So I extracted all the memories about Mu.
That was during the days when I first gained a human form, just starting my cultivation on Fulong Mountain.
After each Mid-Autumn Festival, I would descend to a low-lying area at the foot of the mountain, searching for a wild fruit called mountain mango. In fact, it wasn't tasty at all – extremely sour with a hint of bitterness, rough flesh, like swallowing a bunch of small thorns. However, Zimiao insisted that I consume one every day until the Winter Solstice, claiming it would regulate my vital energy and boost my vitality. Besides the taste of this fruit, what I remember is the short and thin poorly developed little locust tree growing alone in the center of the low ground. Each branch hung down listlessly, like a pile of matted hair.
It was truly unremarkable. If it weren't for the fact that this was the only tree in the entire low-lying ground, perhaps I wouldn't have noticed its existence.
At that time, I was still a young tree demon who was excessively fond of play. I liked to weave the vines growing around the low ground into a net and then rush to the pool formed by the spring water that gushed out of a dark cave to fish for fun. The fish in that pool were particularly beautiful, not only in various colors but some could even produce pleasant cries. Especially when trapped in my net, some would make baby-like crying sounds, which I found incredibly amusing at the time. I would often play a prank by catching them, releasing them, catching them again, and repeating the cycle, never tiring of it.
Many small animals frequented the low-lying area, including beautiful orange-winged birds, nimble white foxes, cunning gophers, and countless others. But my favorite were the three-eared rabbits, with black faces and white bodies, and as plump as furballs. Swinging their furry butts, they clumsily hopped to the edge of the pool with their children to find wild grass that resembled moss to eat. For these little chubbies that I couldn't resist teasing the moment I saw them, I would always hide in the shadows to catch them off guard, then jump out acting ferocious, scaring the little guys into scattering chaotically and almost rolling into the pool, while I stood on the side laughing my guts out.
I fully enjoyed the freedom of having a human form, my body and soul intoxicated in the most primitive and pure joy.
But on that day, when the abashed little locust tree hooked my arm with its branches, calling out my name and pleading for me to ask Zimiao to transform it into a human as well, I refused without hesitation.
"Why not? Big Sister Shaluo, I clearly saw God Zimiao granting you a human form that night!" Its branches tightly wrapped around my arm, shaking with unwillingness. "Big Sister, please ask God Zimiao to give me a human form too."
So ridiculous! Were we that familiar with each other?
Faced with such a fellow of my kind who appeared out of nowhere and her "rude" request, I naturally felt repulsed and it was even more impossible to do as she wishes. Zimiao had told me that when he granted me a human form, it seemed effortless but actually consumed a considerable amount of vitality and spiritual power. It took a full forty-nine days for a complete recovery. My human form was hard-won, so Zimiao wished for me to focus on cultivating. The crucial point for me regarding this fact wasn't what Zimiao said to me, but the pale lips he had when speaking. From that moment on, I realized that what I cared about the most wasn't how I cultivated, but whether Zimiao was truly well or not.
Now, how could I possibly trouble Zimiao for the strange "extravagant hope" of my so-called kin? I had no friendship with this locust tree; I just occasionally rested on its trunk for a while when I got tired from playing, and occasionally whispered a few meaningless words to it. Did it, based on this, conclude that we were bosom buddies, ready to go to great lengths for each other? How laughable.
"Big Sister Shaluo, please take me with you!" it continued to plead.
"That's not possible. I'm different from you," I began to untangle the branches that were wrapped around me.
"Why are we different? Didn't we both come from the same place?" It looked bewildered, perhaps a bit angry.
"I told you, we are different."
I don't know why I always emphasized this point. How exactly am I different from it? It's just that one was born on top of the mountain and the other was born at the foot of the mountain.
"What's the difference! You can do it, and so can I! I want to live freely like Big Sister!" The branches wrapped around me became tighter and tighter.
"Staying here is better for you." I couldn't come up with a more convincing reason, just awkwardly repeating it while tearing at the branches.
"Lies! You're lying! You're lying! If you can do it, why can't I!"
Those branches had unexpectedly entwined around my neck, filled with anger as if trying to strangle me.
What a joke. How could such a weak little locust tree be my adversary? Even though I was only jack of all trades, master of none at that time, I was, after all, trained by an immortal from the heavenly realm, the Water God of Four Directions Zimiao himself, a grand tree demon existing as his maid.
Its branches were severed into pieces by my magic.
I heard it crying behind me.
"I want to be like you... I also want to eat wild fruits from the mountain and scare those chubby rabbits... I also want someone to talk to me, take me to ride on the winds, just like Zimiao does for you..."
I ran away quickly. Her crying made me uncomfortable. At that time, I had not yet learned to empathize with others' sorrows.
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