The air simmered and distorted in the heat. This was the tip of the city’s central volcano, where us otherworlders were supposed to meet in four days. I wasn’t stupid enough to come here without scouting the place beforehand, so I came here after talking with Brian and fixing up the shop. 

I put a hand on the trunk of a mighty Infernal Oak. My mana went through and seized it. I let my mana run through the oak’s root system and into other nearby oaks, and all of them became mine.

These trees were no joke. They were tougher than my vines. In other words, many times harder than diamonds. I trudged up the mountainside, subjugating every oak in sight. It only took a few hundred mana from me.

I pulled myself to the peak. A new wave of heat blasted me in the face. Looking down, the tip of the volcano was dented, like a crater. An enormous lake of lava bubbled beneath me. It would take a regular swimmer thirty minutes to swim across.

I looked up, and my jaw dropped. The entire lake lie under the canopy of one elephantine Infernal Oak. This one drew its energy directly from the volcano and was thousands of times larger than the oaks I saw climbing the mountain. Its indomitable branches cast a gigantic shadow over the lake, which churned and glowed from the heat.

A body floated on top of the lava next to me. I lifted him gently. “Please… don’t kill me,” he groaned. I gave him a totality pill and put him on the beach. The beach wasn’t sandy, but a long strip of cooled lava.

Hundreds of people fought all over the lake, trying to reach the center, marked by the tree’s enormous trunk. My Qi went into the lava, taking control of the bit of it under my feet, allowing me to walk on it. This was like my control of plants, the main difference being my control of lava was about a thousand times weaker. I headed towards the tree trunk like the others. What would happen when I touched that majestic trunk? I had to find out.

I was almost at the trunk when I spotted six power rods pointed at me. They fired at me at the same time.

Ha! I may be weak without my plants, but not that weak. I stomped. The lava splashed up, forming a wall between me and the power rod bullets. I dashed past them. A few others tried to stop me.

I glowed with blinding white light. Tendrils of electricity arced off me. Everybody who touched it had a small seizure and halted. “Dao Journey,” I heard somebody whisper. They moved away.

I touched the tree’s trunk and used identify. I grimaced as the information assaulted me. My knees buckled, and the back of my head throbbed.

This tree bore fruit in regular periods. The tree was at its lowest in a year right now. The fruit it bore were only good enough to make third stage fighters risk their lives. But this was the calm before the storm. The Infernal Oak would bear a little more than a hundred fruit in four days at noon, the same time we were going to meet. The timing was too perfect. Allison must’ve set it on purpose.

I placed both my palms on the tree and exhaled. Ten thousand mana drained from me. I quivered and dropped to my knees. My head went blank while colorful dots danced across my eyelids.

I’m invincible.

I felt the power in the Oak’s branches and how I could move them as I pleased. I felt its roots, which pierced all the way down to the base of the mountain. The oak gave me the same feeling I got from of the Black Library: tens of thousands of years could pass, empires could rise and fall a dozen times, but this tree would always be here. And now, it was under my control.

Oh, now I see how I’m supposed to use my ability. I'm not supposed to create my own defenses. I’m supposed to take control of invincible plants, sit safely under their canopy, and cultivate.

A realization to make better late than never, I sighed.

It didn’t matter if my classmates ambushed me here anymore. The entire peak of this volcano was my territory, and I’m unbeatable on my territory.