For the next few days, Chen Xuan did nothing. He had no need. He gathered all the life energy he needed from the spiritual spring below, having no need nor desire to control the ants for a meager amount of energy.
One day, just a few days before another breakthrough, Chen Xuan felt a faint tremor in one of his roots.
One of his roots to the north felt a very faint trembling, just beyond a few trees and out of sight.
The faint trembling slowly grew stronger; although it was only relative, the trembling was still extremely faint.
Looking to the north, Chen Xuan watched as a small wolf emerged from the tree line. The wolf was about 1 meter in total, from mouth to tail.
The wolf was light grey, looking almost white, while its eyes were a piercing amber color, its gaze unfriendly and wary.
Originally, Chen Xuan would have been wary of this wolf. However, right now, Chen Xuan wasn't scared. He wasn't wary. He wasn't worried.
This was because the wolf, however terrifying, was limping with blood dripping down its thigh.
The blood originated from a deep wound in its upper thigh, appearing to be a puncture mark in the shape of teeth, with two main puncture marks likely from the canine teeth of whatever bit it.
Along with the bite mark, its hind leg had some shallow claw marks across its body, from the top down the opposite leg.
Chen Xuan watched curiously as the wolf stumbled forward, evidently searching for a place to recover.
As it stumbled forward, it saw Chen Xuan but wasn't scared or cautious, thinking it was just a normal tree.
As the wolf stumbled forward, it collapsed just a few meters from Chen Xuan, lying on the ground whining softly, its eyes closing slowly.
Chen Xuan watched from the sidelines, his mind whirring as an idea formed.
"Worthy of a try..."
He muttered before creating a low sound using one of his branches, smacking his trunk with a branch and startling the wolf.
Its piercing amber eyes opened, looking at the source of the sound. The wolf, however, was unable to do anything; it didn't make any move to get up, its mind already hazy and its body fatigued.
As it looked up, Chen Xuan activated his blue flower, making it bloom. As the wolf saw and smelled the blooming flowers, it instinctively resisted, its body trembling as it felt its mind cloud further.
Despite its resistance, it couldn't last long. After a few minutes, Chen Xuan formed a faint and weak connection to the wolf. Right after the wolf was hypnotized, it immediately passed out, going into a deep unconscious state.
Upon forming the connection, a wide smile formed on Chen Xuan's face, even despite the slight pressure he felt.
The pressure from forming the connection to the wolf was about the equivalent of less than 5000 ants he had controlled previously.
Ding
All requirements met
- Tier 2 cultivation
- Controlled conscious creature
Reward: Blossom Crest
The sudden ding that had sounded from the system surprised Chen Xuan. However, at this moment, Chen Xuan wasn't able to read the full notification, briefly skimming over it before turning his gaze back to the wolf.
The wolf lay dying on the dirt beside Chen Xuan. Getting to work quickly, Chen Xuan reached down with some branches, carefully picking up the wolf with a cradle of branches and setting it down just at the base of his tree.
Quickly getting to work, Chen Xuan brought a thin branch slowly to the wolf's puncture wound, carefully inserting a branch, being careful not to touch any of the flesh.
Observing any injuries inside the wound, Chen Xuan only noticed a few veins cut, causing him to sigh in relief.
Carefully pulling out his branch, Chen Xuan brought a small root to a small puddle of water within a rock nearby his trunk base that had formed from the recent rain.
Washing his root carefully, Chen Xuan did his best to disinfect the small branch.
Once the water was all dried up, Chen Xuan brought his small twig-like branches over to the wolf.
With intense focus, Chen Xuan carefully cut one of his branches, which soon started leaking a few drops of tree sap. The tree sap within his branches had a vibrant life energy, so Chen Xuan was hoping that it would be effective on some wounds.
Carefully inserting the branch, Chen Xuan layered some tree sap onto the veins that were pierced, covering the slits and tears on their surface.
This process was very slow as Chen Xuan tried his best not to move much inside the wound.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Chen Xuan pulled out the cut branch before bringing some of the other small branches to the outside of the puncture.
"Those TV shows had better have been accurate," he muttered before piercing the skin of the wolf, carefully weaving in and out of the wolf's body and creating a makeshift stitch out of his own branch.
Once done with the stitches, Chen Xuan used another of his bigger branches to saw off the small branch used to make the stitches.
With that, the stitches made from the tree branch were finally done, stopping most of the bleeding for now.
Now that Chen Xuan was done with the stitches, he relaxed and brought his branches back to their normal positions.
"It's all up to fate, little bud," Chen Xuan muttered as the wolf lay at his base, just in the shade provided by Chen Xuan's crown.
Chen Xuan made sure the wolf was as comfortable as it could be as it slept. Once done with that, Chen Xuan turned his gaze to the system panel, wanting to find out what that previous 'Blossom Crest' was.
Name: Chen Xuan
Crown Radius: 4.9m
Trunk height: 3.8m
Root Radius: 8.2m
Trunk diameter: 0.76cm
Cultivation: Tier 2 - lower
Life energy: 4.65 / 6 (77.5%)
Life energy Capacity: 6.6
Skill points: 0
Abilities:
- Blossom Crest - level 1
Curious, Chen Xuan wasted no time in pressing the Blossom crest in an attempt to get a description from it, which it luckily provided. Once clicked, the Blossom Crest expanded to the whole page.
Blossom Crest - Level 1
Max Crests - 1
The Blossom Crest is a Crest of the shape of a flower blossoming. The use of this crest is to be burned into a follower, once this is done, the follower will have an undying loyalty to the host.
Requirements:
- Host must be high enough soul level
- The crest must be burned into the head of a follower
- The follower must be willing / unable to resist
Activation: The seal is in the hosts mind and just has to be called out.
Looking at such a strong ability, Chen Xuan immediately looked to the wolf beneath him.