An old man is currently seeping tea on a balcony overlooking a valley from afar. This villa was constructed on a hillside near a dense forest. Dressed in fine quality violet robe, the old man was listening for his subordinate's report.

"Elder, I do not know who the boy is and what they did to him but I do not think we can get any information from him."

It is none other than the muscular man who tortured Kle In as he handed a recording crystal. The old man injected his Qi to replay the session and observe what transpired.

"He kept saying he is an Alchemist and that our master was absorbed in a spatial tear. Clearly, we are wasting time. He does not know how master was decapitated."

They were not aware that there were two masked men that time and what Kle In accidently had trapped on a spatial tear was different from the person they were inquiring about.

After a few minutes, the hologram from the recording crystal ended.

"Continue to make him talk.” the old man instructed. The burly man wanted to refute but he realized he was just a lowly Qi Condensation practitioner so he went back to the underground prison.

It has been an hour since the torture stopped but to Kle In, it felt like an eternity. Although the pain has subsided, the pain still lingered and continued to torment him. While he was crying in agony, he heard the sound of a door being opened echoed within the halls of underground prison.

Moments later, his torturer opened his cell. Kle In’s throat was dry so swallowed his saliva and tried to implore for mercy.

"Please sir. I am telling the truth. The masked man was absorbed on the spatial tear. I am useful and I can concoct pills. If money is what you want, I have … please … you can check my spatial.. no…". The burly man held on to Kle In’s feet. Kle In’s body tried to struggle again as wounds began to form from the scratches brought from being tied.

"Aaaaarrrrhhhhh!"

The man did not let Kle In finished his sentence as he slowly pinched one of his toes. The fingernails were recently pulled out and even a soft touch would cause Kle In to feel pain but the man applied force breaking a bone.

The chair that was restraining Kle In started to move as Kle In struggled to free himself. No matter how much he screamed, his tortured did not show any emotions. The man pulled a stick and slowly punctured his left eye.

Kle In wailed and after a few minutes, he felt his whole body has been dismembered, but he still tried to repeat the same thing over and over hoping they would stop and believe him.

The torture continued until Kle In consciousness started to fade. He smiled and cursed at his misfortune.

The burly man took out a box and placed it on his 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."

Hoping he could get a better response from the boy, he grabbed the boy’s head asked one final time, "Tell me what happened and where did the masked man go".

Bang!

The door was forcibly opened. Murderous aura filled the room. The burly man was surprised and immediately moved to the side.

An old man entered and scanned the boy with his divine sense. Relieved that the boy is still breathing, he waived his hand and the black worm was pasted on the wall. Seeing that the boy has lost consciousness, the old man touched the boy's forehead and began vitality transference. Then he slowly opened the boy's mouth and fed him a green-like substance.

A few moments later, the boy's wounds began to recover.

"I will invite a Core Formation expert from Twin River Spirit sect and will arrive in less than six days to perform soul search on this boy. Tell Alchemist Dego to craft a Meridian Restoration Pill and force it to this boy. He needs to be an at a Qi Sensing phase for the search to be successful."

The burly man having been relieved from that suffocating pressure then said, “Elder, I do not understand"

"Allow him to recover his cultivation and continue making him talk. Just make sure he does not die" The old man did not further explain and left.

In the cultivation world, there is a practice called Soul Search which allows cultivators to read the memory of another person. Not everyone can perform such practice as it requires strong mental fortitude which comes with Extreme Yin exposure commonly used in demonic practices. If performed by a random cultivator, a feedback will be created on that person's mind creating hallucinations leading to permanent vegetative state.

Earlier, the old man watch the crystal recording again hoping there is a secret message to what Kle In was saying. He had tortured people in the past and he knew when a subject is telling the truth. The only possibility he can think of is that the boy was brainwashed to utter these few sentences when subjected to extreme pain.

He hopes to find clues on the person who brainwashed Kle In when the soul search is performed. After searching on the spatial rings of the dead they collected, the only information they got is that they picked up the boy at San Ruk Town. He already sent a few men to investigate.