Chapter 13: Sap-Blooded Awakening
Andras didn't know how he'd ended up inside a tree.
No, not inside in the metaphorical sense. Not like the warm shade of a willow, or meditating under one. Inside as in physically, wholly wedged into the splintering bark and thick trunk like a grotesque fruit trying to grow backwards into wood.
His arms were folded awkwardly against his chest, his legs cramped in a crooked fetal curl, and sap oozed from a dozen tiny cuts on his arms and cheeks where the bark had kissed him too hard.
Above him, narrow shafts of moonlight pierced through the branches, painting pale veins of silver along his body like ghost tattoos.
How the hell did I get here?
His mind reached backward—but it was fogged. Memories flickered like burned filmstrips. Something about escaping. Running. Collapsing. And then—
Crunch. Snap. A branch giving way.
He'd fallen into the tree.
Literally into it. A crack in its middle had widened just enough for his weight, and the warped, pulsing wood seemed to have welcomed him. Cradled him. Absorbed him.
It wasn't just wood anymore, not entirely.
He pressed against the inner bark, wincing. It was soft now. Spongy. A heartbeat pulsed somewhere behind it.
A heartbeat.
And then the blue light returned.
A sharp chime echoed through his skull, not unpleasant, but uncomfortably clinical.
[Passive Recovery Activated: +6% Qi Restored][System Note: Improvised healing method detected][Tree sap has Qi Veins.][Dose. User want to attempt absorption?][Effects: Unknown. Mostly should be positive.]
Andras blinked at the floating notification, the way someone stares at a math equation that includes the word maybe.
Tree sap has Qi veins? he repeated internally. He frowned. The logic didn't add up—except… wait.
Trees are alive, a part of him argued. They breathe. They drink. They grow. They die.
In his old life, that had been biological fact. Here, in Verdant?
Qi veins weren't just energy channels in bodies—they were conduits of spiritual essence. Living things had them.
But he'd never heard of a tree possessing one. That was absurd.
Unless no one had looked.
A slow grin crept across his lips. It was the grin of someone who'd been thrown into hell, beaten within an inch of death, and suddenly discovered a loophole in the devil's contract.
"Well, if I'm going to be stuck in a damn tree," he whispered hoarsely, "I might as well say yes."
"Yes," he declared aloud, his voice like gravel soaked in blood and sap.
The system pulsed once.
[Commencing Qi absorption: WARNING – Effect unknown.]
Pain didn't come.
Instead, warmth.
Slow and syrup-thick, it poured into his chest like hot tea down a throat gone numb from winter. The sap thickened across his skin, congealing along his cuts, and he felt something wriggling—subtle, gentle—through his Qi pathways.
Andras gasped. His fingers twitched.
[Qi Absorbed: +17%][Passive Effect: Sap Affinity Acquired (Temporary)][Note: Qi-threaded plant-based lifeform identified. Consider future cultivation synergy?]
He couldn't help it—he laughed.
Not a cruel laugh. Not bitter. Not manic.
It was a clean, surprised sound, like someone who'd just dodged an arrow that should've hit their eye.
He pushed himself upward. The bark released him grudgingly, and with a groan, he tumbled out of the split in the tree and hit the mossy ground below with a wet thump.
His legs were shaky, his robes damp, and he looked like someone who'd just lost a wrestling match with Mother Nature.
But he was alive.
And better yet—he had Qi again.
He sat upright, exhaling steam into the cold night. "Alright. I'm out."
Then—
Footsteps.
Andras turned his head slowly, eyes narrowing.
Out of the misted wood, a figure emerged. Robes of midnight blue, a spirit sigil burning across his chest. A low-tier cultivator, maybe Foundation realm—nothing impressive.
But to Andras, still running high on Qi and half-drenched in tree sap, the man may as well have stepped into a bar and slapped his drink out of his hand.
The cultivator blinked at him. "You—what are—?"
He didn't finish the question.
Andras moved.
It wasn't planned. It wasn't logical.
It was instinct.
A raw, snapping movement, his body charged with the reckless surge of replenished Qi. His fist slammed into the man's jaw with enough force to send him cartwheeling backward through the underbrush.
Andras followed, feet barely brushing the ground.
Another blow—an elbow to the chest, a sweep of the leg, a brutal heel-drop to the back.
By the time the man hit the ground again, he wasn't moving. Bruised, bloody, barely breathing.
Andras stood over him, panting, hand trembling slightly from the aftershock of Qi overuse.
But there was no rage in his eyes.
No fire.
Only… peace.
Andras looked down at the cultivator's unconscious form.
"I'll only kill when it's necessary," he murmured. "No more slaughter just because someone stood in my path."
He turned and walked away.
Water. Food.
Survival.
He moved through the woods with increasing urgency. His Void Veil would fade soon, and once it did, anyone attuned to spirit sense could track him.
But he was lucky tonight.
Too lucky.
Because just as the moonlight hit a certain sliver of earth, the system pinged again.
[Environmental Scan: Hidden Structure Detected][Visual Obscuration: 92%][Opening: Cave Mouth – Condition: Safe]
He narrowed his eyes.
The moss curtain parted just slightly, revealing a cleft in the stone. Subtle. Masterfully hidden. There were no spirit arrays protecting it—just time and camouflage.
And next to it?
Water.
A narrow, fast-moving river curved around the outcrop. The silver-blue current glistened in the moonlight, almost too perfect to be real.
Andras leaned closer, lips dry.
He cupped water in his hands, drank greedily, gasping as the cold bit his throat.
This was it.
His shelter.
His first real haven.
But the cave entrance was across the river.
And he was not alone in the water.
A ripple. Then another.
Then—eyes. Just beneath the surface. Pale, unblinking, wide as saucers.
Shit.
He dove anyway.
The current caught him instantly. He fought it, every muscle screaming in protest, kicking hard, his fingers scraping along mossy rock.
Then something brushed his leg.
He screamed.
Underwater, the noise turned to bubbles.
The fish—no, creature—was huge. Scaled like metal, eyes glowing softly.
It snapped once, missed.
Andras twisted, summoned a tiny burst of Qi through his fingertips and blasted backward.
He hit the far shore like a half-drowned rat and crawled up onto the bank, coughing and shaking. The creature stared at him from the water's edge… then turned away.
As if it knew this prey was no longer worth it.
Andras lay on his back, soaked, laughing breathlessly.
"That was almost the stupidest way to die yet."
Then he looked back at the river.
But there's fish.
He grinned.
Food. Water. Shelter. I might just survive this.
The cave wasn't large, but it was deep. Dry. Shielded from view. Moss and stone insulated it well. A perfect temporary haven.
He set down a few sticks he gathered nearby—useless as a fire source, but good for fishing later—and finally leaned against the cool rock.
His breath slowed.
His heart calmed.
And for the first time in this new world—no weight pressed on him.
He stared out at the river, then up.
The sky above was streaked with blood-red clouds. The moon—full and heavy—hung like a bleeding eye over the trees.
It should've made him uneasy.
But it didn't.
Andras watched the red moon and felt nothing.
No panic. No rage. No sorrow.
Just… stillness.
A rare, almost alien sense of balance.
He curled his knees to his chest and let the quiet surround him.
Not broken.
Not haunted.
Just alive.