I passed out before I got a chance to properly celebrate.

  It wasn’t a gentle drift into sleep, but a complete shutdown.

  My body had just given up and collapsed onto the meditation mat like someone had cut the strings supporting me upright.

  When I woke up, the sun was already high in the sky, and I realised that I had missed an entire day.

  Despite the rest, my body didn’t feel right. It wasn’t injured per se, but drained in a way that had nothing to do with physical exhaustion. Soul jumping, transforming into a Sun-Touched, watching my body get destroyed by the corrupting influence of the red sun’s energy while my consciousness hovered above it – all of that took something away from me that sleep couldn’t easily replace.

  As soon as I awoke, I tried to activate the Genesis Seed, but nothing happened.

  The red sun existed in my inner world, pulsing with that otherworldly, corrupt energy; however, the Genesis Seed remained unresponsive. So, I did the only logical thing that one would do in my situation – I went to speak with Senior Sister Liu and requested some time off from classes.

  Yeah, she hadn’t been too happy about it.

  “You’re asking for an exemption from mandatory training?” She looked at me with her piercing eyes as if she could see straight through any excuse. “Outer Disciples don’t receive personal days, Ke Yin.”

  “I need to concentrate on my cultivation method,” I said in an attempt to sound polite yet firm. “The World Tree Sutra needs…specific conditions. I’ve had a breakthrough recently, but I need a little bit of time to solidify it properly.”

  At the mention of the World Tree Sutra, her expression slightly shifted, probably recalling Zhang Wei and his not so gradual transformation into a tree.

  "Since you're here,” she gestured for me to sit down, “we might as well have your evaluation meeting now."

  My stomach dropped slightly. Oh right. The meeting.

  “Qi Condensation Stage 3,” her gaze swept over me, “that’s very impressive for clan disciples, never mind a village recruit.”

  I nodded, not sure what to say.

  I just hoped she didn’t think I had found some heavenly treasure and attributed my fast cultivation speed to that.

  I’ve read enough novels to know how that would end.

  “Your contribution point earnings show your dedication. The herb gathering supervisor has reported no complaints.”

  That nearly made me smile.

  My herb supervisor was Lin Mei.

  It would be quite bad if she reported me behind my back.

  "So," Senior Sister Liu continued, "I'm granting you one week exemption from group training. But if you waste this time on the World Tree Sutra and show no measurable progress in your cultivation by the end of the month, you can expect to be demoted to the servant quarters.”

  My eyes widened at that.

  I knew all along that she wasn’t happy with me cultivating the World Tree Sutra, but that sounded harsh.

  “You might be talented,” she explained. “But talent doesn’t matter. Progress does.”

  I could understand that.

  It was probably frustrating for a core disciple when they found a talented disciple who could possibly earn them a lot of contribution points, or whatever it was that Senior Sister Liu got in return for teaching us, waste their time because they thought they knew better.

  "I will keep that in mind, Senior Sister."

  "Good. I will see you in a week.”

  "Thank you," I bowed, hiding my relief that the meeting had gone relatively well.

  ***

  A few minutes later, I was back in my room, sitting cross-legged on my meditation mat, staring at nothing while my consciousness wandered inward to my inner world where I saw the familiar sphere of darkness, which now glowed with the crimson hue of the miniature red sun floating near the center.

  Azure stood beside the red sun, his white hair and silver eyes appearing ghostly in the red light.

  “How are you doing, Master?” he asked.

  “Like I died and came back wrong,” I replied. “But I’m here. And we have everything we need.”

  I looked at the red sun. It was small, roughly the size of a basketball, suspended in the void and emitting the malevolent, hungry energy that had transformed Tomas’ body into a monstrous Sun-Touched creature.

  This was not corruption. Not exactly. This was raw, otherworldly energy emanating from beyond the bounds of our reality. The exact type of power the World Tree Sutra needed to activate.

  “Are we ready to finish the final step?” Azure asked.

  “Yes. Let’s do this.”

  I walked towards the Genesis Seed framework which I had created during the past eight days of cultivating. The thirteen-coil spiral was still rotating, albeit slowly and steadily. The element-cycling washing curtain enveloped it, generating a gentle counter-flow of energy. The nine resonant channels extended outward into the void, linking to laws I couldn’t see but could somehow feel. The higher dimensional folds were compressing reality around the entire structure, allowing it to access power from multiple layers of existence at the same time.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  All of the components necessary to perform the final step were in place.

  Except for the last piece.

  Recognition. Remembering.

  I had to make the Genesis Seed remember that it was meant to evolve into a world.

  I reached out with my consciousness toward the miniature red sun.

  The red sun fought back at first, it clearly didn’t like being controlled.

  But I didn’t take no for an answer, I had Azure keep it in place while I extracted what I needed from it. A narrow stream of crimson energy began flowing from the red sun toward the framework of the Genesis Seed.

  The moment it touched the thirteen-coil spiral, something changed.

  The spiral began to glow. Not with its typical pale, spiritual energy; it glowed with the same crimson energy as the otherworldly energy. The glow spread to the element-cycling washing curtain, then to the nine resonant channels, then to the folded dimensions themselves.

  The entire structure was coming to life.

  I sensed it happening on a deeper-than-conscious level.

  The Genesis Seed was tasting the existence of reality from another world and beginning to remember something it had never known before.

  It remembered being a tree whose branches crossed dimensional boundaries.

  It remembered roots that anchored into the laws of reality.

  It remembered existing across multiple realities at the same time.

  The otherworldly energy continued to flow.

  The Genesis Seed drank it in, using it as a template, a blueprint of what it was meant to become.

  And with a sensation similar to a key fitting into a lock, the final step was completed.

  The glowing structure began to collapse inward. Not destructively; it was compressing.

  All that elaborate energy, all those intricate, precisely-constructed patterns, collapsing into a single point of pure potential.

  A seed formed.

  It was minuscule, no larger than a grain of rice.

  The seed floated within my inner world, radiating a soft golden light that countered the crimson glow of the red sun.

  I stared at the seed.

  The Genesis Seed.

  After weeks of effort, after dying in a different world, after being transformed into a monster and witnessing my body become corrupted by alien energy – I’d accomplished the First Stage of the World Tree Sutra.

  “Master,” Azure said with genuine awe, “you did it. The Genesis Seed has been awakened.”

  “No, Azure,” I said softly. “We did it.”

  I walked closer to observe the seed. It looked so small, so fragile. It was difficult to imagine how such a tiny object would eventually grow into a tree capable of crossing dimensions and linking multiple realities.

  But even now, I could feel the immense potential within it.

  This wasn’t merely a cultivation foundation. This was something genuinely unique.

  No wonder nearly all cultivators failed the World Tree Sutra. How would they acquire otherworldly energy? The method required exposure to energy beyond normal reality, but there was no way to gain access to that unless you could travel between worlds.

  For a brief moment, I wondered how the handful of individuals who achieved success in the World Tree Sutra acquired that otherworldly energy. Were they transmigrators as well? Did they possess some hidden technique to tap into alternate dimensions?

  But I guess it didn’t matter right now.

  They were all long gone.

  Either dead, ascended, or transformed into a World Tree.

  There was no point thinking about them, it wasn’t like the answers could help me now.

  What was important was that I successfully achieved where nearly 99.9% of cultivators failed.

  Now I just had to wait for my next breakthrough to see if it stopped my soul from being yanked around dimensions.

  Right now, I had a bigger problem to worry about.

  The red sun floating in my inner world.

  This was the same energy that turned men into monsters.

  And right now, it was just sitting there innocently.

  But I wasn’t going to be fooled by the act.

  This was a ticking time bomb.

  "Azure, do you think we could get rid of it?"

  Azure was silent for a moment, his silver eyes studying the crimson sphere.

  "I don't believe so. It's become integrated into your inner world's structure. Removing it now would be like... like trying to remove your heart while keeping your body alive."

  "That's not reassuring."

  "I know, Master."

  I sighed.

  It seemed like my solution to accidental world-walking came with its own problem.

  Maybe a deadly one.

  I might have to pay another trip to the library and see if they had any information on how to safely remove a red ball of corruption from my soul.

  Just when I was going to leave my inner world, I noticed something strange.

  The red sun began to move.

  It looked like it was trying to get away from the Genesis Seed.

  Was it afraid of the tiny seed?

  "Master, look," Azure pointed.

  The Genesis Seed was glowing brighter now.

  Thin tendrils of golden light extended from the seed toward the red sun.

  The crimson energy tried to pull away, but the tendrils caught it, drawing streams of otherworldly power toward the seed.

  To my surprise, the seed began to hungrily devour the energy.

  But instead of keeping it all for itself, it then released the energy back into my inner world.

  Instead of the malevolent, hungrily red sun energy, what remained, while still otherworldly, was somehow cleaner, more refined.

  "Master," Azure said slowly, "I think I understand now."

  "Understand what?"

  "Why you didn't go insane when you became a Sun-Touched," Azure explained. "The Genesis Seed was already partially formed in your inner world. Even incomplete, it was protecting you. Filtering the corruption."

  That made sense.

  The otherworldly energy still reached me, still transformed my body, but the worst of the corruption never touched my mind.

  This changed things.

  The good news was that I didn't have a ticking time bomb in my soul.

  I had a source of otherworldly power that was being actively refined into something I could potentially use.

  Still, I needed to be careful. The red sun was still dangerous, still alien.

  Even though the seed was filtering it, it didn't mean I should start channeling that energy recklessly.

  Especially not while it gave off such a strong demonic aura.

  Walking around channeling the red sun energy might accidentally get me labelled as a demonic cultivator.

  And that wouldn’t work out so well in a righteous cultivation sect like Azure Peak.

  "We'll keep monitoring it," I decided. "See how the seed and the sun interact. But we don't take any risks until we understand this better."

  "Agreed, Master."

  ***

  I opened my eyes back in my room and felt the sun shining down on my face.

  The World Tree Sutra jade tablet sat on the floor beside my meditation mat.

  I picked up the tablet and pressed it to my forehead, once again accessing the knowledge stored within.

  Last time, I had been too focused on completing the Genesis Seed, so I hadn't completely explored what else the method contained. Now that the foundation was established, I needed to look at what came next.

  And that was combat techniques.

  I needed to know how I can use my cultivation method to give me an edge in battle.

  I quickly came to realise that while the tablet presented me with a lot of references to combat techniques based upon the World Tree Sutra, most of them appeared to be incomplete or missing.

  It was a shame because some of them really did sound pretty impressive:

  Realm Stabilizing Tree Partial Manifestation—Missing key components.

  Root Network Communion—Requires an existing inner world geography.

  Bark Armor Formation—Seventy percent complete, but requires Stage 7 Qi Condensation Realm at minimum to use.

  I continued to search, becoming increasingly frustrated with each incomplete or inaccessible combat technique. How useful was having a legendary cultivation method if the majority of the practical applications were locked away behind missing knowledge or cultivation requirements that I wouldn't achieve for months?

  Then I found it.

  Primordial Wood Arts.

  19 chapters ahead! It's the holidays, treat yourself!

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