xkarnation

[Tree] Chapter 55: Star Boy

Ashlock hadn't been the most social man back on Earth, but he'd never had issues striking up a casual conversation. But there were limits and boundaries, likely for any person.

Having an old dude—likely an immortal grandpa—laughing inside his head and floating around as a whisp made it impossible for Ashlock to think straight.

"How fascinating!" Senior Lee noted as he flew around. The whisp then looked down the trunk and saw the {Demonic Eye} looking curiously back at him.

[Tree] Chapter 54: A Rare Breed

Stella felt a wave of relief as she managed to mobilize her Qi just in time to catch Senior Lee's teacup before it smashed. Why had he thrown it like that?

"So you were the one with spatial Qi all along." Lee smiled. "Let's talk."

Stella could hear her own blood rushing through her ears. Her heart raced, and her hands felt clammy. What did this man want to talk about? Why was he so interested if someone was a spatial Qi cultivator?

Stella felt a shiver run down her ...

[Tree] Chapter 53: An Enigma Arrives

Ashlock ignored the sound of Diana working in the background to clean up the mess after the portal explosion and focused wholeheartedly on Stella's reading as the title of chapter two made his demonic eye, sealed within his trunk, flash with interest at the mention of telekinesis.

Portals were neat and would give him more range, such as casting {Devour} through a portal to bring a corpse back for him to eat. But telekinesis fixed another issue...

His lack of hands—a problem he h...

[Tree] Chapter 52: Stupid Hand Gestures

Ashlock mentally frowned at the idea. Although Bob had a body of almost pure spatial Qi, he was a glorified jelly with an unsurprising lack of limbs, which hampered his plans—big time.

Without hands, the human technique scroll was annoyingly useless—but he absolutely refused to believe creating literal wormholes through space was only possible through some stupid hand gestures.

Once again, he was stumped.

But there was good news, which was hard to ignore. He had done it....

[NB] 77. START OF BOOK 2

THIS IS NOT A DEMONIC TREE CHAPTER

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I decided to delete chapters 77 and 78 that I had originally written and go back to start book two again, so this is the new chapter 77.

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Vox—Victor's human-sized avatar formed from shadow magic—sat upon a summoned throne of shadows. It was easier to communicate with the humans like this, as he had no desire to incite fear among his own people. They were already loyal enough...

[Tree] Chapter 51: Wormhole Creation for Dummies

Ashlock watched Stella reluctantly get up from the bench with the scroll still in her hands. From how she looked at it, like a boomer trying to read a textbook about coding, Ashlock concluded she was struggling to understand it.

Her deep frown, furrowed brows, and random huffing were also a clue.

"This makes no sense!"  Stella tossed the scroll onto the bench and sat in a cross-legged position on the floor. Calming her breathing, Ashlock saw purple flames appear arou...

[Tree] Chapter 50: Pest Exterminator

Ashlock felt the corrosive slime burn his root as he contemplated his options.

The pain was initially numb as the root hairs were instantly vaporized. But as the root's cell walls began to break down and the corrosive fluid poured in through the small gaps and interacted with the soft flesh inside, he felt a pain like no other—a searing pain, like dipping his toe into boiling water.

But this time, he resisted it by shifting his attention away—micromanaging it from afar. One of...

[Tree] Chapter 49: An Interesting Monster

With Stella off to clean up and meditate in the courtyard with a still intact runic formation, Ashlock was left to focus on Diana, exploring the caves below.

His roots had grown throughout the mineshaft, especially in the direction the giant rats originated from. His {Deep Roots} skill, combined with his higher cultivation stage, allowed for rapid growth, so in just a week, he had traversed around a mile down the mineshaft and had yet to encounter anything of interest. Just more rusted ...

[Tree] Chapter 48: Affectionate Gaze

Diana jumped backward, but Stella decided to approach Ashlock with trepidation. "Ash, are you okay? Hey!"

She could tell something was terribly wrong. The Qi in the surrounding air trembled. A chaotic vortex formed that rustled Ash's scarlet leaves as if he were the eye of a great storm. Birds for miles took to the skies and cried to the heavens.

Stella winced. She knew whatever was happening would cause unwanted attention from the nearby cultivators.

She looked to ...

[Tree] Chapter 47: Ashfallen

Ashlock didn't pride himself on being the most imaginative tree out there when naming things, but he felt Ashfallen was fitting. A few potential sect names had drifted through his mind, such as Haunted Willow or Black Root.

But the name Ashfallen had actual meaning behind it besides being tree themed.

Firstly, it was a fusion between Ashlock and Stella's surname Crestfallen. Secondly, Larry utilized the Dao of ash. Also, Yggdrasil, a world tree from Norse mythology back on Earth, ...

[Tree] Chapter 46: A Tricky Conversation

Ashlock had never thought about it, but in a twisted way, cultivators were more degenerate than video game addicts back on Earth, no matter how he looked at it.

If you removed the context and danger of the world, cultivators were junkies that refused to eat or sleep in favor of chasing the high of immortality.

The trashed, overgrown, and in disrepair pavilion was a perfect example.

Without hundreds of housekeepers tending to a cultivator's needs, they allowed their surroundi...

[Tree] Chapter 45: Ashlock's betrayal?

Swarms of flies angrily buzzed around in the warm summer air, and the nauseating smell of decay and damp acidic soil tickled Stella's nose. She had walked this same path a few times throughout her life, and it had almost always been the same. Fresh air, a beautiful forest of vibrant green, and the chirp of birds.

Somehow in just half a year, it had devolved into this—a graveyard masked by nature.

Stella furrowed her brows as she walked past yet another demonic tree, this one tal...

[Tree] Chapter 44: Tree Combat

As a spirit tree, Ashlock had always been able to see a few meters around his body, including his roots. However, his view range was significantly increased with the {Eye of the Tree God} skill and his escalating cultivation. Though one thing had always been a constant. His inability to see through things. Which unfortunately included rock, making the vision from his roots rather pointless and boring. Apart from the occasional deposit of silvery spirit stone ore, there was nothing bu...

[Tree] Chapter 43: A Quiet Life

Ashlock liked to pretend he'd fully embraced his life as a cultivating tree in a crazy world of immortal humans that could fly around on swords—but that was a lie. It was impossible to ignore the signs that had begun to fester—no matter how well his new body's biology attempted to mask the impending crisis in his consciousness.

A human mind simply wasn't designed to be sealed inside an immovable form. The desire for discovery, freedom, and connection are intrinsic parts of human nat...

Diana Art!

Hey guys, this time, I have a piece of artwork I purchased myself with the money you have all graciously given me. The artist is a friend of mine who is still improving his style, so forgive any issues you find.

Also, thank you for 12k followers over on RoyalRoad!

[Tree] Chapter 42: (Interlude) Tainted Cloud Sect

A plain-looking woman wearing far too much lavish jewelry that weighed down her ears peaked around the door and said flatly, "Ladies, the merchants are available to see you now." Her eyes shifted from a plain brown to the darkest of blacks as she dipped back behind the door.

Stella sighed with relief. If she had to patiently drink another cup of tea while keeping a straight back and an uptight attitude, she feared she would go insane. Luckily Maple had left to explore the city. Otherwis...

[Tree] Chapter 41: (Interlude) Slymere

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Darklight city, so the academy was naturally peaceful without hundreds of students walking around looking to cause trouble, which Stella greatly appreciated after the incident she faced with the students last time.

Stella looked at Diana, and she had mixed emotions. They had spent the last few months just a meter apart in a private booth, which the Head Librarian had been so gracious to provide them because they were reading ancient texts that had to...

Netherborne Book 2 Cover

I will use this post to remind everyone I have another novel that will start posting again from Feb 1st. It has a non-human protag and focuses on Kingdom Building. Overlord heavily inspired it, so if you like that series, then you might like this one.

The Netherborne: Harbinger of Destruction [An OP Isekai LitRPG] 

Netherborne do...

[Tree] Chapter 40: Magic Truffles

The cold early winter breeze rustled Ashlock's leaves as a familiar face returned to the desolate courtyard. The lazy tree stopped cultivating to focus on Larry crawling through the hole in the pavilion wall while dragging a sack of silk five times his size.

As Larry hauled the sack, a deep trail was left in the training courtyard's sand as he approached the wall separating the central courtyard from the training grounds. Larry then decided to hurl the sack of corpses over the wall—it...

[Tree] Chapter 39: Baby Tree

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3165

Daily Credit: 15

Sacrifice Credit: 20

[Sign in?]

"It's been a week since Stella and Diana left," Ashlock said to nobody in particular. Even Maple had gone with the girls and left him all alone.

Aslock looked around the courtyard, which was deathly silent except for the buzzing of flies around the opened silk sack of human corpses lyin...

Stella Art

Credits: Commissioned by MelasDelta from CREADFECTUS

Melas, an absolute legend, commissioned this artwork without my knowledge until a few days ago. I love how it turned out!

Although Ashlock is in the background, this piece is mor...

[Tree] Chapter 38: (Interlude) Head Librarian

Stella's Soul Core buzzed with glee, purple flames coated her legs, and lightning arched across her skin as she saw the mountain blur beneath her feet. She breathed deeply to calm herself as the wind rushed through her hair. 'I can't believe Tree can write! We will be able to talk about all the things I always wanted to ask—'

"Stella, wait up!"

The blonde girl had a silly grin and really wanted to ignore the voice coming from behind, but that would be rude, so ...

Thank you for 10k

An author friend made this cover for me for free. Pretty neat, right? I also got a few actual commissions on the way as well for both Stella and Diana, so I hope you look forward to those!

I just wanted to make this post thanking everyone for 10k followers on RoyalRoad! 

Reborn as a Demonic Tree now holds the record for the only novel to get 10k followers on RS and the fastest-growing novel of all time! Woo! For reference, the previous record was Beware of Chicken, which reac...

[Tree] Chapter 37: A Tree's First Words

[Ash Spider {Larry} wishes to evolve]

[Yes/No]

The answer was obviously yes, but Ashlock also found his level of control over the Ash spider a bit unsettling. In a way, he preferred his relationship with Maple.

Although the little bastard wouldn't listen to his every whim, he felt he could depend on Maple to save him if he were in danger. In contrast, Larry reminded Ashlock of an intelligent Ai.

If Ashlock was dying and unable to order...

[Tree] Chapter 36: Evolution

Barry could hear two men talking behind him, so he quickened his pace.

He could tell they were cultivators from their conversation and way of speaking and after being scammed by a Winterwrath bastard back at the mines. The last thing Barry wanted right now was to be robbed in the middle of a forest for his few silver crowns.

Barry rounded a corner in the path, but he could still hear them loudly talking, "Hey John, did I tell you an Elder informed me that Evergreen peak had fallen...

[Tree] Chapter 35: City Exploration

Ashlock hummed to himself as he could finally enjoy the pleasant autumn morning since the constant sound of fighting had ceased.

Diana and Stella had taken a training break, and both passed out on the sandy training courtyard floor while gasping for breath in puddles of their own sweat. Stella's blonde hair was practically glued to her face, and Diana smiled as she rested.

While the girls had fun training, Ashlock had spent the morning busy with his Qi Fruit Production menu.

[Tree] Chapter 34: A Seed of Hope

Diana looked through the courtyard door at the departing ash-haired spider that had crawled from a secret realm—just by watching it, she knew her chances of winning were slim. The sword in her hand felt like a toothpick compared to that monstrosity.

It scurried across the training courtyard—fleeing through the hole in the wall with a quietness that didn't match its ridiculous size. She had seen wild boar that were smaller—yet could be heard from a mile away as they rampaged throug...

[Tree] Chapter 33: World Tree

Ashlock had never been a big fan of spiders—so he could only question his decision to summon one. Ashlock looked up in total terror as a spider the size of a large car slowly crawled out of a crack in space. Eight blood-red eyes peeked through the gap, followed by many grey-haired legs.

The worst part? The summoning was happening right above him. So the only place for the spider to go was down... onto his branches. The thought of such a creature crawling around on him made hi...

[Tree] Chapter 32: A New Summon

Ashlock glared at the pile of corpses of abominations that was about a person high. He had been expecting a bit more, considering Stella had been away for a year, but it was still a substantial amount.

Most surprising to Ashlock was that he could maintain his rationality in the face of so much food. The hunger was gnawing away at his brain, like a terrible itch inside his mind. But it was resistible. For how long? Ashlock didn't know, but he had an opportunity here.

"If I can resi...

[Tree] Chapter 31: A New Friendship

As Stella crossed the central courtyard and approached the doorway that led into the neighboring training courtyard, the spring in her step slowly died, and the bubbling feeling in her chest transitioned into dread.

Why did her happy reunion with Tree have to be tainted by the presence of a Ravenborne?

Stella let out a long breath to calm her nerves. Diana Ravenborne was far stronger than her—that much was clear. The gap in their upbringing was too vast to overcome with pure cul...