But now, things were different. His wife, Shun Fei was dead, and likely at the hands of the tree before him even though it had been at the behest of the founder, and his child, she had a gu implanted in her which had interfered with her memories, and Yang Qing didn't know how wide and deep the damage was.
What if it had affected all memories of her parents?
Yang Qing wasn't sure Ma Yuan could take it, which was why he was hesitant to head back immediately.
He gently shook his head to push those thoughts away. The tree was likely a victim just as the rest of them.
"N..o..t m..i...n..e b..u..t l..a..s..t t..h..r...e...e"
The wisteria had reached the palace realm and could thus transmit its thoughts. Its voice was cold, serene, and was that of a lady. However, because of how damaged it was from whatever the founder did, it struggled to transmit its thoughts.
Yang Qing who detected waved his sleeves and the vine clone that was still on standby flew in his direction.
He sat in a lotus position, and the clone did so too, with their palms facing each other and gentle light filled with different colors in between them.
The vine clone produced a single branch that tapped the withering wisteria husk.
"You can talk now.." Yang Qing said.
He had used the vine clone as a conduit between him and the Wisteria tree. It could directly transmit its thoughts to the vine clone without the need of using its palace sense, and whatever it wanted to say or show, would be transmitted to Yang Qing.
Yang Qing was still suspicious of the tree, especially after the recent events with the red abyssal thorn tree and the likely soul formation mastermind, he couldn't risk a direct transmission, case the mastermind still had something planted in the tree.
Having the vine clone as a go-between was safer.
"Many thanks for the consideration, young Daoist..." said Wisteria Tree.
"I achieved sentience thirty thousand years ago, but it's been a blur from then. All I remember is being tied by miasma chains while my body was drowned in a river of blood that had billions of accumulated resentments of different creatures from humans to spirit beasts.
I only gained clarity of my surroundings from about 30 years ago, thanks to a young lady who would pay the harp every time she was here. She was absolutely horrible at it, but she released a unique charm with it, along with the pure yin energy around her, it managed to awaken me.
My consciousness grew stronger and stronger from that moment, until 18 years ago when she disappeared with my help.
I hid that I had regained clarity from the founder since I was weaker, and she controlled the seal that shackled me, but I could still maneuver with the help of the yin spirit vein below. I used it in helping the lady escape along with revealing a few memories I had of what awaited her, had she stayed.
However, that young lady was brought back here seven years ago, and no matter how much I didn't want it, she ended up suffering the same fate as all the others who had been brought here.
She was set for refinement a few months ago after she reached the peak of the core formation realm. She knew what waited for her, but she willingly chose it in exchange for her daughter being spared. Even though I think she knew he daughter was likely to suffer a similar fate somewhere down the line.
In these 30 years, three people have been refined with me as the trigger, with her as one of them.
While I was too helpless to save them or stop what happened to them, I tried to preserve their last words that they would like to leave behind. They all chose to do so.."
Yang Qing clenched his fists as he heard that. Even without asking the young lady's identity, he knew it was Ma Yuan's wife.
"What did she say?"
Even though it was a thought transmission, the words said managed to convey Yang Qing's present state which was hesitation, regret, sympathy, and worry.
"Ma Yuan,
You're a blockhead, unreliable in so many ways except for farming which to date I still can't believe how a clumsy person like you could be so good at it. A shameless braggart who just never shuts up, never stops getting in trouble, and is too stubborn for your own good sometimes...but it is thanks to that stubbornness that made me fall in love with you, and it is from that stubbornness that I know you will never stop looking for us.
Some part of me dreads it, but some part of me is happy. Happy to have found someone willing to go to such lengths for me, someone stupid enough not to stop no matter how difficult and impossible it may be.
This is why I'm leaving this message. On the off chance that you do find us, and..... I'm not there.
Thank you, Yuan'er for giving me a life, and giving me a reason to look forward to each day and the beautiful child we created, who I'm glad doesn't have your nose.
She will need you, and you will need her, now that I won't be there for you both. Be there for each other and live Ma Yuan, live. Promise me you will. Take this as another unreasonable request from your wife.
I know you'll be a good father to her, just as you always have been a good father and a good husband, a little too nagging but you were truly good, which is why I hope you can have a good life even if I'm not there to have it with you. Honestly, you still worry me to no end but even in your unreliability, you've always been reliable, a reliable blockhead of a husband, father, and farmer.
Thank you for an amazing life and for letting me be a wife and a mother, and experience a joy I never thought possible. If possible in the next life, I'd want to be your wife again and make so many memories without the shackles of my past hanging above me.
Take care my little blockhead, and look after our daughter, and tell her how much I love her. At least now you can't nag that I'm stingy with my words. Those years of being with you, I've learned something.
Thank you and don't forget me, I won't forget you even in death, from your loving wife, Li Liu.."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺