Old Scholar Tree

Biodata

Power Progression

The tree’s development is usually described through stronger roots, increased endurance, and new applications rather than named cultivation realms. His victories do not automatically give him a personal martial ranking: defeating the ninety-ninth-ranked Earth Ranking expert earns Zhou Wanwan that position because she is recognized as his master 158.

Background / History

Joining Zhou Wanwan

Old Scholar Tree had stood near a stronghold for more than a thousand years and knew secrets its human occupants had overlooked. After meeting Zhou Wanwan and Lingbao, he brought a buried chest to the surface and insisted that Zhou Wanwan honor her promise to take him home. Her energy revitalized him, allowing him to pull free of the soil and carry her 89 90.

Before leaving, he revealed a small jade mine abandoned by earlier prospectors and excavated its jade-bearing rocks. He carried the rocks and valuables to Liu Family Village, where villagers planted him beside Zhou Wanwan’s family home. The recovered jade subsequently supplied energy for her greenhouse’s medicinal herbs 90.

Building a Tree Following

Old Scholar Tree became an organizer of Zhou Wanwan’s mobile trees. At the Xie residence, he forced a willow to provide information, offered other trees the chance to leave, and directed the removal of buildings, furnishings, and supplies. He disciplined recruits who became distracted by their new ability to walk 113 115.

His recruitment efforts expanded beyond individual households. He brought several hundred trees from the second prince of Khotan’s grounds and later helped recruit several thousand followers while searching for the estate of the expert ranked ninety-third on the Earth Ranking 146 297.

Protecting and Supplying the Stronghold

Old Scholar Tree combined transport, protection, and resource recovery. He helped retrieve gold, silver, and thousands of sacks of grain from a concealed cave on Long Live Mountain. He also intercepted an arrow aimed at Zhou Wanwan during an examination and traced the attacker to the Lu Family residence 180 248.

His interventions could be deliberately punitive. At Clear Creek Winery, he restrained the relatives abusing Zhao Qingxi and Zhao Qinghe, broke the back of the boy who had been tormenting Zhao Qinghe, and arranged for the family’s house to be taken away. At the Shen residence, he reported that more than three thousand tree spirits and vine monsters were dismantling and relocating its structures and ornaments 322 339.

Healing and Palace Encounters

At the cinnabar mine, Old Scholar Tree restored Water Ghost’s severed meridians. He subsequently helped develop a controlled method of opening meridians and acupoints, first strengthening Water Ghost and then treating Zhou Wanwan, Gu Sinian, and other martial artists 422 439.

In the imperial palace, he confronted a thousand-year-old flood dragon and reported reaching a nonaggression agreement with it. He later escorted Zhou Wanwan through the Cold Palace to the dragon’s jade-sealed well. When Zhou Wanwan was sent to the Laundry Bureau as punishment, he turned the aunties’ rulers against them and made them wash the assigned clothing themselves 586 615.

Yanmen Pass and Great Qi

During the conflict with Great Qi, Old Scholar Tree secretly killed a soldier abusing captive women and repeatedly brought the prisoners food. He later helped direct the trees that dismantled Suiyuan City’s walls and houses and used the materials to rebuild and enlarge Yanmen Pass 688 696.

He and his family also assembled an enormous underground palace from buildings and treasures taken from Great Qi, including the emperor’s tomb. The complex contained a river and farmland; he explained that spiritual power allowed vegetables and ginseng to grow there without sunlight 752.

Black Shark Gang Island

On the Black Shark Gang’s island, newly recruited trees recognized Old Scholar Tree as their imposing leader. At the gang’s gold mine, he and Old Ancestor fought ancient trees mutated by accumulated resentment. Initially driven back and restrained, they reversed the battle by absorbing their opponents’ energy while Zhou Wanwan replenished them. The group freed the imprisoned miners and departed with the gang’s wealth and supplies 886 887.

Appearance

• Massive trunk and branches: His size repeatedly astonishes other trees, which recognize him as an ancient specimen 208 696.
• Numerous mobile roots: Uses his root system like tens of thousands of legs; his roots eventually extend dozens of meters 245 297.
• Renewed foliage: Grows fresh green leaves immediately after receiving Zhou Wanwan’s energy 90.
• Increasingly youthful condition: Attributes his rejuvenation to absorbing martial artists 216.

Personality

Old Scholar Tree is fiercely protective of Zhou Wanwan and quick to retaliate against anyone who threatens or insults her. When an old walnut tree curses her, he strips its leaves, snaps its trunk, and kicks it over. His protectiveness also appears in quieter decisions: he prioritizes guarding her over other errands and initially refuses to test a potentially dangerous acupoint-opening procedure on her 146 284 439.

He is boastful, mischievous, and comfortable using intimidation. He orders disobedient trees beaten, threatens uncooperative informants, and takes obvious pleasure in showing stationary trees what movement makes possible. Nevertheless, he can be unexpectedly bashful when other plants praise him 113 211 297.

His moral outlook is pragmatic rather than pacifist. He challenges Purple Lingzhi’s reluctance to harm people who want to kill them and says that he does not eat ordinary people, presenting the absorption of violent martial artists as both punishment and nourishment. He also relishes travel, describing the chance to see the world as happiness for a tree 114 216 879.

Despite his confidence, he understands technical limits. He explains the dangers of manufacturing martial experts through medicinal power alone and acknowledges that Heaven Ranking opponents may be beyond their ability to defeat 423 716.

Abilities & Skills

Spiritual Energy and Absorption

• External replenishment: Relies on Zhou Wanwan’s spiritual energy to remain mobile; stronger energy reserves progressively lengthen the intervals between recharges 90 425 693.
• Consumption-based evolution: Absorbs blood and energy from martial artists, strengthening his body and roots 166.
• Alternative energy sources: Successfully absorbs energy from great white sharks and mutated trees 543 887.
• Energy sharing: Supplies captured Earth Ranking experts to other trees to strengthen the wider force 422.
• Limit: More durable fuel does not necessarily increase combat power; the purer energy received on one occasion improves operating time only 425.

Mobility and Transport

• Root locomotion: Runs on countless roots and carries people, grain, valuables, and building materials 90 203 292.
• Treetop travel: Carries Zhou Wanwan over the tops of trees in dense mountain forest 110.
• Stable passenger transport: Keeps his treehouse remarkably smooth even at high speed 221.
• Sea travel: Works with Old Ancestor to support the treehouse across their bodies and swim faster than an ordinary boat 542.
• Long-distance speed: Claims he can travel from the capital to the area around Yanmen Pass in one day 696.
• Early limitations: Water loss, exhaustion, and severe cold initially require timely replenishment 90 111 163.

Root and Branch Combat

• Restraint: Binds opponents in roots or branches, including cocooning Chu Liufeng for digestion 158 221.
• Impact attacks: Throws, slams, stomps, and immobilizes human opponents and hostile trees 114 158 211.
• Interception: Blocks an incoming arrow with a root before it can strike Zhou Wanwan 248.
• Durability: His roots eventually withstand the scorching energy absorbed from mutated trees 887.
• Limit: He and Old Ancestor recall nearly being burned to death by the creature in Great Qi’s imperial palace, which Old Ancestor later identifies from a book as a Profound Fire Nether Serpent 746.

Poison Storage and Extraction

• Toxin storage: Channels mushroom poison into his roots without being harmed by that particular toxin 168.
• Injection: Delivers stored poison by penetrating a target with his roots 168.
• Extraction: Uses rootlets finer than needles to draw poison from a critically ill patient; the rootlets turn black as they absorb it 698.
• Limit: Zhou Wanwan cautions that tolerance of one poison does not establish immunity to every toxin 168.

Healing and Meridian Manipulation

• Internal examination: Sends roots into a patient’s body to investigate their condition 394.
• Meridian repair: Restores Water Ghost’s severed meridians 422.
• Meridian opening: Clears the conception and governing vessels and major limb meridians while delivering medicinal power from ginseng and other treasures 439.
• Acupoint treatment: Opens Zhou Wanwan’s Baihui acupoint and treats multiple martial artists simultaneously using thousands of roots 439.
• Diagnosis: Recognizes Old Master Zhao’s critical condition and identifies Lingbao’s spiritually rich rootlets as necessary to extend his life 842.
• Limits: Treatment must match the recipient’s constitution. Ordinary soldiers can tolerate only one or two opened acupoints; excessive intervention risks injury, unstable foundations, or cultivation deviation 423 439.

Tree Communication and Command

• Plant communication: Speaks with Zhou Wanwan and other plants; Feng Yunting cannot hear his voice during their journey 157.
• Local intelligence: Questions long-established trees about hidden valuables, household secrets, and events dating back decades 179 292 567.
• Recruitment: Offers trees mobility and a place among Zhou Wanwan’s followers in exchange for information and service 113 220 292.
• Logistics: Directs large-scale removal of possessions and buildings, including warning carriers to handle fragile porcelain carefully 292 696.
• Discipline: Tries to prevent newly mobile trees from exposing themselves to humans 696.

Resource Recovery and Production

• Excavation: Uses roots to uncover jade-bearing rocks and deeply buried treasure chests 90 397.
• Salt production: Produces salt alongside Old Ancestor during sea travel 543.
• Food gathering and preparation: Retrieves game, catches seafood, prepares meals, and supplies food to Zhou Wanwan and prisoners 225 688 887.
• Underground agriculture: Helps establish farmland sustained by spiritual power rather than sunlight 752.

Equipment / Items

• Treehouse — Carries Zhou Wanwan and other passengers; also stores possessions taken from defeated enemies. Can be positioned across Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor for sea travel 166 203 542.
• Tree tonic — Drinks a mixture of Lingbao’s bathwater and grain liquor prepared by Zhou Wanwan; ordinary wine is unsuitable for the trees 115.
• Stored mushroom toxins — Keeps poison within his roots for use in attacks 168.

Relationships

• Zhou Wanwan — Master, traveling companion, and principal source of spiritual energy. He protects her, commands trees on her behalf, and addresses her affectionately as Wanwan 90 158 215.
• Lingbao / Little Ginseng — Fellow plant companion. Lingbao explains his early mobility and water needs; Lingbao’s bathwater also becomes an ingredient in the trees’ tonic 90 115.
• Old Ancestor — Senior tree companion and frequent combat partner. Old Scholar Tree encourages him to absorb martial artists, and they cooperate in sea travel, battles, and energy absorption 230 542 887.
• Purple Lingzhi — Fellow ancient plant whom he calls an old friend. Their views differ over whether killing hostile humans is justified 110 114.
• Dwarf Holly — Recruit whose knowledge of the city lord’s manor helps expand the tree force. Old Scholar Tree rewards that usefulness by sharing captured martial artists 216.
• Water Ghost — Recipient of his meridian repair and strengthening treatments 422 439.
• Young scholar tree disciple — A quick-witted junior described as more or less his disciple; puts the workers at Zhao Lili’s iron mine to sleep 846.
• Tree followers — Recruits and subordinates who recognize him as a leader; he directs their work, distributes nourishment, and disciplines them 115 422 886.

Notable Quotes

“Wanwan, it doesn't matter what kind of man you find. With us here, no one will dare bully you.” 215

“You still can't rush when practicing martial arts. Let's take it slowly!” 439

“I think that, for a tree, being able to go around and see the world is a kind of happiness in itself.” 879

Trivia

• His spiritual classification changes in the narration: Lingbao initially says he has already become a spirit, but a later passage explicitly states that he does not yet count as one and remains dependent on Zhou Wanwan’s energy for movement 90 887.
• His species is conspicuous in Ningzhou: A red camphor tree regards the presence of an old scholar tree there as a miracle; Old Scholar Tree himself shivers in the region’s cold until Zhou Wanwan replenishes him 163.
• He dislikes sulfur-rich conditions: When an arborvitae mentions a warm forest, he explains that he ignored the earlier recommendation because, as a scholar tree, he does not like that environment 146.