Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Despite Ashlock's bold claims, his biology didn't agree with his newfound aversion to sleep. As the sun dipped below the horizon, a wave of fatigue assaulted his mind, and before he knew it, the sun had risen once again, and it was the start of a new day...

"I wish I had this power when I was a human," Ashlock grumbled as he reminisced about the many nights he spent gazing at the ceiling with the clock reading 5:00 am and his stomach grumbling.

"Huh, being a tree isn't so bad after all?" Ashlock didn't need to worry about work or his next meal. Heck, he didn't even need to pay taxes anymore. He was both free from Earth's rigorous constraints yet strangely less free than ever before.

He was trapped in a body of wood and sap, rooted in place for all eternity.

Ashlock looked around and took in the view, likely the only sight he would see for the rest of his ageless life.

Perhaps it was the time skipping or just his natural biology, but even after living here for five years, Ashlock felt like this was his home—where he belonged more than anywhere else. Ashlock was secure, his roots were deep, and his leaves were exposed to the heavens above.

A breeze blew by, and Ashlock watched as the lush purple grass danced in the wind. Nature was somehow even more breathtakingly beautiful when he had become nature.

As a spiritual tree with command over Qi, he could see in all directions and sense everything.

Unlike a human mind that was limited to his eyes and ears, Ashlock could take everything in at once.

The silky feathers of every bird perched on his branches, the vibrant colors of every blooming flower throughout the courtyard—even Stella's flowing hair and steady breathing as she cultivated were within Ashlock's senses.

The world was teeming with life, and he was part of that cycle. As his thoughts drifted from one mundane thing to another, the sun sailed across the sky, and as the horizon glowed a mellow orange, Ashlock fell asleep.

***

The following day saw the rapid accumulation of cumulonimbus clouds that darkened the sky and cast a dreary mood on Red Vine peaks courtyard.

"A big storm is coming, Tree," Stella commented as she munched on one of Ashlock's golden fruit with a smile and swung her legs off the side of the makeshift bench.

Unfortunately, there weren't many fruits left, and Ashlock sadly didn't have the Qi to make more.

Currently, he was devoting all of his Qi to furthering his cultivation realm.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 5)]

[Qi Realm: 6th Stage]

[Skills…]

Ashlock glared at his summary. When would he be considered a tree rather than a sapling? What even was the definition of a tree in the first place? All Ashlock knew was that anything involving trees was incredibly slow. Five years felt like a few months to him, so it made sense.

Suddenly Ashlock felt a small jolt of Qi. It was barely noticeable, like a fly landing on one's skin.

"Where did that come from?" Sadly Ashlock's system was rather barebones, and unless he acquired some kind of Ai or diagnostic skill, he had to manually search for the cause himself.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the courtyard. It took a second for Ashlock to remember he had activities occurring in the mountain's depths... Ashlock liked to think he had made a lot of progress, but it had been two days, and he had dug around ten meters.

"Five meters per day is horrifically slow... if I had to guess, this mountain is easily over eight thousand meters tall. It will take me five years to reach the base at this rate."

Nevertheless, Ashlock felt his root network and soon located the small spike in Qi. One of his deepest roots to the mountain's northern side had come across a small deposit of a silver rock. It seemed to shimmer like mercury but was as hard as iron. Ashlock wrapped his roots around the small deposit and felt some ambient Qi from the rock.

"Some kind of mana stone? Qi stone? What would this even be called?" Its name was ultimately not important, but rather the implications of its discovery. This mountain contained a rock that provided Qi. "Can I absorb this Qi somehow?"

Ashlock tightened the roots around the rock and tried to capture as much ambient Qi as possible. To his surprise, the amount was quite considerable, around the same rate he gained from his meditation technique. But there was a significant problem.

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