With nothing else to do, the tree spirit entertained himself by leisurely strolling around the forest. His spiritual sense improved again!

Although he could now expand his view across to the outskirts of the nearest village, his spiritual force didn’t have the same range. So, he couldn’t move much of anything.

The village did appear to be bustling with vendors and visitors traveling in and out of the village. Some were speaking in a strange and foreign dialect as well and wore strange robes. Apparently, there was a rumoured treasure nearby! Some were conversing that an immortal must have left a treasure trove when he had lived here ages ago.

The tree spirit thought about it and went to scout the mountain range as well. Was there really a treasure trove that he had missed? There hadn’t been anyone that lived on these mountains for a couple of hundred years already. Oh! It can’t be… could they be talking about that sect that raised him? If that’s the case, there was absolutely nothing left. He checked the area countless times, and the only thing he’d come across was a small broken jade pendant, which he had carefully hidden.

…It’s been so long since they’d left. The sadistic old man, cheeky kids… even that one injured child left. Sometimes… even he’d want to leave and go search for them. See them, talk to them, travel with them… Just… he’s a tree. The most he can do is observe the people and beasts nearby. Watching them go about their own matters and occasionally ward off dangerous beasts from the mountain. Some just… ate too much. He had to protect the ecosystem.

As the tree spirit waddled in mild sorrow, he noticed two cultivators arguing.

They were flying above the mountain range and brandished their swords while spitting insults at each other. He curiously watched them with his ‘eyes’ sparkling with interest! Cultivators hardly come by these rural mountains, and those stories the old man said just stuck with him.

“You [email protected]#$%!!! I won’t let you off today!!! You [email protected]#$ #$%^& %^&!!! This is the last 3$%^@#$ straw! I’ll cut you down and stick your @#$%^ head on a #$%& pile of shit! @#$%!”

“Haha. Says the one whose mouth is more vulgar than feces. I don’t even know why such a lovely lady would even consider you. Try me.”

“@#$%^ You @#$^& $&%^&% %&^&%& womanizer!”

Ah… He stole the poor dude’s wife. That’s understandable. The tree spirit watched amused, he hadn’t seen cultivators fighting so seriously before. The most he’d seen were just brawls between the normal humans and some junior cultivator’s training regime and even those felt like eons ago.

Ohh! The vulgar human sliced his sword through the air, causing spiritual energy to condense and ripple out in sharp waves that cut through the air. The other dodged gracefully to the side and seemed to vanish before reappearing above and struck his sword down. The vulgar human blocked it with the blade of his sword but his defense was short-lived before the graceful human’s sword emitted sparks and blasted a round of lightning. The vulgar human was prepared and slid to the side before chanting some weird spell.

The ground shook and trembled as they fought, showcasing how much of a disturbance their fight caused.

Just as the fight drew on, the vulgar human managed to land a kick on the immoral human and caused the latter to slam into the ground. Creating a crater where he landed. Going with the momentum, the former landed a more intense wind blade attack that… split the mountain...?

The little tree spirit was shocked. The once luscious green mountain now had a very deep cavern down the middle. Even at such an intense attack, the immoral human was not dead and instead struck lightning arrows to the vulgar human. The rebounding impact caused the cavern to shake and the neighbouring ground started to cave inwards.

Then the tree spirit realized something wrong. He felt sharp pains from his roots. He was being uprooted! He quickly summoned all of his spiritual energy to encase them but found that his body was gradually caving in. He tried his best to remain rooted and gripped the surrounding soil as best as he could-

SNAP.

His bark splintered and broke as a flying rogue boulder from the fight crashed onto him. With it,

He fell. And was quickly buried in the aftermath.

He didn’t know whether the two cultivators still continued their fight.

He felt weak as intense pain scattered and pierce his body. The ground trembled again before intense lighting shot through it, dismembering one of his thickest branches.

He wanted to scream, the pain was intense. Numbing. Scorching. Soft red sap began to trickle down his frame, and for the first time in centuries, he fell unconscious.

Somehow… this was such an unsatisfying way to go. He- he at least wanted to travel and see more of the world before he’d go…

Xxxx

Cold. Ah. It was freezing. Sharp pulses of a chilling liquid crawled and slapped his lithe frame.

It startled the tree spirit awake. How long has it been?

“Ahh…” A soft voice gasped.

What was that?

“Grrnah..” There it was again. What is that? It… so dark. I can’t see…

The tree spirit opened his eyes…and noticed that he was half submerged in a shallow glowing pool of liquid.

Wait, eyes? By reflex, he touched them.

“Ouch,” That stung a little. He..he had hands!

Startled he let out another scream.

Shocked, he realized that the sound was his! He gained a human form! But how..? He thought he was dead. Heck, he felt like he was going to die from the pain alone.

Then he realized that his body was absorbing the strange liquid. It was comforting and quickly replenished any fatigue he had. He felt rejuvenated.

As if on instincts, he quickly absorbed as much as he could. There was spiritual energy in the water! More importantly, it was dense! The tree spirit’s eyes widen slightly before he focused on coursing and refining the energy throughout his meridians. At his spirit core, the energy was quickly sucked into it and condensed into a bring yellow colour before a burst of light blasted the excess impurities from the core and reformed it into a smaller blue sphere.

The tree spirit let out a breath in relief. Then his frame appears to glow from excitement! He’d improve his foundation and broke through a grade! Putting the matter of absorbing spiritual energy aside, he’d quickly scanned the surroundings with his new and improved spiritual force.

He… was buried below the mountain!! A few kilometers below too! And... there were some weird structures above? There seems to be a huge giant village! With tons of humans!! When did they multiply so much? As he was scanning the soil around him, he found a small and dull jade piece relatively near him. It was the one from the old sect… Feeling emotional, he used the red string around the small jade to carefully tie it around his wrist, even after so many years, it was still surprisingly durable…

After he’d gotten through his shock, he calmed down and began thinking of how to get out from there… He sat cross-legged in the gap formed between a few large boulders. At least there was a silver lining in this… the boulder that almost killed him shielded the mass above, and prevented him from being… crushed to death.

The tree spirit then continued to cultivate there, until he’d sucked up all the spiritual energy around him. With the source gone, he felt that he’d broken through twice more! He wasn’t sure which level was he… nor which leveling system, but he certainly did feel stronger. The tree spirit then stood up and covered his frame in a protective layer of spiritual force to withstand the weight of the ground above him.

Then… he dug.

And dug, and dug and dug….

It seemed like forever. And he felt exhausted at times. But he just has to keep on digging.

After what seemed like forever, he carefully dug out from a patch of softer ground near the outskirts of the huge and gigantic village.

“Pui!” He spat some soil out. They accidentally got in his mouth when he got too excited.

He was finally out. Ah… look, there was the light blue sky, warm yellow sun… oh, how he’d missed them. His dearest friends. A tear almost fell from the touching sight.

“Hey!! Who’s there!” A low voice sounded followed by the clinking sound of metal.

Eh? Humans? Should he greet them? He now looks human anyways.

“Hewrrroh” Hello. Hmm? That sounded strange?

“Intruder!!!!” A bunch of metal-wearing humans exclaimed and surrounded him, each brandishing swords.

Ah?