Mirror Flower Water Moon Formation, a Thousand Jin of Spirit Rice Wine

Driven by curiosity, Xu Changqing soon arrived near the poplar tree.

Ordinarily, when winter came, the leaves between its branches should have all fallen away to adapt to the cold climate.

In fact, they had already fallen away in autumn.

Yet now, tender emerald-green buds had somehow sprouted.

Xu Changqing released his Spiritual Sense as he circulated the [Green Lotus Creation Art], driving the Wood Spiritual Power within his qi sea and sensing everything with extreme care.

Sure enough, he discovered that the interior of this poplar tree contained remarkably dense Wood Qi.

One had to know that, especially in winter, even Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice could not reach such a concentration.

Yet it... had reached it.

Before this, the poplar tree had merely been an ordinary tree.

After being ravaged so many times, its surface had been covered in scars.

But now, not only had it grown taller, even its previous scars had vanished.

One had to know that Xu Changqing now possessed two Spiritual Roots, both Variant Spiritual Roots.

Wood and fire.

The wood one was the Azure Wood Spirit Root, whose effect was affinity with nature.

He could swiftly detect any changes in all the surrounding plants.

Since he had detected nothing, it meant there was nothing wrong with the change in the poplar tree.

Yet after shedding all its leaves in winter, it had sprouted spring buds ahead of time, which clearly defied the laws of nature.

But so far, Xu Changqing had only sensed dense Wood Spiritual Power within the poplar tree.

Other than that, there was not the slightest thing amiss.

Faced with this situation, he could not help shifting his gaze toward Fortress.

This two-meter-tall Puppet Arts Construct seemed to have been the first to notice the poplar tree's change?

No, perhaps the poplar