The Innkeeper

Chapter 1382  Trees of the Heavens

As the seed sank into the soil, Lex cracked his neck and concentrated his focus. There was no room for error now. Fortunately, his instincts somehow synchronized with the information he had read about growing the tree, and began guiding him perfectly.

He channeled his spiritual energy into countless little strings and trickled them into the soil, slowly snaking them through the dirt to the sinking seed.

A barrier, formerly invisible, suddenly appeared covering the skin of the seed, filled with various unusual characters. The barrier was the Void shell of the seed, a protective shield to save the seed from the cosmic radiation of space. It would only break under very specific circumstances, so that the seed would have the optimal conditions for its growth when it eventually breaks.

Lex was not breaking the barrier, but diffusing the unique energy that it was made of into the seed itself.

One of the reasons Lex chose the Void Sequoia tree for his next tavern was because of how naturally sturdy it was. It could tolerate almost any natural environment once grown, and grow in almost any condition.

It was only in its early phase where it was sensitive and vulnerable. The turtle had provided him with a way to grow the tree, and have it mutate into the Void Stabilization Sequoia tree, and though he didn't know much about the difference between the two, he was certain that it wouldn't be weaker.

As such, one of the conditions for its natural growth was to spend a few centuries in the Void. That was the one environment Lex could not recreate, but there were ways to emulate its effects, such as using the natural void energy in the protective barrier.

Lex channeled his energy into his right eye, and countless tiny arrays started forming above the soil, sometimes watering it, other times striking the soil with lightning, and other times just gently blowing on it.

For a time, it seemed like Lex was just pumping his energy into the soil without any effect, but as soon as the barrier on the seed began to actually dissolve, a tempest began to blow within the region.

Spiritual energy from all around began to flow into the soil, as if there were a hurricane above it, rapidly pulling in all the surrounding energy. Lex also began releasing some of the ingredients he had gathered, allowing them to be pulled along with the energy.

Yet the energy storm was just the beginning. With the blowing winds came clouds, gathering directly over Lex, and they kept gathering until the entire region was shrouded in darkness. Then came the flash of lightning, followed by a raging thunderstorm. The winds buffeted Lex as if they were hated rivals, and the rain pelted him like it was artillery.

The strength of each drop was so immense, it could kill a normal mortal man. That was because this was not water that was raining, but spiritual energy essence!

The liquid did not gather on the ground, nor did anything wet from exposure to it. All of it was sucked into the soil, nourishing the land, while most of it went towards the seed.

The seed, which usually took hundreds, or even thousands of years to sprout, suddenly cracked, allowing a single, small shoot to emerge from it.

The formation around the seed suddenly activated, and the entire storm morphed into a hurricane directly above the seed as numerous energies flooded into the seed, causing the shoot to grow rapidly.

But while some energies Lex had prepared for in the form of countless ingredients, some had to come from the land itself. For 500 miles around the seed, all plant life began to grow frail, as if contributing half their strength and vitality as tribute.

Through the river channels that Lex had carved, a blue, ethereal essence began to flow, gathered from all life.

Though animals and insects were not influenced in the same way that plants were, there was a particular insect that was. It was a lonesome ladybug, its partner already dead, all alone in existence.

It felt something special was going on, and listless and without purpose, she decided to give her energy to whatever was happening. For one living a pointless life, even a weak purpose is better than no purpose.

Yet so frail was the ladybug, that when it donated its energy, it was swept away by all the other energies flowing through the land, bringing it closer to the epicenter of what was going on.

Yet as the energies began to nourish the shoot growing out of the seed, the seed continued to sink deeper into the ground. It seemed like there was no hope for the shoot to reach the surface any time soon.

At this point, Lex began the next phase of nurturing the tree. From within his spatial ring, Lex pulled out a jar of Stardust Honey, a special kind of honey made by bees who did not collect nectar, but stardust from active stars.

This particular item was a Celestial level item, and was so hot that touching it burned even Lex's skin. But it was like cultivator steroids for plants! The shoot, which had its growth stalled, suddenly shot up through the soil like an arrow, reaching for the honey.

The exact moment the shoot broke through the soil, touching the honey, the river of vital energy donated from the surrounding plants reached the shoot, preventing it from suffering due to its rapid growth, and helping it overcome the weakness that would have otherwise followed.

At this point, Lex pulled out Naraka, coating it with his spirit sense as he activated his tenet and began manipulating the surrounding laws. The ground did not change, the sky did not change, the location did not change, and yet it almost seemed as if everything had been transported into the emptiness of space, filled with dangerous cosmic radiation and wild, chaotic energies.

Yet instead of being harmed by the difficult environment, the shoot seemed even more nourished.

The land, covered in darkness due to the clouds, suddenly gained a few tiny dots of light, as if far in the distance, as if stars millions of lightyears away. This was a result of an illusion brought about by the changes Lex was bringing about by manipulating laws.

Completely focused on his task, Lex did not realize that the laws of the Midnight realm themselves began to stir. They had become corrupted, to a degree, due to the momentary absence of the Midnight Inn system, which acted as the very core of the realm.

But in this moment, as the Void Stabilization Sequoia tree began to grow, and as its roots began to dig into the soil, they touched more than just the ground. Instead, they grew down into the foundational laws of the very realm.

Since the laws of the Midnight realm already were very supportive of trees, the Void Stabilization Sequoia tree encountered no resistance when it touched them. Instead, the laws began to nourish the tree itself, while the tree, true to its name, began to provide a stabilizing effect to the laws of the realm.

The growth of a realm was not quick, and was influenced not only by time, but by the events that took place in the realm itself. The greater and grander the event, the more the realm would gain a capacity for supporting greater and stronger existences. At the same time, the realms laws would also become more varied.

Being less or more varied was neither a good or bad thing. Each situation was unique to its own realm. Under the influence of the tree, the realms laws began to stabilize long before they were meant to. They were supposed to be malleable, to account for the changes that would happen to the realm when the Cosmic Sea is used up. But as the laws began to stabilize, that malleability began to vanish. But the issue at hand now was that there was no way to form the Cosmic Sea anymore, for it was formed naturally by the energies produced during the birth of the realm. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Yet while this new issue presented itself, the older issues began to vanish. The destability in the realm laws began to vanish under the stabilizing influence of the tree, and the realm began to strengthen itself.

Focused completely on the task at hand, Lex did not notice the changes, nor did he read the system notifications. But the turtle… the mischievous turtle, who was looking at the Bodhi tree sapling it had secretly acquired, felt the changes to the realm, and grinned.

The turtle had decided. It would make the greatest Heaven of them all, combining all the Holy trees.

It had on its hands the saplings for the Bodhi and Heavenly tree, but many more still remained out of its reach. But soon it would also acquire the Eden tree sapling, as well as the Yggdrasil sapling.

Then, it would need to find a way to get its hands on saplings for the World Tree, Tree of Life, the Irminsul, the Cedars of the Deities, the Peach tree of Immortality, and the Jambu tree.

Once it got its hands on all ten of these saplings, it would begin to develop the ultimate Heaven, and in the Ultimate Heaven, the turtle would grow a Gaia sapling - a sapling for the very first tree in existence, the originator of the Dao of Wood, and one of the most powerful beings in existence.

Then, it would have a good garden. The turtle chuckled to himself.