Chapter 256: Meeting
A poplar tree, given ample water and sunlight, will typically grow a meter a year during its sapling phase. Even as it matures, it can manage half a meter annually.
The poplar standing before Jiang Chen was well past its youth. Situated next to a water channel under the generous summer sun, it should have been growing steadily but slowly.
Instead, under the influence of the Green Lotus Domain, it was surging upward at a visible rate.
In the span of an afternoon, it broke past the five-meter mark, rivaling the height of the adjacent stone house. Its canopy expanded into a lush, emerald crown that pulsed with vitality, repairing the energy deficit it had suffered earlier.
This rapid evolution drew the attention of the Fortress puppet. The massive construct lumbered over, stopping three meters behind Jiang Chen. It stood motionless, its optical sensors fixed on the tree with an intensity that felt uncomfortably sentient.
Jiang Chen glanced back at it. I’ve always suspected this thing was sensitive to Wood Spirit Qi, he thought. Initially, I assumed it was just elemental resonance. Now… I wonder if there’s something more macabre involved.
Rumors persisted that high-grade puppets were sometimes forged using the corpses of cultivators as a core. If the Fortress retained some biological memory of a Wood Spirit Root, its obsession would make sense.
As time passed and Jiang Chen’s Spirit Qi drained away, the tree completed its transformation.
It was magnificent. It loomed over the farm, exhaling dense waves of Wood Spirit Qi in a rhythmic cycle that mimicked breathing.