The Tree.

Tang Ming continued to fly upon his spear in high speed with his Divine Sense activated all the time. He continued to look for a spirit beast that has atleast Ultimate Ice attribute. He continued going deeper into the extreme north.

He did find some beast intriguing like the one known as Mirror Beast, which he had read about in the spirit beast encyclopedia. It was not an extinct species but is a very rare one. He had only found him because of his Divine Sense as it has perfect camouflage abilities.

This beast spirit ring can give two abilities or as he had read. The first one being a common - Stealth Ability and the second which many people desire - Clone Ability. How powerful the Clone will be or how much power it can exert also depends upon the quality of the martial spirit. Like for example, if a normal martial spirit absorbs the spirit ring of the Mirror Beast, the Clone would only be able to exert 50% of the power of the user. And if a top grade martial spirit uses the same Clone ability, it'll be able to exert 70-80% power of the user.

At first he thought, it was the same Mirror Beast Oscar absorbs in the original but after carefully inspecting it, he was left dumbfounded as this Mirror Beast has a cultivation of more than 80,000 years.

He was very tempted to kill and absorb the spirit beast but controlled himself as he knew it would be a waste to assimilate it into his spear.

"I have already marked it and remembered it's territory. The first ring I absorb for the Qilin martial spirit would definitely be this one." Tang Ming sighed as he moved on.

He has a firm believe that if his Qilin martial spirit would absorb this spirit ring, it would definitely give him a pleasant surprise.

He had already made his decision to reside here for the rest of his time. As living here also solves his problem for finding stronger spirit beast to soar with. So he was thinking of finding a good place to reside.

He didn't have any good place in mind except finding Bing Bi Huang Di Xie or what people know her as 'Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion' who is about or above 350,000 years old right now.

But after carefully thinking, he decide not to go. Even though he is strong, he can't fight any spirit beast more than 60-70,000 year old. It was his limit. And he knew from his memories that Ice Emperor is not the one to talk peacefully with as she has a bad temper to boast her strength as the second strongest spirit beast in Extreme North.

Thought he will find her after finding himself an Ultimate Ice type elemental ability, which will ensure that she won't just freeze him into an ice sculpture as soon as she sees him.

After not finding any suitable spirit beast for whole of morning, Tang Ming decided to first atleast find himself a good place to rest for the night.

He continued to head deeper into the extreme north at a great speed. He did found some caves and burrows but it was not upto his taste.

At evening, he managed to found a good place which suited his taste but the problem is that it was way too deep in the Extreme North, the temperature is already more than -30. He can swear that while flying on his way here, he saw more than one hundred thousand year old spirit beast. If not for his absolute illusion skill and his tough body he would have never made it here in one piece.

The place he found was very peculiar to say the least. In the middle of a scarce vegetation, there stood a withered tree more than 30m high, he was sure that this is the biggest living being he had seen in both of his lives. And that's not the most peculiar thing, it was the small lake beside it that makes people question whether physics can still be applied here.

Because in this bone chilling weather, the lake was not frozen and is still in liquid state. And he can even see vapour rising in between a minutes. It looks like the famous Hot Spring from his past life.

Without wasting a moment he used his second spirit ring as deep black spirit ring rose from his feet and started shining brightly like a beacon in this desolate place.

"[Eternal Illusion]!"

He casted an illusion in an area of 100m around the tree making it impossible for anyone without enough mental power to ever find this place.

His [Observation Haki] is having a growth spurt as it continued to increase. He had also made his habit to keep it activated all time making it grow stronger. He can now easily cover an area of 500m in all directions.

After casting the illusion, Tang Ming slowly advanced toward the tree as he too was not sure whether it was just a tree or a plant type spirit beast. The tree looked like it has came straight out of those horror movies he had seen in past. It was extremely withered without a single leaf and all its branches has turned black.

It's main trunk is as thick as three metres, while it's branches looked like a dense spider-web.

He reached the tree and touched it. It looked like it has already died as the tree trunks and bark are extremely dry. He focused his [Observation Haki] in the tree and was shocked to find that it still has a little life force circulating in its inner trunk. It was so little that he wasn't even able to perceive it if he had not focused totally.

He then again looked at the tree. He didn't know what happened to make it like look like this. But seeing as it was going to be his new home from now on, as a show of respect, he pulled his Monkey Wine Gourd.

The only thing he didn't like about having a good type martial spirit is the need for a chant. He can only use the spirit ring ability of the Monkey Wine Gourd by chanting. But he was atleast happy that his incantation is not as embarrassing as Oscar's.

He held the Monkey Wine Gourd in his hand as he muttered the chant in a barely audible voice :

" Me, your grandpa Monkey has a healing wine."

As he chanted a black spirit ring rose from his feet and merged in the gourd.

He first opened his mouth and gulped some of the wine before pouring atleast a litre of it around the tree's visible root. Normally his wine is mellow yellow in colour like that of honey and tastes sweet like a mixture of many fruits.

But when using his first spirit ring, the wine's colour changes from yellow to a bright green like those of HP potion in RPG and tastes like sweet herbal medicine.

As soon as he poured the wine, it was immediately absorbed and the little life force the tree has increased significantly.

Looking at how ginormous the tree is he was sure that in its prime it must have been atleast a hundred thousand year old spirit beast.

After eating some jerky he had prepared, he laid on one of the upper branches of tree with his hand behind his head and enjoyed the scenery in peace.

He had already changed his clothes to a training one. After resting for an hour he slowly fell asleep.

What he didn't know was that the dead tree which looked like it will die anytime soon, now started emitting a dim green light. The healing wine has only now started to show it's effect as the dead branches of the tree soon sprouted a single green leaf filled with vitality. Soon the whole tree has started recovering as some leaf here and there started appearing all around the branches.

The tree as if it's conscious started making its branches with green leaves surround the sleeping Tang Ming, slowly moving his body from the dead branch to the one with leaves, as if trying to comfort him and show it's gratefulness.

Soon the night came and everything turned peaceful once again.

In the morning.

Tang Ming slowly opened his eyes as rays of sunlight shined upon his eyes making him cover his eyes. But he was soon left shocked as tree branch suddenly moved between him and the sun as its leaves blocked the sunlight disturbing him.

Tang Ming immediately stood up from his place and jumped down. He then moved a little away from the tree and was left flabbergasted from what he saw.

Where is the dead tree of yesterday?

In the span of just one night, the tree which looked like its life force would be extinguished any minute now has a life force brimming with vitality. Even though it hasn't recovered fully, but it was already halfway there.

He then looked at his Monkey Wine Gourd and can't help but feel a little stiffles inside.

'Who would've known that a single litre of my healing wine can really cute the tree. I thought it was just boasting when it said it can return anything to life even if it was extremely close to death.'

He was now sure that the tree was a plant type spirit beast as all of its branches has arrived in front of him. One with particular green leaves came near him and caressed his cheeks with its leaves.

Even though all of it was just an accident, Tang Ming was extremely joyful. For the first time in his six months of training he won't be alone. And this was also extremely beneficial for his future plans to reside in the extreme north.

Suddenly an idea came into his mind as he pulled his spear from his back. Suddenly seeing the spear in the hand of Tang Ming, the branches with the leaves flinched a little as they pulled back. Tang Ming didn't say anything and just smiled as he can somehow feel the complex emotion from the tree.

He didn't waste any more time and swung his spear in a full circle around the tree with high speed. An outline appeared around the tree in a radius of ten metre before the snow in the area shattered into pieces and disintegrated.

Now a hole of 10m wide with one metre depth surrounded the whole tree in its entirety.

He didn't waste anytime and pulled his Monkey Wine Gourd as he chanted :

"I, your Grandpa Monkey has a healing wine."

After that he started pouring the wine in the tree roots without any limit untill he filled the whole pit with healing wine.

Knowing that it has misunderstood Tang Ming's intention its branches again slowly appeared in front of him and surrounded itself around his body as if trying to hug him in embrace.

He then suddenly heard an extremely melodious female voice in his ears with full of gratitude.

"Thank you for saving me..."