Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 430: Yummy Bugs

Jasmine was surrounded by death. That was a rather dramatic way to put it, but it wasnʼt wrong. Around her were withered corpses of bugs the size of her head who thought she was free food and curious plants that had tried to dissolve her while she was cultivating.

”Ow, ow, ow.” Jasmine hissed through her teeth as she plucked a needle from her arm. It left behind a red mark, one of a hundred that dotted her body. She also had acid burns from the plants around her neck where the buggers had tried to strangle her.

Yet despite all that, she had managed to cultivate in relative peace. Because of the poison body constitution she had acquired from the previous pocket realm, poison ran through her spirit roots and throughout her body. She could choose whatever poison she wanted to harbor within her body, and she had gone with a fast-acting, paralyzing poison. So, the monsters or plants found themselves paralyzed when they tried to eat her.

”It also helps that my poison body constitution makes me far more resistant to poisons, which seems to be the main hunting method of the monsters and carnivorous flora here,” Jasmine muttered as she inspected the needle, which was as long as her pinky finger and dripping with a yellow sap-like substance. She stored the needle in her spatial ring, as it seemed like a useful alchemical ingredient she could show Stella later.

Standing up, she raised her arms overhead and stretched her back. Her stomach growled with hunger in response, and she frowned as she rubbed it. ”I stop having to eat at the Star Core Realm, right? Sigh, that sounds nice. Itʼs hard to stay focused when I have to take breaks to eat every few days.” She couldnʼt help but grin, though, as this pocket realm was possibly the most productive one yet.

She had gone from the second stage of the Soul Fire Realm to the seventh. At this rate, the Star Core Realm felt like a stoneʼs throw away.

”It helps that the Qi in this pocket realm is weirdly high, considering the level of danger Iʼve faced,” Jasmine mused as she looked around. She was in a clearing surrounded by towering trees and lush foliage. Nature Qi and a few other Qi types were thick in the air, creating a near-perfect cultivation environment. ”I might have even managed to reach the 9th stage if I didnʼt have bugs and plants constantly trying to eat me. Maybe I should ask Stella or Ashlock if I can have an Ent to guard me next time. I felt a lot safer with Sol at my side, but I understand heʼs needed on the front lines against the beast tide right now.”

Jasmine knew Stella took Maple everywhere with her, and while that rotund squirrel was unhelpful and sleeping most of the time if something were to attack Stella, she was sure he would pulverize any threat for her.

”Peace of mind is a luxury to cultivators. Itʼs hard to fully focus on the heaven whispers when Iʼm at risk of being eaten alive,” Jasmine grumbled as she began setting up a small campfire. It would be burnt to a crisp bug meat for dinner again. She tried to ignite the logs using a flint and steel from her spatial ring. The constant clack of her attempts echoed through the bustling forest.

”Come on!” She grew frustrated after ten attempts to get a good enough spark. ”Whereʼs a fire cultivator when you need one—woah!” The sparks finally landed, and her kindling ignited. She crouched down and gently blew on the flame to help them grow. ”Yes, little flame, grow big and strong for me.”

Poking it with a stick, the larger logs caught the flame. Jasmine smiled with satisfaction as she enjoyed the warmth radiating from the flame and the smell of burning wood.

With the fire going, she retrieved the bug that had rudely interrupted her cultivating a few minutes earlier. It was quite round, with two big bug eyes twitching from the paralyzing poison and a brown furry body. The meat from it tasted quite bad as its fur burned and melted to the skin, but she didnʼt have the energy to try stripping it properly. Bug meat was bug meat, no matter how you cooked it.

She hummed a happy tune as she grabbed one of its jointed legs and dragged it across the forest floor to the campfire. Despite her cultivator strength, it was still quite a lot of effort. The bug was so heavy she found it a miracle the thing could fly.

”I should use my nature Qi to control the foliage to carry this bug for me,” Jasmine mused, eyeing the grass she was dragging across, ”But that would hinder my progress.” She sighed. It was quite the conundrum every cultivator faced. She needed to practice using techniques to get better at them, but that consumed her Qi and delayed her advancement toward the Star Core Realm.

But when I reach the Star Core Realm, my soul will start to passively replenish my spent Qi. Maybe itʼs fine if I hold out until then to practice?

Jasmine calmly picked up a sharp rock while pondering. There was a wet squelch as she brought the rock down on the bug with two hands, impaling it between the eyes. It stopped twitching and fell limp. The first time she did this, she freaked out throughout the process. But after a month in this pocket realm, sheʼd killed and eaten a dozen bugs by now. This was simply a routine.

She didnʼt even have to eat the bugs as she had come prepared with rations in her spatial ring, but there was a reason she did anyway despite the awful taste. Tilting the monsterʼs corpse, that yellow liquid that coated its needle dripped into a bowl she positioned under.

Blood also spilled out, mixing with the acidic-smelling yellow poison, creating a brown soup. This was the one part Jasmine still hadnʼt gotten used to. Pinching her nose with one hand, she raised the bowl to her lips and, after a brief pause to question her sanity, she tipped it and drank deeply.

”Blah, AGH,” she almost hurled but barely managed to keep it down. Gulping down the rest while asking for air, she threw the bowl to the side and ran around in circles while spitting out the godawful taste. ”Ugh,” she collapsed to her knees and stayed in that position for a while as saliva dripped from her lips.

It was revolting... but the results spoke for themselves. Her body absorbed the poison and some nature Qi along with it. It wasnʼt much, only around the amount she would get from a few hours of cultivating. But if she had to pick between sitting for hours or drinking a vile concoction of bug poison and blood... she would probably still pick cultivating. But! That was beside the point. This was a more efficient method of absorbing Qi, no matter how much she hated it.

”Having a poison body constitution and tastebuds is a crime,” Jasmine said as she wiped her mouth and stood up on shaky legs. While it was a harrowing experience, she was desperate for power. Her Master had grand ambitions for her, and she refused to let her down.

She tilted her head and looked at the bug carcass that had notably deflated. The poison dissipated from the meat when cooked, so she had to drain it first. But some Qi remained in the bugʼs meat, so if she wanted to get the most out of the bug, she had to eat it.

”Time... for dinner...” she said, her face turning white as a sheet. ”You know what? Being a cultivator really isnʼt as glamorous as everyone makes it out to be. I almost got poisoned to death in the last pocket realm, and now Iʼm eating bugs for dinner,” Jasmine ranted while summoning a sharp knife. She hacked off the bugʼs legs before gutting the thing. With all the nasty innards removed, she stowed the legs and innards away in a spatial ring as leaving them to the open air would attract monsters, a mistake she had learned in the first week here.

The whole process was disgusting—everything about surviving in this pocket realm had been a battle. Yet, she wouldnʼt want it any other way. She could feel herself growing, both in cultivation, maturity, and fortifying her will. Maybe she had picked up some of Stellaʼs insane view of the world, but she felt like the more she suffered now, the better her foundations would be for what was to come.

”I love bugs. Bugs are the best. Yummy, yummy, in my tummy,” Jasmine sang to herself as she cut some strips of meat from the carcass, and tears ran down her face from the stench. Holding the meat as far away from her nose as possible, she draped the cuts over a horizontal stick she had set above the fire.

While cooking the meat to a crisp, she sat as far away as possible and brought out a technique manual. Okay, itʼs time to study. The heavenʼs whispers teach me a lot, and my cultivation is progressing nicely, but without ideas of how to channel nature Qi into techniques, I will be far too dependent on the whip Ashlock gifted me for attacking.

Flipping through the pages, she found a hopefully low-cost and useful technique she could practice. Whispers of the forest. A technique suitable for nature affinity cultivators of all stages. This sounds perfect! Now letʼs see...

A few hours passed as Jasmine found herself engrossed in the book. The technique detailed the ability to glean information from the surrounding flora. Of course, nonsentient flora couldnʼt exactly talk like Ashlock or the other spirit trees could. Grass didnʼt know the difference between up and down or what the color red was. However, plants did react to the surroundings. The changing of light, for example, and if the shadow of a monster blocked the light, even the grass would respond.

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Fierce growls from Jasmineʼs stomach finally forced her back to reality. ”Ouch,” she kneeled over as she gripped her stomach. It felt like it was going to devour her from within. ”Okay, okay, Iʼll feed you.” She glanced up at the campfire, and her face fell.

The meat was gone. The campfire had long gone out, yet the charred meat on a stick Jasmine had been anticipating was missing as if it had never been there to begin with. Her eyes darted around as she cautiously stood up. Meat didnʼt simply float away; something had taken it. Which was strange, as the bugs hadnʼt shown an interest in their cooked brethren before, and the plants were afraid of fire.

Something new was out there, and it had stolen her dinner.

Jasmineʼs heart pounded as she dropped to one knee, her fingers fanning out before pressing into the cool, damp soil. Looking around one last time, she calmed her breathing and closed her eyes. This was a good chance to use whispers of the forest. Thankfully, compared to other techniques she had looked at before, it had been quite easy to understand.

The first step of the technique was to breathe. The earthy scent of the forest filled her lungs. Next, she closed her eyes and let her Qi flow downwards into the earth, spreading through the roots and blades of grass like a gentle breeze stirring a sleeping meadow. The grass seemed to quiver ever so slightly as if caught in an unseen wind. The pulse of her Qi continued to expand outwards, like a droplet disturbing a still pond. She could feel the buzz of life from each plant as her Qi weaved into the living network of the forest.

What seemed like a quiet clearing had turned into an overwhelming symphony. It was as if the forest was calling out, begging for her attention. Only the trees remained silent, their wistful presence brushing curiously against her mind.

She listened.

The forest spoke in murmurs, sharing fragments of movement, the disturbances in the natural rhythm of the land. A monsterʼs cautious steps. The scurry of frightened creatures. The lingering presence of something that did not belong.

Her Qi reached the clearingʼs edge, brushing against an invisible disturbance—a shift in the Qi of the land. Something had passed here, and recently, the air was tainted with hints of demonic Qi. A monster. Jasmine drew back her Qi with clumsy difficulty.

Her eyes snapped open.

South.

Whatever monster it was, she believed it had gone that way.

She rose swiftly, wiping the wet dirt from her fingers. Despite the tense situation, she couldnʼt help but smile. She had used a technique! And it had actually been helpful. Her happiness was quickly dampened by the growls of her stomach.

Reluctantly, she took some rations out of her spatial ring and ate them while her gaze lingered on the south.

Should I chase after it? She wondered as she was feeling giddy and full of excitement. Not only had she used a technique, but her cultivation had soared. She was feeling on top of the world. It didnʼt attack me while I was reading. It only went for the meat. Therefore, it canʼt be that strong. Right?

Summoning her whip made out of one of Ashlockʼs vines, she gripped its mithril handle. There were small holes in the handle that distributed her paralyzing poison to the weapon, causing the thorns along the length of the whip to glisten with a faint sheen. Should they so much as graze someone, they would be inflicted with her poison.

Her perfect nature soul flames cascaded down the whipʼs length, igniting it in a sickly green glow due to her poisonous body. The vine shuddered as if awakening, drinking in her Qi with greedy hunger. Jasmine felt the shift immediately—the connection between her and the weapon deepened as if the whip had become an extension of her own body, seamlessly attuned to her every thought and movement.

She flexed her wrist, and the whip snapped forward like a lunging serpent, cutting through the air with a sharp crack. At her mental command, it recoiled in an instant, curling back at her feet.

Jasmine grinned as she inspected the handle. The power, the responsiveness—it was staggering compared to a few weeks ago. It was like night and day. I didnʼt realize there was such a substantial difference between a few stages in the Soul Fire Realm.

This realization made her hunger to reach the Star Core Realm that much greater. But first, she had a thief to hunt.

Days passed quicker than Jasmine would have liked. But she was getting closer. At this point, she had sunk so much time into the hunt that she couldnʼt quit. However, it hadnʼt been a useless endeavor. She could now use the whispers of the forest technique while walking. She sent out Qi pulses to her surroundings with every step, and the forest answered.

Her target was near. Crouching as quietly as she could, she peered through a bush at a clearing. An ancient cliff face of jagged rock weathered from the passing of time cradled a sparkling pool of crystal clear water. According to the forest, the thief should be at the waterʼs edge.

Jasmineʼs eyes widened with glee, only for them to narrow.

The thief was nothing like what she had expected.

It stood on four long, spindly legs, each tipped with barbed claws that dug into the dirt as it moved. Its chitinous exoskeleton mirrored the surrounding colors, making it almost invisible to the naked eye, and its two forearms were like deathly scythes. It was a mantis with some kind of camouflage capabilities.

The mantis was also a child, only being around a meter tall. Jasmine also noticed as she looked closer that the mantis was moving sluggishly, and along the exposed underside of its arms, a few needles dripping with blood were sticking out.

”It fell victim to the bugs?” Jasmine whispered, and the mantisʼs eye twitched in her direction as it paused beside the water. It could hear me from that far away? Itʼs super on guard.

While Jasmine couldnʼt infer its strength with a hundred percent accuracy, it didnʼt have the overwhelming presence Star Core cultivators like Grand Elder Redclaw had, so it should be somewhere in the Soul Fire Realm.

The mantis watched her bush for a while longer before bending down to drink. Jasmine let it, as she wanted a real fight. However, a sudden buzzing sound overhead signaled the arrival of newcomers. It was a sound she knew all too well, a sound that might even haunt her dreams once she left this place.

It was the ear-grating buzz of insects, and by the intensity, it was a swarm of them. Jasmine concealed herself deeper into the bush, eager not to attract their attention. While she could easily beat one of them, she wasnʼt sure how she would fare against a swarm.

The mantis backed up from the water, and she could see fear in its eyes as it looked at the skyline. Surrounded on all sides by the cradling cliff face, the mantis had no choice but to retreat toward it.

Jasmine watched with slight annoyance as the swarm of around ten bugs descended upon the mantis. She had spent days hunting this thief down, only for the grand showdown she had been excited for to be stolen from her by those bugs of all things.

The baby mantis let out a not-so-terrifying shriek as it desperately waved its hind legs at the approaching swarm. All it got in response was one of the bugs diving down and thrusting a poisoned needle into its arm. The mantis uttered another cry as it retreated further, eventually finding a crevice in the cliff face that mostly hid its body. Curling up, it tried to defend against the onslaught with its chitinous exoskeleton.

However, it was useless. Itʼs death was inevitable.

A slow and sad death.

Jasmine started to feel bad for the mantis, and her hatred for the bugs was at an all-time high. Bringing out the Mystic Realmwarp fruit just in case, she pocketed it and stepped out of the bush with her hand tightly gripping the handle of her whip.

The stupid bugs were so enthralled with their helpless prey that they didnʼt react until Jasmineʼs whip cracked through the air, striking one of them with such force that the bug exploded in a shower of blood and guts.

”Oh no,” Jasmine grimaced as the attention of the bugs turned to her. What followed was an intense battle; the bugs turned out to be quite adept at fighting in groups, and they soon learned her effective attack range. As she went to try and strike one, another would come from a blind spot.

This wouldnʼt be a hard fight if my spiritual sight was better. Jasmine gritted her teeth as she pulled out a freshly planted needle from her neck of all places. While she was immune to their poison, if the needle had stuck an airway, she would die.

Hours passed, and the darkness of night had long blanketed the land. She collapsed to one knee while breathing heavily. Finally, she could rest as the final bug had been defeated after fighting throughout the night. Many needles were still sticking out her back, and trails of blood ran down her body and dyed her clothes. She looked and felt miserable, without the strength left to so much as stand on her own two feet.

”Itʼs finally over,” she murmured, about to close her eyes when a strange clicking noise made her blood freeze. Looking up, the baby mantis was before her. I didnʼt even notice its approach. That camouflage is really something.

”Have you come to kill me?” Jasmine asked with a wheeze.

The mantis curiously looked at her while staying at a respectful distance.

”No?” Jasmine tilted her head, and the monster mirrored her actions. A chuckle escaped her lips, ”You are like an obedient puppy.”

A while passed as Jasmine caught her breath. The mantis neither left nor made a move; it just silently guarded her. Its chitinous exoskeleton dying a shade of black to mirror the darkening surroundings.

Jasmine eventually felt better and managed to stand. It was difficult, but she slowly pulled out the needles from her back one by one. The mantis seemed envious.

Does it want my help? Jasmine mused. She had never heard of a monster being submissive like this before, except before Stella. She had a way to make monsters submit to her.

”Hungry?” Jasmine brought out some rations from her spatial ring and dangled it before the monster. It cautiously took the offered meat in its mouth and munched on it. While distracted, Jasmine pulled out one of the needles stuck in its arm.

The mantis flinched but otherwise didnʼt react. ”Good boy,” Jasmine said as she pulled out the rest one by one while giving it more food. The mantis grew less cautious, and Jasmine became less wary of it.

As the sun crested the horizon, Jasmine felt a faint tug on her soul. The Mystic Realm had come to an end.

”This is goodbye, little mantis,” Jasmine patted it on the head. It was still poisoned and injured, but there was a chance it would survive now. ”I have to return home.”

It let out a soft cry and tried to get closer.

”Iʼm sorry I canʼt bring you back with me...” her words trailed off as she reached into her pocket and brought out the Mystic Realmwarp fruit. If she fed this to the monster, would there be a chance it could return with her?

I do want to have a monster or Ent to help guard me in future pocket realms. While this mantis is quite weak right now, with its camouflage capability, it could make a good guard.

Jasmine made her decision. She wanted to bring the mantis home. Passing it the Mystic Realmwarp fruit, she slowly explained.

”Eat this once Iʼve gone. If you eat it now, a godly tree will likely eat you before I can explain. Understand?”

She didnʼt have time to get an answer before being pulled back to Red Vine Peak. Dashing out of the fog, she ignored the others and desperately looked around.

Would the mantis understand and make it back?