dead?” The room was instantly surrounded with murderous aura as an old man entered the room.
“No, master. He is still breathing!” The bald man trembled and kneeled with his forehead on the ground.
The old man squinted his eyes as he released his divine sense and scanned the boy’s body.
*Exhale!
Relieved that the boy is still breathing, he waived his hand and a sliver of his aura extended and materialized then picked up the hungry worm and pasted it on to the wall.
*Pssk!
Seeing the boy had not taken its last breath yet, 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 greenish substance.
The boy is completely unconscious 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 miraculous healing effects of the mysterious medicine, the old man retracted his aura.
"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.”
“I understand, master.” Having relieved from that suffocating pressure, the bald man did not dare lift his head.
"Allow him to recover his cultivation powers and continue making him talk. Just make sure he does not die, understand?", replied the old man then left.
“Yes, master.”
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!!!”
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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.
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.
“Thank god.” 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. Instantly, he saw hope fueling his desire to free himself and live.
Hi poured his Qi to activate a Formation on his spatial earring. He did not have time to question or celebrate why the earring was not confiscated. He is just thankful he made it look like a regular ornament and it is their fault if they failed to tell it is a spatial storage tool containing another spatial storage ring.
The boy calmed himself as he retrieved the spatial ring he used to store the body of Horned Flame Lion. He wanted to retrieve the headless body of the beast out but it may crush him to death as this beasts body may not fit in the room.
“No, I can do this even if it’s inside the ring.” The boy mumbled as he extended his aura into the ring and with his perfect Qi control, he shaped his Qi like hands and extracted blood from the headless body of the beast.
Following which, he took out another storage ring and retrieved a cauldron and Alchemy materials then began to concocting a medicine which 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 this solution in his hand would give him the power and as much as he wanted to immediately drink it, the thought of confronting his torturer enter his mind blowing away the courage and hope in his heart.
“Hu hu hu.” The boy placed the bottle of liquid on the side as he cowered to a corner and cried.
“Please, no!!!”
Under extreme psychological trauma, the boy lost consciousness and laid on the ground.
After a few hours, the boy was woken up the crackling noises which sounded like a door lock being opened. Unaware of how much time passed, he looked around the scattered Alchemy materials including the bottle of liquid he concocted earlier.
“What should I do?” Having gained a portion of his sanity, he stood up and picked up all his items then stored them into his spatial rings.
CLACK!
CLACK!
The boy can hear that someone is approaching as footsteps echoed from the hallway and signifying he will yet to be tortured again.
CLACK!
As the sound of the footsteps became louder, the boy controlled his fear and let rage consume him.
“So be it.” The boy took out the bottle of unknown medicine and removed the lid.
*Exhale
Out of desperation, the boy opened his mouth and poured the bluish liquid into his throat. Then right after, he 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.
CLANK!
CLANK!
After a few moments, the burly bald man slowly walked towards the dark cell of the boy as he intentionally flicked his fingers towards the nearby cellars creating a sound of suspense. It is an effective tactic he would usually to employ to further drown his victims into desperations and helplessness.
"Do you want this to stop?”
CLANK!
“All you need to do is tell us everything that happened."
Like a creepy lurking predator, the bald man infused his voice with mana to make it sound like disgruntled dying ghost.
"Tell me where did the masked man go?”
With a sinister smile, the bald man was about to slowly show up but upon seeing inside the cell, he was surprised as the boy suddenly dropped to his knees and rolled on a corner gasping for air as if suffering from stomachache.
“Ow … Look at you. You think acting will work? He he he.”
The man coldly laughed however when he entered the room and inspected the boy, he confirmed the boy is truly in pain.
*Arggghhh!
*Arggghhh!
The bald man watched the boy rolled on the floor and even started convulsing and when he was about to walk outside and make a report, his nose picked up traces of medicine.
“I see. It must be master. ”He does not know what is going on but he believed that his master 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, he continued to cry for help.
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 more hours later, the boy woke up from immense thirst.
“Water!” He wanted to shout but it was painful to even utter a word.
And out of instinct, he extended his Qi aura towards his surrounding for water.
“Water!”
In his mind, he will drink anything even if it is someone’s urine.
Like a mad man, he crawled around look for anything to drink and having found nothing, he remembered his spatial rings.
Immediately, he sent his Qi into the spatial rings and took out an unknown bottle of wine.
*Gulp!
*Gulp!
In an instant, he drank all its contents.
“More!” The boy sent his Qi again into the spatial as the bottle of wine felt like it was a drop however upon searching his spatial rings, he found no other liquid. At this point, he looked like a hungry beast he will bite someone’s artery and drink their blood.
*Pant!
*Pant!
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.
*Gulp!
*Gulp!
As the boy drank blood, his thought became clearer.
Earlier, his mind was devastated from psychological trauma from being tortured but having experienced a more terrifying pain, his mind had became indifferent.
“I’ll hunt every one of you.”
The boy 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.
Thinking back, it all started when he was recruited from the orphanage.
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.