Divine tree

"What you still sitting around forget up already!" the voice of the golden vine rang out

"why you..." Emilia raised her head to complain about the vine only to be rendered speechless by the sight in front of her. Standing in front of her was a behemoth of a tree. The tree was so large that she couldn't even see around it. It would probably take around ten people holding hands to even be able to wrap around the front side of the tree alone and not the back.

The bark of the tree was a glittery silver white and the hanging leaves were a mixture of pure white, grey, silver, and blue while a golden vine was wrapped around the bark and hanging on multiple branches. The tree looked so mystical and unreal yet gorgeous. And on the leaves, Emilia spotted a few plumeria flowers while the rest of the tree had flower buds.

"Wow, this is gorgeous." Emilia breathed out

"No, it's not perfect, what you see here is just a shell of this divine tree's former glory." The golden vine said, moving further up on the bark.

"A shell..?" Emilia asked puzzled.

"Come around to the other side of the tree" the vine spoke to her again in her conscious.

"Oh", Emilia said as she walked to the edge of the tree to go around to the back.

The moment Emilia reached the back of the tree, her mouth immediately fell open shocked by the sight in front of her.

The tree that looked so beautiful and white on one side looked horrifyingly black on the other. The branches looked dead and broken, grey and lifeless. The tree was completely bare with no leaves or flowers insight and the tree had a nauseating rotting stench to it. Emilia could see a growing black line moving towards the pure white side of the tree.

"This!! What is this?!" Emilia asked in shock

"That is what this tree will look like in 100 years. What we will look like." A soft sigh sounded in her ears.

"What's wrong with it?"

" I can't get into details but what I can tell you is that the tree suffered a major attack a few thousand years ago and its vitality was injured. I've been using the spiritual energy in this space to heal it over these years but as you can see I've only managed to heal half of it and now the spiritual energy is almost depleted. The spiritual energy will probably be completely depleted in 100 years and once that happens the rest of the vitality of the tree will be swallowed by the darkness, killing the tree and myself." The voice of the vine rang explaining itself.

"Seeing as the spiritual energy here is depleting I obviously can't rely on it to heal our injuries and instead need another source of vitality and energy to complete that task and restore the energy of this space."

"And that's where I come in, right?" Emilia said seeming to understand why she was brought here.

"Yes. I need you to collect for me pure energy sources from the outside world and in exchange, I'll let you use this space outside to plant some plants for yourself and also share with you some of my flowers." The vine continued

"What benefit will there be in planting plants here?"

"Don't look down on this place just because I'm injured. Even when injured this place is still the best place on this planet for planting plants. Not only will the plants grow faster they will also contain pure energy which is good for strengthening the body and preventing illness. After growing in here for a while and under the baptism of my flowers, the plants planted here can also gain medical properties. That alone should be exciting enough for you, not to mention that I'm also going to give you some of my flowers. You have already experienced the baptism of one of my flower petals once, during your first visit. I'm sure you should have noticed that the plumeria on your neck is missing a petal, that's because you have already used one chance meaning you still have four chances to get the baptism again. And if you help me I can also provide you with more chances and even other benefits." The vine said explaining all the benefits that came with it.

Emilia had to admit that the vine's offer was enticing, going into the apocalypse with this space was a major advantage, as it solved some of the problems of storage, medicine, and food. It can also act as a backup in case something goes wrong with Ling Qin's space.

"Those baptism chances, can I give them to someone else?" She asked remembering the reason she came here in the first place.

"Yes, you can do whatever you want with the resources I'll give you. But you must remember to choose the people wisely, you humans are a bunch of deceitful things." The vine responded now hanging loosely from the top branch.

"Why are you so sure that I'll help you? Looking for energy sources for you sounds like hard work, what makes you so sure that I'll help you?" Emilia asked the vine.

"Because if you refuse I can just look for someone else. There must be someone who will be interested in my things. Plus thanks to you I have now been able to leave the forest and come to the city where there are more people to choose from" the vine responded quite leisurely

"Ehh so you used me to leave the forest?" She said speechless

"It's not like I made you work for free right. I gave you that baptism as payment. Not to mention that your affinity with plants has been increased ever you have been in contact with me, otherwise with just yourself would have been able to grow as many plants as you have and so fast?!"

'Eh, so the plants were because of him. Well to be honest I've never been much of a greenhand before.' She thought

"Are you even really able to leave me?" She asked quite skeptical because all the novels she had read indicated that once these mystical beings had chosen a host they would be bound to that person.

" Of course, it's not like I signed a contract with you so why can't I leave. I only stuck a piece of me on you so that you can bring me out. So if you don't want to I can always just leave, I won't force you. I'm not that type of black-hearted thing." The vine answered. "Plus I'm not that stupid to bind myself with humans, who knows if I'll get cheated by them later on." It continued in a lowered voice.

Emilia hung her head as she thought about the offer. This was the chance she was looking for, with this tree's flower petals she could give Ling Xiao a baptism and which would make him stronger and therefore increase his chance of survival. Not only will he be able to heal faster, but a stronger body will make it easier for him to get a strong ability and easier for him to control it. He might even be able to get more than one ability. It can act as insurance for him. Plus agreeing will only benefit her more in perspective. Emilia lifted her head and looked at the tree " alright I'll do it." She said.

"Good"  the vine responded quite satisfied. " Here take this," the vine said throwing a ring toward her.

Emilia lifted her hand above her head to catch it. Completely relying on her reflexes to catch it after being caught off guard by the sudden throw.

"This is...?" Emilia asks as she examined the ring that the vine had thrown towards her.

"This is the key to entering and leaving this place. When you need to come in just rub the polymeric flower twice with your finger in a circle. The previous mark I left on you has already dissipated now that it has brought you here, so you won't be able to enter without it." The vine responded

"Oh," Emilia mumbled as she examined the ring in her hand. The ring was simple and elegant. The band of the ring is composed of two golden vines entwined around each other with little leaves embedded in them. At the very center of the ring stood a lone plumeria flower. The plumeria was a pure silver-white color with a golden center.  "So every time I want to enter I just rub the flower twice in a circle?"

"yep."

"And this works every time?"

"Yes! Well not really..." The vine continued after a short pause. " for three months you can enter and leave as you please but if you don't collect any substantial amount of energy for me then the ring will dim and you won't be able to enter anymore. I'll also take it as you not wanting to fulfill your end of the deal, then I'll go look for someone else."

"Well, that seems fair. So I have three months to get you some energy. Huh, but what type of energy do you mean, I can't possibly go searching blind."  Emilia asked as she looked back at the tree after placing the ring on her middle finger. 

"For one, you can collect moonstones, they have an affinity with my plumeria flowers as they also represent life and new beginnings so their energy should resonate with me. other gems should also work but moonstones preferably" the vine responded.

Moonstones weren't a problem for Emilia to collect because they didn't cost too much money and were available on the market. The only problem was that the apocalypse would begin in just a few days and the supply of moonstones would become completely non-existent, that means she would not be able to satisfy the needs of the tree. Even if she decided to feed the tree other gems, their supply would run out and it would only give the tree enough energy to let her use the space for a year and that was too short.

"Except for gems are there any other ways to give you energy?'' Emilia asked the tree

"Well yeah I could absorb energy from other plants but that takes too long and the supply is too little as I can't possibly absorb the plants dry now can I? " the vine responded as it continued moving along the branches.

Emilia kicked her leg lightly to loosen the muscles as her leg had begun to become painful from standing in one place. As she did that she continued to inquire about the deal as she did not want there to be any problems later on.

" What about a scale? I need a scale." She said after deliberating for a bit.

"Scale...?" The vine paused its movement and looked at her puzzled, not understanding what she meant.

"What do you mean by scale."

"As in a measuring system of sort. You know, I need to know whether I have collected enough energy for you to consider me having completed my end of the deal. Also to know how much energy is needed in order to use the space for a longer period of time." Emilia paused before she continued " I need to have a number to work with otherwise I'll end up stressing myself trying to gather energy for you when you would have already gotten enough for the preliminary round. So I need a scale or something in order to keep track."

"Mxm you are ready making sure there is no chance for you to be exploited, alright here you can use this." The vine said as it threw a small black plumeria to her. This will be the scale, once it turns white our deal would have been completed and you'll get to use the space for an extra three months. Of course, in the future, the plumeria flower will continue to get bigger because the amount of energy needed will continue to increase."

As she looked at the flower in her hand Emilia spoke up again. "Don't you have anything else, this flower is too small as I'll most probably lose it."

"Just hold on to it, the flower will plant itself outside once you return there." The vine responded.

"How much energy do I need to clear one petal," Emilia asked as she observed the plumeria.

"Figure that out for yourself, I can't give you everything" the vine snapped sounding irritated.

"Hey, you...." Emilia didn't get to finish as the space around her blurred and she found herself back by the lake. And just as the vine had said the black plumeria flew out of her hands and attached itself to a flower stem of a flower that stood near the lake.

"You can use this space for whatever you want according to the agreement"  the voice of the vine sounded in her ear.  "Also when you need me just take a plumeria from those around the lake and place it in the water. As you can see they are limited so don't waste them." By the time the vine finished saying this, its voice had become fainter as if it was about to disappear.

Emilia realizing this quickly called to stop the voice as she still had one last important thing to ask. The reason she had come here." If I bring someone to get a baptism how do I do it."

"Tsk your such a troublesome fellow maybe I should have chosen someone else. "The vine said sounding a bit annoyed at all the questions. Just then the 4 petal plumeria that had been on her neck shone before a blue light shot from her neck and embedded itself on a tree trunk of one of the many trees surrounding the grass and lake. Since the tree was standing in front of other trees it wasn't hard for Emilia to see it. The plumeria was now embedded in that tree.

" When you decide that you want someone or yourself to use the baptism then just go touch one of the petals. It will immediately fall off and into your hands then go throw it into the Lake and jump inside. Once the baptism is done the person will be spat out by the lake. And yes a person can be baptized more than once, with the first baptism taking about two hours. Of course, if you throw in more than one petal Time will be reduced as the power will be increased." After a short pause, the vine continued "as for restoring the petals once you've finished the four you currently have, let us talk about that after you've finished our current energy collection agreement. You can use this whole space like" It said.

"Figure the rest out for yourself, and don't disturb me for nonsense or I'll throw you out." It spat and went quiet right after.

Emilia stood in place for a minute and after seeming to have come to a decision she brought her finger to circle the plumeria on her ring and just as the vine had said, when she opened her eyes again she was standing in her hidden greenhouse.

Taking out her phone she saw that only 15 minutes had passed, so she put her phone back in her pocket and headed out to find Ling Xiao