Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

Ashlock awoke to the golden radiance of a summer day—the sky was crystal clear, extending to the horizon without a hint of cloud or storm. It was perfect—almost too perfect.

Startled, Ashlock looked down at the source of the voice and saw a majestic young man wearing simple white robes sipping from a steaming teacup.

"Senior Lee?" Ashlock wondered. He still remembered the old man's distinctive jawline and stature, and despite this man's youthful appearance, he matched the memory of the old man in his mind. "Why was I supposed to die?"

The man didn't reply, taking another long sip of his tea before placing the teacup beside him on the bench.

Ashlock pondered Senior Lee's words. Stella's Qi had given him hope in that all-consuming darkness and perhaps helped revive his dying Star Core.

"Stella saved me," he answered with a touch of pride.

"Our fates are tied?" Ashlock glanced around but couldn't find Stella anywhere, or anything for that matter. It was eerily silent. There wasn't even the sound of a gentle breeze or distant cries of birds.

There was a brief silence as Ashlock considered Senior Lee's profound words, but something had been bothering him. "Senior Lee, why are you so youthful? Last time we met, you looked on the verge of death."

"Rebirth?"

Ashlock looked inside himself and noticed that the fragment was gone. "I don't have that fragment anymore. I think it was taken by the Dao Storm."

Ashlock complied, and sure enough, Senior Lee was correct. There was no floating blue cloud representing his consciousness. The fragment was also no longer necessary to connect his Star Core to the heavens, as even his Star Core was gone. Now his entire trunk pulsed with power as if it were a furnace of the gods.

Ashlock pondered Senior Lee's words and didn't like the idea that it would take him so much effort to cultivate.

Fragments from those dreams depicting a possible world tree's death made Ashlock uneasy about Senior Lee's words. "Do you want me to grow so I can be devoured by greedy cultivators or so my bark can be harvested for weapons?"

"What about me gave you a glimmer of hope?" Ashlock hated it, but he was naturally suspicious of Senior Lee and his motives. The old man had randomly appeared one day, handed him a fragment of some divine thing, and possibly caused a Dao Storm to appear that nearly ended his life.

Ashlock thought really hard, but the details of those dreams were fleeting. All they left was a vague instinct, like a bad feeling of what could happen to him, and hazy potential scenarios that could lead to his death.

"Era of Ascension? Why is it called that?" Ashlock asked.

Ashlock didn't understand. "Why does any of this matter? Are you saying I'm the World Tree? Do you want me to not cultivate to the next realm?"

"Wait." Ashlock couldn't believe it. "There's another powerful spirit tree down here with me?"

"Why?"

Ashlock recalled that when he merged with the fragment, the system had informed him that he now possessed unlimited cultivation potential. "Is the World Tree trapped down here because it doesn't have unlimited cultivation potential?"

"So there is a Monarch Realm spirit tree that wants to consume me... can it speak?"

That was quite intriguing. Ashlock wanted to meet this tree and engage in a lengthy conversation about tree life, but something bothered him. "Why can't we both ascend?"

Ashlock listened to Senior Lee's words. He would have been thrilled if he had learned about the path to becoming a divine being before his rebirth, but now he felt a sense of melancholy about the entire situation. "Why would I want to ascend and become a divine being? Can't I become the strongest and remain in the lowest realm of creation for all eternity as an immortal?"

Senior Lee stood up from the bench. His long white hair fluttered in the silent breeze as he clasped his hands behind his back. A moment of silence passed as his eyes lingered on something in the distance.

A sense of helplessness washed over Ashlock as Senior Lee stared him down.

After a moment, Ashlock blurted out, "What's the purpose of cultivating if there's always something stronger that can kill me like an insect? Or a random Dao Storm can come along and snatch my life away?"

"Is such a thing even possible?" Ashlock asked as fleeting dreams played through his mind. Surely, if he were about to become the strongest, those at the top would suppress him.

"So if I don't anger or draw unnecessary attention from those above, it's possible to reach the top?" Ashlock asked. In a way, it made sense. He didn't go out of his way to kill mortal humans, as their deaths were meaningless to him. He didn't see them as threats, and their corpses wouldn't provide any credits. Was that how those lofty cultivators of higher realms thought? Was he just an insignificant twig to them?

"How so?"

[Qi Reserves above the minimum threshold]

[Merge... complete]

[Sleep mode deactivated]

The sun seemed to teleport through the sky, indicating that it was late afternoon rather than midday, with a few clouds dotting the blue expanse.

Ashlock glanced down at the bench and saw Stella fast asleep where Senior Lee had been sitting, yet the steaming cup of tea remained where the man had left it.

"So it wasn't a dream," Ashlock murmured to himself, gazing out at the horizon over the sea of red trees. The view was so foreign to him. If not for Stella lying on the bench, he might have believed he had been reincarnated on another planet.

Where had the pavilion he called home gone? Had the Dao Storm wiped it out?

"Also, why are there so many demonic trees?" Ashlock wondered.

[Automatically established mycelium network with nearby trees]

Ashlock felt a sudden influx of Qi entering his body. Only now did he have a chance to examine himself, and he was horrified to see how small he had become. But in real-time, he could feel his wood cracking as he rapidly grew upward with the Qi from thousands of trees pouring into him.

[Estimated time until full recovery: 7 Days]

[System will remain in low power mode to maximize recovery speed]

"Hey, system. Can I use credits to speed up the repairs?" Ashlock wondered, and the prompt silenced him.

[Estimated credits for full recovery: 7260 (insufficient balance)]

"Alright, never mind. I can spend a week planning what I want to do next."

Everything was happening quickly, and he had much to contemplate.

Senior Lee had provided him with a new perspective and long-term goals to strive for, such as a supposed monarch realm world tree in the celestial empire that wanted to devour him.

"So first I have to get as strong as the Patriarch, then survive the beast tide that wipes out entire demonic sects, and finally fend off a monarch realm tree at the heart of the celestial empire that wants to eat me so it can transcend this place and initiate the Era of Ascension."

Ashlock took a deep breath and felt the air flow into his leaves, bringing peace to his mind.

He was finally a spirit tree with limitless potential.

The world was bleak and out to kill him, but somehow he felt optimistic about the future. He looked down at the bench and saw how the gentle breeze played with Stella's hair.

It was easy to get caught up in long-term goals that might take eons, but for now, he would focus on and cherish each and every day as if it were his last.

While lost in his thoughts, Ashlock was surprised when Diana crested the mountainside with a man in tow.

The large man with golden brown hair and muscles fit for a miner surveyed the mountain peak devoid of anything other than a rapidly growing tree and a single bench with a half-asleep girl sitting on it.

Ashlock hummed to himself. The man was a little rough around the edges, but with some training, he could serve the Ashfallen Sect well. The Dao Storm might have wiped out his pavilion and torn him apart, but in its wake, it had given him purpose and a chance at rebirth.

A rebirth he planned to live out to the fullest by reaching for the stars and protecting those closest to him from harm.