With a bit of experience under his belt battling the Crystal Spiders, Sage was ready to put himself into some danger. Without experiencing some danger, he couldn’t really put his techniques to the test. He had prepared himself as much as possible, studying their weak points, learning their battle patterns, and preparing backup. While always careful, Sage mused about how cautious he was being. Seems that I’m not as confident in these new powers as I thought I was.

Having never used them outside of a training yard, it was reasonable for him to be wary of their effectiveness. Sage knew the set of techniques was powerful, he just wasn’t sure of his own competency with them. Storing the rope dart, Sage dashed into the purple forest of crystal, entering the border of the Four Cornered Forgetfulness Formation. The few spiders he saw would hide and run from him, spreading out and letting him pass by. Good, the tactics are the same.

Instead of rushing deeper into the forest and letting himself get caged in, Sage chased down one of them that was trying to escape. Stepping onto a gust of wind, Sage used Falling Leaf Steps to land next to the Spider. Stomping both feet down, Sage took a strange looking stance. His waist swayed and his back stretched, one shoulder rolled backwards as he lifted his fist. It was a strange looking punch, seeming to completely telegraph his motion with a huge windup. His fist flew forward, accelerating constantly until it smashed against the face of the spider. It wasn’t the technical term for it, but since a spider had no head, its mouth and eyes were basically just mounted on the front of its body. Calling it a ‘face’ seemed an apt description.

Two of the eyes were smashed to a pulp when Sage’s fist cracked the Spider’s carapace and smashed the area between the two eyes. The eyes were drawn into the sunken area and ruptured from the pressure and movement. With the front of its vision range missing, the Spider was a greatly reduced threat. Sage was most wary of their energy draining bite, but without the front pair of eyes, the Spider would have a far more difficult time landing a solid bite. With the primary threat reduced, Sage had time to perform another attack.

Swaying to the left, Sage’s right foot twisted and then planted down. A slow torsion building up in him, starting from the planted foot and climbing up his body. Sage’s left leg lifted into the air and swung behind him in a long arc all the way around to the front, dropping down from above the spider. His body spun around, the kick came from high and to the right of where he used to be facing smashing down against the side of the Spider’s body. Colliding against the four joints that connected the spider’s body and legs.

There was a nerve-rending sound followed by a crash, like glass getting ground together until it broke. Half the legs of the spider fell off and with another stomp, the battle was finished. Sage was pleased. Tree Spring Stance was effective enough. While it may not look the most efficient, it was actually more of a defensive technique than an offensive one. Martial Techniques used the power of the power to attack and many used Qi to enhance their physical attacks. Covering the fist in an energy shield, extending to form virtual limb made out of Qi, or even reinforcing the body like armor. Golden Mantis Body was a good example, creating a sort of Qi armor and weapons to use for physical combat.

Tree Spring Stance took a different route. Inside the body, Qi was built up to act like the springy limbs of a tree. When Sage sent the Qi into his body along the special route then the ‘stance was taken’ and the Qi was locked into place. Every move he made after that would fight against the Qi like there was flexible tree limbs inside his body. Once released the Qi would snap his body back towards the position he ‘took the stance’ in. Offensively, to take advantage of the Tree Spring Stance required long build up times so the technique made sure to cover many different motions that were somewhat more unpredictable or strange to bait enemies in, or draw a foe off guard.

Where it really shined was defensively. By entering the stance before being struck the force of an attack could be dissipated by the coiling spring Qi. Creative use of blocks could even rebound the force back at an enemy. The weakness of the maneuver was that it was only powerful against the force of impact. Just like a tree if a limb was sliced off cleanly, it wasn’t going to bounce back. A high powered bullet could also punch right through a tree if it was going fast enough. It also had a limit on how much energy it could absorb and release again. Just like a springy sapling, if it was stretched too far it would eventually break.

Sage found the offensive ability of the Tree Spring Stance a bit lacking, but that was okay because he chose the technique set because of its defensive ability. He had insects, a twin soul, and could always make weapons to provide a better offense. Continuing on, Sage hunted down a couple dozen of the Crystal Spiders with his fists before he ran into a wall of webbing. Seems they’re a bit smarter than I took them for. I’ll have to use a bit more energy.

With the fence of webbing stretched between the trees in front of him, Sage drew back and moved the other direction. Once he encountered the other border of a web cage he turned again. After a few times back and forth he worked out the rough center of his encirclement and started preparation of his own. Once they completely encircled him they would make the cage smaller and smaller with more layers of webbing. If he got caught up he would become the meal of whichever Spider was the closest. Otherwise, they would keep tightening the net and start to attack en masse.

Perfect. Time for the real test.

Sage brought out an object large enough to be a stage. A huge metal disc nearly ten feet in diameter and many inches thick. It had dozens of plate shaped depressions on it which were quickly filled with more plates. The huge formation plate was currently Sage’s best creation, but it was only a backup. After placing down the plate, Sage moved his hands and fingers into a few strange shapes and configurations like a set of gang signs. Cultivator’s called them ‘handseals’. Qi sent through the many pathways and out of the Qi Pores in the hands and fingers could generate many different strange techniques and effects. By adding in the motion of the fingers and hands, they could mimic the effects of Array Symbols. It wasn’t exactly the same, but the principles were similar and led to infinite variation and effect.

Finishing the series of handseals, a dot of glowing green light formed at the tip of Sage’s right index finger. The large dot of light was pressed against the largest nearby tree where it left his finger and seemed to fade away. Sage formed a different handseal and focused his energy. The spot where the green light disappeared suddenly cracked. The purple crystal tree suddenly had a large fissure on the side of it which was rapidly expanding. Brown vines crawled out of the crack with astounding speed. More and more of the vines spilled out, crawling all over the purple crystal tree and soon covering it completely. The crystal tree got dimmer and dimmer, cracks appearing all over the crystalline surface as it was strangled by the mass of vines. Soon the vines extended to the full height of the Crystal tree and all over its many branches and boughs.

The vines near the top of the tree started growing leaves while also extending their vines outward from the ends of the branches and down towards the ground. Where the vines touched the ground they dug in like new roots. More vines added to the first ones that fell and twined around them. They were known as aerial roots, falling from branches and growing larger till they hardened and formed into a new tree body of their own. The original crystal tree rapidly withered and crumbled to dust. The many vines that strangled it, hardened into solid wood, creating a large hollow tree trunk. Using the crystal tree like scaffolding as it drained away its resources and then took its place.

The mass of vines became a tree. The tree’s branches dropped down vines which grew into more trees from the top down. The new trees sent out more aerial roots of their own. More and more trees began to form, a single tree that became a forest all on its own.

Sage had Summoned the Sacred Banyan.