Backpack Brother: "?"
"Ah?", Big Brother had a shocked and confused expression on his face as he looked at Asher, his eyes full of innocent bewilderment, as if Asher was being completely unreasonable.
Asher just quietly stared at him and kept staring.
Backpack Brother: "..."
After a long moment of eye contact, the silly-looking expression on Backpack Brother's face suddenly changed. The look he gave Asher turned sharp and cold, like a poisoned blade.
"How did you see through it?", The voice of the previously cheerful and straightforward Backpack Brother turned sinister and icy.
Asher, who had been confidently staring at Backpack Brother, suddenly looked a bit uncertain.
Backpack Brother: "Speak!"
"Um… I guessed. Lied to you. Just testing you a bit," Asher looked at the sky, at the ground, at the void, blinking rapidly, doing everything except making eye contact with Backpack Brother.
It's not like Asher was bored and just messing around.
He discovered that Evergreen City had problems.
Then ended up traveling with someone who seemed highly suspicious.
Asher naturally couldn't feel at ease with this person, and after seeing that massive "World Tree," he casually tried a bluff—honestly, he didn't have much confidence.
But who would've thought…
Ahem.
If he didn't bluff, he wouldn't have known.
He really stepped on a landmine and set it off.
Backpack Brother: "..."
"..."
Silence.
Silence is tonight's Cambridge.
Backpack Brother was emo.
He was so angry he couldn't even maintain a humanoid form, directly melting into a puddle of gooey, green mush in front of Asher.
The few pet beasts surrounding Asher instantly bristled.
Eyed or eyeless, all of them stared intently at Backpack Brother, who had melted like a candle.
Asher opened his mouth.
This scene… kinda made him want to roll a die to see if he should lose a few SAN points.
Ahem.
Just kidding.
"So what exactly are you?", Asher forcibly pulled his gaze away from the eye-searing puddle that used to be Big Brother, focusing instead on the central massive tree in the void.
"What's the connection between Evergreen City and being cut off from the rest of the world?"
Maybe it was because Asher managed to fool it.
The tree was in a bad mood.
It didn't want to answer Asher's question.
Asher thought for a moment, then activated two of his innate skills.
Instantly.
A strong aura of affinity that could be sensed by all beasts spread from Asher in all directions.
Tree: "?"
The previously motionless tree gently swayed its canopy.
This might've seemed like a small movement to the tree, but with its current size, it was far from small.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The canopy swayed rhythmically, the sound echoing above Asher's head, filling the entire void with the rustling of leaves colliding and shaking.
Even more magical—
Asher could hear, in this very rhythmic swaying, the joy in the tree's heart.
Asher: "?"
'Something's off, isn't it?'
Just a moment ago, that Big Brother looked like he wanted to eat him alive.
Asher didn't believe for a second that the guy and this tree had nothing to do with each other.
In the blink of an eye.
What had happened to cause this tree's attitude toward him to make a complete 180-degree turn?
At the same time—
Asher's gaze locked onto the big tree.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Pet Beast: Pseudo World Tree]
[Attribute: Wood Attribute]
[Species: High-level Extraordinary - Advanced+]
[Level: Tier 9 Extraordinary - Advanced]
[Skills: Hypnotic Powder, Poison Powder, Vine Bind, Leaf Flick, …, Light of Life]
[Evolution Failed* (Can Re-evolve)]
[Bloodline Awakening: World Tree*]
[Bloodline Awakening Degree: 99%]
[Innate Skill: Life Link]
[Life Link: Can grant any other beast or lifeform life equal to its own. As long as World Tree exists, the link persists.]
[Innate Skill: Life Rewind]
[Life Rewind: Can rewind any lifeform to any past state. All bodily indicators revert accordingly.]
[Special Buff: All-Things Affinity (Possesses max affinity toward all lifeforms)]
[Special Buff: Beast Subjugation (beasts willingly submit)]
[Special Buff: Void Stealth (Cannot manifest in the real world)]
[Damn family… hmm hmm hmm? My bloodline? Or direct descendant???]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Asher: "???"
If World Tree's internal monologue had three big question marks—
Then Asher also wanted to knock out three big question marks right now.
'No way?'
'How do I share a bloodline with a tree?'
'And where the hell does a tree get a direct bloodline?'
'Mitosis or self-cloning?'
For a moment, Asher couldn't even process the barrage of info he just read. His mind was completely hijacked by World Tree's inner drama.
"You… are my descendant?", World Tree stared… well, World Tree had no eyes. World Tree swayed its canopy gently, quietly standing there, as if gazing at Asher.
Clusters of glowing green light, like fireflies, slowly fell from the canopy.
Asher and his pet beasts tried to dodge.
'LMAO.'
'Impossible.'
"Don't resist."
"This is my power. It can help condition your body," World Tree continued, and in its voice, Asher could detect a faint trace of guilt, "You are my child. You were probably lost while I was asleep, which led to you becoming a physically fragile human."
"I am not a qualified elder."
Asher: "..."
Asher opened his mouth to speak, then shut it, then opened it again.
"...Did you imagine something weird? I'm pretty sure I'm a human. And there should be reproductive isolation between humans and trees, right?"
"Not to mention, you're a supernatural being."
Asher was helpless.
Asher tried to explain.
However.
World Tree didn't listen, stubbornly saying, "No, I can be very sure. You are my child, my direct bloodline, my seed."
World Tree rattled off a whole string of terms.
"I am your father and also your mother. You may not forgive me, but please don't reject the bond between us."
As it spoke, World Tree swayed its branches twice: "What is reproductive isolation?"
"And why can't my child be a human? I have many descendants in human form. It's just that their bloodline is very diluted, so they can only be considered affiliates, not true descendants anymore."
'Huh?'
'Huh? Huh? Huh?'
Looking at World Tree's string of innate skills and special buffs, Asher suddenly thought of the residents of Evergreen City.
All-Things Affinity.
Beast Subjugation.
Beast Taming.
Evergreen City.
Asher: "..."
'Maybe it's imagination isn't over the top. Maybe there really is a connection here?'
Which could also explain why the beast-taming techniques of Evergreen City hadn't spread.
It's not that the authorities didn't want to share. It's that the bloodline requirement made it impossible.
Asher fell silent.
"Evergreen City?", As soon as he thought of it, he asked.
Although Asher didn't believe he was related to World Tree, he could more or less guess World Tree's misunderstanding: probably caused by his innate skill [Gifted Power], which gave World Tree the wrong impression.
But regardless, because World Tree believed it had lost its own child during sleep and felt guilty, it was now answering every one of Asher's questions without reservation.
"Yes, the humans of Evergreen City are my descendants," World Tree swayed its lower branches slightly, speaking gently and looking very docile.
Luckily, Asher wasn't fooled by World Tree's friendly demeanor.
He still remembered the sinister, twisted expression Backpack Brother showed just before melting.
Just thinking about the link between the two, Asher knew, this seemingly nice tree was not some sweet fool.
It had a lot going on in that brain.
It could even cook up a believable lie to trick him.
Luring him to a fake version of Evergreen City.
If it hadn't been Asher but someone else who encountered Backpack Brother, they probably wouldn't have caught on or escaped in time.
Faced with Asher's wary look, World Tree seemed a bit wronged.
"I…", World Tree tried to say something, but Asher cut it off.
"What exactly is going on with Evergreen City? Why did it suddenly lose contact with the outside world?", Asher raised a hand to signal pause, not wanting to hear any more apologies or family recognition talk for now.
Right now, he just wanted to know what had happened to Evergreen City.
Before meeting World Tree, Asher could've believed it might've just been an accident.
But after meeting World Tree…
Yeah.
There's no way World Tree wasn't involved.
"They were draining this forest's power. They were walking the path of destruction. I merely gave them a small punishment, so they'd calm down."
Asher: "..."
'Too vague.'
"Only half understood.'
"Heart of the World Tree?", After some hesitation, the only thing Asher could think of was that.
"No," Unexpectedly, World Tree denied it.
"The Heart of the World Tree is not something precious."
Even Asher wanted to roast that comment when he heard it.
A wood-element superbeing's equivalent of a Buddhist relic is "not precious"?
Anyone would want to throw hands with World Tree after hearing that.
Fortunately, Asher kept his cool.
Fighting wouldn't help.
"If even the Heart of the World Tree isn't precious to you, what is that made you this angry?" Asher was confused.
World Tree: "The wreath."
Asher went quiet.
What the heck was that?
Seeing the confusion and curiosity on Asher's face, World Tree patiently explained.
"It's a wreath made from flowers I bloomed. It helps my offspring awaken the power in their bloodline—so they too can command other beasts."
"That wreath also sustains the city, protecting it from being devoured by surrounding extraordinary creatures."
"It's a blessing I gave them. I poured much of myself into it, sent it from the void as the only gift… and they tried to take it away!"
As World Tree spoke, its tone grew more and more furious.
Asher: "?"
Asher tilted his head: "That sounds like a super important item. Wouldn't Evergreen City's residents revere it?"
"Why would they casually take it away?"
"What I saw is what happened," World Tree said resolutely.
"No one stopped him. I couldn't scold him. But I could block his actions."
"I did it for their own good."
World Tree spoke self-righteously.
Asher… Asher wanted to argue but couldn't find the words.
If things really were as World Tree said, then the humans were clearly in the wrong… well, okay, Evergreen City's residents might not be pure humans. Their ancestors had an unclear mix of love-hate-blood ties with World Tree.
Ahem.
"I think there's more to the story." Asher looked up at the massive World Tree, analyzing calmly.
"Normal residents of Evergreen City would never move something as important as that wreath."
"Unless…" Asher suddenly remembered the recent spy rumors circulating everywhere.
Is it possible that…
"What's Evergreen City's current situation? Can I go in and take a look?" Asher continued to look at World Tree. "Maybe I can help you get to the bottom of it."
"You probably want to know too. Why would your… offspring do this, right?"
World Tree swayed its branches, answering honestly, "I was very angry before. Thought they broke our promise and contract. I even considered destroying them."
Asher: "!"
*Shocked!*
'Didn't expect you to be that kind of tree!'
'Go full murder mode just like that?'
Noticing Asher's shock and disbelief, World Tree quickly explained, "But now I don't want to. Because you are more important."
Asher: "..."
Not a girl.
Not flattered.
But Asher understood what World Tree meant. Maybe it did want to know before, but now that it saw him, it didn't care anymore.
Compared to distant NNNN…N+1-generation offspring, a direct child was clearly more important.
So Asher didn't waste words.
"I want to go in."
World Tree swayed its canopy.
World Tree swayed its branches.
World Tree hesitated.
"Fine… alright," Finally, seeing Asher's firm gaze, World Tree unwillingly agreed to his request.
Next second.
The void in front of Asher vanished. He stood firmly on the familiar soil of a city.
Shua—
The moment he landed, a hundred pairs of green-glowing eyes turned to him in unison.
Asher: "..."
'Damn you, World Tree!'
[T/N: If you're liking this story, I just started a new one: "Pokémon: Gardevoir Harem with Tag System." As evident from the name, a Pokemon fanfic, OP MC and OP system, check and throw some Powerstones while you are at it. Have a great read 🥳]
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