Chapter 8: Divine Augury Stone

She looked up at the Elder named Shamaner, who looked back with a light smile and nodded for her to put her hand on the stone.

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For all my life, I was a tree, just an ordinary tree, until that day when I was burning to death until I heard the thrumming of a heavenly Dao. It was a sermon sung by stars, its reverberations permeating through all the trees, animals, mud, and stones—a sermon about a magnificent and extraordinary Dao.

My greatest plight and salvation came from a little round stone that fell from the sky. The item landed in my trunk, which only caused me burning pain. And I would have most certainly been burned to mere ashes and embers had it not been for the fierce and horrifying storm that kept those fires from growing uncontrollably. Even with the luck of having a storm raging to combat the fires, it still burned me down to a mere stump. But as a tree kin and child of the forests, my tenacity is strong. Even from a not-very-thick branch, I could still have hope for rebirth.

After escaping that calamity and almost passing on, a mysterious stone was still lodged inside my trunk. I heard this whispering; it was the whispering of the cosmos; it told of a sermon transmitted through an indescribable humming that resonated with me and made me grow strongly. This stone vibrated so strongly that it broke my growth around it and thoroughly made it harder to cover it. Still, the sermon made my life force burst out of all my limitations as a simple mango tree.

Being trees, we always had a limited awareness of our environment. Time flows differently for tree kin. Before, the only thing that mattered was our connection to each other. This connection always lets us know of the dangers any of us face, whether a more successful nest of termites pops up or sky fire strikes one of us with more rings in their trunks.

It all started with my asking questions rather than constantly hearing and exchanging information about my health. I asked, “Who am I?" The sermons and the stone were deeply imprinted into my mind and body. As the years passed and I grew more and more, its perpetual thrumming made it so my roots had a barely discernible vibration that only showed evidence of itself when I drove my roots deeper into the earth. Rather than always going around stones, I wanted them out of my way, and so I pushed them. My bark grew strong and dense, and my thoughts became faster and clearer.

I stopped asking who I was, started listening, stopped talking about myself, and just felt with all of my senses, and unlike before, I remembered everything even after a long while. I began to always surprise myself when I had new knowledge of things. This made it better for listening to other things because I could comprehend. I listened to the wind and said, "Hello!" I listened to the rain and asked, "How are you?" I noticed the creatures living on and around my bark and enjoying my fruits, and told them, "I'm here!".

I followed the water landing on my leaves, down my branches, and trunk as it made its way down into the ground, following my roots before leaving me and melting deep into the earth that holds me. I told it, "Thank you."

I became more aware of this as the Dao told me about all things in the world. It told me about humans, both mortal ones and cultivators. It said I could become one, but at that moment, I didn't yet have an answer or reason to want to be one—at least until I saw my first human. They noticed my fruits on the floor but climbed up and plucked several before going back down and leaving.

With time, I was just happy and content, always watching the humans who passed by increasingly often around me and always listening to the teachings of the Dao. Soon, new kinds of humans came. The teachings told me they were cultivators; they would be the ones who could climb or even jump up to my highest branches with such ease to pick some of my fruits. I learned that these were the famed cultivators I learned about who delved into the profundities of the natural and unnatural world.

This went on for a while until one day, one of the cultivators decided to sit down and cultivate under my leaves. They were alarmed as they realized comprehension of natural laws was drastically much easier. They stayed there meditating for days till weird manifestations occurred around them. She had long hair and a small frame and wore these robes. Her hair and robes fluttered, yet there was no wind flowing. After the manifestations stopped, they rose and left. After some time, they returned with two more cultivators. They surprised me when they didn’t go for my fruits but sat under my leaves and meditated. Almost immediately after closing their eyes, the two new arrivals found it incredibly easy to go into a profound state where all their previous shortcomings and questions were easier to solve.

They stayed there for days, left, and returned like clockwork. They would come back to cultivate under my leaves, and I soon grew accustomed to this. Other times, they searched around the area, talking of treasure, but after a while, they found nothing. They realized the area of effect was around me and continued with their new routine of meditating under my leaves.

One day, the first cultivator came back. She was with this older person with a powerful and intimidating aura, as if a sword in a scabbard that could explode with incredible strength. She addressed that person as Elder; they were here to investigate. The person even dove into the ground in their examinations! Eventually, they ended up where I was and murmured, "This tree is very slightly vibrating; maybe it got connected to a very minor energy vein in the earth or just maybe encountered some sort of fate and is in the process of demonization and coming to life!”

Not long after they left, this Elder often brought disciples to the tree to preach the Dao's teachings under my leaves. Sometimes, they even brought odd plants to cultivate around my trunk and treasured soils to help me, which made me very happy and also made me grow very strong very fast.

I always listened and paid attention to everything, even when a lone disciple came to practice at night as they moved around chanting scriptures of different teachings.

One day, during a very crowded preaching of the Dao, I finally couldn’t help it. I had many questions about where they went, other natural Dao's, and even the rare mentions of mystical creatures that the Dao spoke of. I wanted to experience it all and knew it wouldn't happen if I stayed like this, no matter how content I was. I wanted and needed more.

So I said yes, I wanted to be a human!

At that moment, hymns sang out from thin air, random lights flashed about, and even shy spirits came to bear witness to what was happening. My whole self was shrinking into itself. My roots quickly returned to me from rich mineral grounds deep below. My leaves let go and fluttered in the air, and my branches shrunk into me until I was a wooden, humanoid figure.

Soon, my skin formed, my organs appeared, and blood was born in my veins. The most beautiful moment was when my heart, yes, my heart, first started beating! I was alive; I was a human, and I could become a cultivator!

I slowly raised my head and realized I had curly green hair on my head. I smiled, not just with my being but also with my face, which had lovely human facial muscles beneath it! I first tried to speak but felt an ache and realized my lungs had no air. I took a deep breath, breathing in and even smelling the wonderful air, and spoke for the first time, awkwardly at first, but I said, "H-he-hello, m-my Naaame i-is Shawmaner!"

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Kimarya heard murmurings like "She's still a mortal and hasn't cultivated." Others say, "She's a special case; she has no soul, incapable of even understanding cultivation. It's a miracle that she even survived and much more so if she obtained an Ancestral Spirit." With a sad shake of their heads. Some even found her misfortune amusing and were ready to enjoy the show.

She ignored them and placed her right hand on the stone, which grew warm and started humming until images suddenly started manifesting around her. There was a silhouette of a large humanoid creature with long arms and hair all over.

Everyone was surprised; those who sneered blanched in shock before regaining their confidence and saying, "Sure, it's not something pathetic; I guess she wasn't as dumb and knew she had no potential and chose some bloody Demonic Ape, stupidly cutting off her future wings, they don't even have a redeeming power. So besides having quick and easy power, it's the same as closing off your future for quick strength. Bet she won't even get higher than three stars in aptitude. She may have instincts, but that doesn't mean she has any aptitude for cultivation, heh!"

Kimarya ignored this and kept her hand on the stone that grew hotter. Soon, around her, a star formed, then another, and they kept appearing until there were a jaw-dropping seven stars glowing around her! The stars even had multiple colors!

At first, there was silence. Some of the crowd even started to grow excited until they realized that the elders weren't smiling, and some of the not-so-smart ones finally understood why. Her ancestral Guardian Spirit was a Demonic Ape, which meant that nearly all chances of great future success were nearly zero. Her future growth was severed, as if cultivation didn't have walls and points of extreme difficulty, adding to the calamity of growth barriers that Demonic Apes had. This could only be the cruelest joke ever.

Some elders sadly shook their heads. How could this happen? Such a demonic level of aptitude just for it to be wasted because of an erroneous choice in an Ancestral Spirit Guardian. It could be worked around even if it was a speed-based creature. Even a flying bug would have been better. Even they had higher chances of mutation and atavism than Demonic Apes.

Chapter 9: Leerum's Plot