For the past three days, Maxine had been extremely worried about her father. He had gotten increasingly worse as Hellen had predicted and he had been moved to a specialized quarantine room. She watched as the doctors had tried putting him into a medicinally induced coma to shield him from the pain because the painkillers were not enough to stop the pain. However his coma only lasted a couple hours before he woke back up screaming. Maxine was almost at the point where she wished her father would just die, so that he wouldn''t have to suffer anymore. According to Hellen, this was the last day that her father would be suffering from that poison and she wanted to check on him early today since her mother was being released from the hospital today. It was earlier than they had expected due to her mother''s rapid recovery.


    After leaving Silky at her mother''s hospital room, Maxine went to check on her father. He was still in monstrous amounts of pain as he squirmed and moaned in his hospital bed. The nurse monitoring him told Maxine that he was actually in less pain than he had been last night. Apparently, the poison was starting to wear off. However that didn''t mean he was out of danger just yetand his mind could be broken due to the extreme pain he had suffered which would be worse than death. She had to convince her mother not to come here. It would break her mother''s heart to see her father like this.


    Maxine extended her spiritual sense and gently connected to her father''s mind to see how bad off he was. That was a mistake. She instantly detected how much pain he was really in through that connection. It was comparable to the pain she felt when she boosted her own power to Iron Stage. She immediately retracted her spiritual sense and dejectedly walked back to her mother''s room to give a report on her father''s condition.


    As soon as Maxine got back to her mother''s hospital room, she saw that her mother was in a new set of clothes and that Silky was holding the backpack with spare sets of clothes in it that Maxine had brought the other day. They were just waiting on the doctor''s instructions before heading home. Although she hoped they would come soon with those. General McKenzy would be arriving with a van to take Maxine''s mother home. Maxine tried to convince her mother not to go see her father, but it was a futile attempt. Her mother had insisted that they go see him.


    "What did you expect would happen?" Hellen admonished Maxinethrough her spiritual sense, "Claudia loves that man to such an extent that she stayed with him even though he abused the both of you. It wasnaiveof you to think she wouldn''t want to see him."


    "You''re right. I shouldn''t have even tried," Maxine replied, "I just didn''t want her to get upset when she sees how bad off he is."


    "I know," Hellen said, "You just wanted to protect someone you love from pain just like how your father left you here on Earth to protect you."I have lost count the number of times Hellen has tried to convince me not to hate Poison Emperor Guan for abandoning me over the past couple days. It has been a trail not to argue with her over it. I know that I can eventually accept her as my mom, but I don''t think I will ever be able to accept that man as my father.


    "Please don''t bring him up, Hellen," Maxine said through her spiritual sense, "I know you and him are my biological parents and that you both care about me. I even know Guan''s intentions were for my benefit, but he still corrupted a whole planet with his essence. In doing so, he indirectly killed millions of people and doomed one of Earth''s timelines. I might be able to forgive him for abandoning me, but I can''t forgive him for that."Maxine wanted to ask Poison Emperor Guan something as well. She wanted to know if he had truly done what she had suspectedfour days ago. If he did, she wanted to know why he chose her soul to fuse with the original Maxine. Because she hadn''t come up with a good reason herself. There were literately thousands of other people he could have chosen to balance out the madness of the original Maxine.


    "I understand that better than you do, but still he is your father," Hellen said.


    "No need to remind me," Maxine said and saw her mother''s nurse coming into the room, "The nurse is here. Talk to you alittle later."


    "Alright, Maxine," Hellen answered.Well at least she isn''t demanding that I call her mom.


    The nurse asked if her mother wanted a wheelchair or if she wanted to walk out. Her mother had enough of being in a bed and insisted on walking. Her mother went to check on Maxine''s father. Although he seemed to be better when they got there, her mother still looked distraught apon seeing him like that. Maxine didn''t like to see her mother like this especially now. She told her mother that her father looked alot better than he did when she saw him earlier and her mother appeared to calm down.When Maxine got a call from Emily asking them when they would be getting out that Maxine ushered her mother to the main entrance of the hospital.


    As soon as Maxine, Silky and her mother had gotten outside, Emily had waved to them to get into the van. General McKenzy had brought that van because Silky had wanted to ride home with her Grandma Claudia. Maxine had caught Silky calling her mother that three days ago after Hellen had a private conversation with Silky. Fortunately Maxine had asked Hellen not to talk to Emily letting Maxine know about it first. She had to explain that soul-enchanted artifacts were non-existent on Earth and may freak Emily out if Hellen were to start talking to her. Maxine had a long talk with Emily the night before about Hellen, but omitted the fact that Hellen was her mother.


    Everyone loaded into the van and Maxine sat next to Emily. She held Emily''s hand and smiled at her. Maxine had already told Hellen about her relationship with Emily and surprisingly Hellen had been fine with it. She didn''t even mention the desire for grandchildren, which Maxine thought was odd.


    "How''s your dad?" Emily asked.


    "He''s better, but still in alot of pain. The doctorshaven''t figured out what was wrong with him yet," Maxine said. Even though it upset her greatly to lie to Emily, Maxine didn''t dare tell her the full truth of why her father was sick in the first place. Because if she did, she would have to tell Emily everything about Poison Emperor Guan. Maxine didn''t want to burden Emily''s mind with things of that nature.


    "That''s great," Emily said with a smile, "Umm, you know that person you mentioned last night? I would liketo talk to her."


    "Okay," Maxine said and saw Emily''s expression change as their conversation started. Unfortunately they were keepingMaxine out of that conversation. Maxine really wanted to know what they were talking about as Emily''s expression kept changing. Fortunately their conversation didn''t last very longsince the drive to Maxine''s house wasn''t a long one.


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    Silky ran ahead and held the front door open as everyone got out of the car.Maxine smiled at Silky''s thoughtful behavior.After everyone was inside, Maxine checked the time and saw that it was still some time until lunch. She quickly went to the kitchen to see what she could make for lunch to set it out in advance. Thankfully she had the foresight to make a trip to the store yesterday to stock back up on food for ordinary people. She rather not feed her mother essence beast meat for the first meal out of the hospital. It would boost the constitution of an ordinary person to consume essence beast meat, but it would cause some indigestion for first time eaters.After returning to the living room, Maxine chatted with everyone. Emily seemed to have finished her talk with Hellen.


    "We need to talk later," Hellen said via spiritual sense. I wonder what she wants to talk about.Maxine continued to talk with everyone up until lunch time and Emily came with her to help.


    "So what did you two talk about," Maxine asked.


    "About you mostly. She seemed really interested in our relationship," Emily said, "That was until I mentioned that you seemed like a different person four months ago."Maxine winced internally. It was clear what Hellen wanted to talk about now.


    "I did have a good reason for it though," Maxine said.


    "Yeah, no one could live someone else''s life and still be the same person after," Emily said.


    Maxine was cursing inside as she said, "I think I just heard your grandpa''s stomache growling. Let''s put this meal on as quickly as we can." Emily nodded her head as they finished making lunch. Unfortunately after everyone ate lunch, Emily and General McKenzy had to leave.


    Maxine told them goodbye and did everything she could for her mother with Silky trying to help. Her mother was quite tired and went to her bed to go to sleep for awhile. Maxine created another shadow clone with a bronze essence core to help take care of her mother.


    After Maxine made it, she ordered it to keep an eye on her mother asMaxine went to her room. She closed her bedroom door and contacted Hellen with her spiritual sense, "What did you want to talk about?"


    "I heard something rather interesting from Emily. She said that your personality changed quite suddenly four months ago and that you had a prophetic ability. I know for a fact that you don''t. You don''t practice the necessary cultivation technique," Hellen said, "I need to know something, Maxine. Are you a fused soul?"Maxine let out a sigh.


    "I am sorry, but I am," Maxine answered and felt heartache coming from Hellen. Maxine thought for a moment before she added, "I don''t thinkthis was an accident though."


    "What?!" Hellen exclaimed, "What makes you think that?" Maxine told Hellen exactly what Patrick told her about the Maxine from the other timeline. "By the maker! You would become like that if this hadn''t happened to you," Hellen said.


    "And we would have never met," Maxine added, "The other me wasa scared little girl. She would have been too afraid to experiment with her abilities like I have."


    "I gathered as much from my conversation with Emily," Hellen said, "However I am still goingto talk to your father about this. I need to know ifhe did this intentionally or not."


    "So would I," Maxine said with her spiritual sense even though she was almost certain that it was intentional, "Any idea when we will be able to?"I hope she doesn''t say that we can only wait for him to come to us. He only just recently came around to poison my dad for abusing me. I seriously don''t want to wait five years to get to talk to him.


    "Unfortunately, I don''t," Hellen responded, "If I were still alive, I could find him using my spiritual sense to scan the nearby planets."


    "Well if you had that kind of range, his must be greater. Can''t I just release alot of essence towards the sky to get his attention?" Maxine asked.


    "NO!" Hellen replied quickly, "You would undo all the hard work of your father did to hide you if you did that. We can''t take the chance that anyone passing by would detect your essence." She wondered why it would be that big of a problem, but quickly remembered that her essence is similar enough to Hellen''s that they would realize that they were mother and daughter.


    "I understand your concern, but hasn''t it been one hundred years since you died? Who would even remember you well enough to know that I am your daughter just based on my essence?" Maxine asked.


    "Many would. Your physical abilities are not the only thing enhanced each time you increase your cultivation. Your memory improves as well. Although it isn''t as obvious in the lower stages," Hellen answered.


    "I guess we have to wait then," Maxine said disappointedly.


    Before they could talk anymore, Maxine''s mother was calling for her. She was wondering how her mother knew that her shadow clone wasn''t her as shewent to see why her mother called for her. Her mother had recieved a phone call from the hospital.I wonder why I didn''t hear her cellphone ringing. She must have set it to vibrate.Her father''s pain had diminished alot since they left and it was manageable now. He was resting peacefully. It was a relief to hear that. Her mother didn''t know when he would be released though or even when he would be taken out of quarantine. Fortunately Maxine knew that he had been poisoined and wasn''t contageous. Her father being qurantinedwas a pointless measure, but she wasn''t going to say anything about it.


    Maxineasked her mother if there was anything else she needed to talk about. Her mother wanted Maxine to go check on her father dinner. She didn''t have a big problem with that, but didn''t want to leave her mother alone. Her hands hadn''t gotten back to full strength yet. However Maxine decided that she would leave her shadow clones and Silky to keep an eye on her mother while she was gone.


    After dinner, Maxine went to the hospital to check on her father yet again today. When she got there, she immediately noticed that he wasn''t groaning in pain anymore, and that his face was a normal color. However she wasn''t certain how stable his mind was after having to endure that kind of pain. It was unfortunate that she had no idea how to check on his mental state without penetrating into his mind with her spiritual sense. She pulled out her camera to take a picture of her father. It would be alot easier to show her mother how her father was doing with a picture than it would be to explain it to her later.


    "See you tomorrow, Dad," Maxine said before she left. She walked outside and went to a park. She found a secluded spot and searched the area with her spiritual sense to make sure no one was nearby as she formed her essence armor. She rolled up her sleeves and took off her shoes and socks. She summoned one of her ravens and had it fuse to her essence armor. After her essence armor finished changing into harpy mode, Maxinespread her recently formed wings. She had figured out how to fly, more or less,in this state yesterday and wanted to fly home as a form of practice. The only reason she was going to do this here is because she doubted anyone would see her in the fading light. Even ifsomeone did they would just think that she was a large bird or that it was a trick of the light.


    Maxine lifted both of her wings up towards the sky and brought them down quickly. She shot off the ground like a rocket and into the sky. She moved her wings in parralel with her body the moment that her upwardmomentum was about to arrest and began to glide towards her house. She enjoyed the feeling of the wind running through her hair and caressing her skin as she flew through the air. When her house came into sight, Maxine felt alittle disappointed that it couldn''t have lasted longer, but didn''t circle around since it might cause her mother to worry if she took too long in getting back. Fortunately it was fully dark by this time and she landed in her backyard.


    Shortly after Maxine walked into the house, her phone rang. It was General Jones. She smiled to herself as she answered it while thinking he was about to give in to her demand to leave essence cultivators alone. Unfortunately that wasn''t the case. He had called because they located an iron stage essence beast near Jefferson Citythat could possibly be the leader of the next essence beast hordefor this part of the US and he asked herif she would be participating in it''s elimination. Even though she hated General Jones, Maxine promptly agreedsince she wanted to protect thefamily that she lost in the previous timeline.