"Protector, my ass," Maxine sneered using her spriitual sense, "Where the hell was this protector when millions of humans were being slaughtered by essence beasts?! WHY THE FUCK HASN'T HE DONE ANYTHING TO HELP US!?!" She is absolutely livid. If Hellen actually had a body, Maxine would have grabbed her by the shirt while yelling at her.
"I am sorry about those deaths, but there are far worse things in the universe than those paltry essence beasts that you have encountered thus far. I doubt you have encountered anything surprassing iron stage yet," Hellen responded, "There are evil races that would enslave your race, world-eating essence beasts that could swallow this planet whole and cosmic anomalies that can tear this world asunder. Those are the things the my dear husband protects your world from. What little down time he has is likely spent recovering. He doesn't have the time or energy to protect those people from essence beasts that already dwell on it. At least he gave your race a cultivation method. He didn't leave all of you defenseless." Hellen's response had surprised Maxine into silence and calmed her down somewhat. There wasn't a reason for Hellen to lie to her. However Maxine regained her rage as Hellen spoke especially when she mentioned that this Poison Emperor Guan left them a cultivation method.
"He didn't give us ANYTHING! The cultivation method I use was derived from the collective hard work of others," Maxine replied venomously.
"WHAT?! He wouldn't have left your race without a means to defend yourselves," Hellen said in disbelief, "The alliance would have punished him severely for such negligence. I can't see him not teaching you a cultivation method. Unless ... he used the forbidden technique."
"Forbidden technique?" Maxine asked in confusion.
"That technique rips souls from the future and places them into their respective bodies in the present. It damns one timeline to save another and if your control isn't absolutely perfect, certain souls will be reborn into the wrong body. However when that happens, two different souls end up in the same body and it almost always results in the destruction of both souls. Only in the rarest of cases do the two souls actually merge together," Hellen said, "For those reasons, it is only used as a last resort when the cultivation methods of the alliance causes the people of a world to go violently insane." So I ended up in this body because of his fuck up? At least I didn't end up getting my soul destroyed. And did she just say their cultivation method drives people insane?! That sounds alot like the asshole that killed Emily's parents. Why didn't this Poison Emperor Guan kill the crazy bastard before he could do that to Emily's parents? This is just another reason to hate that prick.
"I think he used it. I have met someone that knew events that havn't happened yet. They knew when the first essence beast wave was going to occur," Maxine said.
"I see," Hellen said and paused for a moment before she continued, "I am sorry that the use of that technique had been necessary."
"But why was the use of that technique even necessary in the first place? He didn't actually have to set foot onto Earth in order to protect it did he?" Maxine asked.
"You are right. It wasn't necessary for him to live on your world to protect it," Hellen answered, "I have a suspicion about why he would do it. However I need you to answer a couple questions to confirm it." That sounded reasonable to Maxine.
"Alright, go ahead and ask me what you need to," Maxine said.
"Tell me where you found the bracelet that I dwell within and describe those surroundings in as much detail as you can," Hellen said.
"I found the golden bracelet on your remains in a cave. The cave isn't very deep. Your body was placed in a large chamber with a headstone of some kind buried above your head. At the entrance of the cave, there was a strange barrier that keeps everyone from entering, except myself. However when I coat someone in my essence, it let's them through," Maxine answered.
"Interesting. That confirms that someone found my body. I had died in the middle of a forest," Hellen asked, "Did you find a glowing sphere anywhere near my body."
"No, I didn't," Maxine responded. When Maxine had found the golden braclet before, she had scanned everything within two three feet of her corpse.
"In that case, could you take me there? I want to be certain you didn't miss anything," Hellen said.
"Alright. I go there every night to cultivate anyways, so it's not an issue," Maxine said, "By the way, what is that sphere you are looking for?"
"That sphere is a special barrier that freezes time for whatever is inside of it and it contains my baby," Hellen said, "If she isn't there, there is a chance that my husband found her and found a home for her on your world in order to hide her." Oh, shit. No wonder she wanted to know if I saw it.
"Maybe you're right. I didn't find any thing like that when I was there yesterday," Maxine answered.
"You best take care of your surroundings now. Your mother and friend seem quite concerned," Hellen said.
Both Emily and her mother had already asked Maxine what was wrong several times, but was unable to since she had been too focused in her conversation with Hellen to answer them. They were worried because Maxine had released an intense killing intent earlier when Hellen had told her it was Poison Emperor Guan's fault that Earth's essence levels rose. That killing intent had thoroughly frightened everyone in the room. Maxine did her best to tell them what had transpired between her and Hellen. However Maxine omitted the fact that Poison Emperor Guan was the cause of the rising essence levels on Earth. If that ever got out, the government would try to eliminate him and that would be tantamount to suicide if he was as powerful as she suspected.
Maxine calmed herself down and tried to enjoy spending time with Emily, Silky and her mother. She was please to know that her mother was making excellent progress in regaining strength in her hands and Maxine found out that her father had gotten sick while he was in prison. She hardly even cared. She hated her father and hadn't talked to him since he had been in prison.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Unfortunately her mother reminded Maxine about the desire for grandchildren. That caused Silky to ask where babies came from and that was a very awkward conversation for Maxine. Emily had appeared amused until Maxine included her in educating Silky. She could have sworn she heard Hellen laughing from within the golden bracelet during the whole process. After they had finished that talk, they watched some TV until it was time to head home for dinner. Emily had to go home as well when General McKenzy arrived. After Maxine got home and finished eating dinner, she took Silky with her and entered the shadow world to cultivate.
"How did you do that?" Hellen asked out of nowhere through her spiritual sense, "You literately travelled to another dimensional plane with a passenger and made it look effortless. It would have taken me a week of grueling effort to do what you just did."
"I don't know for certain, but every time I pour my essence into my shadow it creates a gateway to the spot right above your essence core," Maxine answered.
"Interesting," Hellen said, "I will examine the cave now. Give me a moment." Maxine felt like Hellen was examining her from head to toe, but didn't feel any spiritual sense coming into contact with her body. However she did detect Hellen scanning the whole cave. After Hellen had finished scanning the room, Maxine got impatient because Hellen wasn't saying anything.
"What did you find?" Maxine asked.
"Nothing other than some double encryped text. It's the same kind of encryption that my husband keeps on all of his alchemical notes. Only myself and a handful of his close friends can decrypt it," Hellen said, "It says things along the lines of that his wife lies here and that he has taken our daughter to a safe place. He never once mentioned his or my name in it." Sounds like he is being overly cautious to me, but if he has some nasty enemies pretending to be his friends, that would be the reason for it.
"That's good," Maxine said, "I wonder which part of Earth he took her to."
"So would I," Hellen said and was silent for a few moments before she asked, "Can you take me outside to see the stars?" Maxine was confused by the change of subject, but didn't see any harm in fulfilling that request.
"Alright," Maxine answered, "Any particular reason that you want to see them?"
"I want to know how long it has been since I died," Hellen said.
"Fair enough," Maxine answered as she walked outside of the cave. She waited for a few minutes seeing if Hellen had gotten the look she needed, but she started to get impatient. "So.. you going to tell me how long you have been dead or what?"
"What? Oh, I am sorry. I was just absorbed in my thoughts. If I have read the positions of the starts correctly, I have been dead for almost one hundred Earth years," Hellen answered, "Why hasn't he come to retreive my body yet?" Maxine didn't even need to think about whom she was talking about. It was obviously her husband.
"Maybe he is occupied by defending my world or he is having a hard time dealing with his enemies," Maxine offered.
"For that to be the case, his enemy would have to be ten times stronger than my husband to even stand a chance. His poisons are beyond lethal and there are only a handful of essence cultivators that can deal with them. None of which are hostile towards my husband," Hellen answered, "As for him being occupied defending your world, that is even less of a reason. He could have easily conjured up a clone or had one of my relatives to retrieve my body."
"Then I can't imagine why he wouldn't retrieve your corpse," Maxine said through her spiritual sense. Hellen became silent once more. Maxine walked back into the cave and got into a comfortable position. However she couldn't concentrate enough to cultivate because she was trying to figure out why any man would leave his beloved's corpse to rot in a cave for this long. If he had been trying to keep his daughter's survival a secret, all he would have to do is leave his wife's body in the cave for a couple decades and find a suitable skeleton to act as a stand-in for his daughter before burying the both of them. Unless they had DNA testing capability, no one would ever know. However If they did, that would be a good reason why he didn't do that and he couldn't take the risk that his hidden enemies would go after his daughter.
After solving that mystery in her head, she was able to concentrate enough to cultivate. However before she could begin, Hellen spoke, "You look nothing like your mother." Several of people had made the same comments when Maxine had still been small. However it almost felt like Hellen was about to add something else, but had stopped herself for some reason.
"I am aware. What's your point?" Maxine asked.
"Just making an observation," Hellen answered while sounding pleased, "I am guessing that you are an only child. Am I right?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Maxine replied while keeping her suspicion out of her voice.
"I just want to know more about the person keeping me alive," Hellen said. Maxine didn't believe her. There was something else to these questions that Hellen wasn't mentioning. It's almost like Hellen thinks I am a descendant of hers. Maxine couldn't dismiss that possibility off hand. After one hundred years, four or more generations could have gone by, but what Hellen had said earlier about Poison Emperor Guan's essence being around fourteen years old seemed odd to her. Because the rate that Earth's essence increased was too fast for him to have come to Earth more than fourteen years ago and from what Maxine understood, it was impossible for Poison Emperor Guan to keep his essence from leaking outside of his body. That mean he hadn't arrived before then and even if he had kept his daughter in the stasis field the entire time, she would at least be fourteen or fifteen years old. That would make it impossible for Maxine to be related to Hellen or Poison Emperor Guan. I am over analyzing things. I need to relax.
"That's reasonable," Maxine said as she got comfortable, "I am going to cultivate now. I would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me while I do it."
"Alright, Maxine," Hellen said. Maxine wondered only for half a second why Hellen knew her name. She had obviously heard it when she had still been at the hospital with her mother.
Maxine made certain that Silky knew not to leave the cave before she began to cultivate. She loved to cultivate here. It was far faster and more comfortable than on Earth. However she felt that Hellen was observing Maxine while she cultivated. It was annoying, but she tolerated it. There was no way her cultivation method would be any use to Hellen anyways if her cultivation method drove people on Earth insane. After Maxine was finished cultivating, she realized that she hadn't asked Hellen what Poison Emperor Guan looked like.
"Hellen? You still there?" Maxine asked using her spiritual sense.
"Yes, it's not like I can get up and leave," Hellen responded, "What is it?"
"What does Poison Emperor Guan look like?" Maxine asked.
"That's easy enough to answer. He looks rather plain. Although you would never be able to tell considering that he wears a mask most of the time. He says it's to keep from inhaling his own poisons, but that's nonsense since he is immune to most poisons. He wears it because he is embaressed that every other essence male cultivator he has encountered has been far more handsome than himself and he doesn't want to be called ugly," Hellen said, "However if you want a definite way to identify him, it's his eyes. They are the most beautiful and unique pair of eyes I have ever seen. They are golden with small specks of green in them." Maxine felt as if she was hit by a thunderbolt. Those are the same kind of that the Shadow Cat has.