“It seems to contain a unique mana structure that stimulates plant growth and vitality.”
“Could it be some kind of nutrient solution?!”
Qimeng's beautiful brow furrowed, her eyes filled with reluctance.
“No, I am certainly not some high-yield sap-producing machine.”
She pinched her injured, slender arm, her gaze falling upon the wound.
“You want me to bleed myself on purpose? No way. Absolutely not.”
“How could such a beautiful body be allowed to just leak strange fluids like that?”
Xiaomi blinked her large eyes and bluntly deflated her.
“But Master, you literally just squeezed out three drops on purpose...”
“That was a rigorous experiment conducted in the name of truth, not unregulated mass production, got it?”
Qimeng flatly refused, speaking with pride.
“Besides, there aren't any magical plants in the territory that desperately need fertilizing right now. If there's ever a real need in the future, we'll talk then.”
She glanced sideways at Xiaomi, a mischievous grin appearing on her face.
“As for you, go harvest more nectar and dilute it with some morning dew. The effect should be about the same.”
Xiaomi slumped her wings in disappointment and muttered under her breath.
“So it turns out I'm the one doing the work again.”
“Isn't that because Captain Xiaomi is the most capable?”
Still, Qimeng's theory wasn't wrong.
Over the following days, Xiaomi—forced to work overtime—watered the magical plants with the diluted, special nectar-water. Incredibly, the growth rate and vitality of those plants actually exploded!
Every day, watching the exotic flowers and rare herbs she personally tended sprout new buds and unfurl their leaves, whatever resentment Xiaomi harbored vanished completely, replaced by a deep sense of pride.
Though she refused to admit it out loud, whenever she strolled around with her watering can, the smile at the corners of her eyes was impossible to hide.
The next afternoon.
Qimeng was leisurely sipping her honey water and chewing on some honey-glazed roasted meat.
...
Suddenly, a violent tremor shook the ground!
The slow, rhythmic thud of footsteps vibrated through the entire layer of earth.
“This pressure... is bad!”
Qimeng's gaze sharpened. She extended her root network, and the feedback she received sent a jolt through her heart.
It was a towering colossus that looked like a greyish-white stone statue!
Standing over five meters tall, its body was assembled from countless boulders, and its broad shoulders and back were blanketed in dark moss.
The magical fluctuations radiating from its body were heavy and steady. The surrounding monsters had long since fled in sheer terror, leaving not even a shadow behind.
A Mid-tier Advanced magical beast: Stone Giant!
“Let's go, Xiaomi. Maximum alert, strategic retreat!”
Qimeng decisively set down her roasted meat, her expression incredibly solemn.
“Huh? Where are we going in the middle of the day?”
Xiaomi hadn't even swallowed the pollen in her mouth, looking completely clueless.
“The opponent this time is on a completely different level. To fight it, I'd have to pour in every last drop of my accumulated mana.”
“Trading a thousand of my own to kill eight hundred of theirs is a losing deal. I'm not doing it.”
Xiaomi's face turned pale. Fluttering her wings, she closely followed behind Qimeng.
Whoosh.
Qimeng grabbed Xiaomi and slipped into an underground tunnel.
This tunnel had been dug along the way when they were expanding the cellar.
It was originally dug purely out of a "just in case" hoarding mindset, but she hadn't expected it to come in handy so soon.
At the end of the tunnel was a cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and groundwater seeped from the rock crevices, dripping onto the stone floor.
Finding a flat rock to sit on, she extended her root perception upward.
The Stone Giant stepped into her territory, its heavy strides leaving deep depressions wherever it trod.
Yet, this gargantuan creature actually avoided the Tree Court, refrained from trampling the Firefly Garden, and even politely detoured around the wooden stakes in the training ground.
“What on earth is it looking for?”
Under Qimeng's tense and bewildered gaze, the Stone Giant came to a halt in the core area of her territory.
Its fingers, composed of white-veined rock, plunged into the ground. As if digging into a soft cake, it effortlessly scooped out a deep pit and thrust its entire arm inside.
That location was... the Red Stone Vein!
Qimeng suddenly understood.
It's eating ore?
The leaking mana from the Red Stone Vein was a food signal to the Stone Giant.
It had followed the magic fluctuations here simply to replenish its energy.
The Stone Giant pulled a chunk of red stone ore from the pit, popped it into its mouth, and crunched it to pieces.
It ate with great focus, the moss on its body surface seemingly growing brighter.
Qimeng retracted her roots that wrapped around the ore to avoid accidental injury.
The tree and the bee waited in the cavern for about fifty minutes.
Having eaten its fill, the Stone Giant left without damaging any unnecessary structures, behaving exactly like a guest leaving after a buffet.
But before it left, it did something that caught Qimeng by surprise.
It refilled the pit it had just dug, packed it down with its feet, patted it twice, and even covered it with a layer of fallen leaves.
It had politely cleaned up the traces it left behind.
Watching this scene through her root perception, Qimeng fell silent for a long time.
“M-Master... has that mountain of a creature left?”
Xiaomi tugged at Qimeng's sleeve.
“Yeah, it's gone. Quite a polite guest, actually.”
Qimeng waited until the Stone Giant's footsteps faded out of her sensory range before they crawled out of the tunnel.
She walked over to the territory's vein to inspect the refilled pit.
The pit was filled slightly higher than its surroundings, forming a comical little mound.
Qimeng swept aside the surface leaves and soil with the tip of her toe.
In an instant, a brilliant, dazzling earthy-yellow divine light nearly blinded Xiaomi's titanium bee eyes.
It was a massive, amber-colored crystal, half the height of a person!
Warm throughout, its surface gleamed with an earthy-yellow luster.
“Is this... Earth Amber?!”
Qimeng touched it curiously; the crystal felt warm to the touch.
She tried sitting on it, and the seat perfectly fit the curve of her hips. A wave of warmth seeped from deep within the crystal, spreading up her spine and throughout her entire body.
The plant-type magical beast's dependence on the earth element was fully satisfied at this moment.
Qimeng narrowed her eyes, relaxing back into the crystal.
“...Mmh... so comfortable...”
Stroking the edge of the crystal, she nodded in satisfaction.
“Excellent. I declare this item confiscated!”
Xiaomi flew a circle around the crystal, her expression subtle.
“Um, Master... this thing... it couldn't be what that big guy pooped out after digesting, right?”
“Just what is inside that stupid head of yours?!”
“This is crystal conversion! A Stone Giant condenses excess, purified earth-element mana into crystals and excretes them. It's a high-value byproduct! Just like how beeswax is produced by you, but can you call that pooping it out?”
“Eh? I guess... it really doesn't count that way?”
Xiaomi felt like something was off, but she couldn't find a point to refute.
“In any case, eating so much of my Red Stone Ore and leaving behind a piece of Earth Amber as payment for the meal is only natural.”
Qimeng stroked her smooth chin.
“A pity it's not gold... though even if it were, I'd have nowhere to spend it.”
She touched the crystal's surface, feeling the earth-element mana seep into her palm.
“But this thing relaxes my body and mind. For a tree, it's like having a soft bed.”
Though she didn't need to sleep, she could enter dormancy.
Deep rest in a plant state was entirely different from human sleep; it was more like a mana cycle.
And the warm, gentle earth-element mana provided by this crystal happened to make this process incredibly comfortable.
Qimeng manipulated her roots to wrap around the crystal, dragging it all the way back to the Tree Court and placing it at the core of her main tree body.
After adjusting it to the most comfortable angle, her delicate body relaxed as she sat down upon it.
“It's decided. From now on, this will be my exclusive queen's throne!”
“Honestly, you're clearly a tree, yet you have so many fancy demands...”
Before Xiaomi could even finish, she noticed Qimeng's dangerously "benevolent" gaze and immediately corrected herself obediently.
“Her Majesty's throne is truly so majestic, so magnificent!”
“Hmph.”
Qimeng snorted softly, leaning back against the warm throne.
Enjoying the nourishment of the earth, she comfortably closed her eyes and muttered in a low voice.
“Look at that high-rank magical beast. It knows to leave a gift when it comes over for a meal. It's far more sensible than a certain foolish vassal who only knows how to secretly hoard honey all day and expects me to provide free lodging.”
Xiaomi pretended not to hear. Blushing, she picked up her watering can and loudly hummed a tune as she ran off to water the flowers.
Lying on her amber throne, Qimeng relaxed her mind and body, beginning to take stock of her current assets.
Iron Bones, Dive Acceleration, Scale Powder Burst, Shadow Step, Shadow Entangle, Scythe Blade, along with Water Core, Wood Spike, Water Thread, Night Vision, and so on.
Before she knew it, she had quite a few cards in her hand.
However, these skills were currently too scattered.
What if... she could link them all together?
She couldn't help but recall the three advanced swordsmanship techniques she had trained relentlessly in the Knight Order before her Reincarnation.
Dash Slash, Circular Slash, Reverse Slash.
Those were once ultimate techniques executed purely by relying on a human physical body and sword qi.
But things were different now. She was a Demon Tree with infinite possibilities!
What if she combined Shadow Step with swordsmanship?
Stepping out from the shadows while simultaneously striking with a blade.
What if...
Rate on N.U.
