Human Body

After Mark's spirit was merged with a plant, which can also be said that he became a plant, he spent most of the time half asleep as he did not need to think or do anything. He instinctively absorbed QI and did not have to do anything else. He didn't even need water or sunlight anymore due to his cultivation level. Sometimes Mark would familiarize himself with the wind and the earth element and practice to control them. Initially, he had also tried to absorb water and light. Due to him being a plant who has interacted with water and light for many centuries, he quickly also became proficient in controlling the water and light element. His life continued like this for many years where he sometimes thought about his previous life but soon also stopped thinking about that.

After more than 100 years, suddenly Mark felt like he had broken down a wall that was blocking him. This feeling was accompanied by a boost in his strength as he felt a surge of power through him. Soon thunder clouds started to form.

'Huh? What is happening today? I feel like I have become stronger but what is with these clouds? I have never seen clouds here. It doesn't rain, snow, or become windy but today after who knows how many years clouds are forming? I am starting to think that I was actually transported to another world. Then this might be the heavenly tribulation? Let's go through it.'

As the clouds started darkening and releasing sounds like growls, Mark radiated an aura of confidence and excitement. Soon, thunderbolts started to rain down and hit exactly where Mark was. Mark used the earth to form a shield above him to disperse the lightning but the shield soon broke due to the penetrative power of the attacks. The lightning bolts started hitting him and his leaves started to fall and burn. Mark knew that he would not be able to endure if this continued, so he used water to disperse the strength and air to change the path of the bolts. This strategy worked but was still not enough for him to be safe. Having no other option, he stopped all of his tricks and let the lightning fall on him. This was a high risk move that he had planned as the last resort the moment his shield was broken. He planned to use the bolts to understand the lightning element and thus be able to change the direction of it. As he tried to understand the lightning, his leaves and stem continued to damage and burn. He soon started to grasp the understanding of lightning. It was easier for him due to his scientific knowledge and the experience of the heavenly tribulation.

When he had some understanding of the lightning bolts, he started using it to try to change its course with the help of wind. He then collected the water present in the ground around him to form a barrier of sorts to disperse the charge in different directions, and lastly he kept building and injecting his QI in the shield made up of earth everytime it got destroyed.

After 15 minutes, the clouds started to disperse and the tribulation finally stopped. As all the smoke and dust cleared, a plant with barely any leaves and half brown in color could be seen.

Mark had succeeded in his tribulation.

'Fu*k, I really thought that this was my end. It would be really annoying to have a second chance in life just to end up dying after 100's of years of boredom. My body is half destroyed, I'll need to spend some time recovering. If this is how bad tribulations are, how do people even survive it? Hmmm, I'll sleep for some time.'

Actually, such strong tribulation rarely occurs and it was not due to the increase in Mark's strength but the chance to change the body in the cellular level. He could now change his form to any living thing, he just needed to understand the creature and he could become that organism. This was a chance given to all the plants, artifacts and pills after they develop their own spirit as their original body is not suited for the cultivation path and can only be used to help others.

–10 years later–

Mark had fallen asleep due to his injuries while his body recovered. He slowly woke up one afternoon after his body had completely recovered. What he did not know yet was that a surprise awaited him.

*Yawn*

'Feels like I have recovered now. Huh? Did it take me 10 years to heal? I thought that it would only take around 5 years. Never mind, what is 5 or 10 or even 100 years.'

Mark had developed a habit of removing all the water around him in the soil every 50 years as he did not need water anymore and it would get damp. Because of this, he was also able to keep track of time as every time the same amount of water would accumulate.

After seeing the time it took to heal, he went ahead to check for any remaining or permanent injuries, but what he saw left him baffled.

"Wha…., the fu*k? One second, this body is not a plant anymore but a human? It even looks like my earlier self. The shit is happening? Not only is my figure of a human, but I am using my mouth to shout right now and I can even see. Shiiiiiitttttttt. Heck yeah. Yeaaaahhhhhh."

"I can hear the waterfall, though I knew it was there, it feels so much better to hear and see it."

Mark rushed towards the waterfall. When he tried to run, he stumbled and fell face-first on the ground. Although he had gotten his body and knew how to run, due to not using his legs for so long. He somehow half crawled and half ran to the waterfall. His face reflected on the water below the waterfall. His face had not changed at all from his past appearance. The same brown eye, the same nose, the jawline, except for his hair. It was instead green in color with small leaves growing on it.

Mark directly jumped in the waterfall as he had not taken a bath for a long time. The water was shallow and was filled with QI. It felt like a QI waterfall. It was so rich that as soon as he touched the water, he felt power surge through his body. Mark then tried to use his QI while taking a bath to change his hair color and not have any leaves on it. While changing his hair, he realized something that almost drowned all the excitement he had felt till now. His QI quality had decreased by half. The only thing that he had done for a few centuries now was to increase his QI quality, and now seeing it reduced hurt him, but after thinking about it, he stopped thinking about this. His QI quality and quantity reduced as it took half of his cultivation to change his whole body. This was also the reason why the fountain had such a strong effect on him.