French Plane Tree

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	French Plane Tree (法国梧桐)
Alias(es)	Dai Lego
Species/Race	Sentient mutant French Plane Tree
Affiliation	Rose Street; an independent collector and territorial power
Occupation/Role	Rose Street’s ruler, collector, trader, and intelligence-gatherer
Status	Active
First Appearance	Chapter 5

Power Progression

Stage / Evolution Milestone	Chapter	Notes
Sentient Rose Street tree	5	Already possesses speech, a face, independent thought, and root-based control when first encountered. It considers itself a “genius” compared with the other street trees. 5
Growth Ring Pact	56	Forms a blood-bound contract with Liu Zheng. The pact preserves their existing rules even if the tree evolves, while also monitoring Liu Zheng’s intent to fulfill his agreed assistance. 56
Evolution unlocked	84	Consumes the Epoch Acorn and receives two possible paths: Tree Demon, which remains rooted but gains limited mobility, or Phoenix, which can fly freely but requires a vulnerable egg-incubation period. 84
Natural Divine Power transformation	449	Absorbs overflowing Natural Divine Power, forms a root-wrapped bud, and re-emerges as a smaller, more refined, and stronger tree. The tree explicitly distinguishes this transformation from a completed evolution. 449
Phoenix cultivation in progress	185, 231, 324, 561	A true Rainbow Phoenix requires the five virtues—virtue, propriety, righteousness, trustworthiness, and benevolence. The copied Trust character aids its incubation, while High-Phoenix Blood Tea leaves and other resources remain contested. 185 231 324 561

Background

French Plane Tree rules Rose Street from a patch of black soil, where it stores corpses, bones, valuables, and much of its collection. It first meets Liu Zheng when it requests his urine in exchange for equipment, offering the Human-Bone Crutch rather than transportation. Liu accepts the crutch only after suspecting that it came from something buried beneath the tree. 5

Though it boasts of having absorbed the nutrients of the other trees, it later clarifies that it took their excess spirituality and natural power rather than their life force. This prevents rival sentient trees from emerging on Rose Street while preventing its own power from overflowing. 21 426

French Plane Tree’s sentience is considered anomalous: French Plane Trees have no recorded history of naturally becoming intelligent in Metropolis, despite being regarded as one of the least talented tree species. The Novelist suspects its awakening is connected to Chaos Club; City Hall has neither recruited nor dissected it, instead leaving it under observation. 231

It buried Natasha beneath its soil after Liu Zheng paid a full case of liquor as a management fee. Although initially offended at being treated as a cemetery, it carved the name Marceau into a bark tombstone for her. 35

Appearance

French Plane Tree is a large, face-bearing tree rooted in the black soil of Rose Street. Its expressions can physically distort its features; during intense emotion, its mouth and nose may shift together. 56

• A trunk-mounted face with wooden eyes and a mouth capable of opening wide enough to expose its growth rings. 56 231
• Extensive dark roots used for movement, combat, storage, and searching through the soil. 5 426
• Wooden hands, which it practices using in anticipation of a possible Tree Demon evolution. 115
• Following its Natural Divine Power transformation, it becomes roughly three to four meters tall, with a more refined form, fresh vines and leaves, and moss-covered bones decorating its body. 449
• Often keeps bones, corpses, and other remains around its territory. 426

Personality

French Plane Tree is arrogant, irritable, greedy, and intensely status-conscious. It styles itself as a French aristocrat and collector, reacts well to flattery, and resents being treated as an ordinary roadside tree. Its fixation on liquor, limited editions, rare items, and “artistic ideals” frequently overrides its better judgment. 35 415 478

Despite its cruelty toward potential rivals and subordinates, it is cautious about debts and unequal obligations. It refuses free gifts when it suspects hidden costs, insisting that valuable aid must be placed on a clear tab or exchanged through a defined trade. 231

Its hostility toward Liu Zheng is largely performative. The two routinely insult, threaten, and exploit one another, but French Plane Tree honors their agreements, protects him within its territory, and grows increasingly dependent on his help with its evolution. 56 184 426 602

Abilities & Skills

Territorial Root Network

French Plane Tree can extend roots throughout Rose Street, giving it considerable control over the area.

• Can reach locations across Rose Street through the ground and reportedly has no inaccessible point on the street, including the sky or underground. 705
• Uses roots to seize, restrain, throw, and strike targets; it slapped the massive Guhuo Bird out of the air with five roots. 184
• Captured the fleeing Ginseng Baby through a wide underground root net. 426
• Killed a Sewer-mutated creature that swallowed a Wood Elf Royal Family corpse, impaling it with roots and stripping its flesh with leaves. 425
• Can hang intruders from its branches and threatens to use severed limbs as fertilizer. 715
• Its mobility and range remain constrained outside Rose Street while it retains a tree form. 415

Natural and Spiritual Power

The tree possesses potent natural power and can manipulate vegetation-related energy.

• Released overflowing pale-green Natural Divine Power after its recovery; the breath caused plants to grow over Nile Doctor’s body. 449
• Can redistribute spirituality and natural power among nearby trees to manage its own excess power and suppress potential rivals. 426
• Its feces can improve the attributes of Plant Bloodline users and may grant its skills or bloodline. 478
• Creating bark coffins or giving away bark costs it life essence because it regards bark as equivalent to skin. 415 426

Growth Ring Pact

French Plane Tree can form a binding contract through its growth rings.

• The pact with Liu Zheng preserves their original rules even if the tree evolves. 56
• It can punish deliberate attempts by Liu Zheng to evade his obligation to seek materials for the tree’s evolution. 56
• The pact establishes confidentiality around the tree’s intelligence network and border-crossing plans. 184
• A Phoenix evolution would invalidate the pact because the tree would no longer be a tree. 84

Guhuo Bird Intelligence Network

French Plane Tree commands a Guhuo Bird as a scout.

• The bird monitors a border line and reports changes to the tree. 184
• French Plane Tree disciplines and feeds the Guhuo Bird with rat corpses. 184
• It forbids the bird from taking humans or prey without permission, demonstrating authority over it. 184

Collecting and Appraisal

French Plane Tree maintains a large collection of rare and dangerous items.

• Can appraise unusual collectibles, including Sukuna’s head and its remaining divine essence. 416
• Remotely attends collector auctions and maintains contacts in the auction market. 415
• Built part of its collection by selling old bark coffins, though it treats newly grown bark as a personal bodily sacrifice. 415
• Claims even Supreme God-level collectibles are not necessarily unique in Metropolis. 478

Equipment / Items

Items traded or supplied to Liu Zheng

• Human-Bone Crutch — Excellent equipment that increases movement speed by 10% and can leave the dungeon. 5
• Fashionable Skate Shoes — Instantly propels the wearer one hundred meters; exchanged for Red-Eyed Snake Mackerel essence extract. 21
• Golden Finger — Perfect-grade single-use item that lets the user choose one of three random cheats. 56
• Silver Finger — A weaker single-use version of the Golden Finger that grants a random cheat. 185
• Oathbound Life-Guarding Ring — Single-use defensive field lasting ten minutes, activated at the cost of a shattered heart. 196
• Parasite — Substitutes for flesh when an action requires flesh consumption. 210
• Lazy Person’s Sticky Note — Forces a target to remember its written message and may compel action. 240
• Old Man’s Endless Itch — A single-use control item that inflicts overwhelming physical or mental itching. 415
• Crystal of Nature’s Resentment — Single-use item that drains life force, attacks the soul with resentment, and can grow a Soul Flower or Soul Seed. 450
• Half-Withered Yarrow — Alters Luck for an entire instance or enhances divination. 450
• Mutant French Plane Tree’s Feces — Fine-grade material used in Garlic Head’s treatment; potentially improves Plant Bloodline users or passes on part of Dai Lego’s bloodline. 478

Bark Coffins and Materials

• Produces coffins from old bark or, at greater personal cost, from its own trunk. 415 426
• Made a trunk-wood coffin to contain the Wood Elf Royal Family corpse, leaving itself weakened before its planned evolution. 426
• Provided branches and bark for the Funeral Home rather than making further coffins itself. 550

Relationships

• Liu Zheng — Contract-bound trading partner and closest recurring ally. Their relationship began with exploitative bargaining, developed through mutual protection and evolution planning, and became strong enough that Liu Zheng spent money and political favors to prevent the tree’s volcanic punishment. 5 56 426 602 604
• Ginseng Baby — Captured after fleeing Rose Street, later connected to French Plane Tree through absorbed Natural Divine Power. The tree treats her as a subordinate and forcibly trains her in court ballet as its “maid.” 426 449 478
• Guhuo Bird — Subordinate scout assigned to observe a border line. French Plane Tree feeds and disciplines it while preventing it from attacking Liu Zheng. 184
• Legendary Deliveryman Li — A skeleton connected to Li is buried beneath the tree’s soil. French Plane Tree recognizes Li’s name and privately questions whether the skeleton is truly dead. 54 56
• Nile Doctor — An occasional protector and adviser. Nile Doctor presents an alternative path for Dai Lego to become Ra’s Winged Dragon, but the tree distrusts the loss of freedom such servitude would entail. 324 426
• City Hall / Sanitation Department — French Plane Tree is public property under administrative scrutiny. After drunkenly attacking officers and damaging vehicles, it is nearly transplanted into a volcano before Liu Zheng secures a reprieve. 231 602 604
• Fire Mage — A being French Plane Tree fears deeply; it believes Fire Mage could destroy it or reduce it to firewood. 75

Story Role / Major Arcs

Early Bargains and Rose Street Establishment

French Plane Tree becomes Liu Zheng’s first major supplier outside the Restaurant. Its early exchanges establish the pattern of their relationship: it demands bodily fluids, liquor, or rare materials, while Liu extracts practical gear, information, and favors from its collection. 5 21 36

Evolution and the Growth Ring Pact

Its ambition to leave Rose Street begins with Wood Elf’s Milk and the Oak of Ages’ acorn. Liu Zheng forces it to sign the Growth Ring Pact before assisting, preventing it from discarding their arrangement after evolving. 56

After consuming the Epoch Acorn, French Plane Tree learns that it must choose between the safer Tree Demon route and the free but vulnerable Phoenix route. Though it repeatedly threatens Liu Zheng with what it might do after the pact expires, it continues pursuing Phoenix evolution. 84 152

Phoenix Cultivation and Border Escape

French Plane Tree learns that becoming a true Rainbow Phoenix requires completing the five virtues. It intends to illegally cross Metropolis’s border after recovering and evolving, believing the corrupt city may make the virtues impossible to fulfill within its boundaries. 184 185

The copied Trust character becomes a major aid to this goal, potentially cutting its future incubation time by more than half. 231

Wood Elf Corpse and Natural Divine Power

The acquisition of a Wood Elf Royal Family corpse gives French Plane Tree access to immense life force but risks forcing an uncontrolled evolution. It sacrifices part of its trunk to make a coffin for the corpse, then accepts protection from Liu Zheng’s allies while weakened. 425 426

After recovering from the subsequent conflict, it absorbs Natural Divine Power and transforms into a more concentrated, powerful tree form. Ginseng Baby absorbs part of the power and becomes its retainer-like subordinate. 442 449

Collector Rivalries and Rose Street Crisis

As a prominent collector, French Plane Tree prepares to compete with Peacock at auction while worrying that the Six-Feather Tea House is driving up the price of Phoenix-related resources. Liu Zheng promises to support it against any faction that targets its evolution. 561

It later becomes the victim of a poisoning incident: liquor mixed with mind-muddling poison causes it to drunkenly sing, attack Sanitation Department officers, and destroy vehicles. Liu Zheng saves it from an extreme official punishment and begins investigating the tampered alcohol. 602 604 605

Target of Outside Interests

A pale-green-robed woman later attempts to buy Liu Zheng’s neutrality in all matters concerning French Plane Tree. Liu refuses, calling the tree his “dearest friend and brother,” confirming that their transactional partnership has become a genuine personal bond. 658

Notable Quotes

“No matter how big it gets, it's not bigger than me.” 426

“You can only take what I give you. What I don't give you, you are not allowed to steal.” 184

“This palace will favor you just this once.” 561

Trivia

• French Plane Tree has existed on Rose Street for eighteen years, yet met Liu Zheng more often within a few days than it had met any other person during that period. 115
• It claims to have wiped out all members of its own species, describing plant competition as crueler and more hidden than animal competition. 152
• It is frightened of Fire Mage but readily acts domineering around most Rose Street visitors. 75 449
• It is obsessed with French nobility and court culture despite being rooted in Metropolis, including forcing Ginseng Baby to practice court ballet. 478
• It cannot lie to Liu Zheng, a fact that leads him to suspect the liquor itself was tampered with after its drunken rampage. 604