Late the next morning, after doing all the regular chores - tending to the vegetables and fruit plot, latrine, filling the stew pot with meat, collecting the minerals from the 'salt pan', refilling the 'salt pan' and so on - while deep in conversation with the Mountain, Chún searched around the clearing in the forest.
"So, you are sure this is OK?"questioned the young teen in the link as he grunted with exertion. He had found a large forest giant that had fallen during the course of the battle two nights previous and was exerting his strength and Essence to lift and carry it back to the clearing.
"Yes. The tree is dying or dead. Its Dao has ended. When you provide it Essence you will give it a new Dao - and then you can create that Dao to match your needs," the Mountain reassured him patiently.
"I still say the difference between 'creating' a Dao in something, and pushing Essence through an external Formation or technique is semantics," argued Chún as he slowly carried the enormous tree back towards the clearing.
"But the external Formation is forcibly applied - like a brand or imprisonment of a criminal. As opposed to convincing the criminal to reform. Or the difference between beating obedience from a beast of burden instead of rewarding and caring for it so it helps you willingly," answered the Mountain.
"OK. Maybe I am just not wise enough to understand the difference," Chún stopped in the centre of the clearing and with a harsh roar of exertion he threw the tree off his back and then worriedly jumped back as the Heaven and Earth Vine's feeding roots appeared and proceeded to strip and peel the tree of smaller branches, roots, dirt, leaves and bark until only the trunk and large main branches remained.
"I asked the Heaven and Earth Vine to clean up the wood for us," explained his locus. "Now - a gliding horse is fairly simple - you said you knew all the required parts?"
"Yes," replied Chún, "but I can easily make it by chopping the tree up and carving out the needed parts - in fact, there is a lot more than I need."
A familiar sense of lecturing came down the link. "I know you could - but this exercise is a simple version of a more complex Creation. If you can teach the wood to - change - into the pieces you need, they will form naturally, without a lot of cutting, sawing and other destructive techniques. Eventually you will learn to be able to do this to living things as well - adding to their Dao without destroying it or them - but this is a good first step."
Chún rolled his eyes. "I almost think I preferred it, when you did not talk so much."
There was a confused silence. Then an image of Chún reaching out to touch the wood and slowly fill it with Essence floated down the link.
"Hilarious," Chún snorted, "A real entertainer." But he sat down cross legged in front of the bare wood and placed his hand on it. Closing his eyes he let his Essence and his Essence sense flood into it.
"The tree is not actually dead," he said aloud, frowning as he felt it beginning to draw on the Essence to survive. "Most of it is still alive inside. It might live again if I replanted it and fed it Essence." He focused his Sense on what he was seeing. The tree's Dao was fraying and slowly bleeding away, but it could be restored.
"This feels wrong," Chún said determinedly. He stood up and picked up the trunk and slowly carried it back into the forest until he reached the original location it had fallen, slamming it butt first into the hole. With a determined pulse of Essence, he started to mend the tree's Dao, as he had with the little wolf cub - then linked it to the Mountain's pulse and pushed his Essence into it.
Slowly at first and then faster and faster, the tree's Dao beat stronger and stronger, dull and frayed parts of the pattern revitalising as roots and bark appeared, with smaller branches and twigs started appearing on the bare main branches and quickly became covered in new leaves and flowers.
There was a familiar thrumming and thundering which to Chún had come to signify an Essence ignition and a large pulse of Life Essence washed out from the now fully replanted and living tree - which glowed with a familiar swirl of Essence Mist and motes. Chún breathed feeling refreshed and recharged from the ignition wave.
"So now you have a Living Essence Tree," came the Mountain's voice in amusement, "It was just an ordinary tree, you know? You just made it into something it was not, before."
"It - was - a natural advancement of its Dao," pointed out Chún. "Convincing it to turn into the parts for a gliding horse would not be."
"True. So how do you plan to make your gliding horse?" inquired the Mountain.
"I need wood that is actually dead," answered Chún.
---
Sometime later Chún sat in front of another large trunk of completely dead wood. He had carefully checked every fallen tree he had found, replanting several. The forest now sported several brand new Essence Trees of different types, but this tree had been completely dead for years and other than the usual insects, fungi and mosses breaking down the wood, there was absolutely nothing living inside it.
The Dao pattern was completely inert and was only the pattern of Wood - not Tree.
Chún nodded to himself. This fit what he wanted. Picking it up, he began carrying it back.
Eventually he threw the wood onto the clearing in the same place as the previous tree had been. Once again the Vine cleaned the wood, with even more relish than last time, it seemed.
"She prefers the partially decomposed wood, bugs and so on," explained the Mountain helpfully.
Chún shrugged and once again, sat on the ground placing his hand on the wood in front of him.
Focusing his Essence sense on the sound portions of wood inside the tree, he slowly filled them with Essence. Unlike the last tree, the wood sat inert, not reacting to the Essence.
Carefully, Chún visualised the pieces of wood and the shapes he needed - a wheel, with study but widely spaced spokes, a strong, thin rim and an axle point, long strong handles with holes to fit the axle and a flat tray to lay on top of the supports between the handles.
Moments later, the trunk glowed with a white flash of Essence, then was replaced with the finished pieces he had imagined - all perfectly fitted in single pieces of wood as if by a master carpenter.
Chún slowly put each piece together - the axle in the wheel, handles pointing out diagonally away from each other until they ended at shoulder width for him connecting to the sides of the axle with the wheel in between, supports between the handles and tray on top.
Each piece he fed Essence to fuse with the others, until he had a gliding horse seemingly made out of a single piece of wood - except for the wheel and axle, of course - so that the wheel could turn.
There was still some wood left, so using the same techniques he fashioned a wooden railing around the tray so he could put things into the it and not worry about them sliding off. He even made the wooden handles change to fit his hands and fingers exactly
"I have said it before and I shall probably say it again," mused Chún as he looked at the perfectly made gliding horse that looked like it had grown that way in just under a shi of work. "Essence is cheating."
"Add Dao manifestations of strength and lightness," suggested the Mountain. "It is a blank slate so… like this." Chún watched fascinated as within his Essence sense he saw Essence flowing into the gliding horse from the ground forming Dao patterns that became part of the 'wood' pattern and then naturally spread and grew renewing itself.
"See, now it is strong, light wood," explained the Mountain. "A Consumer would add a formation that would strengthen the wood externally or a formation that countered the weight of the cart by pushing upward. But the wood itself would remain the same. Understand the difference?"
"I think so," said Chún fascinated. "You added to the nature of the wood itself, but it is still wood. A consumer would ignore the wood and just place external formations on the gliding horse."
"Yes. Not that the approach would be bad, but you could remove the formations," explained his locus, "and the gliding horse would be weak and heavy again. You cannot remove the Dao out of the wood, without destroying it entirely."
Chún frowned. "Can we add resistance against fire?"
"More difficult," opined the Mountain, "wood is weak against fire, but if we suggested the type of wood was of the sort that was much harder to burn…"
Chún blinked. "A strong wood that is also light, but does not burn easily? Does that exist?"
The Mountain laughed. "Yes. "The pattern looks like this…"
---
Sometime later Chún looked with satisfaction at the completed gliding horse. He had loaded it down with the Dao pots full of Essence herbs, pelts, ivory and furs and tried pushing it along. With his Essence strength and the now inherent lightness and strength wood imbued within the handcart's wood, it was easy to operate.
However, he had added ropes of tough vine to form a harness that could be looped over his shoulders, tied to the end of the handles. This spread the load across his whole body instead of relying on the strength of his arms. Just because he was strong now, did not mean he could not still be smart about how he used that strength.
Looking speculatively at the trade goods, he pointed out the obvious. "There is a lot of pelts, furs and ivory. But there is not really a wide range of items to sell. The herbs and plants are good but I only have a few. There is still nine days - you mentioned making medicine previously, could you teach me to make some simple medicines in that time?"
"You could learn to make simple healing ointments. Perhaps something to clean the skin of sores and rashes too. For real medicine, you need a cauldron," answered the Mountain.
"Would a pottery cauldron be enough?" questioned the silver-haired boy, "the stories always have alchemist's cauldrons made out of some sort of metal."
"The way we make it, it would be superior," claimed his locus, "metal reacts and has to be taken into account when making medicine - ceramic, properly made, is inert. You could sell properly made Dao Pottery cauldrons for a fortune."
"I think it would be better kept a secret," mused Chún. "Anyway, did you not want me to learn creating 'relic sites'?"
"You have already done a lot of Essence work today," responded the locus, "the gliding horse is enough practice for today. You should think about how that sort of thing could be applied elsewhere. Why do you not go and visit the World Tree?"
"Not a bad idea. OK, if you still need me to take it easy, I will go for a walk. Hopefully a peaceful one," agreed the teen as he picked up the half full cart and parked it near the entrance to the cave tunnel.
"Bring a couple of Dao pots, in case we spot herbs worth harvesting," requested the locus.
"En." Picking up a couple of pots and his sack full of fruits and meat jerky, he started walking out towards the tree line, bowing to the Heaven and Earth vine as he left, not even blinking as he stepped through the thick Essence mist boundary that shrouded the edge of the clearing.
"What is the big deal about a World Tree?" he asked as he walked casually through the forest, his cloak materialising around him in a gush of Essence mist as his staff appeared in his free hand, "The Flood Dragon made it sound important."
He paused to put his sack and the pots into his cloak, who swallowed them up and made them seem as if he was not carrying anything.
"A World can only have one World Tree," answered the Mountain. "Likewise, only planes that are large and complex enough to be considered complete worlds can host one. As I was only a comparatively young Mountain..."
"Hmm, so - why only one World Tree? Surely, more would make a world stronger?" asked Chún as he jumped upward and took to the trees, increasing his speed as he headed towards the site of his old staff."
"The World Tree - is - the World it is on. It literally holds the sky up - defending against external entry, strengthening defences and the Essence and power of the World," explained the Mountain. "A plane without a Tree is not a true world - just a plane or realm. And if another Tree grew, then wherever it grew would become its own separate World. That is just how it works."
"Tree gets stronger, World is Stronger? I am guessing?" speculated Chún, "damage to the tree weakens the World?"
"Yes," replied the Mountain - or maybe it was the World, now? A strange thought that.
"Is it important for me to know anything about it now?" the teen questioned as he bounded quickly from tree to tree, leaving the jungle area affected by the Heaven and Earth Vine and transitioning into the more widely spaced forest he remembered traversing last time, before the battle with the invaders.
Unlike the previous time, however, the forest was much more warm and vibrant with strong motes of Essence everywhere and wildlife moving boldly to and fro. The World Tree's existence was obviously increasing the concentration of Essence near it.
"For now, just that the World Tree is the best place to make changes to the World as a whole - if the Tree changes, so does the World and visa versa," remarked his friend.