Chapter 177: The Memories (Ugo)

"Mummy, why isn’t this bud growing?"

A beautiful woman walked over and took the water bowl from his hand. She wore a long gown, and her face carried a gentle smile.

"Don’t pour dirty water on him, Mooney. He will grow up just like the other Moonlight Sacred Vines. You don’t want him to wither, do you?"

"But he isn’t growing," the little boy complained.

Ugo looked at the woman and then at the boy. He had seen this scene before... the same scene... yet it felt different.

Before he could think more, the little boy tilted his head, then poked the bud with his small finger.

Ugo felt the touch as though it had pressed against his own skin. It was warm, careless, and full of life.

For a moment, he wanted to just pause time and enjoy the warmth.

But then the soil beneath him stirred.

Something pulled at his roots, and his tiny body began to stretch.

A thin stem pushed upward, followed by another. Leaves unfurled one after another, and before he knew it, he was no longer a little bud.

He had become a green vine, slowly climbing the wooden fence, reaching for something to hold on to.

The world around him seemed to grow with him.

The little boy was getting further and further.

His vision zoomed to the distant tall tree where the boy sat beneath the shadow of a large canopy, the leaves swaying with the breeze.

The boy was holding a small pot against his chest, looking nervously to the side.

Ugo’s vine body slid forward across the grass.

The movement felt strange, yet strangely natural, as though he had always known how to move this way.

A woman’s whisper drifted through the garden.

She stood near the tree, speaking to a man whom Ugo could not see clearly at first.

Their voices reached him through the rustling leaves and the wind. Very low and almost inaudible. But Ugo still heard them.

"You cannot keep him hidden forever," the man whispered. His voice was very low and suppressed.

"Others will sense it soon."

The woman turned toward him.

Ugo recognized the gentle eyes and the softness in her gaze.

Moon’s mother hissed, "He is just a child."

"That’s why we need to hide him now."

The man stretched out one hand, his gaze shifting toward the little boy beneath the tree.

"Heavenly Dao will know sooner or later. He will die eventually. Let me take him away while there is still a chance. I can seal his cores and..."

The voice drifted out with the wind.

The woman suddenly stepped in front of the little boy.

She hugged him to her bosom and murmured, "No, don’t... I—I will keep him..."

The fragmented words were buried in her sob.

Then the man came out of the shadow. Ugo’s leaves curled inward at the sight.

A pair of green eyes pierced through the air and fell on the grass, looking straight at Ugo where he was lying motionless.

His eyes were deep green and cold, just like RuYi’s.

For a moment, Ugo’s body shivered. He felt as though the man had seen him.

Then the man leaned in.

He leaned even closer.

And Ugo suddenly became the little boy who was curling inside his mother’s arms. The man’s hand stretched out to grab him.

He felt an extreme fear grasp his soul. Then he cried out, and his body twisted.

The air shifted, and the wind blew past like a whirlwind.

His vine thickened, its surface turning smooth and scaled.

His form grew longer and more flexible until he became a green snake, coiling tightly around the mother, but Moon’s mother’s body suddenly turned into the base of the tree.

He felt the cool bark against his underside, the faint tremor of the earth beneath him.

The little boy was still there.

This time, he held the sacred vine tightly against his chest, as though it were the only thing that mattered.

The man in the Daoist robe stood closer now.

His hand reached toward the child.

"Come," he said. "You will be safer once I leave my mark. The Dao will not find you."

The woman cried out.

It was not loud, but the sharpness of her voice cut through the garden.

Ugo moved before he could think.

His snake body lunged, striking at the man’s wrist. His fangs sank into cloth and skin. The man hissed and pulled back, his expression becoming darker as his hand shot out again to grab him.

But Ugo had no time to see what happened next.

The ground under him cracked, and he fell into a sea of fire.

Fire.

Everywhere was fire.

He smelled it before he saw it. Thick smoke filled the air, followed by the bitter stench of burning wood and crushed leaves.

The sweet scent of the garden changed into bitterness.

Ugo tried to draw back, but the ground beneath him had changed.

He was no longer a snake.

He stood on four legs, his body covered in deep green fur. His claws dug into the blackened earth.

The garden had flown past him in a breath, leaving behind the remains of a courtyard beneath a large tree.

The branches were bare, trembling in the heat.

Little Moon sat beneath the tree.

Both his arms were wrapped around the sacred vine. His small face was pale, his round eyes wide as he stared into the flames.

Suddenly, a woman’s scream tore through the smoke.

Ugo turned his head.

Through the flame and smoke, he saw a vague silhouette of a man carrying a woman away.

Her long black hair hung down, swinging with every step. One of her arms dangled lifelessly at her side.

He could not see her face or the man’s.

He didn’t need to.

The scream came again, broken and distant, as though the flames were swallowing her voice one piece at a time.

Ugo tried to run toward them.