TLDR: A fantastic novel about a childish world tree growing up slowly and becoming a very important tree in the Cosmos. Its slow going but moves forward almost every chapter. Either pushing the plot or expanding the world in bit sized pieces. It will feature a harem, yuri, futa, dark moments, sweet moments, sad moments and a system every creature has access to. Mortrexo's writing has grown a lot since their first novel and it shows here.
---Possible minor spoilers ahead---
A little over 110 chapters and this story is really starting to come together and look to be just as fantastic as Heaven. Earth. Me Mortrexo's first novel. As their second novel this one has improved quite a bit over their first. Things don't feel quite as rushed as the beginning of HEM. That also slows this novel down a bit in comparison to HEM. But, well it's about a tree what can you expect? Despite feeling a little slow the story makes progress and the world is slowly expanding. As Liu Shu and those around her try to establish themselves in the forest she was born in.
The system used in this novel is quite well done and the breakdown of stats; tiers, item levels, levels and power balance are pretty straightforward with some twists. These twists seperate the talented from the untalented, the weak from the strong and the strong from the strongest.
The system is more like a game interface everyone has access to, this quantifies the power of creatures but, doesn't necessarily add power to them its more giving numerical representation to mana levels, skill costs, health points and the like.
Just because a character doesn't have a certain skill doesn't mean they can't try something. It's a very intuitive system for any fan of RPGs. There are certainly some broken skills to begin with but, they will become less overpowered as time goes on while still being useful. There are some interesting rules built I to the system too which I will not go into here. I do feel sorry for Mortrexo having to keep detailed spreadsheets to track each living creatures stats, skills, shards and resistances as well as the changes from level to level.
The relationships have developed in quite a funny and interesting way. Tian Lian Liu Shu (main character a world tree) and her Sylven friends (possible harem members) are all very young and inexperienced with relationships, the Sylvens are quite the devoted type when they fall in love too, so take that as you will. The love interests are all female with other side characters like Flor possibly having there own relationships along side the MC's.
Due to the main character being a tree I was worried about how the world will grow and expand with a stationary being. This is one thing I will commend Mortrexo for in this story, it is also the reason this story feels slow. Events take time to come to light outside the forest Liu Shu's in and in some cases take sometime for the fallout of those events to reach Liu Shu's grove.
Mortrexo has done an amazing job having Liu Shu affecting the surrounding area she occupies, while not being able to move. The other characters like Flor, Cinderielle, Ariel and Verdantia provide a much needed education to Liu Shu and make it feel that, although Liu Shu is the MC the world moves on without her direct intervention in events.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing how Liu Shu grows and helps those around her to become stronger too. Also how a tree gets its roots from one world to another?
