Bamboo flowers once a century before dying en masse and scattering seeds everywhere. This unusual behavior brings calamity because smaller creatures come out to feed on those seeds and experience massive population growth. This incites larger beasts to feed on them and also procreate. The vicious cycle continues until a famine occurs because there isn’t enough food left, so they rush toward human cities in great tides that have wiped out entire populations. Remember that even an unnoteworthy flower has the potential to create calamity.

~Blodeuwedd, Goddess of Flowers and Wisdom

Father Oak shuddered, and the entire city of Oiche felt it. It wasn’t a physical feeling but a ripple of power signifying a significant change. All the old monsters in various clans all turned toward the symbol of their people with furrowed brows.

Outwardly, nothing changed, and mortal humans wouldn’t notice the changes right away, regardless. On the other hand, Druids felt the temperature rising within the city of Oiche immediately. Initially, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but it increased steadily in the last three days.

The other changes were so subtle that only Mugna could sense them. The wood that comprised its physical makeup was hardening, and its color had darkened ever so slightly. The leaves at the top of its canopy outside Litavis’s atmosphere had wisps of steam rising off them.

Gavin stared at Mugna in shock, and not just because the old man he was used to seeing now looked like a ten-year-old boy.

“Are you sure this is Crow’s doing?” Gavin asked, finding the words incongruent with reality.

“It is,” Mugna sighed. Watching a boy sigh like an old man would usually make Gavin grin like a fool, but this was serious. “It isn’t the kid’s fault because he can’t help his nature. However, Father Oak isn’t the only thing affected.”

“What does that mean?”

“Watch,” Mugna grinned and put out his hand, palm facing up. Gavin felt energy flowing through Mugna and Father Oak, and it coalesced into a bright ball of black fire that hovered above the boy’s hand. It wasn’t a heavenly flame, but its nature was like that of Crow’s Night Flame. The only thing lacking was its tyrannical power.

“You… fire?” Gavin felt stupid and could only talk in one-word sentences.

“Yes. It’ll probably get stronger as the changes continue. That kid’s interference derailed my original plans, but I’m not sure of the impact. The embryo, Father Oak, and the Oaken Treant clan I wanted to raise are still technically happening, but the type of oak is different. Do you remember what he said about that heavenly fire and oak tree combination in his Soulscape? When I evolved to Yggdrasil, it connected to all oaks under the Heavens, including Crow’s.”

“So… Soulscapes manifest reality?” Gavin asked but didn’t really expect an answer. “Does that mean a new treant is about to be born?”

“Yes, but you aren’t listening. Fire and Wood aren’t something that people merge. Fire consumes Wood most of the time. How he even created that thing, I still don’t know. It defies the Heavens, and I do not know what type of treant that will become. Remember, fire is one of the chaotic elements.”

Gavin thought about it for a while, and Mugna let him. He trusted Gavin’s mind, so he often confided in the man.

“It doesn’t matter,” Gavin finally said.

“That’s your answer?” Mugna snorted.

“Yes, it is my answer because you are overthinking it, old man. I wonder if your anxiety is related to your rebirth. Normally, you wouldn’t be affected so much by such a trivial thing.”

“So you are saying…?”

“Everything changes. Crow calls that tree the Fireheart Oak, and it was something he created to help him fight Soul Burn. He is in control of it, and we’ve already decided he is the person we are rallying behind to climb our way back into power, did we not? We embrace it because we have no choice. This Fireheart Oak… we’ll make it our symbol instead of the boy. It might seem like semantics since both are inextricably linked. But… the power of a symbol will outlast a single person and can help push all future generations forward. Besides, we owe Crow too much as it is already, so we can use this method to take pressure off him directly.”

“Revival of the Draoidh… That is what you are doing, right? Using this occurrence as the demarcation of a new era.”

“I am. Remember, Faith is also an unfathomable power that works against the machinations of Fate. The more people believe in a symbol, the more power it has to resist the Heavens. We both saw it all those years ago—the Heavens definitely suffered a backlash trying to suppress that strange cult. So it isn’t infallible. If we are subtle, it won’t notice until it’s too late. By then, it won’t dare try to suppress our people again unless it’s willing to suffer retribution.”

“And the fact that fire is an agent of chaos?” Mugna asked. Gavin understood why it bothered the treant because oak trees were a powerful symbol of order. Gavin chuckled as he realized the Fireheart Oak was still an oak, and most of the old tree’s concerns were moot.

“Why are you so paranoid, old friend? Chaos by itself isn’t evil, and with the current state of things, it’s exactly what we needed.”

“No riddles.”

“Crow and the Draoidh are both targets of the Heavens because their existence defies heavenly law. They disrupt the order that the Heavens try to impose. These Fireheart Oaks provide one massive distraction precisely because they are chaotic—imagine the mess their respective treants will create…”

“Clever, provided you can build up enough momentum before the Heavens take notice,” Mugna nodded, and Gavin burst out laughing once more. “Now what?”

“Momentum? Have you met Crow? That kid is a walking time bomb. Momentum is the least of our problems as long as he represents the Fireheart Oak publicly.”

The two old men chuckled like children.

“Still, that boy creates no end of headaches, and he isn’t even here.”

***

Days later, Crow’s eyes slowly cracked open. When he left his Soulverse previously, he sat up and entered a trance-like meditation to heal his body. Like Lily suggested, he tried to push toward opening his fifth chakra, but while he felt the pattern solidifying inside his body, he didn’t feel much gain. On the other hand, his Source felt like it was humming, but it was hard to say if it benefitted from his meditation or the Soulverse.

He could only sigh at his body covered in dried blood and vomit, and who knows what else. The eye-catching event thing was that the floor was spotless. No one had entered, which meant the formations managing this place had taken care of it.

Unsure how long he’d been meditating, he entered the bathroom and took a look around. He hadn’t had a chance to fully explore his quarters, but the bathroom was the most mysterious.

It only had three objects, but all of them were covered with runes and formations. Using Mana Sense to see if he could learn what they were, he realized his Soulverse had substantially improved his range, depth, and control. Previously, Mana Sense was short-ranged, so it was suitable for close combat and inspecting things. Now, he was confident he could sense things a kilometer in every direction. It could be left out while meditating to serve as an early warning system.

In this scenario, the most significant gain was that he could see through the restrictions in the room and memorize the underlying formations. He didn’t know what they did and would need time to slowly analyze them.

The first object was a seat with a hole in the center, similar to most toilets, but this one had no water. Instead, Crow tapped a rune after doing his business, and the waste inside disappeared. The washbasin was similar, but it had an additional rune to create a tiny bit of rain that slowly filled the basin. Once he washed his hands, he tapped the other rune, and everything in the basin disappeared.

The last object in the room was a smaller, glass-walled room. Curious, Crow activated the only rune associated. The entire ceiling of the smaller space glowed before heavy rain fell from it. Steam billowed out of the back wall, which warmed the place to an almost sauna-like level.

Crow stepped inside, and the unceasing rain gently pounded his flesh. It made him so relaxed that a lot of the tension and stress in his body seemed to disappear. Looking at the floor, he saw most of the water had vanished. If the room hadn’t shut off on its own after about an hour’s worth of time, he would’ve stayed in there indefinitely.

Overall, the bathroom wasn’t a unique experience. Crow and his people had visited inns with similar functions, but none used fancy runes like this place did. Teleportation and space-type spells were rare, but every device in the room used a space-type formation. It was nothing short of amazing.

Taking advantage of the waste bin, he scoured his Vortex Pin for any clothes. While he was searching, he dumped a lot of junk he didn’t need. Gathering parts of dead beasts was gruesome, but they had so many resources that it was hard to waste them. At this point, Crow didn’t care. He just wanted a set of clothes.

He did find something, but he felt his mouth twitch while holding up the leather thong. Mara gave them to him as a gag gift, and even if she wasn’t here, he could already hear her laughter. Sometimes he wondered if his women were omniscient because he told her he’d never wear them, and Mara smirked in response.

Crow cursed under his breath. And he especially cursed Kitten and fervently prayed that the evil bastard went through eons of torture in the afterlife. What kind of monster burns someone’s clothes?

Ignoring the thong, he continued cultivating and attempted to sew his own shorts. In the end, he gave up because the task was monumental with the tools he currently had.

Once more, he attempted a run at the fifth chakra and found the condition of his body had greatly improved, but still not much advancement. The problem was that this chakra represented the Ether, another word for Origin energy. It would lead to a Body transformation, allowing it to transcend from a mortal to an immortal body. It was a monumental step forward in eastern cultivation methods, so most of them failed. Song Lin had succeeded, but that happened around the time Crow turned ten which shows how difficult that step was.

An immortal body’s main advantage was that as long as his Soul or brain wasn’t destroyed, he could regrow anything. A mortal wound would require a massive amount of Origin energy to sustain him. Once he was out of critical condition, he could slowly repair his body to its original state. Without enough energy, an immortal body would really die.

Crow didn’t even feel close to reaching that level. Still, even without achieving it, his body, vitality, and regenerative abilities were improving tremendously. Once his body cultivation reached a saturation point, he switched.

Druid cultivation felt greatly stimulated by the abundance and purity of the mana within this hidden realm. It was like a holy land for cultivation. Advancing his Source required filling it with mana and condensing it to the brim. It was a process repeated hundreds or thousands of times until the mana was so pure and thick that it practically changed state and became liquid.

He had an epiphany during his thought process that he probably should have realized long ago. The Source was just a vessel to contain Origin energy, and cultivating wasn’t about the actual energy he was absorbing. The main goal was to expand his Source so that it could hold more and more. The tower’s main benefit was that it provided pressure at each ascension, which aided cultivators in condensing their Source until it could only expand to accommodate. Cultivators were warned again and again about advancing too quickly. Expanding the Source that fast would make it fragile, and the higher he climbed, which is what happened to Song Lin.

Sadly, despite this great opportunity, Crow was limited to about an hour before his Soul would shudder and resist. His body had recovered, but his Soul would take much longer, which forced him to take it even slower. If his Soul shattered, there was no coming back from that.

Weeks later, eighty percent of the damage to his Soul was healed. Crow chuckled when he realized that his current Soul was already stronger than his pre-damaged one. The last twenty percent was difficult to fix at this time because his Soulverse was still unsettled. There wasn’t any significant change inside, so he could only wait it out.

It was the nineteenth day since he’d arrived that he went to the cafeteria in his leather thong like he usually did. At this point, he was used to wearing it, so he lost his shyness about it, but only because no one else was present. Not once had he seen another person—until today.