Other spiritual plants cowered to the intensity of the lightning that was still raining down on the cocoon as more bolts tried breaking through to destroy him if he wasn't strong enough. This was his tribulation, and if he couldn't withstand it, his body, along with his soul, would be extirpated from existence.
'I refuse to die here. Not when I finally have the chance to move like a human! I refuse to die before I can start living again!' Renshen screamed in his mind as the pain grew twice as before.
Nothing could help me, not even his ability to absorb other beings' vitality because lightning had no soul.
He could only bear the torment till it was over.
A fair distance from where Renshen was undergoing his test, four disciples in a sect uniform were busy fighting off a group of low-level saber-toothed tigers.
They swung their swords in a formation, and a large qi sword formed in the air. Stabbing their blades forward, the qi sword hit the beasts and killed them in one swoop, sending their bodies flying against the tall trees all around them.
Panting, the group crumbled to their knees, using their swords as their support.
"It seems like-" *pant* "-someone i-" *pant* "-undergoing a tribulation." One of the four male disciples said staring at the darkened sky where the lightning was coming from.
"Dear god, to experience this kind of tribulation is a blessing. They must be quite powerful."
"Forget about them. Let's collect the cores and hurry back before high-level beasts show up."
"Argh! I almost forgot how dangerous this place has become. The elders said that it started happening seven hundred years ago. But it benefits us outer disciples. Look at the harvest we've gotten today." He smiled stabbing the beast's corpse between its chest before reaching in the bloody opening. With a slight grunt, he pulled out what looked like a red marble.
"It's such a-"
Their conversation was interrupted when the ground began shaking.
They turned their heads towards the east, and then the west, and then in every direction. The loud and hard stomping of the hordes running through the forest could be felt miles down the mountain.
"Hurry! Leave the ground!" Their leader yelled as he jumped on his sword. Soon, all four of them soared into the sky and away from the danger, their hearts thumping from the sudden fright.
"They seem to be heading..."
Levitating in the air in their swords, the ground gazed at the lightning bolts striking the ground which was hidden from their sight by the trees.
They couldn't even get closer lest the lightning strikes them and abolish their cultivation.
##############
He could feel an arm, a leg, hair... Soon enough, he could feel his entire body. A complete body. One that had no pain or organs failing.
A small crack formed on the cocoon. And when a lightning bolt struck it, the whole thing shattered, leaving bare the body of a male suspended in the air in a fetal position.
His skin was pale, but his hair was paler and long. It rested comfortably on his back and shoulder as if it had been woven from his very flesh.
'Light.'
He forced open his eyes which felt like they had been sealed with glue. But once the eyelids parted and the natural light filled his vision, Renshen's legs moved as well.
In a harmonious motion, his body came to a standing position, his bare feet on the warm soil.
The dark clouds were now dissipating, the lightning dying out after his successful transformation.
"Hands, I have..hands." Renshen marvelled lifting his arm to his face.
He then gazed down at the rest of his naked body and a warm sensation filled his chest. The last time he saw his body, he had been missing a leg. That broken body had been his hell, trapping him for over a year.
He lifted his face at the sky to welcome the rays falling on his skin, reminding him that he was alive again. The air going into his lungs was fresh and calming, and the birds chirping close by soothed his nerves.
Everything felt refreshing for him who had been trapped in the body of a plant for so long. He could now see, touch, and speak.
"Re- Ren..."
He frowned at the air, realizing that it was too early to celebrate.
Had he forgotten how to speak?
What about walking?
Renshen took a single step and he thudded on the ground, on his left hip. 'Shit!' he cursed in his mind. 'Am I a toddler now?'
Side punching the ground, he mumbled more curse at it, at himself, at everything.
Suddenly, the branches of the willow he was under stretched further down like a person extending his arms... They slithered around Renshen's body, wrapping themselves.
"Let me help you, master," a calm female's voice spoke as the soft branches lifted his body to a standing position.
"Mas...ter?" He asked facing the large willow whose long green branches danced to the breeze blowing by.
"I owe you my life. Without you, I would have died hundreds of years ."
He just frowned at the tree with a confused expression on.
"My name is Liu and I am one thousand years old. I was dying when you started growing here seven hundred years ago. Your conscious was barely felt yet you were able to protect yourself.
"Through you, I began consuming the leftover qi from the beasts you devoured, and after a year, I began blossoming again. Today, yet again, I have attained my full mortal blessings as you underwent your tribulation. So it is only respectful if I take you as my master."
Renshen didn't blink for a minute, his brain was still processing what Liu had just revealed. Not the part about her calling him her master but...him being seven centuries old.
He placed a hand on his mouth but the laugh erupting couldn't be suppressed. 'I have lived seven lives without any pain or fear. So this is what a piece of eternity feels like? Like...nothing.'
"Master, some beasts are approaching. They must have been drawn here as your core was forming."
'Core? What is a core? My heart?'
"No, Master."
'You can also hear my thoughts?'
"Of course. You have been unguarded all these years. Even now, your mind is still defenseless. Any enlightened cultivator can hear you."
'Enlightened?'
"Master, how do you want to handle the beasts?"
He could now feel the ground trembling under his feet. 'Beasts! I have been feeding on them for so long from my cultivation level of fifty to a thousand. They must be furious about their deceased ones.'
"Indeed. But if you kill them at once, those high cultivators who come to hunt will grow suspicious. Your cultivation is not high enough to put up a fight. I'd suggest that I conceal your body and erase your presence until they did down."
Renshen pondered about it for a few seconds before agreeing. 'Okay then.'
The branches slowly and carefully drew his body towards its trunk. A perpendicular split appeared on the willow before it began opening up. Inside, he saw nothing but darkness.
'Why does it feel like I'm being eaten?'
As the branches pushed him into the gaping opening, the screen appeared and he immediately realized what was happening. He had been tricked and was about to be sealed permanently in the belly of a demon willow.
He wriggled, hoping to free himself, but its grasp on him was firmer.
"Don't resist, master; this is the only way we can be together forever. I didn't lie when I said you saved me. But your tribulation awoke my demonic thirst. I cannot help it. Your core is too delicious for a monster like me to ignore." She then cackled as Renshen struggled like a worm.
From the stats window, the tree was at least level 1500 and now exuded a dark purple aura as its demonic nature was being revealed.
"Over there!" An alien shout came from the air. "It's about to eat someone. Hurry and set up the formation!"
The four disciples who had been monster-hunting earlier came to Renshen's defense. They stood in a row above the willow tree on their swords and pointed at the tree with their sword fingers, and the swords beneath their feet started glowing white, just like the big sword qi farming in the air.
"How dare these ants disrupt my meal?" The willow roared, sending its branches at the disciples, which possessed traces of corrosive demonic qi.