A Realm Stabilizing Tree.
Of all the things that could have emerged from that chaotic battle, this was perhaps the most valuable and unexpected outcome I could have imagined.
Realm Stabilizing Trees were legendary treasures in the cultivation world, though most cultivators below the Life Realm had never even heard of them. These ancient constructs served as the backbone of advanced inner worlds, providing the structural foundation necessary for a cultivator's personal universe to expand beyond its natural limits.
When a Peak Life Realm cultivator sought to break through to the Civilisation Realm; the sheer complexity of managing millions of souls, their spiritual networks, and the delicate balance of qi flows became nearly impossible without some form of stabilizing influence.
That's where Realm Stabilizing Trees came in.
These massive entities didn't just expand and stabilize inner worlds through their root networks - they also acted as living seals, preventing the precious qi essences and dao comprehensions from leaking out into the void.
This was why, when I'd visited the Starhaven Realm and fed energy to their three great trees, it had actually reversed the decay that was slowly consuming that dying world. The trees acted as anchors, holding reality together when everything else was falling apart.
But their defensive capabilities went far beyond just preventing energy leakage.
Realm Stabilizing Trees also helped protect inner worlds from invasion techniques. Hostile cultivators couldn't simply force their way into someone's personal universe when these trees were present, as they created natural barriers that repelled unauthorized intrusion attempts.
For high-level cultivators whose inner worlds contained priceless treasures and entire civilizations, this protection was absolutely invaluable.
I took a deep breath, trying to process what I had witnessed. The initial awe was fading, replaced by a growing sense of understanding that made my stomach clench with unease.
If cultivators who failed to successfully cultivate the World Tree Sutra became Realm Stabilizing Trees, did that mean the trees I'd encountered in both the Starhaven Realm and the Two Suns world were once cultivators like myself?
The thought sent a chill down my spine that had nothing to do with the death essence still lingering in the air around us.
Qi deviation had always been presented as the worst possible outcome for a failed breakthrough attempt: your cultivation base shattering, your meridians rupturing, maybe death if you were truly unlucky.
But becoming a tree?
That was something else entirely.
That was losing your humanity, your consciousness, everything that made you who you were.
The theory was beginning to make terrible sense.
After all, the trees I'd met weren't identical copies of each other. They varied in size, power, and even apparent intelligence.
The Ancestor's Tree at the Three-Leaf Clover Sect had been massive and surprisingly aware, while the Star-Catching Tree had seemed more passive. That could easily be explained if they'd once been cultivators at different stages of advancement before their transformations.
A cultivator who'd made it further along the World Tree Sutra's path before failing would naturally become a more powerful and sophisticated tree. Someone who'd barely started the technique might become something smaller and less capable.
It was a horrifying kind of logic.
This revelation also explained something that had always puzzled me about the Azure Peak Sect.
Why would they keep a Beyond Heaven rank cultivation method, even an incomplete one, in their outer sect archives? Why make it available to disciples who clearly lacked the power and understanding to handle such advanced techniques?
The answer lay in the fundamental nature of cultivation itself.
You couldn't force a cultivator to practice a specific method, no matter how much authority you held over them. Cultivation was intrinsically tied to the dao, to a person's deepest beliefs and understanding of the universe.
If a cultivator didn't truly believe in the method they were attempting to cultivate, if they couldn't align their soul with its principles, they simply wouldn't be able to make any progress toward that particular dao path.
This meant that even if the sect had tried to force disciples to cultivate the World Tree Sutra, those who didn't genuinely resonate with it would fail to advance at all. They wouldn't even reach the point where they could fail spectacularly enough to transform into trees. And some level of success was clearly necessary for the transformation to occur; you had to get far enough along the path to trigger the metamorphosis when things went wrong.
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Since the sect couldn't force the issue, the World Tree Sutra served as bait instead.
It was there to entice young, arrogant cultivators who felt like they were chosen by the heavens, who believed they could succeed where others had failed. The kind of disciples who saw a Beyond Heaven rank technique and thought, "This was clearly meant for me."
I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.
Wasn't that exactly the reason I'd chosen the sutra? I'd felt like it was calling out to me, like destiny had led me to that particular manual among all the others in the archives. The hubris was almost painful to acknowledge now.
The only difference between me and that tree was luck. Pure, blind luck.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Master," Azure said gently, apparently sensing my self-recrimination. "Your success wasn't just luck. You had advantages that other cultivators didn't – the System, me, and your unusual soul structure from your original death and rebirth. These factors made you uniquely suited to handle the World Tree Sutra's requirements."
Maybe, but it still made me feel sick thinking about how close I'd come to that fate.
And honestly? I couldn't even blame the sect for their strategy. It was cold, calculating, and definitely not something you'd put in their recruitment materials, but from an elder's perspective, it made perfect sense.
Realm Stabilizing Trees were incredibly valuable resources, sought after by Life Realm and Civilization Realm cultivators who would pay almost any price to acquire them.
If a disciple failed while attempting the World Tree Sutra, they became a precious tree that could be used by the sect's leadership for their own advancement. If they succeeded, the sect gained a young prodigy who might eventually elevate the entire organization to new heights.
From a cold, calculating standpoint, it was a win-win situation.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized this tree represented an incredible opportunity for me personally.
For wood cultivators, Realm Stabilizing Trees weren't just useful for stabilising the inner world, they could serve as direct cultivation resources, providing insights into advanced plant manipulation techniques and offering massive amounts of refined wood-element energy.
But what made this particular tree special was that it hadn't yet sunk its roots into the Fallen Realm.
Normally, when a Realm Stabilizing Tree formed, it immediately began the process of integrating with whatever dimensional space it found itself in. Once those roots spread throughout a realm, the tree became essentially unmovable. You couldn't extract it without annexing the entire world it had bonded with, which was usually impossible, and always prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
This tree, however, had just finished its transformation. It was sitting there like a perfectly ripe fruit, ready to be plucked by whoever was smart enough to recognize the opportunity.
I could leave it alone and let it naturally integrate with the Fallen Realm, but that would be an incredible waste. This realm belonged to the sect, not to me, and its owner was long dead. A Realm Stabilizing Tree anchored to a dead cultivator's inner world would provide no benefits to anyone, it would just slowly decay along with the rest of Ancestor Tian's legacy.
Besides, I was the one who'd defeated the shapeshifter. Well, sort of. To be honest, I hadn't needed to do much fighting, the creature had essentially defeated itself by trying to copy my cultivation method without understanding its complexities.
But still, it had been my techniques that caused its transformation, and it had been wearing my face when it became a tree. I should probably take care of it…
"Master," Azure said quietly, "if you're going to absorb it, now would be the time. I can sense the tree beginning to establish preliminary root connections with this realm."
Right. Might as well begin.
I pressed both palms against the bark and extended my spiritual sense into the Genesis Seed. The response was immediate and enthusiastic, my inner world's core practically vibrated with anticipation as it recognized the incredible prize before us.
The absorption process was unlike anything I'd experienced before. Instead of the usual flow of qi or spiritual essence, this felt like I was drawing an entire living ecosystem into my soul.
The tree began to glow with soft green light, its massive form gradually becoming translucent as it was pulled into my inner world through the connection in my palms.
I closed my eyes and shifted my consciousness inward, watching as the Realm Stabilizing Tree materialized next to my garden quadrant. The moment its roots touched the World Tree Origin Soil, everything changed.
The tree's presence sent ripples of stabilizing energy throughout my inner world, and I watched in awe as the very boundaries of my dimension began expanding. What had been a space roughly three kilometers in radius suddenly doubled in size, the horizon stretching outward as new territory formed in response to the tree's influence.
The Genesis Seed at the center of my world pulsed with renewed vigor, its root network spreading through the expanded space like veins of pure creation. The red and blue suns overhead seemed to burn brighter, their orbital patterns adjusting to accommodate the larger space while maintaining perfect harmony.
In the garden quadrant, my carefully cultivated spiritual plants began responding to the tree's presence with visible growth spurts. The Moonlight Clover tripled in size, its leaves shimmering with enhanced qi absorption properties. The Azure Bellflowers' energy conversion rates increased dramatically, while the Shadow Ferns' stabilizing aura expanded to cover nearly the entire quadrant.
But the most dramatic change was in the northwest mountain quadrant.
The Realm Stabilizing Tree's influence caused new peaks to rise from the earth, creating a natural amphitheater around the tree's base. Underground water systems formed instantly, connecting to the Primordial Wellspring through channels that sparkled with concentrated spiritual energy.
I could feel my cultivation base responding to the changes, spiritual essence flowing through my meridians with newfound efficiency. The tree wasn't just expanding my inner world, it was optimizing everything, creating perfect conditions for advanced cultivation.
Then, without warning, a massive burst of qi erupted from my body.
The energy wave swept outward like an explosion, sending every member of both teams staggering backward. The bone-white trees around us swayed violently, their branches creaking and snapping under the pressure. The ground beneath my feet cracked in perfectly circular patterns, spreading outward in expanding rings.
Wei Lin raised his arms defensively, his tenth-stage spiritual pressure flaring as he tried to shield Lin Mei from the worst of the energy wave. Even Wu Kangming took a step back, his usually impassive expression showing genuine surprise at the power radiating from my position.
But what caught everyone's attention wasn't just the raw force of the qi release, it was the quality of the energy itself.
This wasn't the refined but limited spiritual pressure of a Qi Condensation cultivator.
But it wasn't quite the elemental mastery of a true Elemental Realm practitioner either.
It was something in between.
I had broken through to the Pseudo-Elemental Realm.