Ashlock's consciousness snapped back to reality nearly instantly, as if he had suffered from a flashbang or a blow to the head. The air around him felt suffocatingly hot, like a sauna turned up way too highopening his nonexistent eyes, Ashlock saw the air shimmer from the heat alongside an insane abundance of Qi.

"Ugh... what happened?" Ashlock looked around and was amazed to see that most of the pavilion was still standingeven the runic formation surrounding him survived the fallout of the Grand Elder going supernova. The intricate silvery patterns etched into the grey stone slabs remained mostly undamaged.

Ashlock could feel the residual Qi rushing around him in a powerful torrent as if he were at the center of a whirlpool. The energy pulsed and flowed through the formation Stella had set up, filling the air with a crackling energy that was almost tangible. Was this the Qi left over from the explosion?

Ashlock tried to activate his {Eye of the Tree God} skill to check out the surroundings, but he found himself unable to. "Is this how it feels to get winded as a tree?"

Luckily, there was Qi all around, and not being one to turn down such an opportunity, Ashlock activated his {Basic Meditation} and felt his scarlet leaves, which surprisingly survived the heatwave, greedily absorb the ambient energies. He only had one more stage to go until he would forge a Soul Core and join the ranks of the Soul Fire cultivators, a step below those godlike beings that had fought only moments ago.

Ashlock took a moment to revel in the warmth of Qi rushing through his trunkhe directed any excess Qi that he couldn't absorb to advance his cultivation down into his rootsas his endless tunneling into the mountain's depths in search of treasures continued.

While on the topic of utilizing his excess Qi, Ashlock thought of his {Qi Fruit Production} skill as he looked at his branches that had been picked clean. "I wonder if I should make more poisonous fruits?" While the fruit had proven effective once consumed, Ashlock was uncomfortable with his lack of control over who ate them.

He remembered the incident with the bird that had been able to detect the poisonit had been pure chance that the bird had accidentally died after eating a sour fruit and falling to its death. The only direct fatality due to the fruit had been a cultivator who had been careless enough to swallow the fruit without checking for poison.

While Ashlock could argue that anyone foolish enough to eat his poisonous fruit deserved what they got, he knew that it was best to avoid using the fruit without a way to communicate their dangers clearly with others. The last thing he needed was for Stella to be distracted and accidentally eat one.

Ashlock returned his attention underground as his roots encountered another deposit of that silvery rock, which raised another question. "Are these spirit stones?"

The Grand Elders had clearly placed a lot of value on spirit stoneseven willing to wage an all-out war that resulted in the destruction of a town and the death of the Ravenborne Grand Elder. It wasn't hard to understand why... the ambient Qi in the air was negligible compared to the amount Ashlock could extract from those silvery rocks. Assuming they were spirit stone ore and not something else entirely.

Speaking of the Grand EldersAshlock managed to activate his {Eye of the Tree God} skill and looked at his mountain from above. As previously confirmed, the pavilion he resided in was mostly still standing. However, the side facing the valley had been reduced to rubblethe heatwave had also passed through the training courtyard, leaving charred wooden dummies piled up in a corner that Stella used to train her sword skills.

Overall, the damage to the mountain and the pavilion wasn't too catastrophic due to its immense heightunfortunately, the same couldn't be said for anything else he could see. The only other mountain peak within Ashlock's vision range was the one controlled by the Ravenborne family. So naturally, as it had been closest to the blast, almost nothing remained apart from a ruin. Charred corpses, barely recognizable as humans, were amongst the rubble that was still glowing red with heat. Even the mountain had changed shape with a large chunk taken out as if a landslide had occurred.

Meanwhile, the bit of town he could see... well, there was nothing there. A volcano might as well have erupted where the Grand Elder had gone supernova without the ash in the air or molten lava everywhere. Speaking of, Ashlock noticed the sky had returned to its usual blue, but the clouds were still gone.

Seeing the absolute destruction raised a few issues. "What if that old bastard had blown himself up on my mountain while fighting someone? Hell, in the future, maybe Stella would do the same. What then? Would I survive?"

Unfortunately, Ashlock didn't have the answerbut his mind couldn't help but wonder and simulate solutions. "So long as my roots stay alive, I should be able to regrow over time... right?" If that assumption turned out to be accurate, then Ashlock had all the more reason to bury deep and wide with his {Deep Roots} skill.

While inspecting the bubbling pit of fire that had once been a bustling human town only minutes ago, Ashlock decided to summon his sign-in system. All this talk about skills made him feel like trying his luck.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 2782

Daily Credit: 1

Sacrifice Credit: 100

[Sign in?]

So much had happened today that it was almost weird to think that not even a day had passed since Ashlock consumed that Ravenborne cultivator that stripped him clean of his fruit. Of course, a hundred credits weren't enough to guarantee an A-grade skill or item, but...

"Stella only left recently, and everything in many miles seems to have died... so I might as well roll."

There was a constant balance between hoarding his points to guarantee high draws and spending them whenever he got credits to increase the variety of skills, items, and maybe even summons he had for any given situation.

Having a few high-grade skills and items is great, but Ashlock had found a use for even the cheapest credit items he had rolled for, such as the pill bottle. Or the more midrange skills like {Qi Fruit Production}, which was a [C] grade skill yet had so many uses and had led to many interesting situations.

Taking a deep nonexistent breath and containing his excitement, Ashlock told the system to sign in.

[Sign in successful, 101 credits consumed]

[Upgraded {Basic Meditation [F]} -> {Transpiration of Heaven and Earth [C]}]

"New meditation technique! And it's an upgrade?" Of course, Ashlock had seen some of his skills upgrade before. Such as his fire and lightning resistance skills. "But that had been due to outside influence rather than the system's direct input. So it seems the system can upgrade my current skills rather than constantly giving me new ones."

Ashlock removed the useless thoughts and focused on his brand-new skillhe was eager to discover what it could do. Especially since it apparently upgraded his meditation technique, which had been so unbelievably garbage before at the [F] grade.

It took Ashlock over an hour to comprehend the information of his new skill, mostly because he was no biologist, and tree terminology combined with an ancient Chinese-style breathing technique clearly wasn't supposed to be understood by his puny mind. But it basically boiled down to this.

Summoning the skill on his menu, Ashlock decided to collect his thoughts and summarize his findings.

{Transpiration of Heaven and Earth [C]}

"The first part of the technique's name, Transpiration, refers to the process by which moisture (water) is carried through the tree from the roots to small pores on the underside of leaves. There it changes into vapor and is released into the atmosphere. Basically, the way a tree breathes."

Something Ashlock had been doing naturally from the moment he was born into this world as a sapling, just like how a human baby knows instinctually how to breathe.

From watching Stella, Ashlock confirmed that cultivators of this world invented breathing techniques that allowed them to absorb the ambient Qi by enhancing their breathing. Ashlock wasn't sure how his previous meditation technique functioned, but considering how garbage it was, it was debatable whether it even did anything.

However, his new skill was an actual breathing technique specialized for trees. "And then comes the exciting part... the Heaven and Earth in the skill's name. In mythology, there are many trees. Some are even referred to as world trees because they become so tall they literally connect the heaven and earth through their vast branches and extensive roots."

"This skill {Transpiration of Heaven and Earth} may only be a C-grade skill, but with a few more upgrades, I will be on my way to becoming this world's new world tree." Ashlock could only laugh at himself. He had been thinking of cultivating like Stella and chasing pointless things like immortality when he was already immortal! Instead, Ashlock should have set his sights on the goal of all trees. To become so tall, he can literally reach for the stars.

Ashlock focused within himself and activated his new meditation technique. The relentless raging storm of Qi that brewed within his trunk that Ashlock had always struggled to control became a calm lake. One so still, even the slightest disturbance would send ripples through it. It was... relaxing. A headache he didn't even know he had was washed away, and now he was utterly tranquil.

There was a moment of calm, but then Ashlock activated the next stage of the technique.

If the first stage had been the equivalent of sitting down in a cross-legged pose and readying his mindthe second stage was when he breathed in.

Qi was greedily brought up his rootssomething that hadn't been possible before. Ashlock tried to suppress his turbulent mind that was overly excited, thinking about the possibility that this new breathing technique brought him. Those silver rock deposits now had great value as Ashlock felt their Qi flood his calm lake.

However, before the lake could overflow, the excess Qi that he couldn't absorb was brought up toward his branches and eventually expelled through his leaves. No more did Ashlock have to frantically direct excess Qi into his roots or fruit. He now had a reliable way to expel the excess Qi.

But that was not all. The technique encompassed both Heaven and Earth. So if his roots brought Qi from the earth, then Ashlock's leaves naturally obtained Qi from the heavens.

The violent ambient Qi captured by the runic formation rushing around Ashlock in a torrent was suddenly drawn toward his leaves. The Qi trickled in, slow and steady, but with all his leaves combined, there were soon streams of Qi flowing through his branches and pooling into the lake.

Ashlock panicked for a second as the lake overflowed, but it seemed intentional as the Qi trickled down to his roots, helping them grow. So it was an endless cycle of Qi being brought up from the earth, expelled into the surroundings, and then ambient Qi being brought back in and trickling down to the roots.

Ashlock had become a link between Heaven and Earth.

Time passed... day turned into night, and before Ashlock knew it, he was bathing in the sun's morning light. He felt relaxed as he exercised his technique. He could now understand why cultivators remained motionless and cultivated for months. It was better than going to a spa.

All he wanted to do was cultivate and sleep for the next hundred years. But before he could close his eyes, the door to the pavilion slammed open, and an all too familiar girl with raven black hair and blue flames stumbled in while, clutching her arm.

Diana Ravenborne had somehow survived the Grand Elder's explosion.