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Reborn as a Demonic Tree

XKARNATION

Chapter 1: A Scrumptious Meal

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Ashlock stirred from his slumber as someone entered the courtyard. Even though he had been reincarnated in this bizarre new world two years ago, Ashlock doubted he would ever get used to sleeping as a tree.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 2)]

[Qi Realm: 1st Stage]

[Sacrifices for complete system unlock: 30/50]

Ashlock dismissed the system with a sigh. "I've been in this world for two years, yet I've only been awake for like an hour in total? So sleepy..."

A second ago, he had been surrounded by a raging snowstorm in the depths of winter, but now the slothful tree was greeted with a gentle summer breeze that rustled his scarlet leaves. Yet, even though it had only been a second of sleep for his mortal mind, it took a moment for his tree body to wake up from hibernation.

Still half-asleep, the tree basked in the sun's warmth on his black bark for a while before finally opening his nonexistent eyes and looking around to find the human that interrupted his sleep.

His sight was limited to a few meters in every direction, just enough to see the end of a stone walkway flanked by dark purple grass, overgrown with weeds.

He could also see himself.

But what was he? Well, according to the floating words in his mind that accompanied him for the last year, he was a Demonic Spirit Sapling. Ignoring the rude man that had interrupted his sleep, Ashlock summoned his status page.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 2)]

[Qi Realm: 1st Stage]

Skills:

{Devour [C]}

{Basic Spirit Sight [F]}

{Basic Meditation [F]}

[Sacrifices for complete system unlock: 30/50]

When Ashlock died back on Earth, he asked his friend to bury him under the enormous tree in his local park. It always gave him a certain feeling when he sat on the park bench under its canopy, like a warm welcome home.

"Seems another season has passed..." Ashlock spoke to himself since nobody could hear him. When he first arrived in this alien world, he tried to talk to the humans who occasionally passed within his limited sight range, but they never reacted, no matter how much he yelled.

The man waited patiently in front of him, but sadly not only was Ashlock's spirit sight limited, but it was also blurry. Like looking through frosted glass, he could make out the shapes and colors, but any fine details were beyond him.

"The fuck do you want, random guy? I have nothing to offer... I'm a tree, for god sake."

Ashlock had no idea why, but this man came by every so often with a sacrifice to offer him as if he was some patron deity.

After a minute, the man sat down in a cross-legged position and left the rabbit-looking creature he was holding on the ground. Then, as blood trickled out of the rabbit's slit neck onto the purple grass, Ashlock felt a familiar feeling.

Hunger.

Without thinking, he activated his {Devour} skill. Black vines covered in tiny thorns surged from the ground like waiting vipers and wrapped around the rabbit corpse, mummifying it. The black vine pulsed with energy as the thorns bit into the rabbit's soft flesh and pumped out the blood.

Before Ashlock even realized it, the vines loosened up and retreated under the ground, and he felt a rush of power. It was small, but compared to the minuscule energy he absorbed through his {Meditation} skill from the sun, the devoured rabbit gave a week's worth of energy all at once.

Ashlock resisted the urge to use {Devour} on the sitting man. There was no requirement that the target had to be dead. They simply had to be in range and ideally stationary. Ashlock knew the man would give him a lot more energy than the rabbit, perhaps enough to finally reach the 2nd stage of the Qi realm, whatever that meant. But alas, Ashlock was no fool and knew the man wouldn't take being devoured kindly.

The man said some unintelligible words, patted his bark, and left. Ashlock checked his status, and sure enough, the number of sacrifices obtained for the system unlock had increased by one.

[Sacrifices for complete system unlock: 31/50]

Ashlock had no clue what complete system unlock meant. He had read many novels and played games back on Earth... wait maybe this was still Earth? The people who visited him were odd, and the creatures looked slightly off, but his vision was so poor it was hard to tell.

"I think it's safe to assume I'm in another world, though. Never heard of anyone cultivating back on Earth." And with that thought, Ashlock activated his {Basic Meditation} skill.

The energy that was chaotically rampaging through his trunk began to calm. Ashlock had no clue how the skill worked, but it allowed him to somewhat control the energies within while also absorbing some Qi from the sun.

"If only it wasn't so slow..." Ashlock had been here for 2 years, and even with over thirty sacrifices and constant {Basic Meditation}, he hadn't seen much improvement.

Except his trunk had grown a little taller, he was now the height of an average man. "But don't trees grow naturally? Sure I'm growing a little fast, but nothing that couldn't happen on Earth. Maybe my bark has also gotten harder? Difficult to test..."

Ashlock tried not to think about it, but he was terrified. What if the man needed some firewood? Or some otherworldly monster snuck into the area he was in. Unfortunately, apart from his {Devour} ability, he could not fight back.

Deciding such thoughts were pointless as there was nothing he could do, Ashlock entered his state of meditation once more, and the world drifted away...

***

"Three this time?" Ashlock saw a trio enter his field of view. "A small person?" Ashlock was only around the man's height, so unless he had rapidly grown in stature, one of them was likely a child... or midget.

"What if there are dwarves in this world?" Honestly, Ashlock had zero clue about this world. Maybe one day, he could learn more.

"If only I could hear them speak, it would make my life so much easier." Ashlock sighed in his mind as he observed the three people.

"Wait... is that a girl?" One of the three had long blonde hair flowing out of their black cloak like a cape. The other two were clearly male, and how they were a step behind the female suggested a potential subservient nature to their relationship.

The girl was holding a bag tightly in her hands which the other two seemed interested in. Of course, Ashlock was also interested in the contents of the bag... although he time skipped when he meditated so he could avoid the weeks or months of boredom, he was still starving for some entertainment.

"Oddly, the system seems to wake me up when someone comes within my range... will that be an issue when my {Basic Spirit Sight} upgrades and I can see further?" These were questions for another time as the girl had opened the bag and brought out a... decapitated head?

The two other men seemed just as surprised as Ashlock.

They both took a step back and drew out some type of long weapon, likely a sword, but Ashlock's blurry vision made it hard to tell. The only reason he could tell the girl took out a head from the bag was that he recognized it...

It was the head of the man who had given him the rabbit last time. A slight tinge of disgust and regret bloomed in the back of Ashlock's mind. The man had been just a blurry figure, but he had provided him with food... "Wait, am I some kind of dog that wags its tail for food?"

"Fuck that." Ashlock dismissed the feeling and focused on the action. The girl dropped the decapitated head on the floor by Ashlock's exposed roots, and he could feel the fabric of her cloak as she backed up against his trunk.

Blue energy illuminated the two swords like light sabers in Ashlock's {Basic Spirit Sight}, and they swung forward. "Wait-" Ashlock screamed as two arcs of blue light surged toward him.

The girl deflected the two incoming attacks with her palm, empowered with a purple light. She then acquired two daggers from god knows where and lunged at the man to the left. The man kicked back surprisingly quickly and vanished from Ashlock's sight.

It was bizarre to only watch one side of the fight. The girl fought just on the edge of his perception. Purple energy flickered across her hands like a flame as she deflected attacks from two sides. Then she dove to the left, dodging a blast of blue energy that disintegrated her hood and some free-flowing hair.

There was just one slight issue... the blast kept going toward a defenseless tree...

"Ahhhh—" Ashlock screamed as the blinding beam of blue light smashed into one of his branches, obliterating it in a shower of splinters. Ashlock watched in horror as his branch tumbled to the ground beside him.

Strangely, Ashlock felt nothing except the escape of energy like a popped balloon, so he quickly tried to seal the hole. Qi that he had stored in his trunk surged toward the blockage and slowly knitted the spot closed.

"I'm alive...?" Ashlock didn't know what he expected. It's not like trees bleed to death or something.

Ashlock then watched as purple energy enveloped his fallen branch and hurled it outside his vision. The girl was clearly the culprit as she dashed after the flying branch, and then Ashlock saw nothing.

Sadly, Ashlock had no clue how the fight was going, as it all happened outside his limited range. A few minutes passed until someone stepped back into his field of view...

The girl's black cloak was soaked in blood, and the two daggers in her hands dripped blood onto the purple grass, which made Ashlock feel hungry. If he could lick his lips, he would. She pocketed her daggers somewhere and then dragged two bodies into view. The two men were covered in cuts, and one was clearly missing a hand.

It was the most heinous thing Ashlock had ever seen, but he felt... nothing but hunger. Which was disturbing, to say the least. Where had his humanity gone?

The girl said something he couldn't hear before dumping the two bodies up against his trunk next to the decapitated head. She also brought over his branch. She then collapsed against his trunk, looking up at his canopy.

A while passed, and Ashlock couldn't hold back his hunger any longer.

The desire to devour overtook his mind, and a swarm of black vines mummified the various offerings, including the branch. The sound of metal snapping surprised Ashlock as his vines broke the swords into small pieces and dissolved them by secreting a corrosive fluid.

The process was slow. An hour passed, and the girl seemed to grow impatient, leaving the courtyard. Days went by as the courtyard experienced the cycle of the sun and moon a total of four times. Ashlock had turned his brain off to the passage of time, so the sudden rush of euphoria caught him off guard.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 2)]

[Qi Realm: 2nd Stage]

Skills:

{Devour [C]}

{Basic Spirit Sight [F]}

{Basic Meditation [F]}

[Sacrifices for complete system unlock: 56/50]

"Oh! I finally reached the 2nd stage of the Qi Realm." Ashlock felt energy shoot up his roots and an immense fatigue wash over him.

[Unlocking Sign-In System...]

He resisted with all his mental fortitude, but he soon fell asleep.

A NOTE FROM XKARNATION

Going to be releasing 11 chapters today! So make sure to add the story to your follow list :)

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XKARNATION

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07.01.2023, 14:22

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Tree Demon

https://www.patreon.com/xkarnation

Bio: I like reincarnation stories a little too much

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Chapter 2: The Wooden Stick Incident

The courtyard was desolate—a cold breeze rustled Ashlock's scarlet leaves as his mind slowly awoke from a long sleep. Ashlock jolted awake as a sound similar to a ding resounded in his head. In confusion, Ashlock read the string of words that materialized in his mind.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1050

Daily Credit: 1050

Sacrifice Credit: 6

[Sign in?]

"Sign in?" Ashlock stared at the question.

"Oh right, the system unlocked." Despite months passing, to Ashlock, it had felt like a short nap. "So my system is a sign-in system?" Ashlock had read many novels back on Earth, and a sign-in system was common.

They rewarded the system user for remaining in a certain location for a long time by providing escalating rewards with each passing day. Eventually, all these wastrel young masters that had been banished to the cold palace, never to be seen again, returned after a hundred years as an undisputed existence with enough wealth and power to rule a nation.

But Ashlock was a tree.

What use were weapons, cultivation pills, or immense wealth to a tree stuck in a courtyard? "Well, on the plus side, if the rewards increase over time, I can sleep away until I gain something useful to me… like maybe some new skills? Or a way to cultivate faster."

Ashlock accepted the fate that he would spend a lot of time talking to himself about various things; the question is, how long until he went mad? Maybe he was already mad. He had consumed humans for nutrition and hadn't batted an eye.

Seeing no harm in trusting the system, Ashlock decided to [Sign-In].

[Sign in successful, 1056 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an A-grade skill: Eye of the Tree God]

"Eye of the Tree God?" Ashlock's brain buzzed as the darkness that shrouded him vanished, and his view range rapidly expanded in all directions.

"Ugh." Ashlock tried to close his eyes in a vain attempt to block out the world, but alas, he had no eyes. He could only suffer as his mind was overloaded with more visual stimuli than he had ever endured when he was human. Deciding there was no other way out from the onslaught, Ashlock chose the easy way out and fell asleep.

***

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1051

Daily Credit: 1

Sacrifice Credit: 0

[Sign in?]

Ashlock awoke as he felt the presence of a girl he was familiar with. Confused, he spread his spiritual sight and realized the courtyard was empty.

"Where is she?" Ashlock focused on the feeling, and his worldview shifted to an aerial view.

"Wow..." Ashlock looked down at a small tree in the central courtyard of a Chinese-style pavilion. It was the size of an adult with beautiful red leaves and rugged obsidian bark. "Is this the power of the [Eye of the Tree God] skill?"

Ashlock zoomed out, and now an entire mountain was in view.

A lone girl with flowing blonde hair climbed up a thousand steps to the pavilion's entrance.

Ashlock recognized her as the girl who had helped him unlock his system all those months ago. He watched for a bit longer, but from the aerial view, she was a tiny speck climbing a very tall mountain.

"It kinda feels like watching drone or CCTV footage." Ashlock hummed to himself as he rotated and moved the view to look at the pavilion from all sides.

The massive pavilion was built atop the mountain with walls of pristine white stone topped with black wood roofs. There were also red vines covering the mountain and growing up the walls.

Other than the central courtyard containing Ashlock's body, there were another four courtyards with varying features. One included a herb garden with many exotic plants—another had a large pond with fish similar to Koi swimming around.

Ashlock also spotted a training courtyard with a sandy-looking floor and training dummies made of wood. The final one had a raised stone platform covered in strange runes.

During the tour of his home, Ashlock also spotted a few humans walking past the pavilion's windows. "So there are other humans here. Why does their presence not awaken me like the girl?" A mystery for another time.

Ashlock started to feel a strain on his mind, so he canceled out the {Eye of the Tree God} skill. "I can't use it all the time? A shame... hopefully, through training, I can use it for longer periods or perhaps increase my view range?"

Then Ashlock remembered the sign-in notification. As if on cue, it reappeared, and Ashlock chose to [Sign-In].

[Sign in successful, 1 credit consumed…]

[Unlocked an F-grade item: Wooden stick]

"…A wooden stick?" Ashlock was baffled. Compared to the last reward, this was almost insulting.

"Shouldn't the rewards scale with time? Was the first reward a first-time sign-in bonus or something?" Ashlock thought back to the system messages and discovered the reason. "It consumed my credits… I had 1056 last time but only 1 today. So I get rewarded for accumulating credits first before signing in?"

This would need more investigation. "But where is my wooden stick?"

Ashlock looked around himself, but there were no wooden sticks. Just purple grass and his black roots. Then as if the system detected his thoughts, a large empty space within himself was revealed, and inside this space was a singular wooden stick. "Is this a pocket dimension?"

Ashlock concentrated on the stick, and to his shock, it vanished from his pocket dimension and materialized a meter from himself in the purple grass. Ashlock tried to summon the stick back, but nothing happened.

A few minutes passed with Ashlock glaring at the wooden stick and shouting random commands in his mind hoping to get the wooden stick back. Finally, giving up, Ashlock noticed he could now see the entire courtyard with his regular sight rather than just a meter. He could even sense the movement of a person through the walls... And they were heading straight toward him.

A sliding wooden door revealed it was the blonde girl with magical abilities that killed the two men. She wore a thick winter-style black robe with a single red lotus sown on its chest area. Moving gracefully, she followed the cobbled walkway through the purple grass and passed the wooden stick.

She paused, and then with a tilt of her head, she bent down and picked up the stick.

Only now, as she ran her finger across its surface, Ashlock noticed a significant issue with the stick—it was too perfect. As if it was a PNG out of a video game. Both ends were perfectly cut, something not achievable in reality, and its surface was smoother than glass. A sly smile appeared on the girl's face.

By her height and features, Ashlock discerned she couldn't be older than ten, but the memory of her murdering two men in cold blood and revealing a decapitated head was fresh in his mind. "Did she notice me… fuck." As a magical man-eating tree, Ashlock was lacking in combat capabilities.

She stepped closer, and Ashlock debated casting his {Devour} skill. Before he knew it, she had closed the gap and patted his trunk with a smile. She spoke a few words that Ashlock couldn't understand, but she seemed happy about something.

Then to Ashlock's relief, the girl turned to leave with the stick. Purple flames flickered across her body, and to Ashlock's shock, she teleported back inside the building using a mysterious movement technique.

"Show off..." Ashlock grumbled.

With the crisis averted, he felt more determined than ever to grow stronger.

"I hope my next sign-in bonus is a better meditation technique."

Sadly, with how his system functioned, it was the Gods' will to decide his fate. He could spend years accumulating credits just to cash in and unlock a worthless item like a sword. "What the hell could I use a sword for anyway?"

Before his intense training session... involving a lot of sleeping, Ashlock checked his status page.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 2)]

[Qi Realm: 2nd Stage]

Skills:

{Eye of the Tree God[A]}

{Devour[C]}

{Basic Meditation[F]}

"So weak. Should I sleep until I reach the next realm?"

Ashlock scowled at his F-grade meditation skill.

"Why did I get some dumb eye skill and a wooden stick? Increasing my meditation speed and becoming a godlike tree would be way better."

Taking one final look around the courtyard, Ashlock activated his meditation skill and felt the trickle of ambient Qi through his leaves as he felt his mind drift away.

Unknown to the sleeping tree, the young girl gleefully left the mountaintop pavilion with the [Wooden Stick] in her hand.

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XKARNATION

07.01.2023, 14:37 United Kingdom Tree Demon https://www.patreon.com/xkarnation

Bio: I like reincarnation stories a little too much

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Chapter 3: Aura of Fear

[Qi Realm: 3rd Stage Achieved... deactivating sleep mode]

A surge of energy like the world's biggest caffeine rush awoke the slothful tree from its long slumber.

Summer was in full swing, and the fluff of a bright blue bird resting happily on one of the tree's many sturdy branches frizzled out like it had been electrocuted as ambient Qi rushed out into the surroundings. The bird's muscles tensed up, and it tumbled to the ground like a rock—luckily, the lush purple grass broke its fall... but then black vines erupted from the soil and mummified the bird. The poor thing squeaked like a dog toy as the air was crushed out of its lungs, and its bones crumbled into powder as the vines tightened their python-like grip.

A girl lying under the tree's canopy enjoying the shade from the relentless sun's rays stopped twirling a dagger in her hand and watched the bird being eaten alive while humming.

[+1 SC]

"Whooo..." Ashlock felt the rush of energy subside, and he could focus again. "Huh? SC? Does that stand for sacrifice credits..." Ashlock let off a yawn as he spread out his spiritual sight. The vibrant colors of summer flooded his mind. "Wait, wasn't it the start of winter when I fell asleep?" The rapid passage of time still baffled the poor human mind stuck in a tree, but with every passing season, he felt more tree than human. How could one treat life the same when months pass by in the blink of an eye?

Since a lot of time had passed, Ashlock decided now was a great time to sign in...

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1238

Daily Credit: 187

Sacrifice Credit: 1

[Sign in?]

"Yes."

[Sign in successful, 188 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked a B-grade skill: Language of the World]

"Not bad... I think." Ashlock would rather gain some combat abilities, but language was a good step in his pursuit of knowledge.

"Hmmm, Tree, are you awake?"

Ashlock mentally jumped in shock, "Who said that!?" He scanned around himself, but the courtyard was empty...

"The other scions would laugh if I said my only friend was a tree..."

Looking down at his base, Ashlock finally saw the culprit. It was the psycho girl. "Fuck sake, can she just leave me in peace?" Ashlock enjoyed his peace and quiet; months may have passed for the unknown girl, but he had seen her for almost all his brief moments of consciousness.

"Tree, are you hungry? I tried to feed you during the winter, but you were sleeping."

Ashlock had no way to answer. He was a tree. Did she expect him to drop an acorn on her head or spell out answers in the dirt? "Just go away so I can sleep again!"

The girl watched his rustling leaves and seemed to reach some bizarre conclusion. "Okay, I will get you a snack."

Ashlock watched purple energy erupt in a blaze across her pale skin. But, to his surprise, it didn't burn her thin black dress. She then retrieved a beautiful black dagger and wrapped it in her purple energy.

"Hold on, is that dagger handle made of the stick she stole from me?"

Ashlock didn't get a chance to examine it closely as the dagger shot out of her hand like a bullet. A thin line of purple followed it. Then as if she was fishing, she reeled the purple line back... and impaled on the end of the dagger was a very plump bird.

"Here." The girl plopped the bird down and stood to leave. "I will leave you to your meal as I have some cultivating to catch up on. Bye ~."

Ashlock felt his opinion of the girl rise. She may be noisy, but at least she provides snacks. Ashlock cast his {Devour} skill...

[+1 SC]

"Sign in!"

Nothing happened. "Oh, yea... I can only do it once a day." Being a tree was boring sometimes.

"Status!"

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 3)]

[Qi Realm: 3rd Stage]

[Skills…]

{Eye of the Tree God[A]}

{Language of the World[B]}

{Devour[C]}

{Basic Meditation[F]}

"Three years on this planet, and I'm still weak." Ashlock felt frustrated, but then a funny thought crossed his mind. "How did all those other sign-in system protagonists survive the boredom? At least I can sleep the years away..." Ashlock decided it had been a long day, so he started meditating and fell asleep.

***

"Tree, my father failed his breakthrough to the Star Core realm." The girl had built a makeshift bench next to Ashlock's largest root and was twirling the obsidian wood dagger between her fingers. "He is now a cripple... those vultures of the other peaks may set their eyes on my Red Vine peak soon."

Ashlock listened to the girl's mutterings in silence. He was going to go insane. Every day, she ended her training and wandered over to interrupt his sleep. But what she spoke of today differed from her usual ramblings about sect politics. Instead, today she spoke of her father, which was one of the many questions Ashlock wished to ask. "Why is a girl living alone in such a massive pavilion atop a mountain? Is she cursed or something?"

Ashlock had observed that the other people in the pavilion were mortal servants. They didn't awaken him due to their lack of presence. Furthermore, their souls let out such minuscule amounts of ambient Qi it was hardly noticeable even when they walked up to him. From this, Ashlock had concluded they weren't cultivators like the girl.

"But there had been those blue energy cultivators here previously until the girl killed them. But why did she kill them, and why are there only the girl and these mortals here?" Ashlock had gained information about the world through snippets of the girl's rambles. Such as this mountain is called the Red Vine Peak, and apparently, there were other peaks.

Luckily, Ashlock was a tree. So human politics had little effect on him.

Time passed...

"Tree, why do people important to me all have to die and leave me alone?" The girl had red eyes as she buried her head into her knees. "Being a tree sounds nice. Do you have any worries?"

"Many." Ashlock wanted to say, but she couldn't hear him. It seemed the girl's father had died due to complications from failing to reach the next realm. News that his home may be changing ownership terrified him. The girl was a bit bizarre, but he felt she was safe to trust. What if the next owner saw an ominous tree dominating the central courtyard as an eyesore and chose to chop him down? After all, over the last few years, he rapidly grew to over ten meters. He was like a beacon lording over the entire courtyard.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 4)]

[Qi Realm: 3rd Stage]

[Skills…]

"Still stuck at the 3rd stage and considered a sapling..." Progress was slow. Unbearably slow. If not for the girl looking older and the passing of seasons, Ashlock would think the system was lying to him.

"Tree... I have to go fight in a tournament to keep this place."

Ashlock sighed mentally. He had accumulated a lot of daily credits and was saving them for an emergency, and in his eyes, the girl losing was a dire situation. Deciding there was only one way he could help, he summoned the sign-in system window. It was time to take a gamble.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1698

Daily Credit: 460

Sacrifice Credit: 2

[Sign in?]

"Yes."

[Sign in successful, 462 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an A-grade item: Earrings of Absolute Fear]

"This might be goodbye forever, tree. We had a fun few years...Huh?" The girl was baffled as two little red leaf earrings hanging from black chains materialized in her hand. Ominous whisps of shadow shrouded their surface, and if one got really close, they could hear the screams of the dead.

"I love them!" The girl seemed rejuvenated with life as she bounded to her feet. "Best to die in style! Thanks for the gift tree!"

Ashlock grumbled as he watched over a year's worth of credits expended on some dumb cursed earrings. "A sword would have been so much better... or a skill that lets me assist her somehow."

The girl carefully put the earrings on, and Ashlock had to admit they suited her, but they were nothing special. What a waste.

"I love them!" The girl looked directly at his trunk, and the Demonic Tree felt his sap run cold. Her eyes appeared as two swirling masses of darkness, and he felt a wave of fear like no other silently caress his nonexistent spine.

[AURA OF FEAR DETECTED]

And then she turned away, and the pressure immediately disappeared as if it were just a dream. "Holy shit..." Ashlock let out a long sigh of relief. "I will never doubt you again, system!" Watching her departing back, Ashlock felt happy.

He could finally get some sleep.

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XKARNATION

07.01.2023, 15:48 United Kingdom Tree Demon https://www.patreon.com/xkarnation

Bio: I like reincarnation stories a little too much

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Chapter 4: Knowledge is Power

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Autumn arrived with good news.

"Tree, I won!" The girl seemed in an ecstatic mood as she sat on the bench. "I didn't lose a single round, and by the end, they were calling me Demoness Stella Crestfallen! How funny is that?"

"I finally got her name!" Ashlock was happy to finally learn the name of the annoying human that kept interrupting him. Referring to her as 'girl' had been getting exhausting. Sadly, Stella kept calling him Tree, but that was fine.

"I even accidentally killed the scion of the Ravenborne family. Their Grand Elder was beyond furious, but what could I do? The poor boy froze up and didn't block my attack." Stella's victory speech was interrupted by a servant.

"Miss, would you like some tea?"

"Sure. Bring some for my friend here as well." Stella said while patting Ashlock's bark.

The servant left with a sly smile that Stella didn't seem to notice. She was too busy recounting her epic one-sided victories at the tournament.

Ashlock found the servant's behavior odd, so he activated his {Eye of the Tree God} skill, and his world view shifted from the purple grass courtyard to an ariel view of the mountain. "Seem's the view range has expanded a little." Ashlock could now see more than just the mountaintop; the mountain's base was now in view, and he could even see the slope of a neighboring mountain. "Now, where is that servant..." Ashlock rotated the view to try and peer through the windows, and eventually, he found a room near the exotic garden courtyard with someone very similar looking to the servant through the window. It was hard to make out what was going on inside, but from his previous investigations, this room should be some kind of alchemist room.

"I believe the servant quarters and kitchen are on the other side of the pavilion..." Ashlock felt making tea in an alchemist's room wasn't too far-fetched for a cultivation world but was still suspicious.

"Tree, I need to repay you..." Stella was leaning against his bark and playing with the earrings in her fingers. "I would give you these back, but what use are earrings to a tree? Is there something else you want?"

"Food!" Ashlock wanted to shout. "If I got a few attack skills, I could hunt these darn birds that perch on my branches, but instead, I get language translation and some overpowered earrings."

"Tree, I know you can hear me... do you understand me, though?" Stella let out a sigh. "Trees like knowledge, right?" Stella sat cross-legged on the bench, turned to face Ashlock, and placed a hand on his bark. Purple flames materialized on her palm and softly spread out on Ashlock's bark.

"Bitch are you burning me?!" So after everything he had done, she was scorching him?

"Wow, tree, to cultivate to the 3rd realm in only a few years is very impressive! Of course, I am no tree expert, but I heard they usually cultivate very, very slowly."

The invasive Qi was a little probing but, overall, felt rather nice. Ashlock tried to push her Qi away, but even inside his body, it was like trying to ward off a tsunami with a shovel. "How does such a young girl have so much power? Are all humans this fast at cultivation?"

Stella had her eyes closed, and she let out a long breath. "While I attempt to impart a cultivation technique on you, let me tell you the realms. The Qi Realm, the first realm of cultivation, has nine layers. People in the Qi Realm can strengthen their bodies with ambient Qi and live long, healthy lives. Some also learn martial arts and can smash boulders while in the Qi Realm."

Ashlock tried to ignore the tickling sensation of Stella's Qi inspecting his body and listened intently to her talk. The cultivation systems for man and tree may differ but learning the strength of his enemies was always ideal. "So I am in the Qi Realm, and I have six more layers until reaching the next realm," Ashlock grumbled. "It's been four years, and I am still stuck in the 3rd layer. At this rate, I will be a million years old before reaching the highest realm!"

"Then, there is the Soul Forge realm after the Qi Realm. This is where the weak fail and the path of a true cultivator begins. The Soul Forge realm has no layers and is achieved once the cultivator has formed a soul core."

Stella then mumbled to herself if a tree could even understand such terms. "A soul core is hard to explain in tree terms, but the important thing to know is if a person fails to form their soul core, they become a cripple and can never cultivate again."

Ashlock could obviously understand what Stella was talking about to some degree. "But what if I fail to form a soul core? Will I become a cripple too?" Ashlock wondered. Unlike humans, trees can lose a branch and, over time, grow it back. "Just like the branch destroyed by those blue energy cultivators. It has grown back better than ever already." Ashlock was now a little afraid of reaching the Soul Forge realm. Could Stella guide him somehow?

"Once a cultivator has formed a soul core, they can funnel the ambient Qi in the air through the soul core to produce soul fire. The Soul Fire realm has nine stages, and it's the one I am in." Stella smiled as she flexed the purple flames that coated her arms. "This is why without a perfect soul core, a cultivator is a cripple. So make sure to take your time forming one mister tree."

Ashlock wanted to ask why her soul fire was purple, but unfortunately, she didn't elaborate.

"Then there is the Star Core realm..." Stella held back from crying at the mention of the realm that claimed her father's life. "Sorry... hard to talk about that one..." Stella sighed before continuing. "And above the Star Core is Nascent Soul and Monarch, but I'll speak of those another time. Those two realms are a long time away for the both of us."

Ashlock was itching to discover the potential heights he could reach, but maybe knowing the horrors a Monarch cultivator could achieve would give him nightmares. He was just a little Qi Realm sapling, after all.

"Miss, I have brought the tea." The servant stood at a respectful distance from Stella with two wooden cups of steaming tea in her hands.

"Okay, I am busy... give the tree his tea and leave mine beside me," Stella said with her eyes still closed and purple flames cascading out of her hands.

The servant's eye twitched, but she complied with Stella's words. She walked over to one of Ashlock's exposed roots and dumped the tea.

[POTENT POISON DETECTED]

Ashlock's brain buzzed as his body automatically acted to suppress the poison. It felt like someone had poured boiling oil on his foot—the pain was tremendous. Stella seemed to feel the chaotic flow of his Qi and frowned.

"Calm down, tree. I'm almost done." Stella patted his bark and continued formulating a cultivation technique for him.

The pain lasted for a minute but then thankfully subsided. "What a lethal poison! That felt more like cyanide than any poison I know." Ashlock was no expert, but he theorized that despite his low realm, his enormous size and abundant Qi helped suppress the poison. Taking a look at the concentrating Stella, Ashlock couldn't help but doubt she would survive drinking such a poison.

[Skill {Basic Poison Resistance [F]} Learned!]

"Wait... I can learn skills?" Ashlock wanted to smack himself mentally. He had assumed he could only gain skills through the system's daily sign-in. The possibility of learning new skills hadn't even crossed his mind. "Status!"

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 4)]

[Qi Realm: 3rd Stage]

[Skills…]

{Eye of the Tree God[A]}

{Language of the World[B]}

{Devour[C]}

{Basic Meditation[F]}

{Basic Poison Resistance [F]}

"Sure enough, I actually did learn a new skill!" Ashlock was ecstatic, but the situation demanded his attention. It was safe to assume that the other cup of tea was also poisoned. "Maybe the sign-in can give me something helpful?"

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1818

Daily Credit: 120

Sacrifice Credit: 0

[Sign in?]

"Only 120 credits. How pitiful. Yes, sign in."

[Sign in successful, 120 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked a C-grade skill: Qi Fruit Production]

"Right... That doesn't sound useful at all." Ashlock activated the skill, and a menu appeared in his mind. It let him select many properties for the fruit, such as size, taste, and growth rate.

He could even give properties of skills to the fruit, such as {Basic Poison Resistance}. "To grow a fruit, I have to consume my Qi?" Ashlock frowned. Any Qi he spent he had to regain through meditation, and since his meditation technique was F grade, it would take far too long to replenish the lost Qi.

Deciding to at least test it, Ashlock picked a fast-growing fruit that tasted like an apple and gave it a {Basic Poison Resistance} buff. According to the menu, anyone who ate the fruit would gain poison resistance for a day.

"Five months!?" Ashlock glared at the menu that had calculated the minimum growth time of the fruit while using one hundred percent of the Qi he accumulated from meditation. Removing the taste shaved off a month and then removing the added skill brought it down to three days. "So I can produce a tasteless fruit that contains a little Qi in three days but adding a skill or flavor greatly increases the production time..."

Ashlock may be a magical cultivating man-eating tree. But he was still a tree. To a human, three days is a long time. To him, it was nothing. Sadly the situation was urgent, and Stella had picked the wrong teammate for a situation like this.

"Is there any way I can warn her?" Ashlock mulled over the problem as he glared at the impatient servant whose eyes shifted between Stella—emitting a scary amount of soul fire, and the steaming cup of tea beside her on the bench.

"Phew!" The purple soul fire dissipated, and Stella stretched her back. "This will be more complicated than I thought... unsurprisingly, a tree's biology is far too different from humans, so all the techniques I know won't work. But, I guess I can check out the library tomorrow for you..."

That was to be expected, but Ashlock was still disappointed. A better meditation technique would really help him out right now.

"Miss, your tea is getting cold."

Stella gave the servant an odd look. "Why are you still here? Is there anything else?"

The servant gulped and bowed. "No, miss..."

"Thank you, that will be all." Stella waved the servant off as she seemed lost in thought.

The servant turned to leave, and Stella absentmindedly brought the still-warm tea to her lips.

Ashlock cursed. There was a chance she would survive; it was even possible the tea contained rare ingredients that helped with cultivation but were harmful to trees. But Ashlock didn't like the suspicious behavior of the servant.

If he had another method to convey his thoughts, he would definitely do it. But alas, with his limited arsenal of combat or communication abilities, this was the only option.

Ashlock targeted the servant and cast {Devour} with as much Qi as possible. The ground rumbled as black vines surged out of the purple grass.

Stella was startled by a sudden scream and spilled some tea onto her dress; it sizzled as it dissolved some of the dress. Stella's soul fire erupted, and the tea instantly evaporated, letting off a nasty stench. Stella dropped the cup, and her cold eyes looked up at the servant tied up by many vines crushing her to death.

Ashlock felt the message had been conveyed and the crisis averted, so he tried to cancel out the {Devour} skill...

[Skill cannot be canceled]

A few seconds passed, and the servant cried as blood erupted from her mouth like a fountain.

[+5 SC]

"Well, shit."

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Chapter 5: A Totally Friendly Tree

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Ashlock felt absolutely nothing other than euphoria as he consumed the mortal servant. Qi rushed through the vines, and the thrill was intoxicating.

Stella also watched the scene without a hint of interest; she was more bothered about her ruined dress. "Tree, thank you," Stella said before leaving for the pavilion. "It seems some rats from the other families have infiltrated my Red Vine peak."

A sinister smile bloomed on her face. "Seems there will be more food coming your way soon." Then with a flash, she vanished from her spot in a trail of purple flames.

After a few minutes, the vines retreated into the ground, leaving some shredded clothes dyed in blood, littering the spot the servant had once stood.

"I know from stories that worlds with cultivators are brutal, but Stella's indifference still surprises me. Does she not see the servants as people due to them not being cultivators? Or perhaps people only care for themselves and their family in this world."

Ashlock struggled a little with his human morals from the Earth. He knew that murder was wrong, but it was hard to stop himself from killing when it brought him such euphoria and growth. "Also, not getting punished and instead rewarded for killing makes the deed far easier."

Since he had gained some Qi, Ashlock decided to use some for advancing his cultivation and the rest to create some fruit. Like water, Qi was an odd thing—his body could only take in so much at once. Unfortunately, the excess Qi his body couldn't store dissipated into the atmosphere unless he invested it into something, such as fruit.

Bring up the menu for {Qi Fruit Production}, Ashlock selected to create ten fruits. All of them were tasteless, but they stored some Qi, and three had the {Basic Poison Resistance} buff. Feeling content, Ashlock hit the create button and felt the chaotic Qi inside him rush toward his branches. In amazement, Ashlock then watched the stems of the fruit grow in real time.

"Now what?" Ashlock had already signed in for the day, and Stella had gone off somewhere. "Guess I'll sleep."

***

Ashlock awoke to darkness and screams. Moonlight shrouded the courtyard, and Ashlock could see torchlight through the pavilion's windows. "Wait... is this the first time I've seen the night." Ashlock had always woken up when Stella or the blue energy man came to bring him food which was during the day. He also naturally woke up during the daytime.

Ashlock tried to activate his meditation skill, but nothing happened. "Huh... I guess there is no sunlight, and I am a plant. Never really occurred to me that I can't cultivate during the night." Ashlock now realized why his meditation technique wasn't just bad—it was downright shit. "If I can get a moonlight cultivation technique, I should double my cultivation speed."

"Anyway, back to the screams..." Ashlock struggled to really care. The cold night air and lack of sunlight made him feel sluggish and uncaring. Like waking up on a Sunday morning to bad news and just wanting to crawl back under the sheets and sleep. "Anything interesting going on?" Ashlock spread his spiritual sight, but his limit was still the courtyard unless he activated his skill.

"Maybe someone died... so sleepy." Ashlock was about to succumb to his slothfulness when a man stumbled into the courtyard clutching his side. Ashlock's spirit sight allowed him to see perfectly, even in the dark, so he noticed the area the man was clutching was dyed red. "Ooo! Another victim. Stella won't mind, right?" Ashlock was itching to use his devour skill, but he decided to wait and see. Like a good patient tree.

The man appeared to be a mortal as he lacked any type of presence, had a rather ordinary appearance, and wore servant clothes. Ashlock had noticed that the black robes and dresses with a sewn-on red lotus that Stella wore differed from the plain grey robes the servant wore. "Come to think of it... this is the Red Vine peak, so why does Stella have a red lotus sown onto her robe? She mentioned a lot of other families nearby and a tournament, so I assume we are inside a sect of some kind? Maybe the Red Lotus sect?"

Ashlock mentally added that to his growing list of questions to investigate. Being a tree was an odd experience in a cultivation world. If he made enemies with powerful people, he couldn't run. But on the other hand, he is a tree, so people have no reason to go out of their way to trouble him. Other young masters? Sure. A random tree in a courtyard? Why? He was a very harmless and friendly tree.

"Maybe I should take a fight-if-threatened stance... at least until I'm a godlike tree that cannot be defeated." Deciding that was reasonable, Ashlock assumed an observing role, as any friendly tree should strive for, and watched the drama unfold.

The screams continued, so Ashlock activated his {Eye of the Tree God} skill and observed the Red Vine peak from above. "Oh... seems Stella has found the rats." Stella was battling with two servants in the nearby sandy training area courtyard.

As she battled with the two servants, purple flames flickered across Stella's skin. Ashlock zoomed in on their faces and mentally frowned. "I have never seen these two before... since when did they work here?" The servants wore the usual robes, but their faces were far too chiseled and well-kept to belong to mere servants. Like in all cultivator novels, absorbing ambient Qi naturally removes imperfections like acne or rough skin.

"Don't look at her. She has a demonic eye technique!" The taller of the two servants shouted as he covered his eyes with one arm and summoned a blade of red flames in the other. The second servant nodded and covered his eyes while black flames flared to life on his fist.

Ashlock could tell from here that the flames from these servants were far brighter than Stella's. Especially the one with red flames, that sword of fire practically looked solid. Unfortunately for Stella, the two cultivator servants weren't alone. Servants in grey robes lined the training courtyard holding various weapons. One even had a very fancy-looking sword.

"Why?!" Stella screamed at the people surrounding her. "Who sent you? I will pay triple what they did."

"Stella... don't bother wasting your breath on them. They will never tell you." Ashlock sighed. The villains in movies only made those stupid speeches in movies.

"You think you can murder the scion of house Ravenborne and live?" The flame sword cultivator sneered and stepped forward. "The Grand Elder demands your head on a platter."

"...I stand corrected," Ashlock grumbled. "This is a cultivator world, after all."

Ashlock once again felt helpless and lacked options to assist. "Maybe that's for the best, though. Anyone who can kill Stella could defeat me with a finger flick." Ashlock hated to admit it, but he was just a 3rd realm sapling with no defensive capabilities and a single attack skill that could be easily dodged or destroyed. The Vines that erupted from the ground had a thin layer of Qi strengthening them but only at his level, the 3rd layer of the Qi Realm. To a mortal servant, that was a death sentence. But to fire sword guy? He would laugh at Ashlock's pathetic attempt to snare a demi god such as himself and chop Ashlock down with a single cut of his blade.

"God being weak is so lame..." Ashlock mumbled as he watched the two cultivators slowly close in on Stella. The young girl rapidly looked around, and everyone she glanced at froze in fear. "I wonder if Stella knows the power those earrings have?"

Fire sword guy launched forward and slashed at Stella, but she barely dodged and nimbly stepped to the side—summoning the black dagger from somewhere, she rammed it toward the man's side, but a flare of red flames made her wince back. Stella didn't have a moment of rest as the black fist guy came right for her head. Stella's low stature helped her duck as the fist whistled through the air, making her blonde hair wave in the wind.

Ashlock found the cultivator's movements a little clumsy but considering they were using an arm to block their eyes, it made sense. "Why don't they just close their eyes? Are they stupid?"

Stella retaliated against the black fist guy by tripping him up with a well-placed foot. But before she could move in for the kill on his exposed neck, the servant with a fancy sword blocked her blade—which he instantly regretted as the purple flame-covered dagger sliced straight through the metal sword and cut the servant's leg off in one smooth motion.

Keeping up the tempo, Stella twirled around and finished the servant off by decapitating his head.

Honestly, keeping up with the fight was exhausting. Ashlock debated going to sleep and learning the results tomorrow when lovely warm sunlight and Qi would be trickling in from his meditation skill.

Focusing back on the central courtyard, it seemed the servant was dying. He was lying on the floor panting, clutching his wound, and trying to stop the bleeding. Ashlock recognized the servant. He often tended to the kitchen and was rarely seen outside.

"All things return to the earth... as nutrients..." Ashlock stopped that trail of thought in surprise. He felt no pity for the dying man, only the desire for the inevitable nutrients. "Well... I might as well put him out of his misery?"

If Ashlock used some twisted logic, when he was human back on Earth, he had no issue eating beef or chicken because that was considered food. Now he was a demonic sapling. Everything was food. Even humans. It was either he devoured and became strong enough to protect himself... or regretted his indecisiveness when that fire guy's blade cut him in half.

"Sorry, dude... you picked the wrong place to die." Ashlock mumbled a silent prayer for the guy and activated the devour skill. Unfortunately, the poor guy didn't seem to have the strength to resist as the spiked vines mummified him.

[+5 SC]

Ashlock hummed as the rush of Qi flooded his system. But then, a second rush caught him off guard. Qi surged through his roots and chaotically rushed around his trunk like a hurricane.

"Status!"

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 4)]

[Qi Realm: 4th Stage]

[Skills…]

"Finally!" It had taken Ashlock over a year to reach the next stage. The rush made Ashlock hungry for more, so he searched the courtyard for any more stray servants to devour. "Stella will understand..." There was a decent chance that all the servants had turned against their master or weren't subservient in the first place.

Right on cue, another three servants stumbled through the connecting area between the training courtyard and the central courtyard. Ashlock didn't even hesitate and cast devour. There was so much chaotic Qi running through his body that the vines shot out of the ground with such impressive speed that they straight-up impaled the three servants and dragged their corpses to the ground.

[+5 SC]

One after another, the corpses were devoured. In a haze of madness, Ashlock felt he might throw up Qi at this rate. With the only outlet being {Qi Fruit Production}, he summoned the menu and picked random options before pressing confirm.

"Whew..." Ashlock let out a deep breath as the system initiated the skill and forcefully funneled the chaotic Qi away from his body and into the fruit production. "This skill is more useful than I thought..." Although it wasn't a combat skill, it was a great way to prevent himself from dying due to gluttony.

Ashlock saw a few tiny blood-red berries dangle from his branches in three clusters and realized there was an artistic beauty in recycling the dead into a new life that would provide for other living things. As a tree, he was no longer an endless consumer but now a provider to the world—a governor of the natural cycle of life and death.

"Tree..."

Ashlock was broken from his thoughts as he saw Stella limp toward him.

Purple flames flickered across her shoulders like weak candlelight as she collapsed just a short distance from his root. Her breathing was ragged and slow, and it appeared she had sustained some injuries.

Before Ashlock could do anything, a heavily injured fire sword guy emerged from behind the door and slowly stepped toward Stella, using a steel sword as a makeshift cane.

Flickering red flames illuminated his face as the man loomed over the dying girl. "Fucking bitch." The man grimaced as some blood dripped from his teeth. His eyes were sealed shut, and he tried to locate the girl by poking the ground with the sword.

Ashlock waited patiently for the perfect moment to strike... The man inched ever closer... Stella was lying on her back, struggling to keep her eyes open as the man's sword made contact with her leg.

"There you are..." The man grinned as he brought the sword up over his head in a two-handed grip. "Die—" the man stopped midsentence as a Qi-empowered vine surged out of the ground behind him and impaled his back.

The man looked down at the hole in his chest with a lost look. The sword tumbled to the ground as the man's arm lost strength. "Who..." The cultivator looked around, and his eyes landed on the black tree with scarlet leaves letting off a faint whiff of Qi. "A tree?" With a final gasp for air, the man fell forward onto Stella, causing the girl to groan in pain.

[+100 SC]

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Chapter 6: Snacks Before Winter

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Ashlock stirred from his short sleep as the sun crested the horizon.

Since his view range was limited, even with his {Eye of the Tree God} skill Ashlock saw the world as if he were in a snow globe.

He had a perfect sphere of vision in all directions for a few miles, meaning he couldn't see the sun. But its pleasant warmth pierced the clouds and illuminated the central courtyard.

Shredded clothes dyed in dried blood littered the courtyard alongside bits of metal from half-destroyed weapons.

Ashlock gazed upon the source of all this mess, a sleeping blonde-haired girl a few feet away.

Her back rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and her breath swayed the purple grass dripping in her drool that tickled her nose. Stella was alive... Ashlock was no doctor, but from a glance, it would be impossible to survive the night with such injuries for a human back on Earth.

"It's moments like these that truly remind me I'm in a new world. Magic is just the manifestation of the world. I've seen a sword covered in flames back on Earth. But a person smashing a boulder with their bare hands or teleporting halfway across the courtyard in a single step? Now that was truly magical. And seeing Stella survive such a fight with her body barely intact was something I could never see back on Earth."

Feeling bored, Ashlock summoned the daily sign-in.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1819

Daily Credit: 1

Sacrifice Credit: 120

[Sign in?]

"Yes." Ashlock decided this would be his last sign-in before a long sleep. Winter was coming, and retaining consciousness during the dark winter felt worse than his withdrawals from energy drinks.

[Sign in successful, 121 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked a C-grade skill: Hibernate]

"Hibernate?" Ashlock concentrated on the skill, and its meaning materialized in his mind—the feeling was similar to deja vu.

"Another type of meditation?"

The skill had two functions. First, he would set a timer and enter deep sleep when activated. Nothing except exceptional circumstances would awaken him until the timer was complete.

The second feature was that the longer he was asleep, the faster his cultivation became. The buff was small, but over a long period, it would add up.

Ashlock practically cried tears of joy. "Finally!" He had a way of sleeping through all the girl's ramblings and not being awoken every time she entered the courtyard. This skill obviously had some disadvantages, but it was overall an excellent addition to his arsenal.

A few hours passed as the sun climbed the sky, and sometime around midday, Stella's eyes opened, and she let out a long groan.

Purple fire sprung to life, and Stella rolled over and looked at the sky with squinted eyes. "I lived..." She muttered as she held up a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. A single tear ran down her cheek as she lay there for a while.

It was hard to remember she was just a young girl, seemingly without any family living alone on a mountain peak when she went around slaughtering so many people.

Half an hour passed, and the rumbling of Stella's stomach forced her to get up. Only now did she look at Ashlock, and a smile bloomed on her face seeing the tree was still there. She looked closer at the scarlet leaves drifting in the autumn breeze and noticed the variety of fruits dangling from the branches.

"Can I eat some?" Stella asked as she tried to stand on her tiptoes to reach the low-hanging fruit. Although Ashlock was relatively short for a tree, Stella was both short and young, so she struggled to reach up.

Ashlock was sure she had a trick up her sleeve, but she looked haggard, and her purple flames flickered. Looking back at his {Qi Fruit Production} menu, there was an option to discharge a grown fruit. Clicking it, a tiny bit of Qi was used to break the stem, causing a bundle of red berries to fall into Stella's waiting hand.

"Thank you, tree!" Stella gave a thumbs up, and without debating if they were poisonous, she swallowed them in a single gulp... which she instantly regretted. "Bleh... Tree these taste like grass and sap."

The girl surprisingly ate them all, but she had a disgusted face—which transitioned into one of surprise as Qi rushed through her body. It was weak, but with the entire bundle of berries combined, it was enough to refill her depleted Qi reserves a little.

"Taste better than Qi restoration weeds, at least..." Stella stood under the tree with her hands cupped. "Can I have some more?" A few moments passed, and nothing fell—Stella pouted, "They taste good! Better than any other cultivation supplements!"

Only then did a single purple with black spots fruit plop into her hand. This time, she eyed the fruit more cautiously and took a hesitant bite. "Ugh, so bitter." Stella almost choked on the piece of fruit... "I mean, I like bitter things!" Steeling her resolve, she swallowed the entire thing and gagged.

Ashlock sighed as he watched the dumb girl attempt to please a tree. He intended to withhold the fruit to prove he could understand her, not to make her torture herself by eating his tasteless fruit in a vain attempt to curry favor with him.

The rest of the afternoon was spent by Stella pleading for berries and fruit and Ashlock providing them. Ashlock was glad to get rid of them as it freed up space to grow some nice fruit.

However, a bit of his pride was hurt watching the girl almost die while trying to eat his fruit. "Feels like when mom used to refuse to eat my cooking..." The experience left a sour taste in his mouth, so he brought up the menu and invested everything into a single fruit in a momentary lapse in judgment.

Ashlock felt Qi get sucked from his body down his thickest branch, and a watermelon-sized fruit with a golden color began its development.

[Time till completion: 6 months]

A bit of a waste, but oh well. Ashlock returned his attention to Stella, who looked a lot better. The abundant Qi helped restore her weary body to its peak condition.

"Tree, I know you can understand me now!" Stella proclaimed with a bit of berry juice smeared on her face. "Don't sleep just yet. Help me dispose of the evidence."

Before Ashlock could ask what she meant—not that he could ask anyway—the girl had wandered off. "Dispose of the evidence?" Ashlock's eyes drifted to the shredded remains of a grey servant robe. "Ah..."

An hour later, there was a pile of servants in the courtyard.

Stella had found a few servants still alive hiding throughout the pavilion, but she slaughtered them all.

Ashlock didn't know the customs or rules here, but it seemed even the servants expected their own demise. "I guess even if they weren't accomplices to the intruders working for house Ravenborne, they still didn't come to their master's aid and instead cowered away under tables."

"Right," Stella said while she brushed her hands off on her tattered robe. "I know most trees sleep through the winter, and you also seemed to sleep a lot." Stella tapped her nose. "When you are asleep, the flow of your Qi is very stable compared to when you are awake. I can tell..."

The girl seemed very proud of herself, and Ashlock was relieved he didn't have to scream into the void in frustration.

Alas, it seemed the girl hadn't figured out that he would prefer to sleep all year round uninterrupted. But it was the small victories that mattered here.

Stella took a step back so Ashlock could get to work.

{Devour} activated, and vines crawled over the human pyramid. A stream of alerts shot past his mind informing him of acquired sacrifice credits. In total, there were over a... hundred such notifications.

Hours passed, and [+736 SC] was the final total as the vines retreated into the ground. Unfortunately, Ashlock didn't have time to enjoy the increased credits as the surge of Qi inside his body was unfathomable. Ashlock mashed the create button as fast as he could on the watermelon-sized golden fruits.

At some point, Stella had walked off to get changed into less ravaged clothes while Ashlock battled for his life to not explode from the rampaging Qi. Eventually, it was done after fighting all night... the sun of a new day appeared. Not only was he dripped out with enough golden fruit to feed an entire family, but he had also advanced two realms.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 4)]

[Qi Realm: 6th Stage]

[Skills…]

{Eye of the Tree God[A]}

{Language of the World[B]}

{Qi Fruit Production[C]}

{Devour[C]}

{Hibernate[C]}

{Basic Meditation[F]}

{Basic Poison Resistance [F]}

Ashlock also checked the daily sign-in.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1819

Daily Credit: 1

Sacrifice Credit: 856

[Sign in?]

"No." Ashlock wanted to get another A-grade draw. However, he would need a thousand points combined, so he decided to save them.

Looking around the courtyard, Stella was nowhere to be found, but Ashlock was beyond caring.

He was mentally exhausted, and sleep was calling his name.

Activating his new skill {Hibernate}, he input six months and felt a timer appear in his head, counting the 180 days until his awakening.

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07.01.2023, 18:46

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Tree Demon

https://www.patreon.com/xkarnation

Bio: I like reincarnation stories a little too much

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Reborn as a Demonic Tree

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Chapter 7: Treeskip

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Ashlock was in a tunnel—an endless tunnel where he could do nothing. No thoughts crossed his mind... no dreams of a better tomorrow. Nothing. Just steady progress to an eventual end. An end he knew was coming due to the timer ticking down. It was slow, so agonizingly slow.

[Hibernation: 32 Days]

Ashlock was trapped within his mind. The cursed skill he had employed kept his mind on the straight and narrow. Before, when he slept, time passed in the blink of an eye. There were no dreams, no turbulence. Just one moment, he would close his eyes, and the next, awaken in a new season, a new situation.... a new time.

[Hibernation: 31 Days]

But with the {Hibernate} skill, he was forced to experience the flow of time. Like some kind of mortal creature.

How long had he been here? Going down this tunnel in his mind. The grey walls of nothingness kept him confined from everything else. He wanted to think, dream, plot, and plan. Anything to end this mind-numbing state of being.

[Hibernation: 30 Days]

Easy decisions create hard times. A phrase that resounded in Ashlock's head. The skill had seemed so innocent, so easy. Just flip a switch, and watch the world fly by. No more disturbances and even a slight boost to his Qi accumulation.

[Hibernation: 29 Days]

If Ashlock had to describe his current situation to a mortal mind, imagine a concrete, lifeless tunnel where you are paralyzed and rolling down the tunnel while strapped to a stretcher. Only an ominous timer floating in front of your eyes notifies you of your eventual freedom from this confinement. The worst of it? Ashlock did this to himself.

[Hibernation: 28 Days]

A small part of Ashlock appreciated this experience. It forcefully brought back a bit of his humanity that had been slipping away. Six months to him was nothing as a tree, just another passed winter. But to a human? Someone like Stella? Six months could be life-changing. For all Ashlock knew, he may escape this nightmare and awaken in an empty courtyard ravaged by nature. What if he went to sleep and no cultivators ever entered the courtyard? Would he awaken eons later to witness the eventual death of the planet as the sun expanded at the end of its long life and swallowed the planet whole?

[Hibernation: 27 Days]

He screamed. Anything to break the silence.

[Hibernation: 26 Days]

What was the rush? Ever since arriving in this world, Ashlock had chosen sleep over being awake. Was he hiding from his problems? Just because the system gave him rewards for passing the time and killing, did that justify him rushing into the future and letting the present pass him by?

[Hibernation: 25 Days]

Immortality is a funny thing. If given all the time in the world, the need to accomplish things suddenly vanishes since there's always tomorrow... or next year. And unlike an ordinary immortal, who needs to fill their time with hobbies to avoid insanity... Ashlock could just blink the time away. Ashlock knew he was in a world of cultivators where the pursuit of overwhelming power and immortality was possible. What would happen if he could speak to another immortal? Would they have some advice to steer him on the right path?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Ashlock was just a young sapling confined to a single courtyard atop a mountain peak.

He was young and ignorant of the world.

But that didn't mean planning for the future lacked merit.

The endless pursuit of strength, new abilities, and land was fine, but what did he truly value?

Perhaps a question for another time.

[Hibernation: 24 Days]

Ashlock's mind came to a sudden halt with such force that the mental tunnel that confined his mind from distractions shattered in a shower of glass. His worldview lurched forward as if the stretcher he was attached to was connected to a bungee cord, and everything hit him at once.

[Hibernation Terminated. Extreme Threat Detected]

The air vibrated as something beyond this mortal realm arrived. Ashlock's mind spun as he tried to identify the source and readapt to his surroundings. The purple grass central courtyard was empty; spring was in full swing, and Ashlock could feel the warmth on his leaves and the refreshing cool breeze on his shaded bark. But a suffocating presence blanketed the area like a godlike entity glaring from above.

{Eye of the Tree God} activated, and Ashlock's view shifted. His 6th layer in the Qi realm became apparent as the peak of the neighboring mountain was in full view. Atop was a pavilion similar to his, but its courtyards were filled with harrowing leafless trees that looked like withered black fingers reaching for the skies. Monstrous birds with raven feathers and beady red eyes perched upon the tree branches, and a dense mist shrouded the entire peak as people moved about in the shadows of the fog.

But the source of the alarm didn't come from there... no, it came from the base of Red Vine peak. Switching his view, Ashlock witnessed a man climbing a thousand steps, taking a hundred steps at a time. White fire so dense it was blinding shrouded the man as the air seemed to gravitate towards him as he gracefully glided up the mountain's side as if he were ice skating.

As the man approached the pavilion's door, Ashlock rotated his view and saw Stella. She had been cultivating in the middle of a runic formation in one of the courtyards. Ashlock was no expert, but he suspected the formation helped to condense the ambient Qi, making cultivation faster. Her eyes snapped open, and her body shuddered right as the man placed his hand on the door to knock.

Stella practically stumbled off the runic formation and managed to stop herself from tumbling to the ground as she broke into a sprint. Purple flames sprung to life, and Ashlock caught a glimpse of her movement technique. Purple flames exploded at the base of her feet, rocketing her forward in a controlled manner, letting her close the distance in a split second.

A single knock resounded through the courtyard as Stella halted in a cloud of dust. She then quickly tidied herself up before opening the door.

"Stella Crestfallen greets the Grand Elder!" Stella's hair whipped as she threw herself into a ninety-degree bow.

"At ease, young one..." The man looked barely over twenty-five, but his voice and poise suggested a long life of politics and family drama. "I have come on behalf of the disciplinary committee." The man walked past Stella and slowly looked around as if bored. "I hope you don't mind the surprise inspection?"

Stella gulped and didn't dare raise her head. "Of course not, Grand Elder. You are welcome to visit my humble abode anytime."

"Mhm." The Grand Elder practically floated as he walked down the pavilion corridor toward the outer courtyards. The wooden walls creaked and groaned as he passed, unlocked window shutters swung inside, and plant pots wobbled on their stands.

Ashlock tracked the man's movements with his skill through the windows, but he felt a sense of danger as the man wrapped in subtle white flames paused and glanced directly at him. Some would believe it was pure luck, or perhaps the man was gazing at the passing clouds littering the sky... But the man's cold eyes stared into Ashlock's with such precision and purpose it was creepy.

"Tell me, scion of house Crestfallen. Where are your servants?" The man kept walking toward the exotic garden as he spoke in a tranquil voice as if the affairs of the mortal world were of no concern to him.

"My servants... they betrayed me," Stella said without masking anything. "I slaughtered them all."

"I see." The man's voice lacked emotion as the pair reached the garden, and the Grand Elder casually plucked a rose and twirled it between two fingers.

The plants seemed to naturally bend their stalks as if an invisible weight was pressing down on them as the Grand Elder passed. "A fitting response. I would do the same... if not worse." The Grand Elder chuckled quietly as he continued his peaceful walk. His eyes lingered on the occasional splat of dried blood that Stella had missed when cleaning up.

The pavilion was massive, and over three hundred people could live comfortably there at any given time. To expect a single teenage girl to clean every nook and cranny was unrealistic.

The Grand Elder reached the kitchen wing and opened the door with a flick. White flames lashed out like a whip, and the hefty door creaked open. A plume of dust and stale air followed, causing the Grand Elder to frown. "Child, you are still growing. Food is important... why is the kitchen so unused?"

"Responding to Grand Elder—"

"No need for such pleasantries. Just call me Elder."

Stella winced back, "Uhm, Okay, Elder. I don't know how to cook."

"So, how do you eat?"

Stella paused for a while. A gust of wind passed the two causing their robes to flutter. Only the chirps of birds and soft breeze filled the awkward silence. "It's complicated..."

"Child, you seem confused about my purpose here." The Grand Elder said in a friendly but flat tone. "Your father was a good friend of mine. The snakes of house Ravenborne demand this peak be turned over to them as compensation for the death of their scion. I am simply here to confirm you are not a threat or conducting anything against the sect rules."

The relief was evident on Stella's face as she let out a long sigh. "I grow food and live off that. Also, my cultivation is rather high, so my need for sustenance is rather low."

"You are indeed a very impressive child. The Patriarch hopes you will become a Grand Elder in the future."

The Grand Elder looked around the exotic garden with a deepening frown. "Don't tell me you live off this stuff." He plucked a small berry and gave it a sniff. "Hardly a whiff of Qi and the size of my thumb. Garbage."

Then he said with a thin smile, "Stella, you are a terrible gardener. Shall we go see the true source of your food?" The Grand Elder didn't even wait for her response and glided toward the central courtyard.

"Shit." Ashlock canceled out his {Eye of the Tree God} skill, and his view returned to the central courtyard's purple grass. "What can I do? Should I sign in?" The Grand Elder claimed to be friendly, but what if he didn't approve of a man-eating tree living near his dead friend's daughter? "Best to be safe..."

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1975

Daily Credit: 157

Sacrifice Credit: 856

[Sign in?]

"Yes."

[Sign in successful, 1013 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an A-grade skill: Deep Roots]

Ashlock mentally slammed his mind against his bark in frustration.

"System, what the fuck am I supposed to do with this? I have a demi-god walking toward me, and you give me this?"

Focusing on the skill, the information appeared in his mind. "By spending Qi, my roots become empowered and can tunnel through rock without issue. I can also hollow out my roots to create tunnels..." Ashlock had to admit there were some applications for this skill, especially considering he was atop the peak of a mountain, so the only way was down.

"And who knows what lies in the deep caverns of the mountains? There had to be a reason the sect was founded on this land. Maybe a secret realm or monsters for me to kill?"

Sadly, the skill seemed rather useless in the current situation.

Ashlock watched helplessly as the Grand Elder strolled across the courtyard. The purple grass flattened in a perfect circle around him as if the man had his own gravity, and the white flames shrouding his form made him so bright that he was blinding to look at in Ashlock's spirit sight.

The man approached and eyed the golden fruit blooming from Ashlock's branches.

"Interesting. I have never seen this type of fruit before." The Grand Elder reached up and easily plucked a fruit. He rotated it in his hand, observing every nook and crevice in the golden fruit. Then he threw it up and down a few times, testing its weight. "Dense and full of Qi. Although weaker than a cultivation pill, it's definitely a miracle fruit."

Ashlock held his breath as the Grand Elder stepped closer and laid a hand on his bark. A pulse of power, like a sonar wave, rippled through Ashlock's body.

The Grand Elder frowned. "Is this a demonic tree spirit?"

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XKARNATION

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07.01.2023, 19:48

United Kingdom

Tree Demon

https://www.patreon.com/xkarnation

Bio: I like reincarnation stories a little too much

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