A Safe Retreat

In the little "cafeteria" Yu An had made, Old Man Yu was crouching, grinding up a Spirit Stone and sprinkling it evenly over the fine roots by his feet.

He watched as the crushed Spirit Stone visibly dimmed, and felt both relieved and anxious.

His second son had left him fifty Spirit Stones. He'd thought they would be enough to get through the entire wind-disaster season, but if the little tree didn't go dormant, they wouldn't last a month, let alone the whole season.

What was he supposed to do for the remaining two-plus months?

No one had ever mentioned that Rare Species could eat so many Spirit Stones.

He had dug up quite a bit of soil from the Spirit Field, but compared with those fifty Spirit Stones, it was nothing.

The only way would be to dig up all the soil from his ten acres of Spirit Fields, but that was impossible.

So where was he supposed to get more Spirit Stones?

Old Man Yu scratched his salt-and-pepper hair, deepening the creases on his face.

Meanwhile, Yu An began absorbing Spirit Stones as usual. As his roots grew thicker and stronger, he also quietly started pushing them farther beyond the walls.

Old Man Yu's house stood beside the Spirit Fields, about twenty or thirty meters away. If Yu An tried hard, he could reach them.

If he could anchor his roots in the Spirit Fields, he'd have another source of nourishment.

He'd already gotten a taste of the benefits from the Spirit Field soil Old Man Yu had brought him. It might not compare to Spirit Stones, but it was gentle and inexhaustible.

As long as he kept his appetite in check and didn't absorb too much, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone noticing.

As for how the Spirit Rice in the fields would grow next year?

If he couldn't even survive this year's Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, there wouldn't be a next year.

As he absorbed Spirit Stones and grew rapidly, he suddenly felt as if his tree body were slipping out of his control. He couldn't control his roots' growth at all.

Even the strengthening of his trunk had ground to a halt.

The discovery gave Yu An a real scare.

By rights, his soul had long since fused with the little tree. Although he still had to obey certain arboreal instincts, there was no reason for him to lose control.

Could absorbing too many Spirit Stones lately have caused it?

But he'd been careful. He spent most of each day sensing that faint rhythm, deepening his connection to heaven and earth and hastening his soul's growth.

And his soul was the key to controlling his tree body.

His Flying Flower Plucking Leaf had improved so quickly lately precisely because of that.

So why had he lost control now?

For a moment, Yu An was at a loss.

Still, he forced himself to calm down and carefully sensed where the loss of control was coming from. Gradually, he discovered the cause.

At the very end of his main root, more than ten meters underground, a knot had formed.

That knot had taken all the Spirit Stones he absorbed, along with all the nutrients absorbed by his other roots.

And it was growing rapidly.

"Am I... about to give birth?"

A ridiculous thought surfaced in Yu An's mind.

But some instinct deep within him told him that this change came from the tree's nature.

[Return to the Hidden]

Under the onslaught of the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, the trees in this world had evolved special abilities to survive.

One such ability was Guicang.

Yu An had heard Yu Ershan chatting about it before. At the time, he'd assumed Guicang simply meant going dormant. He'd never expected it to mean this.

Most of the tree's vitality was being gathered into something like a knot—or, more accurately, a seed.

It was just that this seed was different from what he'd imagined.

When people thought of seeds, they naturally thought of the kind that grew from flowers and fruit. Who would have expected that the seed formed through Guicang wouldn't grow from a branch, but from a root?

But on second thought, that made more sense.

The Black Annihilation Wind Disaster was terrifying, but the Insect Race was just as dangerous.

If the seed grew on a branch, even if it fell, the wind disaster might carry it away—or the Insect Race might eat it. Growing from roots buried deep underground was much safer.

Besides, Guicang was only a temporary retreat.

If a tree survived the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, the vitality stored in its seed would surge forth again the following year. Even if the tree aboveground was destroyed, as long as some roots remained, it could still grow back.

No wonder the trees in this world grew so fast, reaching dozens of meters tall in just one spring and autumn.

On Earth, a tree that large would take at least several decades, perhaps even a century, to grow.

But in this world, Guicang allowed the vitality from before to be released all over again. Naturally, trees grew much faster.

Understanding this, Yu An finally put his mind at ease.

But another problem immediately came to mind.

He was different from ordinary trees, and even from other Rare Species. Other Rare Species might have a faint, hazy awareness at most, but they were still guided primarily by instinct.

But he had a genuine human soul. He'd even sensed that faint rhythm between heaven and earth and entered the realm of Fetal Movement.

Did he still need to enter Guicang like the other Rare Species?

In particular, he could sense that once he entered Guicang, not only his vitality but also his consciousness would fall dormant, leaving him completely unaware of the outside world.

That was what he found hardest to accept.

Even if that state would make it easier to evade the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster,

the helpless feeling of being at the mercy of his own sleep made him instinctively resist it.

This wasn't a matter of simply sleeping it off.

While dormant, he wouldn't know what was happening outside. What if the Insect Race attacked?

Would he be eaten in his sleep?

His consciousness might be dormant in a seed more than ten meters underground, but who said insects couldn't dig?

That would mean handing his life over to fate, completely.

Could he really do that?

Besides, entering Guicang would also cost him a great deal of time and opportunity to grow.

The Black Annihilation Wind Disaster was dangerous, but it was an opportunity, too.

He believed that being tempered by hardship would greatly accelerate his growth and help him reach Juvenile Stage Three sooner.

Especially since, after entering Fetal Movement, he'd stopped fearing the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster quite so much. Though he didn't want to admit it, deep down he'd long been itching to give it a try.

A thirst for adventure was human nature.

Even becoming a Rare Species elm tree hadn't changed that.

Hearing someone warn him of danger a hundred or a thousand times couldn't compare with experiencing it once himself.

As these thoughts turned over in his mind, Yu An quickly made up his mind.

He couldn't let this opportunity pass him by.

But at the same time, he had to keep a fallback plan.

As a Rare Species, he already had a lifespan of three hundred years, and it would only grow longer. He could take a chance now, but what mattered more was growing steadily.

He couldn't put all his eggs in one basket.

With that, Yu An gathered all his focus and began doing his utmost to control the roots absorbing the Spirit Stones. At the same time, he sent some of them creeping toward Old Man Yu.

Big guys, it's the last day for double monthly votes. Vote now, or they'll expire...