As the sun reaches its zenith, the shadow all but vanishes, and beasts have nowhere to hide under the godforsaken sun.
Some escape in search of better shelter, while others dig furiously, burrowing beneath the sand.
Beasts clash for a place to hide, and when one falls, its blood is drunk by the victor to quench their thirst.
Smaller beasts squeeze under the carcass of larger ones, all enduring the heat as they await the fall of night.
When the sun sets, the desert cools, and life stirs once more.
Every day repeats this brutal cycle—every drop of water, every patch of shade beneath the oasis's sparse plants and jagged rocks is claimed in battle, with flame and stone elemental attacks or raw force.
Time grinds on: days become months, months stretch into years.
It is unknown when a blue ball of light rises from beneath the desert sand and hovers above, drawing in the bending moonlight. As the sun rises, it sinks back into the sand.
Then, at last, something changes. In the heart of the desert, by a small stone, the sand begins to shift.
A tiny shoot breaks through the surface, rising from the scorched earth. It glows softly, absorbing the sun's rays as they fall upon it. When the sun sets, the glow fades.
A sigh escapes from the shoot, "The power of the sun is thrice as effective as the power of the moon. But I still need the power of the moon if I want to advance to the Day Travelling realm."
The shoot vanishes beneath the sand as the blue ball of light rises once more to absorb the moonlight.
The blue light is the soul of Merin, and the shoot that had emerged under the desert sand to absorb the sun's light is his body.
Merin has been reincarnated in this world. In his previous life, he was an orphan who died from overworking.
Years ago, he was reborn with his complete memories—whether by luck or someone's intervention, he doesn't know. But one thing is certain: he refuses to die again.
Reincarnated as a seed, Merin pushed his sprout deep into the sand, searching for survival. After struggling, he finally reached the water.
The next step was to break free from the seed, but he failed. The pressure surrounding him was too great. As his life force began to fade, Merin refused to accept death. He kept trying, again and again.
Then one day, he finally understood why he couldn't emerge from the seed—and saw where he truly was.
But before he could grasp it fully, a searing pain engulfed him. Burning. In that moment, he concluded what had been happening from his memory and quickly dove back, returning to his body.
What had happened was that, as Merin tried to sprout and break free from the seed, he didn't manage to break out physically, but his soul had broken free instead. It rose above, escaping the place where he was buried, and found itself exposed beneath the scorching sun. Without the protection of his body, his soul began to burn.
As Merin's vision expanded in all directions, he saw in a full 360-degree range. Beyond that range, everything was blank. Amidst the pain, he felt a connection pulling him from beneath the sand—a connection rapidly fading. He understood then that he was in his soul form. Wasting no time, he followed the fading link and returned to his body.
He was able to make sense of what had just happened, as the experience mirrored the descriptions of out-of-body soul states during the day in many xianxia books he had read.
After returning to his body, he concluded that he couldn't sprout because he was buried too deep under the sand, making it difficult—if not impossible—to break through. If he couldn't sprout, he would die. Still, he reasoned that even if his body perished, his soul might survive and find another body to possess, which would be acceptable.
Following the principles of soul cultivation described in those novels, he waited. Hours later, under the cover of night, he emerged again in soul form and attempted to absorb the power of the moon. He didn't know how, but somehow, he succeeded. However, he had to return quickly, as the connection between his soul and his body had started to weaken.
He continued this process, leaving his body at night, absorbing moonlight, and returning when the connection grew weak. With the power of the moon, he managed to replenish his vitality.
His original goal was to sever the connection with his body and possess a beast's body to survive. But who would willingly sever the link with the body they were born into? He also didn't know whether possessing another body would have adverse effects or how much strength it would take—finding the answer would require time.
So, he used the moon's power to slowly restore himself. As days passed, he began to understand why he had been able to absorb it from the very first night.
It wasn't because of something unique about him. It was simply that when moonlight passed through his soul and reached the ground, a small portion remained within.
It was inefficient, with less than ten per cent staying inside. But it was enough to keep him alive, though not to grow stronger.
It was too risky to alter his soul without any knowledge. So, he focused on sensing the moon's power each night.
He didn't know how much time had passed. But one night, he finally started to feel the power of the moon.
Gradually, he gained some control over the moonlight within his soul. He managed to retain more of it each time it passed through him.
As his understanding of moonlight deepened, his ability to retain it improved. Eventually, he reached the point where he could hold all of it.
His soul had grown stronger. So, even if he stayed outside all night, the connection to his body no longer weakened.
But after some time, he couldn't find a way to grow stronger. No matter how much moonlight he absorbed, his strength didn't improve.
So he began sending all the moonlight he absorbed each night into his vitality. Slowly, his vitality started to increase.
Then today, at dawn, something changed. A limit broke within him, and without his control, the seed cracked.
With his newfound strength, he pushed aside the sand above. At last, he sprouted in the morning.
He felt the power of the sun pouring into his body. Staying within, he guided the absorbed sunlight from his leaves into his soul.
A slight burning sensation followed. The sun's power began refining his moonlit-filled soul.
Realising this was cultivation, he started naming each step. The first, when his soul separated from his body, he called the Out of Body Realm.
As his soul grew stronger and could levitate small stones or deceive senses, he named it the Psychic Realm. The current stage, where he travels at night, he named the Night Travelling Realm.
The next stage he foresaw, where he could move under the sun, he named the Day Travelling Realm. Each step marked his quiet, steady rise.
As he retained more moonlight in his soul, he began planning how to reach the next realm. For that, he needed to absorb a massive amount of sunlight—the more, the better—and do so faster.
To achieve this, his tree body had to grow. But he was buried in a desert, surrounded by rocky mountains that reached the clouds.
Starting tomorrow, he would have to remain close to his body while absorbing moonlight at night. The night was dangerous—beasts roamed freely, and now that he had sprouted leaves during the day, his body had become a target.
If he stayed too far from his body, he couldn't deceive the senses of beasts that might approach. And he didn't know how his soul would be affected if his body were destroyed.
So, he couldn't allow his body to be eaten. At the first light of dawn, he returned and made his body stand upright once again.
As the sunlight poured down, he guided it into his soul. When night returned, he hovered near his body and began absorbing the power of the moon.
Suddenly, he stopped. A goat with rock-like skin had wandered close to his body.
Using his soul's power, he sent waves of danger into the goat's mind. He continued until the goat let out a cry and fled, disappearing from his vision.
Any beast that entered his vision range received the same treatment. He bombarded them with thoughts of danger until they fled.
This continued day after day, until eventually, he stopped counting. One day, while refining his soul with the sun's power, he felt it was no longer enough—the sun could no longer affect his soul.
So, he extended a vine from his soul, stretching it outside his body to let the sunlight fall directly on it. He didn't pull it back right away and let the burning sensation build.
The pain increased to a bearable level, then became unbearable, and only then did he retract the vine. "Now, I can endure the sun for a few minutes," he thought.
He guided his soul out of his body and let it feel the sun's power directly. Once the pain became too intense, he quickly returned to safety.
He repeated this process day after day. Then one night, he flew around his body, curious to see what kind of tree he might be.
He hoped he wasn't a fruit-bearing tree. But at only five meters tall, he couldn't tell yet.
So he settled back down, letting the moonlight fall on his soul once more. And after some time, one day, he fell into deep thought.
An obstacle had appeared on his path to growth. His soul was growing too quickly, while his body lagged behind.
The gap in strength had widened to the point where his body could no longer withstand the pressure of his soul. If his soul continued to grow at this pace, his body would eventually collapse.
From that day on, he chose to stay inside his body and focused on controlling it. He guided his roots to spread deeper in search of more water.
When he found it, he began absorbing it to fuel his growth, together with the power of the sun and moon. His trunk thickened, he grew taller, and more branches began to sprout.
This continued for years. During that time, he stopped absorbing the power of the moon and sun to avoid further strengthening his soul.
Now his body had grown to a height of around 30 metres, with a trunk more than a metre thick, hundreds of branches, and a canopy stretching over a ten-metre radius. His roots spread throughout this pocket of the desert.
Half the beasts in the day now sought shelter under his canopy. Yet, despite all the growth, he still felt that any further increase in soul strength would cause his body to break.
He had wasted so much time without finding a solution. He began to question whether his path to increasing his body's strength was even the right one.
So far, there were no answers. Then a thought occurred to him—his soul was extraordinary, capable of lifting objects and creating illusions, but his body was just an ordinary tree.
How could he make it extraordinary? As he pondered this, he fell into deep thought.
At that moment, under his shade, a velociraptor with stone-like skin conjured a stone spear and launched it like a missile, piercing the body of a boar. The herd of velociraptors swiftly hunted down the fleeing boars.
Among them, both ordinary and extraordinary velociraptors moved together. He wondered if understanding the difference between them might give him insight.
He focused his soul power to sense deep within their bodies. Though he couldn't understand the difference yet, he knew it wouldn't be revealed in a moment.
So, he resolved to spend as much time as necessary to find what separates the ordinary from the extraordinary.
Then one day, rain clouds gathered above the desert. For the first time, he saw the sky covered in dark clouds.
It was a rare sight—a day of happiness for the entire desert. Even during the day, beasts roamed freely, no longer hiding from the scorching sun.
It was also a day of happiness for him. On this day, he finally understood something important.
He had observed a velociraptor from the moment it was born, breaking free from its eggshell, learning to hunt, and eventually becoming extraordinary. Among a hundred, only one awakened the power to conjure a stone spear.
Through his soul power, he saw every subtle change in that creature's body. He understood the full transformation from ordinary to extraordinary.
But that was just one species. To confirm his understanding, he continued his research on other beasts of the desert.
Years passed as he observed their growth and evolution. Finally, he became confident—he could now transform himself from an ordinary tree into an extraordinary banyan tree.
He didn't know for certain if he was a banyan tree, but he looked like one. After beginning his research, he stopped manually guiding his growth and let his body develop according to its genetic inheritance.
His canopy widened, vines grew from his branches and dropped to the ground, and his roots dug even deeper. Now, it was time to begin the transformation.
The first step was to gather all his vital energy in one place. He began refining it.
As time passed, his leaves started falling quickly. The branches shrivelled, weakened, and began breaking off.
The vines that once hung strong now dragged the weakened branches down. Within months, what remained was a shrivelled tree with no leaves and only a few brittle branches.
It looked dead. But then a miracle occurred.
A pressure radiated from his body, strong enough to send beasts fleeing from his canopy, even under the hot sun. The extraordinary beasts, however, stood their ground.
They roared and launched magical attacks toward him. Merin struck them with his soul power, making them whimper in pain and cancel their attacks.
Then his body began to change. New leaves sprouted.
Within a few months, he grew taller, and his canopy expanded again. But despite all this, he still hadn't become extraordinary.
It wasn't just about reshaping his body. His vitality itself had not fully transformed.
According to his research on the beasts, he needed to repeat this process twice more. Only then would he complete the first step and be ready for the second.
In a few years, he completed the final transformation. He sensed that he could no longer transform his vitality this way—something had locked it.
To reach the extraordinary stage, he now needed a key to unlock that lock. But he knew this was not the time.
After a decade of constant cultivation, he decided to rest. His mind felt heavy.
Imagining himself as human, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He didn't know if trees could sleep—ever since gaining consciousness at birth, he had never slept.
Thinking of that day, he wondered how long it had been since then. Using his soul to sense his tree rings, he counted 147.
"I'm 147 years old," he thought. "In my last life, I lived to 27—and now, I've lived 147 years without even realising it."
It seemed that after becoming a tree, his sense of time had faded. In the beginning, when gaining the ability to separate his soul, he used to count each day.
After, he stopped. He silenced his wandering thoughts and tried again to sleep.
After a while, darkness slowly spread across his vision. And then, finally, he stopped thinking at all.
When he wakes up again, his mind feels fresh, as if a heavy weight pressing down has vanished. He decides that from now on, he should sleep whenever his mind feels heavy.
With his soul strength, he scans the land around him—now, the entire desert lies within his vision. He waits for the sun to set, and when it does, a half moon rises.
He wonders if he should wait for the full moon. But then he thinks, let's try now and see if I can create the key—if anything goes wrong, my soul strength should be enough to subdue it.
He begins by sensing the fluctuations of the world around him. Then he controls his body to match those fluctuations, and once they align—
The vision of his soul changes. He begins to see all the elemental energy around him, most of it earth and moon, as expected in a desert at night.
He attracts the moon element toward him. It comes easily.
He starts circulating it within his body. The entire night passes like this, and when dawn nears, he stops.
He thought he would be able to advance in one night, but had forgotten—beasts that advance already have elemental power in their blood. Most beast species advance to the extraordinary stage with the same element, often even the same magic power.
Not sometimes—most of them follow the same path. He doesn't know what these beasts are actually called, so he names them based on what they resemble from his past life.
But he is just an ordinary tree, without any elemental alignment—perhaps wood, but nothing more. Now, he has chosen the moon element.
To become extraordinary, he must transform his vitality to contain the moon element as well. So, each night, he circulates the moon element through his body.
As the full moon approaches, the moon element in the air grows stronger. His appearance begins to change—vibrant green leaves fall, replaced by pale green leaves with a soft white shimmer like moonlight.
Thin, white vein-like lines begin forming along his trunk and branches. Then, halfway through the night of the full moon, he's forced to stop.
A conflict erupts in his body. The wood element, always hidden and dormant, becomes visible as the moon element surpasses a threshold, and the two clash. He could subdue the wood element with his soul strength and continue transforming with the moon element, but he does not.
The reason is simple—he is a tree. If he forcefully continues with the moon element alone, he has no idea what it would do to his body. He could survive without it—his soul is strong enough—but after so many years, this body has become his home in this new world. He does not want to live as just a wandering soul again.
So, if he wants to become extraordinary, he must ease the conflict. The best way is to combine the elements. He understands the moon element, but the wood element remains unfamiliar. To proceed, he must deepen his understanding of both.
Now, standing only a step away from the extraordinary, he wastes no more time. With urgency driving him, he starts sensing both elements, focusing on the knowledge they emit in each particle. He studies them for days, weeks—time blurs.
Eventually, he feels ready.
He guides the moon and wood elements to crash and merge. With his understanding and the aid of his soul strength, he combines them. The moment they fuse, a wave of relaxation spreads through his body, like a heavy burden has been lifted.
He senses something new: a door has appeared on the lock placed in his vitality. Before, he didn't know how to open it. Now, the door is clear, and the knowledge of it flows into his mind.
It is called the Mysterious Door—a door that appears when something ordinary transforms into the extraordinary. Only opening the door can make him, an ordinary tree, into an extraordinary tree. There are two ways to open it: create a key or break it down with sheer strength.
He could do either. But he chooses the first.
Drawing on his understanding of moon and wood elements, he forges a key and turns it. The door opens.
Instantly, world energy surges into his body, completing the final transformation. The door had been the final barrier connecting his vital energy to the vast energy of the world.
With his soul, he watches the transformation. The white lines along his body begin to shine. His roots burrow deeper. His branches stretch wider. His form thickens, hardens, and strengthens.
Energy even flows toward his soul, but nothing changes. His soul has already surpassed this level.
Instead, something else happens.
He finds something in his soul space that he did not find before, and he understands.
He discovers the reason he came to this world. And also a white light enters his soul, and he feels he is truly complete, and he feels the connection with his body increase. After becoming extraordinary, how he came here, reincarnated into a tree, and why it was easy for his soul to separate from his body.