The past?

Waking up to an oddly familiar ceiling, Ren was confused.

He lay there confused for a sec and thought from which house did this ceiling belong too.

After a while he realised that this dilapidated ceiling was from the orphanage that he grew up in.

The orphanage was located in a town with the worst living conditions possible. No one knew as to why a town was built in the middle of a forest that was in the middle of nowhere, where other human civilizations was hundreds of thousands of kilometeres/miles away.

Even the bandits who were once regulars found it financially taxing and not worth the trip to come and 'do business' here. So they chose to come here every few years.

Generally most people didn't like coming here.

Especially the merchants who needed to run their businesses, they didn't want to spend months coming here just to barely sell their products.

So as you'd imagine, the town struggled a lot, most people left to live elsewhere turning the big town into an almost ghost town.

Eighty percent of the buildings and houses were empty most of the time.

The people that stayed on the other hand, learnt to be sustainable and less reliant on outside help. They planted gardens and met most of their wants and needs.

'This is the orphanage that I grew up in! What am I doing here?' Ren questioned as he sat up and looked around him.

Besides him was a row of frail looking bunk beds that stretched out to the the ends of the room. Opposite him was another row of beds.

All the beds were vacant and didn't seem to have any occupants or had any to begin with. All except for one bed which was not far from Ren's position, it on the other hand was neatly made.

Suddenly Ren began to recall the last thing that happened. He was both confused and angry. He took some time to calm himself down.

'Wait wasn't Samsu destroyed by demons after I left?' Ren thought in confusion as he got out of bed, When Suddenly...

He found something amiss, he looked down to investigate and was shocked to discover his body had grew shorter and smaller or to be exact, younger!.

"What's going on?" Ren asked out loud in confusion.

He quickly ran towards the end of the room and found a small mirror, he checked and realized that he looked like his ten year old self.

Short dark blue hair and black eyes, Ren looked dashing but he was unassuming.

'Did that devil or Satan send me back in time to my old body?' Ren contemplated as he investigated himself some more.

Ren was confused but since this was a cultivation world and almost anything was possible he quickly kept his composure.

'There's a way to know for sure" he quickly ran out of the room and into a large empty hallway, his footsteps echoed in the empty hallway as he kicked up dust everywhere he passed.

The orphanage was designed to accommodate at least a thousand children, it was quite enormous. So it took him a while to find a door that led outside.

He ran outside and the first thing that greeted his eyes and ears was the non stop barking of the dog that was chained up to the gate.

The malnourished-looking dog had died a long time ago and Ren vividly remembers burying it himself.

It had taken him a great deal of effort to dig up a deep enough 'grave' but he did it.

Standing in front of the tall church looking building, Ren looked around at everything, he was in awe.

The brick and wooden houses were neatly arranged on both sides of the streets.

They all had a simular design and the only deference being size, the feeling it gave off was Victorian Era, of old England.

Kids were running and playing on the streets. Busy adults were commuting back and forth, while street vendor's urged their deals.

The sun was high up in the sun, it's warmth chasing away every bit of morning cold. The skies as blue as the ocean with not a single cloud in sight.

Ren was speechless, he didn't even need to try as every building he looked at gave him a bad case of nostalgia. It was just as he remembered.

Not only that but even the people here gave him that feeling. Compared to the people he knew from back then, he felt like he could name most of them here straight from memory.

The dog being alive and 'well'... I mean alive, the strangly similar town and the change in his physical appearance, could mean that he had been sent back into the past into his younger self.

"This is perfect! Not only do I get a chance to get my life back but I can exact my revange. Who knew that making a deal with Satan could be so good" Ren monologued.

He clenched his fists very hard and his still frail skin started to hurt. Not aware of the pain, Ren's eyes were opened wide as he thought back to the last faces he saw.

"I'll have my revenge on all of you, just you wait!"

After a while of standing still, Ren shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He went back inside and started to chart a course for the future.

Just as Ren was on his bed writing and trying to remember the important events that followed before he forgot.

He suddenly noticed an unassuming black ring on his bed. He picked it up and took a closer look.

The ring was jet black black and had an ordinary design. On the top of the ring was a white droplet that had a dot in the middle.

'Where did this come from? I don't remember having this thing in the past nor in my days of being a Hero, so where did it come from?'

'Did it come from Satan? That must be the case! After I'm done with my revenge I'll go and find her and thank her personally!' Ren thought, he had almost spent a significant amount of time thinking that he almost forgot about the ring.

'Maybe it's a storage ring? and it requires Qi to function or I need to attain a certain cultivation base.' Ren thought as he wore the ring.

He played with it for a while trying to figure out it's purpose but ultimately gave up when he couldn't find anything.

Ren went back into his planning and the sands of time got washed away by the persistent waves of the present.

After an hour of extensive planning and remembering, Ren already had a timeline written down. It wasn't that strict but he now knew when he'd meet who and when he'd kill them.

In the midst of writing, Ren suddenly heard voices. Instinctively he quickly got up and hide in one of the unoccupied top bunk beds.

The orphanage had only one caretaker but she wasn't a people person and would more often then not yell at the children.

The orphanage having hundreds of rooms dooms didn't help her either as the kids would just run away.

As for the children, there weren't that many, only about six. They had also gotten use to her and would avoid her like the plague.

Ren peered through from the top bed and was shocked at what he saw. Two figures walked into the room, one was a boy and the other was a girl.

The girl was Alexandra, Ren's first friend. She had tragically been killed in the past during a raid. She was one of the reasons that Ren even started his road to justice.

Looking at her, Ren couldn't help but stare as memories flooded in. Alexandra a young girl with long black hair, reddish eyes and a bright smile that light up the room.

But that was not what shocked Ren, what shocked him was the boy.

Besides her was a boy who looked like Ren, he saw an identical version of himself with the same clothes and everything.

'This? what is this?' Ren stood there with no thoughts crossing his mind.

"Ren, don't let them get to you, your way better then them." Alexandra's sweet voice reached every coner of the room.

'I forgot she was loud like that, I miss her' Ren hiding in the bed was brought back from his daze.

"Maybe they are right." The 'other' Ren said, his head was down and his tone was low.

"No! They are wrong! Stop puting yourself down!" As if her voice wasn't loud enough, Alexandra shouted. Both Ren's had to cover their ears.

"Stop shouting, why do you always shout" The other Ren*1 said.

"It's who I am ok?" Alexandra said softly. She fidgeted with her dress a bit, she looked at the ground and said," Ren just so you know, when there's nobody there you'll always have me."

"Thank you" The other Ren replied.

'Damn! Was my brain that smooth?' Ren lamented in anger. He couldn't help but think, "And this donut, who says thank you?"

He listened more to their conversation and at this point was absolutely curtain that, the other Ren was his younger self and both of them were Ren.

'Does that mean, I didn't inherit my original body but took my older body? No that can't be as I have no strength nor cultivation!' Ren's thoughts ran wild as he looked at the two people.

As the saying goes, plans can't keep up with changes, with this plot twist, Ren had to change his plans a bit.

'Should I tell my younger self about everything? Also can I trust him entirely? or rather will he trust me with the news?' Ren sat there and thought in silence.

Suddenly the door was kicked open! Three figures walked into the room.

When the Ren who was hidden on the top bunk bed landed his sights on them, he clenched his fists and grited his teeth.

Like a hot fluid in a container, he was boiling with anger. He had to stop himself from jumping down.