Art of Creation [Eco-Cultivation Prototype]

After taking a few minutes to catch his breath, Devor finally began explaining the breakthrough to Master Nie.

He spoke slowly at first, still adjusting to the lingering tremors in his meridians, but his words were clear.

The Venom Spiritual Tree—the one bonded to him—was no longer just tied to his energy field.

Its Boundless Seal had been drawn into the core of his soul, taking root at the peak of his cultivation mountain.

Master Nie's expression darkened with curiosity.

"The Boundless Seal, you say?" he asked, tone sharp but steady. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"I can't say for certain," Devor replied calmly, "but… the Sect Master told me that the true form of the Boundless Seal manifests as a living entity inside the soul, mirroring its bonded partner."

He paused, then added, "The tree inside my soul—it's identical to the real Venom Tree."

Master Nie fell silent, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

"Interesting," he murmured. "Beast Masters can merge with their companions—fuse their bodies, enhance their physical prowess. But you… your partner is a tree. I wonder... can you even fuse with something rooted?"

Devor opened his mouth to respond—but no words came out.

The question struck him harder than he expected.

What would fusion with a tree even look like?

Would he sprout branches and leaves? Root himself into the ground mid-battle?

Stand there like a wooden statue waiting to be split in half by an enemy sword?

"If you turn into a tree mid-fight," Master Nie muttered, echoing Devor's thoughts with uncanny accuracy, "you'll be firewood by the time your Domain recovers."

They shared a brief moment of mutual concern—and then, strangely, amusement.

"But jokes aside," Master Nie continued, "before you start chasing fusion techniques, you need to figure out what's changed. Feel the difference. Test the boundary between your energy and the Venom Seal's essence."

Devor nodded. He had been thinking the same thing.

After another minute of rest, he rose slowly, exhaled, and extended his right hand.

He focused inward, into his soul core, searching for the Venom Seal—only to find that the mechanism had changed.

Before, the Seal had been a reservoir—a separate source of energy. He could draw upon it directly and channel the raw poison into attacks.

Now?

It was like a reflection within a reflection—the power wasn't external, but rather something that intertwined with his own Qi. It required synchronization, not extraction.

Frowning, Devor centered his mind and summoned his spiritual energy. A swirl of faint blue Qi appeared in his palm.

"Anything?" Master Nie asked, observing closely.

Devor shook his head. "Not yet. But… it's not nothing."

Seconds passed.

The blue Qi began to shift, as if reacting to something deeper.

Its hue darkened, then deepened—twisting into a dark, venomous purple. A new texture formed within it: heavy, oily, dense.

A pulse rippled through the air. The Venom Seal had responded.

Master Nie's eyes sharpened. "That's it."

Devor continued, now more confident. He focused his intent, attempting to mold the purple energy—reshape it.

A moment later, the Qi condensed into the form of a blade—short, sharp, and vicious. It shimmered with dark toxicity.

"Interesting," Master Nie said, approaching cautiously. "That level of control… It's sharper than before. Cleaner."

Devor nodded, still focused. "Before, I could only release Venom energy in crude forms. Mist, gas… raw toxin. I couldn't shape it. It didn't listen."

He looked at the blade. "But now… It's like I'm not borrowing Venom's power anymore. I'm turning my own Qi into it."

Master Nie's expression shifted. Understanding dawned.

"Ahh," he breathed. "Then it's true fusion. Just like a Beast Master."

He folded his arms behind his back, pacing slowly. "When a Beast Master fuses with their companion, they don't just borrow power. Their essences intertwine—Qi, body, even spirit. That's how they enhance their abilities so dramatically."

He turned and pointed at Devor. "That's what's happening to you. But it's not beast-and-human... It's tree-and-human. You're becoming one with your Domain anchor."

But Master Nie wasn't done. "Still… I'm not convinced your path will rival traditional Beast Masters just yet."

Devor raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Beast Masters don't just gain control. They gain strength—muscle, endurance, speed. The body changes. Yours hasn't… yet."

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Devor looked down at his hand—the venom blade was sharp, refined, deadly. But his body still felt the same.

No burst of raw strength.

No reinforcement of muscles.

No shift in physique.

Just clarity. Control. Precision.

A different kind of power.

"Maybe I'm not meant to be stronger in body," Devor said quietly, "but in mind and environment. Maybe my battlefield isn't the sword… it's the soil."

Master Nie looked at him with interest.

"You may be right," he said. "Yours might be a passive domain-type fusion. Your body doesn't change, but your surroundings will."

Devor nodded slightly, then glanced at his palm.

"That reminds me—back then, when I used the Venom's power..." He said slowly, his tone thoughtful, "it felt like there was a storage tank inside me. I could draw from it at will—like opening a valve."

He paused and clenched his fist, watching the faint ripple of spiritual energy pass over his skin.

"But now… it's completely different," he continued. "The Venom doesn't feel like a separate resource anymore. When I use it, it doesn't just flow through me—it becomes me. It changes the very essence of my Qi."

That change had startled him at first. It was deeper, more intimate than any external power he'd borrowed before.

Even with the profound bond he shared with the Venom Spiritual Tree, Devor's body still had limits.

No matter how deep the connection ran, the amount of power he could wield depended entirely on one thing:

Whether his physical body could endure the strain.

But something had crystallized in his understanding over the last few weeks—especially after the Seal had embedded itself into his soul.

The truth was simple:

He could now draw Venom energy only in proportion to the energy already within him.

It wasn't borrowing. It was transmutation.

"Master," Devor said, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes, "I want to test something. If anything goes wrong... please stop me."

Master Nie's brows rose slightly.

He wasn't one to discourage experimentation—especially with something as rare and valuable as a Boundless Seal.

But he'd seen what happened when young cultivators overreached. The body could be unforgiving.

"What exactly are you planning to do?" he asked, his tone measured. "If you push your energy too far out of alignment, even I might not be able to pull you back."

Devor didn't take the warning lightly. He gave a respectful nod and then began to explain.

"I don't think I've reached the limit of what I can do with the Venom," he said. "But I've been wondering… what would happen if I converted all the spiritual energy in my body into Venom energy—every last drop?"

Master Nie's eyes narrowed. "You mean a full-body transmutation? You'd risk flooding your system with foreign attributes. It's not just a matter of compatibility—it could tear your meridians apart."

He paused, then added more grimly, "Even Beast Masters, when they surrender themselves to their companion's nature, must retain control. Letting the beast's energy override the host's will is one of the leading causes of core collapse—or worse, soul fracture."

Devor nodded. "I've read those cases. I understand the risks."

"But your path differs?" Master Nie asked carefully.

Devor's expression sharpened.

"Beast Masters borrow their companion's power. Their energies might mix, but they don't fully fuse—there's always a boundary," he said. "I'm not borrowing the Venom's power anymore. I'm transmuting my own energy into it. My Qi is the base. The Venom is the result."

Master Nie's frown deepened. The distinction wasn't just semantics. It was… foundational.

The difference between imitation and transformation.

Before Master Nie could respond—

"Do it."

A new voice cut through the room—steady, resonant.

Devor turned, startled—but immediately bowed as the figure appeared behind Master Nie in a ripple of spatial energy.

Sect Master Zinqi had arrived.

"Sect Master," Devor said, bowing low with both fists clasped.

Zinqi nodded slightly. "You understand the risk, don't you?"

"Yes," Devor replied, meeting his gaze. "I do."

His voice was calm, but not careless. This wasn't bravado. It was the certainty of a cultivator who had begun to walk his path—no longer swayed by others' expectations or coddled by the safety net of protection.

"I won't stop him," Zinqi said to Master Nie, folding his hands behind his back. "Not this time."

"But if something happens to him—"

"Then that's the price of stepping beyond his limits," Zinqi said firmly. "He still has the guidance of our Sect. But in the future? He'll have to make choices alone. If this is the foundation he's building, then it's best he knows now how far it can take him—and how hard he can fall."

Master Nie said nothing. He didn't disagree—but the tension in his shoulders remained.

Devor exhaled deeply.

He wasn't a child anymore. Each decision he made—even one inspired by advice or driven by faith—was his.

If this worked, he'd glimpse the true potential of his cultivation path.

If it didn't?

He would live with the scars—or die by them.

"Then go ahead," Sect Master Zinqi said, his voice calm but heavy with weight. "Let the world remember today."

With that singular approval, Master Nie fell silent. He stepped back, his expression grim, his senses fully attuned to Devor.

He would intervene if he had to.

But only if he must.

Devor wasted no time. He lowered himself to the floor, his legs folding beneath him in a single smooth motion.

In the next breath, his consciousness plunged inward—into the soulscape where the Venom Seal had taken root.

The seal pulsed softly at the summit of his internal mountain, radiating an unnatural calm. But the moment Devor willed the conversion to begin, that calm shattered.

At first, it was subtle.

The Qi circulating through his meridians grew darker, thicker—tinted with a shadowy, viridian hue.

The transformation spread like ink in water, warping his energy signature strand by strand.

His spiritual energy began to change—truly change. Not overlaid or masked. But rewritten.

The peaceful aura that once surrounded him—an energy aligned with growth, harmony, and nature—began to unravel.

The room dimmed. The very air grew tense, heavy with a pressure that seemed to reject life itself.

From his soul core outward, something was being rewoven. Not human. Not entirely plant.

But something between.

His face twisted as the change deepened.

The soft, refined features of his youth hardened—shadows forming beneath his eyes like painted war-lines.

His eyebrows sharpened like blades, his irises deepening into a venomous shade of violet.

Even his hair, once raven-black, began to shift—lengthening slightly, strands darkening into a rich, poisonous purple.

His presence no longer whispered harmony.

It hissed with intent.

Master Nie's voice was the first to break the silence. "This boy… he's not just using the Venom Spiritual Tree's power. He's becoming the tree."

Zinqi nodded slowly, eyes unreadable. "If he completes this, the cultivation world will have no name for what he's becoming. A cultivator who embodies their soul-bound symbiosis? No… this is more than that. This is the birth of a new path."

Within Devor's soul, the final step came.

His Spiritual Essence, once golden and fluid, began to crystallize. It condensed slowly at first—glimmering like molten sap—before twisting into a solid form.

Not a core. Not yet.

But the seed of one.

Where once flowed free spiritual essence, there now stood a core of living wood—the essence of the Venom Tree itself, wrapped in coiling root-like energy that pulsed with dangerous vitality.

Then—

Boom.

Power erupted outward in a violent shockwave, cracking through the reinforced floor beneath him and blasting a spiraling gust of air across the chamber.

Curtains tore. Lanterns shattered. Wind howled.

Had the Cultivation Tower not been reinforced by Sky-Tier formations, the explosion would have leveled the entire floor.

Zinqi and Master Nie both stepped forward instinctively—but neither intervened.

Because at the center of the swirling chaos, Devor floated—his aura stabilized, his core fully awakened.

When his feet touched the ground again, his eyes opened.

They glowed faintly—like amethyst flame, edged in black veins that pulsed once before fading.

The Devor they once knew—the quiet, earthbound farmer with a fondness for Spiritual Plants—was no longer there.

In his place stood something new.

A being whose energy no longer whispered of harmony, but inevitable decay. Of venomous life, fed by death.