Exiled Clan

"Ah! It doesn"t even resemble its past lively self." Rudra muttered looking at the desolate courtyard of the manor, remembering the first months of his life that he had spent here after coming here. Also the lifetime memories of Rishi who had turned old here.

"It is fortunate that all of us moved, If not, I wouldn"t even be sure what to do if a bunch of demon cultivators showed up at our doors!"

Feeling bored by himself, Rudra fixated his wooden legs into the floor of the back courtyard of the manor. His roots started spreading out and all around the manor, he felt the trees and crops that the Giri clan had planted the year before they had moved out, though left unattended these crops and trees were still in great shape.

"Hmmm, the demonic energy is taking a toll on them!"

Rudra plonked his feet out of ground detaching from the roots left inside the ground.

He felt the loneliness and the sorrow emitted by these trees, feelings of being abandoned, and the dread of their eminent death was what Rudra felt emanating from these plants.

"You have been here a long time my friend, looking over my family!" Rudra caressed the trunk of an old almost ancient Oak Tree present in the back garden.

The tree was surrounded by different flowers, as the Giri clan did not own an orchid they only had 20 or so trees under their lands most of them were for seasonal fruits like Mango or Guava, some of them were medicinal like the Neem and others, as they did not have a Spiritual farmer in the clan, they could only grow specific mortal crops and herbs.

Rudra wandered around the whole plot touching every single tree, trying to explore its feelings, the odd Dragon Blood Tree, the slender Willow tree, the majestic banyan tree present the distance from the manor, near a small artificial pond which was made with the help of the villagers from the now-abandoned town near the Dim Pearl lake.

Large fields of corn and potatoes some rose and lilies and the lotuses growing in the pond along with a tree in the middle of all the farms.

A single beautiful purple Wisteria tree, Rudra remembered Roebuck"s lover had planted it before she pa.s.sed away. Rudra seemed to feel a special connection with these trees in the area as if they were familiar with him, and were calling out to him.

"All of these trees will die, unable to cope with the change in the environment." The demonic energy would eventually sap these trees and plants out of their life, killing them.

Rudra suddenly felt sad at the realization, feeling depressed at the fate of the trees he returned back into the manor.

"It appears being an Ent is getting to me! I am feeling sad for some trees!" Rudra muttered,

A ruffling of leaves sounded as the wooded area near the chest of Rudra"s body started to unwind and opened up revealing a hollow cavity inside were two s.p.a.ce rings lay.

Rudra used his thick woody fingers to pick a ring out as he used his spiritual energy to take out a thick Manual with the cover of a demon head with four horns and an undead skull.

"Exiled Demon Sutra!" Rudra said as his green almost ethereal eyes peaked from inside the brownish wooden cavity.

Rudra flipped the page to the section where he had learned the Ent Body technique, reading the whole thing again.

The Ent Body had 5 stages and after the fifth stage, the Ent will evolve into an Elder Ent which later evolved to Ancient Ent.

"I am already a third stage Ent, let"s see some of the techniques that I can learn!"

Reading through the common techniques he had been familiar with, these were the techniques he had used in the fights before,

[Wood Lance] [Needle Blades] [Leaf Dragon] [Root whips] and the strongest technique [Overgrow] Rudra had used this to take down the Vulture Camp.

And other pa.s.sive abilities of the Ent body like being able to feel the trees and forest, and the ability to absorb life force from the trees.

[Wood Dragon] is the new powerful technique that Rudra was currently reading, the whole night pa.s.sed as Rudra read through a bunch of techniques usable of the Ents up to the 5th stage.

[Chopping Wood Axe]

[ Pitcher Trap]

[Wood Serpent]

[Swaying Flowers]

[Wooden Armor]

[Illusion forest]

Rudra learning these techniques was baffled at the conditions of some techniques that required his Ent body to have some side specialization attributes like illusion or poison to learn certain techniques.

"It looks like my ent body was the most general type with no special attributes. I can learn the most orthodox Ent techniques and not one of these any ones."

Rudra said reading the [Poison Thorn] technique which required his Ent body to have an affinity for poison.

Sitting on the ground he continued reading the manual for the next whole day or so,

"An Elder Ent can help turn normal trees into spiritual trees, a demonic Elder Ent could similarly change trees and plants to the demonic variant, even growing consciousness is possible for an Elder Ent if he has enough Demonic Wood Energy!" Rudra commented closing the Sutra, as he quickly put it back into the ring which was then carefully placed inside the hollow cavity from before.

"All the more reason to move out now, Eh!" Rudra said turning to look at the plants in the manor and around it.

"Don"t worry I will help you all turn to Ent like me even if I have to fight for my life!" Rudra pledged still unsure if it was his true feelings or the Ent body that was making him think like that. But the idea of having Ent subordinates was making him all excited.

"Hehe.... he.... don"t blame me, demonic friends, it"s just a minor wooden essence that I require to advance and help my fellows advance, I hope it won"t be too much!" Rudra laughed on the way as he moved his thick woody legs exiting the manor and entering the Tranquil forest once again.