-Haahh.
The young man sat up on his bed, disoriented and drenched in sweat.
He frantically looked around until he finally recognized this place.
Paul Marshal, a sixteen-year-old with black hair and green eyes, started to laugh.
-It worked, I can't believe I'm back.
His laughter died down the next moment as he remembered why he had to go back in time, his eyes turned cold, and his body started exuding a killing intent.
He was forced out of his memories by a knock at the door.
-Young master, are you awake?
The pleasant voice of a young maid was heard after the knock.
Paul knew this voice and barely stopped his voice from shaking and his eyes from tearing up, as he never thought that they would meet again.
-I am. You can come in, Alice.
The door opened, and a beautiful young girl with brown hair, grey eyes, and a figure of a model entered the room.
-Good morning, young master.
She greeted him with a slight smile.
-Good morning, and drop the whole young master routine, Alice, we are alone, so nobody can complain if you call me by my name.
She giggled at his words.
-No way, if the mistress ever found out, she would fire me on the spot, and who would take care of you then?
She said playfully.
-You know I'm sixteen already and can take care of myself pretty well.
Paul argued.
-Yeah, you can when you have a maid around.
He couldn't argue with that as he forgot for a moment that he had gone back in time, and she didn't remember what happened.
In his previous life, he was a useless bum who didn't know how to take care of himself, but now that he was back, things were different.
-Alright, you win.
Paul admitted defeat as there was no way that he could win this.
Alice smiled at him with pride and joy that she had won another silly little argument.
-Since you finished fooling around, get out of bed so I can do my work and get dressed.
She said with her hands on her hips.
Alice was always like that, and he didn't mind.
While he was taking a shower, a little luxury that he had missed for years, she was busy tidying up his bed and taking his clothes from the previous day to wash them.
After getting ready, Paul went down to the dining hall, which was empty as usual, and only had one place set up.
The meal was delicious as always, and he had eaten his fill, which surprised the servants, as usually he barely ate anything.
After eating his fill, he went back to his room, undressed, and stood in front of a big mirror in his closet.
-How the hell did I let this happen to me?
He asked himself in a hushed voice.
Paul was around 180 cm tall, but his body right now was a wreck.
Then, with no muscles to speak of, he looked only slightly better than the death camp prisoner.
-After tonight, it will all change.
He muttered.
Right now, he was at his biological father's house since his mother and stepfather died in a car crash.
His Father wasn't Polish like his mother; he was Chinese, and only right before he went back in time did he learn the circumstances of his birth, which weren't too pleasant.
He learned what a fool he was for more than a decade, believing that his father, stepmother, and step-siblings cared about him.
The only thing they cared about was using his talents for their gain, and once he grew too powerful, they decided to get rid of him.
He remembered the betrayal of his girlfriend, the pain of the poison that ripped his body from the inside, and the ridicule on the faces of these bastards when they revealed everything to him, knowing that this would be the worst torture that they could put him through.
It turned out that he was a total fool for many years, as his parents' deaths weren't an accident but an assassination orchestrated by his stepmother out of jealousy.
Alice, his only real friend, was raped and murdered by his stepbrothers as they always wanted her body, but their father forbade them from touching the servants.
So they kidnapped and raped her before slitting her throat and dumping her naked body on the street in the slums to make it look like she was assaulted by some hoodlums and killed.
His girlfriend, with whom he had been in a relationship for three years, told him that she had never loved him and was a girlfriend of his younger brother, and that she would marry him soon.
This was enough to make a man lose his mind. Still, they also dropped another bombshell on him, informing him that he was a rape child as his father had drugged and raped his mother when he was in Poland on business, and when she reported the crime the next morning, he was already on his way back to China, so there was nothing that the authorities could do.
They ridiculed him for a few minutes before they sensed that he was gathering the energies in his body into one spot.
Thinking that he wanted to self-detonate and kill them along with himself, they pierced him with several swords and spears.
What they didn't know was that he wasn't planning on self-detonating but providing the power to a hidden artifact that they had no idea he had.
He came back to reality and noticed that he was clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles went white.
Paul looked at himself one last time before he sneered and dressed back up.
-You took advantage of me for a decade, and I will make you pay for all that you have done.
He said to his reflection in the mirror once he was fully dressed.
Now, he wasn't a stupid teenager who was easy to manipulate and use, and after that night, the only time his father's family would see him again would be the time he came to even the score with them and avenge his mother and stepfather.
There were quite a lot of people who had to pay for what they had done to him and his family.
-I have time, and they will get what is coming to them sooner or later.
Paul thought to himself.
Right now, he was already ahead of everyone else as he knew what would happen tonight, and he intended to use every little opportunity that came his way instead of giving them away to his so-called family.
Right now, he was lamenting, letting go of so many opportunities that could change his life for the better and allow his progress in cultivation to skyrocket, but he always gave them away to his younger step-siblings.
He allowed his anger to cool down a bit as there was still a whole day before the event started, and he would have to try his best to avoid his father's family, or he might lose control once he saw those smug faces once again.