While the Primordial Wood Arts wasn’t listed as entirely hundred percent intact, eighty percent was good enough. And it only required Qi Condensation Stage 2 cultivation to begin practicing which meant I could start right now.

  So, I closed my eyes and focused on it, allowing the knowledge to flow into my mind.

  The difference between this technique and the crude approaches used by most wood-element cultivators was that this technique focused on teaching plants how to grow in new ways that were beneficial to both the cultivator and the plant, rather than simply forcing them to obey commands.

  The core principle behind this technique was that of harmony.

  The cultivator would connect with the essence of the World Tree, and use the Genesis Seed to resonate with the innate life patterns of the surrounding plants. They would then match their energy output to the plants' natural growth patterns.

  If the cultivator provided too much energy, the plant would grow uncontrolled and then collapse under the weight of its own growth.

  If they provided too little energy, the plant wouldn’t grow at all.

  This meant that success depended on being able to understand what each plant wanted to do naturally, and then teach the plant how to accomplish that in a way that benefited the cultivator.

  I spent some more time reading and learning the foundation of the technique.

  A cultivator could encourage growth, but they could only do so in ways that the plant was naturally inclined to grow. As long as the plant was willing, they could create barriers, structures, bindings, or even create weapons.

  What surprised me was that like humans and animals, different plants had different personalities.

  Apparently, grass was very receptive and responded quickly to stimulation, but it was also highly susceptible to overstimulation. Which meant that it could grow wildly at the slightest suggestion and burn through the cultivator’s spiritual essence faster than they could replenish it.

  Vines were flexible and eager to grow, but they were also easily distracted.

  Once a vine started responding to guidance, it could suddenly veer off in pursuit of actual sunlight or real water.

  But the most difficult were the trees.

  They were stubborn and energy intensive.

  While it took a tremendous amount of spiritual essence to get a tree to do anything, once it moved, it had the potential to crush stone to bits.

  However, the technique did stress that these were just the common personalities of these plants and warned that the cultivator could come across a particularly stubborn vine or a surprisingly helpful tree.

  What made me really happy was that in theory, I could use the Primordial Wood Arts technique to do everything from creating barriers of thorns to launching spear-like projectiles made from hardened wood. And with enough mastery, I could control multiple plants, weave them together into complex patterns that could entrap or kill opponents, and end the battle in seconds.

  But the key word was mastery.

  The technique was designed to start slow.

  Each manipulation required full concentration and careful management of energy.

  Only after extensive practice would it become intuitive and fluid.

  At that point, interacting with plants would be like dancing, and I wouldn’t need to think about the individual steps.

  "Most of the advanced techniques are still missing, Master," Azure said slowly. "This only teaches the basics. Techniques such as controlling an entire forest, or creating permanent plant structures, are either lost or require a higher cultivation realm."

  "I know," I replied. "But these basics are enough for now. I need something I can use to defend myself or attack with."

  I spent more time studying the knowledge and paying closer attention to the introductory training methods.

  The first step was straightforward: Find some vegetation and begin to extend your spiritual sense into it. Identify the life patterns of the vegetation. Determine how each type of vegetation naturally wants to grow.

  The second step: Use the Genesis Seed's energy to connect your cultivation to the plant's life essence and then match your energy output to the plants' natural growth patterns.

  The third step: Feed the plant spiritual energy through that connection, guiding the plant's growth without overloading it.

  Simple to describe. Difficult to actually perform.

  I rose from the meditation mat and tucked the jade tablet containing the World Tree Sutra safely into my storage pouch.

  It was time to find a place to practice.

  But that wouldn’t be easy.

  I couldn't train in the main courtyard because everyone would see me.

  It didn’t seem like a good idea to give away all my techniques to any random passerby.

  It would be too easy for them to prepare counters and then all my hard work would go down the drain.

  I definitely couldn't train anywhere close to Wu Lihua's usual haunt. The last thing I needed was that Core Disciple watching me stumble with basic plant manipulation and offering to give me "personally tailored" instruction.

  I needed a secluded area. An area with vegetation, but with no people.

  Eventually, I remembered a small grove of trees located on the eastern edge of the outer sect grounds. It was technically sect property, but it was far enough from the main buildings that most disciples rarely visited it. It was too remote for casual training, too unremarkable for meditation, and too small to be of interest for larger scale exercises.

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  That sounded perfect for what I needed.

  I grabbed my outer disciple token and headed toward the eastern grounds.

  The walk took around twenty minutes.

  Along the way, I passed other disciples who were mostly focused on their own cultivation and paid little attention to me. A few greeted me with nods. One of the clan recruits (Chen something) gave me a suspicious glance, presumably because he wondered why an outer disciple was walking away from the training areas, rather than toward them.

  I ignored him and continued walking.

  When I arrived at the grove, it appeared exactly as I remembered it. Around two-dozen trees formed the grove, and the branches of the trees formed a canopy which allowed filtered sunlight to penetrate to the ground below. Thick grass grew at the base of the trees, and several vines crawled the bark of the trees, striving to reach the sunlight above.

  No other disciples were in the grove. There were no buildings near it. And no good reason for anyone to visit.

  I walked over to the center of the grove and sat down cross-legged on the grass.

  "Okay, Azure. Now let's see if this actually works."

  I closed my eyes and extended my spiritual sense outward as instructed by the technique.

  Spiritual sense was a tool that all cultivators developed as they progressed. It was the ability to perceive energy and essence beyond what ordinary senses allowed us to detect. I’d been unconsciously using my spiritual sense for weeks now, like when I sensed the cultivation levels of other disciples and detected the flow of spiritual energy during meditation.

  However, this was different. This required focus and precision.

  I felt my awareness expanding outward from my body, like ripples in a pond.

  It first touched the grass. I almost gasped at the sensation.

  Each blade of grass was alive with energy. Tiny sparkles of life essence, radiating with an urgent desire to grow upward toward the sunlight. They were so eager, so receptive, that I could feel them yearning to burst upward and expand outward.

  I immediately withdrew my spiritual sense to prevent accidental rapid growth.

  "Too much," I muttered. "Grass is way too reactive."

  I redirected my focus to a vine crawling up a nearby tree.

  The life pattern of the vine felt distinct. Not as frenzied as that of the grass, but still eager. It wanted to ascend, to reach the sunlight filtering through the canopy above. It was more patient than the grass, willing to grow slowly but steadily toward its objective.

  I reached inward and contacted the Genesis Seed in my inner world.

  The Genesis Seed responded instantaneously, matching my intent. Energy flowed from it. Not spiritual essence per se, but something deeper. Something that embodied the essence of the World Tree.

  I directed that energy through my spiritual sense, creating a link between the Genesis Seed and the vine.

  The vine trembled.

  I sensed it recognize the energy. It identified the essence of the World Tree, understood on some primal level that this energy came from something infinitely greater than a normal cultivator's wood manipulation.

  Here came the challenging part.

  I had to send spiritual energy through the link without overwhelming the vine. The technique stated that you must complement the plant's natural energy flow, not command it to grow in ways that are unnatural.

  I collected a modest quantity of spiritual essence and sent it gradually through the link.

  The vine began to grow.

  Not wildly. Not explosively. But it was definitely growing faster than it naturally would. The end of the vine was rising upward, reaching for the next branch, advancing at possibly ten times its natural rate.

  "That is good," Azure said encouragingly. "You’re maintaining the connection. Try to influence the direction of its growth."

  I concentrated on the vine's growth pattern, suggesting that it should grow toward me rather than toward the tree.

  The vine totally ignored me.

  It continued to rise upward, following its natural tendency to climb toward sunlight.

  I tried to add more spiritual essence to the connection to make my suggestion more persuasive.

  The vine suddenly changed direction, and began to grow at an irregular angle, placing considerable stress on its own structural integrity. Its growth became uneven, thicker in some areas, thinner in others.

  I immediately cut off the energy flow.

  The vine stopped growing but the damage had already been done.

  The vine would likely die in the next few days due to the unnatural angle I had caused it to grow.

  Even though it wasn’t sentient, I felt a little bad for accidentally causing its death.

  "Master, you're trying to force it," Azure said. "The technique emphasizes harmony, not control. You can’t make the vine ignore its natural growth patterns. You can only give it an alternative way of achieving what it already wishes to do."

  I breathed deeply and tried again with another vine.

  This time, I decided to concentrate on what the vine truly wanted.

  It wanted light. It wanted support. It wanted nourishment.

  What if I could create the impression of those things?

  I expanded my spiritual sense more carefully, using the Genesis Seed's energy to suggest light was emanating from a particular direction. Not real light, merely the energetic signature that plants respond to.

  The vine turned toward the suggested light.

  I gradually shifted the suggestion, creating a pathway that would lead the vine's natural growth in the direction I wished.

  The vine followed.

  It was not fast. It was not spectacular. But it worked.

  The vine was growing toward the suggested light source, twisting and growing in a manner that seemed entirely natural. Anyone seeing it would simply assume the vine had discovered an ideal location for sunlight.

  "You’re doing better," Azure said. "You’re working with the plant instead of against it."

  I trained for hours.

  Grass was always way too reactive, bursting wildly in response to the slightest suggestion and consuming my spiritual essence at an alarming rate. I would need to practice considerably longer before I could use grass in combat.

  Once I understood how to guide them rather than compel them, I found working with vines to be the easiest. I could direct them to grow in specific paths, create simple forms, and even wrap them around training dummies I’d taken from the main courtyard.

  As for trees, they were a complete disaster.

  I tried to connect to one of the smaller trees in the grove, hoping to cause a single branch to bend downward. It took so much spiritual essence to convince the tree to move that I almost depleted myself, and the branch only bent slightly.

  Trees were powerful, but they consumed excessive quantities of spiritual essence.

  I would need to reach at least Stage 8 or 9 before I could successfully manipulate trees in combat.

  As the sun began to set, I felt ready to try something more aggressive.

  I had taken a number of training dummies from the storage building – simple wooden posts with straw bodies, designed to withstand punishment from the disciples as they practiced group combat techniques.

  I positioned one of the dummies about ten feet away from where I sat.

  Then I found a vine that was eager to grow but was not currently climbing anything – perfect.

  I made contact with the vine, and the Genesis Seed resonated with the vine’s life pattern.

  Then I began sending spiritual energy to the vine.

  But I didn’t simply tell the vine to grow this time.

  I told the vine that it saw opportunities.

  I created the illusion of abundant nutrients directly in front of the vine – rich soil, perfect growing conditions, and everything else the vine could possibly want. All in the direction of the training dummy.

  The vine was highly responsive.

  The vine shot forward, growing faster than I had ever been able to previously. The tip of the vine became harder as it elongated, and the vine was instinctively developing a thicker structure to support the rapid growth.

  Three feet. Six feet. Nine feet.

  The hardened tip of the vine struck the training dummy’s chest and went right through it.

  Straw burst out of the back of the dummy.

  The wooden post cracked and split.

  And the entire dummy fell to the ground with a loud thud.

  I stared at the destruction.

  The vine had gone through the dummy entirely.

  If that had been a person, they would have died.

  That’s it. One vine, one strike, one dead person.

  “Whoa,” I said softly. “That could seriously hurt someone.”

  I sat for a long time staring at the broken training dummy and the vine that was continuing to grow in response to the false nutrients that I had suggested to it.

  The Primordial Wood Arts wasn’t flashy. It didn’t create massive displays of power that would impress other disciples or attract the attention of the elders.

  But it was effective.

  And in a world where people could be killed in sparing, or become severely injured by bullies, being effective mattered more to me than being impressive.

  I stood up, and I brushed the dirt and grass from my robes.

  It was time to go back to the dormitory.

  I had six more days of exemption from the group training sessions, and I planned to spend each day of that time developing this technique.

  Because the next time someone like Zhou Ming decided to slam me into the ground, I wanted to have options.

  Options that could potentially blow through their chest if I had to.