The maw in the darkness

The sound of running footsteps started to approach the hidden basin a bit of time after Liang Chen called down the crimson and violet lightning, a group of people quickly appearing at the peak of one of the surrounding mountains. The group consisted of almost 10 people that were mixed in age and gender.

Standing at the front of the group was a male youth who looked like he was in his early twenties, Yan Ying. He had deep green hair that reached down to just above his ears, chiseled features, pitch black eyes, and was clad in tight-fitting armor made out of the hide of a scaled beast. When his eyes landed on the basin below them, which was still filled with body parts and blood, he couldn't help but scrunch up his nose, pointing at the basin.

"This is the place where the heavenly lightning struck. It's a gruesome sight, but let's try to see if we can find any traces of what might have summoned the lightning."

Yan Ying's group had felt it when the crimson and violet lightning ravaged the earth here, rushing over at their fastest speed. Heavenly lightning would only descend when a magnificent treasure was born, or when power people were making a breakthrough in their cultivation. The people behind him quickly dashed into the basin, Yan Ying following right after them.

They quickly spread out and started to scour through every inch of the basin in search for what they presumed was a great treasure. Everyone who had died there had been a cultivator, every inch of their body containing Qi. Because of that, even though several hours had passed, the blood that dyed the earth red was still fresh and wet, splashing around as people walked through it. Yan Ying could not help but look at all the corpses, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Blown apart, evaporated, some even melted. Just how much heavenly lightning had to strike this place to cause such havoc? Any luck with the search?"

Such a large area had been affected, so many people dying, it was clear that there had been far more than just one bolt of heavenly lightning that struck this place. Shortly after Yan Ying called out his question, there was a shocked shout from the center of the basin.

"Young Master, there is a survivor!"

Not only Yan Ying, the others that were searching were also surprised at the response. There were so many dead here, just how had someone managed to survive this carnage? Yan Ying quickly dashed over to the subordinate that had called out, finding a naked child lying on the ground.

The child had emerald green hair, and pushing open his eyelids showed that he had golden pupils. His body was covered in blood and a few wounds, scars that resembled cracks filling his back. Yan Ying crouched down next to the child, Liang Chen, and inspected the outside of his body, letting out a slight mutter after giving him a quick inspection.

"There really was a survivor. He looks to be in bad shape, but nothing fatal. Did you find anything else here?"

The subordinate, Dong Qiu, a dwarf of a man that had a bushy blonde bear and a bald head, pointed at the molten earth below Liang Chen, at what used to be a several meters tall boulder.

"Traces of what might have been a Two-Petaled Elemental Lotus. That might be what drew down the heavenly lightning."

There were no remains of the Elemental Lotus, as it had turned to dust before the violet lightning even struck it, but Dong Qiu was still able to sense traces of its Qi in the air. Yan Ying also sensed the traces of the Elemental Lotus, giving a slight nod of his head before turning towards another one of his subordinates, an old man covered in wrinkles and spread tufts of white hair.

"Maybe. Bring the kid with us. Old Chen, take a look at his state and see if there is anything we can do."

A Two-Petaled Elemental Lotus was indeed capable of calling down heavenly lightning with some assistance but was it truly enough to call down the amount of heavenly lightning needed to cause carnage like this? But as they had found nothing else, Yan Ying could only accept it for the time being. The man called Old Chen couldn't help but start slightly after being called out, glancing at the unconscious Liang Chen before stating his opinion with a shake of his head.

"You wish to bring him with us? Young Master, I must advise against bringing someone unknown with us."

Old Chen could tell that Liang Chen's cultivation was far lower than even the weakest member of their group, but he was still someone unknown, so he could be a risk. Yan Ying stood up after hearing Old Chen's opinion, he pointed at Liang Chen, speaking in a firm tone that left no room for rebuttal.

"By the gods, he is just a young child, he doesn't even look like he has come of age yet! Just look at his wounds, it is clear that he has suffered quite a bit. I don't know what brought him here, but as long as I have the power, I will not leave such a young child to die. Bring him with us."

Yan Ying would not allow another child to die in front of his eyes because he had chosen not to take action, that was the one thing he would never allow himself to do. With Yan Ying this determined, Old Chen could only lower his head and follow orders.

"As you wish."

The rest of the group quickly finished their scouring of the basin but found nothing of worth, even the interspatial rings of the dead had disintegrated because of the lightning, their contents lost in space. Since they found nothing of interest, they grabbed Liang Chen and left the basin.

Outside the basin stood several carriages that resembled small houses, large horses covered in scales standing calmly in front of the carriages. The group boarded the carriages and started making their way deeper into the hidden realm, back to where they had been exploring earlier.

Yan Ying and Old Chen broughtLiang Chen onto the rearmost carriage, placing him down on an empty bed. The inside of the carriage was shaped like a single large room filled with several empty beds, a place where they could let others take a rest if they encountered them on their journey. Yan Ying sat down on one of the empty beds, beckoning towards Liang Chen.

"Old Chen, you can start examining the kid now."

Old Chen nodded and walked over to Liang Chen, placing his palms on Liang Chen's chest and using his Qi to inspect the inside of Liang Chen's body, examining every nook and cranny. As he continued his inspection, his face couldn't help but distort, an unbelieving mutter escaping from his lips.

"By all that is holy..."

Yan Ying rarely saw Old Chen make an expression like this, so he quickly walked over, glancing at Liang Chen's scarred body as he questioned.

"What did you find?"

Old Chen removed his palms from Liang Chen's body, taking out a cyan colored robe from his interspatial ring and placing it over his naked body. As he looked at Liang Chen, his eyes contained a hint of pity. He took a deep breath and then started to report what he had found.

"His insides are in a horrid mess, but they are slowly repairing themselves, draining what little Qi he has left to heal him. It... It is also likely that the child has suffered inhumane and forbidden torture from a young age."

Not only were Liang Chen's organs and veins charred and twisted, many of his bones were broken in several places. But despite these wounds, Liang Chen had not died and was instead slowly healing! Even if they had not found him, Old Chen guessed that he would wake up after a few days and be mostly healed.

"His veins, his flesh, his blood, every inch of his being has been twisted and tainted by lightning and poison Qi. The Qi has sunk so deep into his very being that his body will likely never be able to absorb any other types of Qi again, they will be like poison to him, tearing him apart if he should try to absorb them."

Old Chen wasn't lying when he said every inch, even Liang Chen's heart and brain, even his spiritual sea, the place where his mind and soul resided, were tainted by those two elements. Old Chen had a much higher cultivation than Liang Chen so he did not believe that an unconscious Liang Chen could hide anything from him.

But there was, in fact, one thing he was unable to see as he meticulously searched Liang Chen's body, and that was the Lightning Seed that was located just below Liang Chen's heart. The seed had originally been golden with a tint of azure, but now it had also taken on a slight hue of crimson and violet, hair-thin roots spreading out from the seed and entering Liang Chen's Ascended Tower. Yan Ying listened to the explanation but failed to see the connection between that and Old Chen's earlier words, so he raised an eyebrow and asked.

"What does that have to do with him likely being tortured?"

Old Chen took another deep breath, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out a thin book that was bound in strange gray leather. He opened the book, turning towards a page near the end and showing it to Yan Ying as he continued his explanation.

"Because it is very reminiscent of an ancient experiment performed while cultivation was still in its infant stages. The basis was that one filled the body of a child who had yet to absorb any Qi with Qi of a certain element, staining every inch of their being with it. The experiment tried to forcefully raise one's affinity towards a certain element, but it would always result in a horrifying death after having to suffer unimaginable pain. It was quickly banned as a forbidden experiment, but there are still some that try to perfect it. Even after all these countless years, there have never been reports of any humans surviving the experiment. If he truly was forced to go through that horrid experiment, his survival is nothing short of a miracle."

The time period Old Chen spoke of was incredibly ancient, taking place not long after the birth of this universe. It was impossible for him to have lived that long, so all he knew about the experiment and that time period were things he had read in the deeper parts of his sect's library. Yan Ying quickly caught onto the meaning of Old Chen's oddly specific words, so he pressed on.

"No humans have ever survived it? So some of the other races have managed to survive it?"

The universe was inhabited by a vast number of races, each which had their own special abilities or traits. Humans were not the most blessed of the races, but they managed to breed quickly, so they were able to spread all over the universe. Old Chen gave a deep nod of his head, flipping a few more pages of the book.

"Indeed. The experiment was occasionally conducted on some of the other races, almost always leading to their death. But there were two that managed to survive the experiment, one was from the Fiendgod race of the Hidden World, and the other was from the Undead race of the Hidden World. But both of the survivors became crippled because of the experiment, not able to absorb any types of Qi. After that, one turned feral and had to be killed, while the other turned mad and killed himself by slamming his head into the ground until he died."

The Hidden World was just that, a place that no one really knew where was, nor did they know what the continent was like. The only people from that place that had arrived on this planet or others had done so by being sucked into a spatial rift and forcibly teleported away. But after arriving on the planets, none of those people spoke a word about their own homeworld, not even giving its name. When they tried to force the words out of their mouths using torture or mind-controlling drugs, the people chose to kill themselves instead of telling anything.

But there was one piece of information that people managed to guess about this Hidden World, and that was the fact that it likely contained very few humans. Over countless years, quite a few people had arrived from this Hidden World, but they were always from some strange races, there had never been a single human. Yan Ying wasn't clueless about the Hidden World and the known races that came from there, so he couldn't help but look at Liang Chen with a raised eyebrow.

"And this kid? He doesn't seem to be from their races."

Of course, it could be that Liang Chen was someone from a previously unknown race, but Yan Ying found it highly unlikely that there could still be any unknown races in this universe, too many years had passed for them to stay hidden and unknown. Old Chen quickly spoke up, his voice high-pitched and tinged with excitement.

"That's the strange part! He has no features that place him among any other race, he seems to be completely human. And looking at his Ascended Tower, he can even cultivate normally, as long as it is only the elements of poison and lightning! There are two possibilities that I can think of. The first is that I am wrong and the child has never undergone that experiment but rather something similar. The other possibility is that the child was forced to go through the experiment and managed to survive, that he is a miracle."

Old Chen could only imagine the inhuman pain Liang Chen had to endure for every inch of his body to be tainted in poison and lightning, and for that, he pitied him. But at the same time, he was quite excited at the prospects that there might be someone who had managed to perfect that ancient experiment. Yan Ying ignored Old Chen's high-pitched voice, placing a finger on Liang Chen's chest, where his heart was placed.

"What about his heritage, is he from any of the clans?"

The various clans and races had special bloodlines, while the various sects had special marking methods. Checking either of these would allow others to quickly learn where the other party had their origins, making it easy to identify them. Old Chen had already checked for this, so he immediately shook his head.

"No, he doesn't have the bloodline belonging to any of the large clans or races, nor the mark of any sect."

This was another part that Old Chen found strange. Even the slaves and servants of sects and clans would have some type of mark placed on them. For Liang Chen to have nothing like this, it most likely meant he came from no sect or clan, he might just be a completely normal child. But then, how had his body ended up in the state that it was? Yan Ying removed his finger from Liang Chen's chest. He hadn't found any marks either, so he gave a nod of his head and put the matter aside for the moment.

"I see. Let's wait for him to wake up, we can ask him about his past then. Have Teng Yimu stand ready for that time."

Teng Yimu was one of his subordinates that specialized in a very strange element, one based on the soul. Thanks to that, he was able to use his Qi and the energy of his soul to determine if people spoke the truth. He was perfect for a questioning session like this.

--

While Liang Chen's unconscious body was taken away by Yan Ying and the others, his mind sank deeper into the darkness, once again dreaming of that haunting scene. But this time, the dream was a bit different from how it had always been.

He stood in front of the scaffolding where his parents were to be executed, but this time, it wasn't his Uncle Xiang that stood next to his parents, it was Qing Chun. The three of them stood in front of the scaffolding, the surrounding crowd strangely quiet as Liang Chen looked at the three of them. He knew that this was nothing but a dream that his subconscious had created, but looking at the three people standing in front of him, he still couldn't help but burst into tears and spill out his feelings.

"Father, Mother, Big Sister Chun... I am so terribly lonely. Why did you leave me all alone?"

Liang Chen was barely 13, yet not only had he lost his parents and been forced to split up with the one person he could consider a friend, he had also been chased out of the city he had called home all his life. No matter how determined he was to get his revenge, all this still took a toll on him and his mind. He wasn't expecting a proper answer, but the Qing Chun in front of him actually walked forward, shaking her head.

"Because you are weak. With your little strength, how could we possibly stay at your side? We would only die an early death."

Liang Chen was shocked at the response from Qing Chun, but before he got the chance to say anything, his parents stepped forward. Just like the day they were executed, they placed their hands on his shoulder and spoke up.

"Son, you must listen to me."

Liang Chen instantly focused on them his eyes growing red. With the both of them in front of him, it was like they had never left. His mother's long black hair, his father's short brown hair, their kind features, their familiar scent, their brown eyes, Liang Chen remembered it perfectly. After making sure that Liang Chen was paying full attention to them, his parents spoke up, their voices strangely synchronized.

"You must release me, you must set me free."

Liang Chen couldn't help but tilt his head in confusion, as he failed to understand the words. But before he got to state his confusion, the world around him turned into a nightmare. The faces of his parents and Qing Chun, as well as all the surrounding people, started to droop and melt. A black crack appeared in their heads, splitting them wide open, like a massive maw. His parents and Qing Chun grabbed onto him, while the surrounding people were slowly walking closer, a distorted and horrid chant sounding out.

"RelEAse Me! ReLEAse Me rEleaSE ME! SeT ME FrEe AnD LEt mE feAST!"

The surrounding people started to melt into the ground, the entire city around him trembling fiercely. A massive crack split the entire city in half and started to slowly widen, like a massive maw that was trying to swallow Liang Chen and the rest of the city, his parents trying to draw him into the darkness below. But before they were able to draw him down into the depths of the darkness, his entire body jolted awake and he found himself lying in an unknown bed.