A tree spirit that hasn’t awakened its intelligence has no consciousness at all. However, if one senses it with their consciousness, they can find a spell compatible with the contracted tree spirit. For example, what the Star Spirit Wood’s tree spirit desires most is spiritual energy, and it wants to gather more of it.
In this case, spells capable of gathering spiritual energy are what the Star Spirit Wood craves. The Spirit Gathering Technique is the purest among such spells, perfectly matching the Star Spirit Wood’s own ability to gather spiritual energy.
This not only ensures the Tree Spirit Mark fuses perfectly with the tree spirit but also maximizes the effectiveness of the Spirit Gathering Technique.
Confirming no issues, Qi Ping condensed a blank Tree Spirit Mark.
As the blank Tree Spirit Mark appeared before Qi Ping, he immersed his consciousness into it.
Then, Qi Ping used his will to imprint all his insights and understanding of the Spirit Gathering Technique into this Tree Spirit Mark.
This was why Qi Ping waited until he had mastered the Spirit Gathering Technique to a high level before imprinting the spell. The deeper his understanding of the spell, the more powerful the tree spirit would be after learning the imprinted spell.
When Qi Ping withdrew his consciousness from the Tree Spirit Mark, a mysterious radiance began to emanate from it.
“Go.”
As Qi Ping controlled the Tree Spirit Mark to approach the Star Spirit Wood’s tree spirit, an intense wave of longing erupted from it.
[Want… want…]
Because it was a Tree Spirit Mark, the Star Spirit Wood’s spirit could sense that the spell within the mark was precisely what it craved.
The moment the Tree Spirit Mark touched the tree spirit, the Star Spirit Wood’s spirit eagerly absorbed the mark Qi Ping had formed from his insights into the Spirit Gathering Technique.
Immediately afterward, an incredibly rich wave of joy burst forth from the Star Spirit Wood’s spirit.
[Good… so good… It’s a spell to gather spiritual energy!]
Perhaps because the Spirit Gathering Technique was highly compatible with the Star Spirit Wood, not long after fusing with the Tree Spirit Mark, a rather strong suction force erupted from the Star Spirit Wood itself.
“It learned it already?”
A look of surprise appeared on Qi Ping’s face.
In theory, even though Qi Ping had integrated his high-level understanding of the Spirit Gathering Technique into the Tree Spirit Mark, the Star Spirit Wood shouldn’t have learned it this quickly.
Even according to the rules of the game from his past life, trees took a considerable amount of time to learn spells from Tree Spirit Marks. The lower the compatibility, the longer it took.
But now, the Star Spirit Wood had learned the Spirit Gathering Technique almost immediately after fusing with the mark. This was somewhat unbelievable, far faster than how quickly Qi Ping had learned the technique.
“Perhaps it’s because the spell is overly compatible? Also, the Spirit Gathering Technique isn’t that profound…”
After much thought, this was the only reason Qi Ping could come up with.
“But regardless, this is a good thing!”
Because once a spell is imprinted onto a contracted tree, its power isn’t fixed.
If the compatibility is low, the power can be greatly reduced, or the tree might even fail to learn it.
However, if the compatibility is high, the spell can even surpass its original limits!
Moreover, as the tree grows and becomes more proficient in using the spell, it will continuously refine and enhance the imprinted spell!
Due to the tree’s unique structure and abilities, coupled with its day-and-night practice of a single spell, it can fully unleash the spell’s power to unimaginable levels.
“Looking at the Star Spirit Wood now, it seems to have this potential. Feels like it might even surpass Spirit Gathering Arrays someday, and without consuming spirit stones…”
“Let’s observe for a while first!”
Qi Ping wasn’t in a hurry about this.
Before cultivating, Qi Ping cast the Rain Summoning Technique over his territory within the illusion array, mixing spiritual power with rainwater to irrigate the black soil he had brought back. This made the spiritual energy in this land even richer.
The Rain Summoning Technique came from an “Advanced Edition of the Complete Guide to Basic Cultivation Spells” that Meng Yan had given him. It contained many basic and advanced spells for cultivators.
Although none were particularly powerful, they were comprehensive in variety. Qi Ping learned many useful spells from it, with Rain Summoning being one. It mixes rainwater with spiritual power for irrigation, a common spell used in sect spirit fields.
After learning this spell, Qi Ping no longer needed the little bees to help him water.
Another month passed.
During this month, Qi Ping would observe the changes and growth of the Star Spirit Wood daily, aside from his cultivation and tending to spirit herbs.
And by today, the Spirit Gathering Technique had actually been learned to a high level of mastery by the Star Spirit Wood!
“High-level mastery of the Spirit Gathering Technique!”
“This is unbelievable!”
Looking at the Star Spirit Wood, which he had nurtured to about the height of two people, it was hard to imagine it had mastered the technique to a high level in just over a month.
Currently, under the Star Spirit Wood’s execution of the Spirit Gathering Technique, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth surged towards it at an extremely fast rate!
Qi Ping roughly calculated and found that the Star Spirit Wood’s current ability to gather spiritual energy was already not inferior to some small Spirit Gathering Arrays!
To this, Qi Ping could only say one word: Awesome!
“At this rate, it shouldn’t be long before the Star Spirit Wood masters the Spirit Gathering Technique to perfection…”
“Moreover, as the Star Spirit Wood grows, this spell should be continuously refined and strengthened by it, becoming more and more powerful!”
It truly was one tree equaling one Spirit Gathering Array!
“When the Star Spirit Wood grows and breaks through to the second tier, could it possibly become even more outrageous than a second-tier Spirit Gathering Array?”
“And with the help of the Spirit Gathering Technique, the Star Spirit Wood might even break through its own grade limits by itself…”
The more Qi Ping observed the Star Spirit Wood’s effects, the more astonishing he found it.
“It seems the Treant Shepherd’s abilities in the cultivation world are even more powerful than previously imagined!”
The practicality of the Tree Spirit Contract also completely exceeded Qi Ping’s expectations.
“If that’s the case, the effects that the Treant Shepherd and the Tree Spirit Contract can achieve depend on the breadth of my imagination and how I utilize them.”
In a way, the versatility of the Tree Spirit Mark even surpasses that of [Animal Companion], as this is the signature advanced ability of the Treant Shepherd profession.
Furthermore, a Tree Spirit Mark can actually imprint more than one spell. Once a tree spirit thoroughly masters one spell, additional spells can be imprinted.
However, these spells must be compatible with the tree spirit’s characteristics and cannot conflict with previously imprinted spells.
Moreover, combining these different spells with the tree spirit’s unique traits can create an exceptionally powerful tree!
Some god-tier spell combinations can even allow a tree to unleash incredibly powerful potential and strength!
This is the real reason Qi Ping chose the Treant Shepherd profession. The variety of spirit trees in the cultivation world is vast as the sea, and the number of spells is countless!
If he can find the most divine combinations from among them, he can not only create spirit trees with the strongest production capabilities but also craft trees possessing extraordinary offensive abilities.
From this perspective, the upper limit of [Tree Spirit Contract] in the cultivation world is simply unimaginable!
However, the lower limit of this [Tree Spirit Contract] is equally low. If not utilized well, it can also become a bottom-tier ability.
But Qi Ping is confident about this. While he’s not certain about successfully combining god-tier combinations, following the Star Spirit Wood’s template, he can definitely combine trees with certain production capabilities.
With honey not suitable for mass production and spirit herbs grown via plant acceleration not appropriate for sale, Qi Ping’s hopes for purchasing resources, techniques, and animal companions in the future rest mainly on the Tree Spirit Contract ability.
