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Once again, he was stumped.

But there was good news, which was hard to ignore. He had done it. No longer was he a mere bystander, unable to wield magic and bend the natural laws like other cultivators. He was now an actual cultivator.

To some in this world, a botched spatial tunnel may be so-so, but to him? A human mind from Earth stuck in a tree? It was fucking fantastic. He had quite literally cast magic, almost without the help of the system.

He was a space-manipulating tree!

Now, if only he could figure out the secret behind hand gestures, all of his problems would be solved. Right?

Alas, that was far from the truth. It was becoming more apparent with every passing day that he needed to increase his Qi intake somehow. If casting just a single portal or controlling a slime took so much of his Qi, how could he face the beast tide? Or fight toe to root with another cultivator?

Naturally, he needed a solution. Upping his cultivation stage increased his maximum Qi pool but had less effect on his Qi regeneration. One major bottleneck was his cultivation technique {Transpiration of Heaven and Earth}, which was C-grade. If he could pray to the gacha gods and have this upgraded, then his Qi generation should increase.

Another reason to curse the system. But blaming others was a poor man's excuse. He had a golden finger in this world, and despite its faults, the system did give him a wide range of valuable tools. He just needed to use them.

How did he currently generate Qi? Through his roots and leaves.

As his roots burrowed deeper, he linked up with more spirit stone ore, which he could siphon for more Qi.

A finite resource—the spirit stone ore was sparse as most were already mined. So he needed a more scalable and reliable solution.

The leyline? If he dug deep enough, he should reach the planets Qi highway... but that was risky. It sounded like trying to touch a powerline and expecting not to be fried alive.

His mind drifted as he browsed his skills for a solution. Other than his roots, his next source of Qi was his leaves. He had already grown so large, but he could always grow bigger—all he had to do was invest more Qi into growth.

More leaves... and a bigger trunk. A limiting solution, he could only grow so big before he risked standing out. If the heavenly lightning had taught him anything, standing too tall was asking to be struck.

There had to be something he was forgetting. He needed more leaves, like one of those solar farms. "Wait! Aren't there solar farms with a tower in the center holding up a tank of water, and then there are hundreds of mirrors in a circle directing the sunlight at the water tank to heat the water..."

Ashlock didn't have mirrors or a water tank. But he did have hundreds of trees surrounding his mountain, and some were even his offspring! Could he link up to them and use their leaves to gather Qi? Was that even possible...

There was only one way to find out.

Ashlock identified the closest baby demonic tree and began to send a root toward it. However, since the birds didn't die instantly to his poison, the demonic tree was a few hundred meters away from the base of the mountain, so it would take around a day to reach, especially with his Qi spread so thin between keeping the slime under control and his {Deep Roots} burrowing into the mine.

All the more reason for him to increase his Qi intake. It might even help him cultivate faster and reach the next realm!

"This is why there are no high-realm spatial Qi users!"

Diana's shout broke Ashlock from that trail of thought.

Ashlock peered through the dust cloud swirling through the courtyard. He saw the black-haired girl hacking up her lungs and staggering through a hole in the wall she had been thrown through.

Considering the structural quality of these inner courtyard walls—which had survived the Grand Elder's supernova, the fact Diana had literally gone through the white brick like a wrecking ball was a testament to the explosive power of a spatial portal collapsing.

While Diana was coughing up her lungs, Stella lay on the ground near the doorway that connected the central courtyard to the training one. Her hair was disheveled, and she was blinking away a headache or concussion—she was clearly disorientated and confused.

Ashlock took a moment to rethink his actions. Cultivators were strong, but they could still get hurt. Even though Stella's Qi waves were the only way he could set up an anchor, to open the portal so close to their heads was a terrible idea in hindsight.

Diana's words also interested him. So there were no high realm spatial Soul Core masters out there? Or just a lot less compared to other Soul Core types? Ashlock looked around at the destruction he had caused from such a small experiment.

The puppet was nothing but a melted puddle on fire, an arm burning in lilac flames poked out the sludge as if gesturing to the sky, and it was missing a single finger... which was over near Stella.

What if it had been an arrogant cultivator instead of a puppet? Or, to go a step further—instead of a finger... a person's head? What if a spatial Qi cultivator made a portal and stepped through, but then it collapsed? Would they be sliced in half?

Ashlock couldn't help but think of Stella. She had a spatial Qi Soul Core and had tried to learn this technique only moments ago. What if she had successfully created the spatial tunnel and poked her head through it?

Spatial Qi... was dangerous. The applications were hard to ignore. They could achieve things the other elements could only dream of. But it naturally came with significant downsides.

Luckily, they were ones he could avoid, so long as he took the proper precautions. For example, puppets. They were perfect for experiments, but from now on, he would conduct them away from the girls.

"You alright, Stella?" Diana half limped toward Stella—her stride already returning after such an accident.

"Yea..." Stella replied with a distant expression. Her eyes wandered between the melted corpse and the severed finger below where the portal had exploded. "I... I think I understand—why father forbade me from learning the more advanced spatial techniques—you know... when I was a kid."

Her hands were shaking a little, and her eyes darted to the still-open scroll left behind on the bench. "But if I could wield spatial magic, I could be more useful to Tree."

Diana rolled her eyes, "You will be no use dead."

Stella stood on shaky legs and walked toward the bench, "Not if I kill my enemies first. Even if I can't use the portals to travel around, just exploding one in someone's face should smack them off their feet."

Ashlock had to agree. After seeing the destruction, he stopped associating spatial Qi with just portals to move around... hell, even with only portals, could he create them around people's necks?

He thought back to when he used the technique. The presence of spatial Qi around Stella was vital as an anchor. "So I can only decapitate other spatial types? That doesn't sound right."

Nothing made sense. Ashlock needed more techniques to work from. For his entire life in this world as a tree, he had lacked options to be proactive, but now he had a Soul Core and actual techniques to look at.

"Mhm..." Diana contemplated Stella's words. "I can see the potential, but that technique might be slightly too high-level. Didn't you take out some basic technique manuals from the library?"

Ashlock had never heard such sweet words in all his tree life! How could Stella be so considerate to bring him so many presents whenever she left the pavilion? He almost forgave her for leaving him alone for a year. But only almost...

Stella was busy scowling at the scroll and only murmured to herself, "How did he do it..."

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Diana asked in a bored tone and tapped Stella on the shoulder.

"Ah!" Stella jolted, "Don't do that, and stop sneaking up on me! I'm concentrating."

"Sure you are." Diana smiled, "Why don't you show our Patriarch the other spatial techniques you have?"

"Oh... the ones from the library?" Stella blinked in confusion.

Diana nodded, "Yep."

Stella didn't seem enthusiastic. She just shrugged. "They are nothing compared to this technique... and if Ash can understand this one, the others will surely bore him."

"You called him Ash again."

Diana sighed, "Not to be rude, but Ashlock's control over his spatial Qi is amateur at best. But his potential is astounding. Show him the easier techniques. He might even be able to teach them to you too."

Diana's hand rested on the top of the opened scroll and pushed it down, "So give this one a break for now." She smiled, but it wasn't a kind smile, "Okay?"

"Fine." With a flash of power from Stella's ring, the scroll vanished, and a leatherbound book engraved with the golden text Spatial Techniques of the Azure Clan took its place.

"Perfect, you read that to Ashlock, and I'll clean this mess up." Diana walked off toward the rubble littering the courtyard with blue flames shrouding her skin.

Stella didn't even respond, and after a big sigh, she sat on the bench and cleared her throat. "Ash... I will try my best, but reading this flowery nonsense has never been my forte. If you don't get something, flash your Qi, and ill try to explain my own terms."

Ashlock desperately hoped this old-looking book from the Azure clan would answer his confusion about hand gestures and their significance to casting techniques.

"Chapter one—cultivation basics." Stella sighed before continuing onto the rest of the text.

"Cultivation is the art of assimilating with heaven's will. Through meditation, one's body and mind gain a more profound connection with the heavens. After the manifestation of one's own ego in the form of a Soul Core under a particular domain—the heavens acknowledge the chosen path. Allowing cultivators to manifest their will upon the world and bend the natural laws to their desire."

None of that sounded particularly useful except a single phrase. To bend the natural laws to their desire suggested the use of Qi was unscientific. To approach the techniques of cultivators with his analytical and scientific mind was potentially foolish.

Maybe the hand signs were merely superficial—a simple way for cultivators to focus their will while learning a new technique.

Had he been focusing on the wrong things all along?

Stella's voice became background noise as his mind focused. He felt Qi flow through his body. Between heaven and earth, he was the connection. His Soul Core hummed, converting the untamed and wrathful will of the heavens into spatial Qi.

After the manifestation of one's own ego in the form of a Soul Core under a particular domain—the heavens acknowledge the chosen path...

Had the heavens acknowledged his chosen path? Didn't the system randomly decide his path for him after he spent his credits for a random draw?

Maybe the system's rewards weren't so random after all.

Ashlock then heard a loud sigh, followed by Stella turning the page.

"Chapter two—Basic Technique: Telekinesis."