"What's wrong?" asked Yang Qing when he noticed the weird look Ma Yuan was giving him.

"Nothing," said Ma Yuan who cleared his throat awkwardly immediately after.

"Okay.....So about this shard."

Yang Qing not giving Ma Yuan's odd behavior too much thought, took out the shard he had gotten from him.

"While the shard isn't enough by itself to shed a complete light on the matter, it does provide some useful insights nonetheless," said Yang Qing as his whole visage turned into the pure white look he had when he confronted the member Dark Helminth Ghost sect.

"Based on the energy waves, the art used on you is atleast at the blue grade tier. As for the strength of the perpetrator, while I can't tell much due to the degradation it has suffered over the years, I can still detect tiny hints of Dao markings on it.

Your attacker at the very least must be someone at the quasi-palace realm or even if they are not, they have enough foundations to make that leap.

In terms of nature, while it's a yin-based technique, I don't know why, but I feel something a tad bit sinister in its intrinsic nature, It has a firm rigidity to it, which is something not typically seen in Yin-based arts. They are usually fluid and soft.

Its lethality is pretty decent. You're lucky to have kept your life, Ma Yuan. If your assailant wanted to, they'd have killed you within ten breaths if they wanted to.

I wonder why they kept you alive though considering it doesn't seem like you know their identities?" Yang Qing asked with a quizzical expression as he continued on with his scan of the shard.

Ma Yuan's expression turned dark at Yang Qing's question. Even if he had already resolved to open up, he still found himself struggling with it. He would rather drown himself in the cold yin lake again rather than relive the day he lost his wife and daughter.

Since their disappearance, he wished he could forget that dreadful day, but no matter how much he wished so, he couldn't do it. The event had left an indelible impression on him. That day was a source of his greatest torment, but it was also his only tether to his wife and daughter. If he was to ever find them, he needed to vividly remember the clues of that day with extreme clarity no matter how much it broke him to do so.

...

"I was spared on account of my wife," Ma Yuan bitterly said as he ruefully smiled.

"Down to the last minute, she was still looking out for me "Ma Yuan's gaze turned unclear as he seemed to zone out.

Luckily, unlike before, it didn't take him long to recollect himself.

"Judge Yang Qing, could I have a cup of the spring water rice wine, if you don't mind?" Ma Yuan gently asked.

Yang Qing silently took out the wine gourd and poured him a cup. Ma Yuan downed the wine immediately as Yang Qing poured him another.

It was only after he had three cups, did Ma Yuan continue on with his tale.

"I met my wife, Fei'er about 18 years ago. She found me half dead in some mysterious ruins I stumbled onto in my attempts at searching for opportunities to increase my strength and I was also on the run at the time.

I was born an orphan and had no backing.

I managed to step on the road of cultivation by some stroke of fortune when my friends and I stumbled into the abode of some cultivator who had long passed away and left an inheritance legacy behind, along with some trials for his would-be successor.

After a bitter struggle, only I managed to pass through the trials that were set. It was thanks to the sacrifice of my friends that I was able to reach the end.

I don't know if it's because too much time had passed by and thus degraded some of the functions and materials of the abode, but the inheritance I got after all that was incomplete. It was only able to push me to the peak of the foundation establishment realm.

However, whatever I got l, I'm still thankful for it since I was able to refine a gold body and even create blue-grade pillars because of it. Now that I think about it, I can't help but wonder if I got the complete thing, maybe just maybe I may have had the power to save my wife and daughter..," Ma Yuan dispiritedly said.

Yang Qing couldn't help but have a look of curiosity towards what type of inheritance Ma Yuan got from that abode. If just a portion of it was able to turn someone who had no cultivation or guidance for that matter, into a cultivator with a gold body and blue-grade pillars, what about the complete thing? The owner of that abode may have been some powerhouse.

However, despite his curiosity and interest in different cultivation arts, Yang Qing knew it wasn't the time or place for that.

It looked like it took Ma Yuan all he had to calmly narrate his tale. Yang Qing felt it would be rude of him to interject just to satisfy his own curiosity."Once I finished gaining the inheritance, all the protection mechanisms in the abode disappeared. A few cultivators from a sect close by noticed the commotion and came by. A fight soon broke out, but with the inheritance I got, I easily took care of them.

However, that dispute ended up drawing the ire of their entire sect which was a rank 4 sect. For the next 10 years, I lived on the edge of death and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me since it helped me internalize more of the Inheritance and make it mine. In the end, I managed to break through to the core formation realm and took care of a few of the pursuers.

When that sect realized I had grown in strength, they sent their stronger elders after me. I was all too glad for it since in my eyes they were nothing more than whetstones to help me hone myself.

I can't believe how arrogant I was back then," Ma Yuan said as he chuckled. Unlike the earlier laughs, this was the only one that seemed light-hearted like he looked fondly at those memories.

"Needless to say my arrogant words and actions back then finally drew the attention of their sect master and two supreme elders who were all in the later stages of the core formation realm.

I run as far as I could in the hopes of increasing my strength and finding a safe haven, which led me to that mysterious realm Fei'er found me in. I came into that realm with serious injuries which only got more severe during my exposure to the dangers in that realm.

When Fei'er found me, I was half dead and unconscious at the time. She nursed me back to health. I remember waking up to this cold-looking jade-faced beauty with a deadpan expression using all sorts of precious herbs on me.

I thought it was an illusion at the time or some form of attack from the realm, which led me to attack her. She swiftly knocked me out," said Ma Yuan as he grinned foolishly, as he carefully patted the back of his head like there was some existing injury there.

"After that, I stubbornly stuck close to her in my attempts at trying to pay her back for saving my life. I didn't know it at the time but she was multiple levels stronger than me, so whatever help I could give her was little. But that didn't deter me one bit as I had resolved myself to pay her back and it also didn't hurt that she was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.

She was averse to my presence at first and I ended up suffering a few beatings for it, which she'd later nurse. But after three years the cold-faced woman with no other facial expressions other than furrowed brows, and horrible conversational skills, finally warmed up to me and we got married.

In the third year since our meeting, we had a beautiful daughter whom we named Ma Ling. She had her mother's beauty but luckily she got my sense of interpersonal skills, otherwise, I'd worry for her.

I got happiness from something I never knew I could get or needed, a family. The next eight years that followed were honestly the happiest years of my life, even breaking through cultivation realms didn't come close to what I felt and experienced in those eight years.

But all that changed during a certain night when a certain lady bashed into our home and took my wife and daughter, leaving me there helpless to stop it," said Ma Yuan as he clenched his fists so hard that his finger bones started creaking.

"I don't know why, no matter how many times I try, that woman's face is a blur to me. I only remember her voice and actions. When she barged in, I thought she was some random intruder but her interaction with my wife led me to believe that they knew each other.

She asked my wife to leave with her, which I don't know why, but the violent wife I knew turned docile at that moment and agreed to leave with her. Of course, I rejected the whole thing no matter how much Fei'er tried to convince me otherwise.

I attacked that woman without a second thought, only to find myself on the floor a second later with a shattered dantian and an overbearing chillness that seemed to suck the life out of me. That woman was well on her way to deliver a killing blow, but my wife pleaded for my life. Not once have I ever seen her shaken or in tears but at that moment she was, as she was begging for my life.

The woman agreed but she forcibly took my daughter in return. My wife tried to stop her but some weird script appeared on her body and she collapsed immediately after.

I could only helplessly watch on as they were whisked away. I vowed to find them, but finding them turned out to be harder than I expected. I spent everything I had, to dig out any information on the woman, but in seven years I haven't come close. She's still a mystery today as she was when she barged into our home and took my wife and daughter.

When you found me, I had already lost all hope of ever finding them, thus I decided to end the suffering by taking my life in that lake.

I have nothing to offer other than my life, please Judge Yang Qing I'm willing to trade it if you can help me find my wife and daughter," said Ma Yuan as he performed a double genuflection on Ellie's back.