Wood Race

Biodata

Background

According to the stone spear, the Wood Race belonged to the Demon Race countless ages ago before becoming a race of its own. Its members originated from ancient trees that gained sentience. Although they developed flesh and blood, they retained wood-aspected blood Qi containing the spiritual essence of ancient trees 6 7.

The Wood Race is identified as one of humanity’s great enemies. Their conflict includes reciprocal predation: Wood Race members consume human blood Qi, while humans extract Wood Race essence for cultivation. Qingyang Huan understands this struggle as competition between races for survival and territory 6.

Appearance

• Tree form: The first encountered member resembles a withered ancient tree barely ten feet tall, with bloodstained branches capable of piercing beasts 5.
• Humanoid form: That member contracts his trunk and branches into a middle-aged man with long brown hair, an uncanny appearance, and hands resembling rotten wood and withered branches 6.
• Concealment: Members can blend into the forest; one fleeing warrior hides within an ancient tree and emerges when the surrounding woods are set ablaze 10.

Abilities & Skills

Plant Sensing and Manipulation

Wood Race members use surrounding vegetation to detect and attack enemies 6 10.

• The first warrior detects Qingyang Huan despite his concealment beneath a nearby tree and attacks him with a blood-colored branch 6.
• A fleeing young warrior attacks with stabbing and lashing vines while remaining hidden in the forest 10.
• Their connection to vegetation makes stealthy approaches against them difficult in wooded terrain 9.

Blood and Bone Absorption

Members can pierce prey and drain its blood and bone essence 5 6.

• The first encountered warrior drains a Red-Tailed Fire Rhinoceros within a few breaths, then consumes a Jade Blood Wolf 5 6.
• Human bones beneath his tree form indicate that he has also preyed on humans 6.
• That warrior considers human blood Qi purer than that of savage beasts and has developed a preference for it 6.

Cultivation and Physical Combat

Fire Resistance and Vulnerability

• Body Casting members can evade ordinary flames, provided the fire is not special 9.
• Divine Treasure members are described as no longer fearing flames, though fire still hinders their movement 9.
• Qingyang soldiers use beast-oil fire arrows whose flames continue burning underwater to attack the swamp 9.
• Burning the forest forces the young fugitive out of his hiding place inside a tree 10.

History

Discovery Near Qingyang

Qingyang Huan first encounters a Wood Race warrior feeding on beasts at the edge of a swamp. After the stone spear identifies the creature, Huan notices human remains beneath it and prepares an ambush. The warrior detects him through the surrounding trees and overwhelms him, but Huan deliberately abandons his spear to lower the enemy’s guard, then fatally crushes his chest with repeated punches 5 6 7.

Huan carries the corpse to a sealed cave and absorbs its essence, healing his shoulder wounds and increasing his strength to six thousand jin. Learning that more Wood Race members occupy the swamp, he returns to Qingyang rather than confronting them alone 7.

Qingyang’s Assault

Huan reports several hundred Wood Race members apparently searching the swamp. Qingyang Jue suspects that a plant-essence treasure has drawn them there and orders Qingyang Luan to lead an expedition with Huan 8 9.

The Qingyang force attacks with bone spears and fire arrows before charging into the swamp and surrounding the survivors. The Wood Race band, numbering roughly four hundred with fewer than ten Divine Treasure Realm experts, faces a thousand-strong force that includes more than twenty Divine Treasure Realm experts 9.

Elder Chun kills several Qingyang soldiers and reaches a young Wood Race warrior. He throws the youth out of the encirclement before Qingyang Luan’s white-bone spear impales him. Huan pursues the fugitive, forces him out of hiding with fire, and recovers a Thousand-Year Tree Heart from his chest 9 10.

Defeat and Captivity

No member of the swamp band escapes: all are killed or captured. Qingyang returns with more than fifty living captives, while its own losses total twenty-three dead and more than one hundred wounded 10 11.

The captives have their bones shattered and are taken back for repeated extraction of blood Qi essence. Qingyang plans to feed them fierce-beast blood Qi and harvest their gentler essence for the tribe’s children 10.

Cultivation Resources

Wood Race Blood Qi

• Properties: Exceptionally pure and gentle compared with fierce-beast essence; its ancient-tree spiritual essence is compared to precious medicine 6 7.
• Healing: Absorbing the first warrior’s essence begins healing Qingyang Huan’s pierced shoulders 7.
• Body tempering: Essence collected after the battle supplies Huan’s flesh-and-blood cultivation beneath a waterfall 11 12.
• Limit: Even this mild essence causes his body to surge uncontrollably when accumulated in sufficient quantities, requiring the waterfall’s force to suppress it 12.

Thousand-Year Tree Heart

• Appearance: A luminous green bead no larger than a thumb, recovered from the young warrior’s chest 10.
• Origin: Can form within ancient trees several thousand years old and contains highly refined plant essence 10.
• Value: A precious healing medicine given to Qingyang’s Grand Elder to treat his accumulated injuries and support an attempt to reach the Spirit Seizing Realm 10 11.

Known Members

• Elder Chun — Dies saving the young carrier of the Thousand-Year Tree Heart from Qingyang’s encirclement 9 10.
• Unnamed blood-drinking warrior — The first Wood Race member encountered by Qingyang Huan; killed during Huan’s first life-and-death battle against another race 5 6 7.
• Unnamed young warrior — Carries the Thousand-Year Tree Heart; captured after Huan burns him out of concealment and crushes his chest 10.