Illusionless Tree

Biodata

Power Progression

The original tree and Shan Heyuan’s cultivated offshoot are distinct individuals. The offshoot’s documented development includes growth and transformations; no higher cultivation grade is explicitly assigned after its Early Core Formation assessment 125 143 169.

Background / History

Guardian of Black She Temple

The original Illusionless Tree had remained in the same place for over two thousand years without a planter tending it. It continued defending Black She Temple long after the temple’s decline, attacking approaching cultivators and discouraging even intelligent spirit beasts from entering the area 36 38.

Qi Yuanbai described it as unable to accept the loss of the temple’s former glory. Its mutation made it particularly dangerous to the mind, and its ability to provoke inner demons discouraged cultivators from attempting to subdue it 36 37.

Trade with Shan Heyuan

Shan Heyuan suspected that depleted soil had left the tree short of nutrients. After Shen Duheng collected three samples of nearby soil, the pair returned with Fertilizer Pills, sacrificial meat, incense, and a statue of Black She Temple’s deity. The offerings provoked an attack, but the tree carefully avoided damaging them and proved capable of conversation 37 38.

Shan Heyuan requested a living branch without the parent’s mark, since a marked cutting could not become a new plant. After several days of bargaining, the tree reduced its demand from one hundred thousand pills to ten thousand and supplied a much smaller branch than Shan Heyuan had initially requested. Despite its threats and distrust, it completed the exchange without ambushing either visitor 39 40.

Return to the Temple

When Shan Heyuan and Shen Duheng returned two years later to investigate the temple’s spirit springs, the original tree recognized them and expressed disbelief at their advancement. It also protested that Shan Heyuan had not made his cultivated Illusionless Tree into a lifebound Law Treasure 124 125.

During the confrontation, different branches disagreed over whether Shan Heyuan’s Spiritual Power resembled that of a long-dead senior. Their argument escalated into physical fighting and a mental assault that Shan Heyuan identified as Shamanism. The visitors passed beneath the distracted tree, which was still fighting itself when they departed 125 126 128.

Cultivated Offshoot and Bodily Reconstruction

Shan Heyuan raised the purchased cutting into a separate tree and used it as a continuing source of cultivation power. Keeping it alive inside his Dantian became a practical problem: without soil, water, and nutrients, its benefits would eventually exhaust it. Rooting it in controlled Golden Silk Dense Moss allowed cultivation and plant growth to continue together 45 59 68 75 76.

After Shan Heyuan was left as a Nascent Soul within his Small World, he considered using the tree to reconstruct his body. Although badly damaged, it retained enough branches for multiple attempts. He ultimately chose a more radical fusion, drawing inspiration from horizontal gene transfer and accepting the risk of having to become a ghost cultivator if it failed 161 168.

The fusion succeeded. Over almost half a month, Shan Heyuan refined the Small World and the tree, absorbing their components into himself. The independent Illusionless Tree disappeared, while Shan Heyuan remained as a wooden bud that needed to be planted somewhere rich in Spiritual Power 169.

Appearance

Original Tree

• Forest-sized body: What appears to be an island of giant trees consists entirely of its trunk and branches 37.
• Twisted form: Shan Heyuan compares its enormous, contorted silhouette to a squid in the deep sea 125.
• Dark green coloration: Its foliage contrasts sharply with the fresh green leaves of the young offshoot 46.
• Dense, hairlike roots: Its roots lash outward in masses large enough to obscure the sky 37 38.

Cultivated Offshoot

• Initial cutting: A dark brown branch only three inches long 39.
• Young growth: Tender, thick, heart-shaped leaves and a richly colored, translucent stem resembling jade 46 59.
• Mature trunk: Changes from yellowish brown to dark green; its surface feels leathery, springy, and unexpectedly soft rather than hard 151.
• Post-tribulation form: The Lightning-Struck Wood Sprout becomes a seamless branch on its trunk 147.

Personality

The original tree is fiercely protective of Black She Temple, suspicious of cultivators, and quick to interpret visitors’ actions as threats. Its attachment is precise enough that it preserves the deity’s statue and offerings even while attacking the people who brought them 38 39.

It is also talkative, sarcastic, and a stubborn bargainer. During negotiations, it asks for extra fertilizer samples, demands an inflated price, and pointedly repeats Shan Heyuan’s own flattering words back at him when he cannot verify the cutting’s condition. Nevertheless, it honors the completed bargain 39 40.

Its instability extends beyond anger: individual branches voice conflicting opinions and physically attack one another. The cultivated offshoot does not display comparable independent thought. Although it conveys pleasure when nourished, Shan Heyuan later explicitly describes it as lacking sentience, which makes their eventual fusion possible without resistance 93 125 169.

Abilities & Skills

Mental Assault and Inner Demons

The original tree’s mutation makes it especially prone to provoking inner demons 37.

• Looking at its forest-like body leaves the low-realm Shan Heyuan disoriented, terrified, and nearly unable to react 37.
• Its pressure and roars can overwhelm him even before direct contact 38.
• Its branches’ internal fighting releases a disturbing mental assault associated with Shamanism 125.
• This threat is not absolute: Shen Duheng withstands its roar, and Shan Heyuan feels no comparable mental pressure after returning at Core Formation 37 125.

Roots, Branches, and Regeneration

The original tree fights through large numbers of roots and branches 37 125.

• Roots strike like whips, while branches lash at intruders attempting to enter the temple 37 125.
• Severed branches are rapidly replaced 125.
• Its roots have a demonstrated reach limit, allowing Shan Heyuan and Shen Duheng to retreat beyond their attacks 38.
• It cannot leave its rooted location, though it can extend Divine Sense beyond its body 39.

Spiritual Power Supply

The cultivated offshoot releases abundant Spiritual Power continuously while inside Shan Heyuan’s Dantian 60 68.

• Its output accelerates his cultivation far more effectively than the spirit herbs he previously used 68.
• Overflow from his first cultivation session nourishes every Spirit Plant in his courtyard 59.
• Its pure power revives a dying Verdant Dwelling Grass placed beside it 62.
• Its presence within Shan Heyuan’s Spiritual Power helps suppress Ghost Bud Grass, assisting his mastery of Return a Plum for a Peach 74.
• Continued use requires replenishment: the tree cannot independently extract sufficient water and nutrients from intact moss 68 71.

Lightning Absorption and Plant Fusion

The offshoot develops unusual properties during and after Shan Heyuan’s Nascent Soul Tribulation 145 146.

• Absorbs Tribulation Lightning and continues drawing currents from the lightning lake afterward 145 146.
• Unites with the Lightning-Struck Wood Sprout so completely that no grafting seam remains 147.
• Accepts Shan Heyuan’s later fusion; he attributes its suitability partly to its receptiveness to foreign plants and its lack of sentience 168 169.

Wood-Element Role

The cultivated tree represents the wood element within Shan Heyuan’s developing Small World 148.

• Releases an astonishing quantity of wood Spiritual Power as the world’s elemental components begin reorganizing 167.
• Its towering form reminds Shan Heyuan of the legendary Heaven-Supporting Tree, but no identification with that legendary tree is confirmed 147 148.
• Its wood-element power becomes one of the components absorbed into Shan Heyuan’s origin core during reconstruction 169.

Claimed Treasure Properties

• The original tree states that Illusionless Trees can become lifebound Law Treasures; Shan Heyuan does not demonstrate this use 125.
• It also insists that all Illusionless Trees can move. Shan Heyuan disputes this based on his offshoot, and later still cannot detect any special ability in it 125 151.

Relationships

• Black She Temple — The original tree’s protected home. Its loyalty persists long after the temple falls into ruin 36 126.
• Shan Heyuan — Trading partner of the original tree; grower, cultivator, and eventual fusion partner of the offshoot 39 45 169.
• Shen Duheng — Collects soil, conducts the branch exchange, and guards Shan Heyuan when he first places the offshoot in his Dantian 37 40 59.
• Golden Silk Dense Moss — Living growth medium that supplies the offshoot with moisture and nutrients under Shan Heyuan’s control 75 76 93.
• Lightning-Struck Wood Sprout — Initially a separate Dantian plant; later merges into the offshoot as one of its branches 78 146 147.
• Unnamed deceased senior — Someone the original tree remembers. Its branches disagree over whether Shan Heyuan’s Spiritual Power resembles this senior’s presence; the connection remains unresolved 125.