When the tree spirit had woken up from his muddled state, he was back on the bed.

Looking around, he realised he hadn’t died. He tried to move his limbs, but couldn’t. They were wrapped tightly in white cloth. The smell of herbs penetrated his senses, they were nauseating.

He felt bad.

In a while, a human dressed in dark blue came by and fed him round pills and occasionally smeared some ointment on his wounds. They quickly healed. They seemed miraculous. In less than a day, he could move his feet again.

The tree spirit should’ve been happy, but whenever he saw humans, humans with spiritual power he would shudder. He was weak, too weak. He could be killed easily by them. He hated this. He hated them. The humans he met now were ruthless, disgusting, and took a liking to torture. Nothing like the humans he had known, who were hardworking and gentle.

What he hated the most was his weak body. He’d admired the strong, and now that he was weak, he was disgusted with himself. Embarrassed that he’d screamed and cried like a child. He felt uncomfortable, he had a strange body, and couldn’t speak properly, couldn’t move freely. Without his spiritual force, he felt strangely handicapped. Even more so than when he was a tree.

He was happy when he had a physical mobile form. It meant that he could go out and go on those adventures that the old man spoke of. See the world. Ascend into an immortal. Maybe… even meet them again… and they may welcome him with open arms…

Now, he was trapped. Bounded. Useless.

What a joke.

He was a joke.

“Boy.” The door slid open and the burly man went in.

The boy shrunk back into the corner.

“We’re not done, yet are we?”

Over the last few days, he’d return to interrogate him. Whenever he found an unsatisfactory answer, he’d use crueler and crueler methods on him. He’d switched from physical to mental and internal tortures. Penetrating his consciousness, blocking his meridians, intensifying sensory pain… The tree spirit now had post-traumatic reflexes against the burly man.

“Look. Do you know what this is?” The burly man twirled a small box with his fingers, and opened the lid, within it was a disfigured lump of flesh. It wriggled around disgustingly and even made tiny gnawing sounds.

“This is nicknamed the devil’s friend. It spreads itself out in the host's body, and allows the user to control the host at will, pain, actions even the truth would be quickly spat out…” He trailed off watching the boy tremble. Each word was laced with malice.

The burly man walked closer to the child-like human, each step seemed to echo loudly in the tree spirit’s ears. He shrunk backward.

“Swallow.” He threw the box toward the child.

“Swallow it or we could continue...” He watched the small child coldly.

What choice did he have? He didn’t want to be that human’s slave, but he didn’t want to go through that mind-numbing pain.

The tree spirit held the box with trembling hands. Neither opening it nor moving it away.

“Stubborn.” The burly man began abruptly. “But a coward through and through.”

When the tree spirit heard that he’d immediately glared at the human. He didn’t like to be a coward. As if in an epiphany, he threw the box at the human and sprinted. He didn’t know what he was doing. Neither did he think things through. He just couldn’t bear that insult. The old man did say that the worst sort of cultivators were cowards. If he was one…

Of course, he was quickly recaptured.

And beaten.

But, this time no matter how harsh the torture was. He suppressed his screams. He wanted to be strong, he was not a coward.

He will not be humiliated again.

He was a proud tree spirit.

The mangled flesh was forced down his throat.

It lived in his stomach for a few days, growing at an unprecedented rate. Spreading its tiny limbs throughout the tree spirit’s sinews. Penetrating and invading.

But, by the third day, something strange happened.

The child retched and vomited a strange marble-like crystal. It was unusually clear and gave out a soft pink glow.

The burly man was there when it happened. Calmly observing at the side. As if he had known that this would happen.

He gave a cruel smile.

“Heh. You really are a tree spirit.” He stated, amused. He’d lucked out. A living panacea and distillery, the gains aren’t to be trifled with. The burly man had his doubts when he’d seen the boy’s memories with his special skill, and tested him repeatedly. The time needed for a full physical recovery even with poisonous herbs, his origins, the effects of the boy’s flesh and blood on cultivation… were extraordinary.

This was a strange tree spirit, it didn’t consume other cultivators, nor did it use vines to capture prey. This meant that it must’ve been a sort of docile healing tree spirit. Those were practically unheard of. The potential was endless. It could even remove the poison from the ‘Devil’s Friend’… and refined its core. That move was reckless, it might’ve killed the boy instead, but it had confirmed the burly man’s suspicion.

This was a priceless treasure indeed. However, this was the world of the strong. Unique treasures and skills in the open would garner unwanted attention.

Now, all he needed was to hide the boy’s true worth.

“Congratz, boy. You’ve passed. A gift.” The burly man took out a weird black collar made of some sort of spirit stones and strange engravings.

“You’re worthy to be kept as a pet.” He placed the collar onto the child’s neck and it snapped in place, and slowly seared itself into the tree spirit’s flesh.

The child mouthed in a silent scream, he clawed at his neck to no avail.

When the sizzling ended, the marks on the collar flashed brightly across his skin once, before fading into nothingness.

The burly human unlocked the shackles that the boy had worn for the past month.

“Good boy. Stand.”

As if guided by some unknown force. The tree spirit stood at the man’s command.

The burly man smiled. It was difficult getting the grade 12 slave collar. He had his ways, but they paid off. Even the most treacherous of beasts wouldn’t be able to escape its bindings.

He wasn’t a top-tier demonic sect master for show. Human trafficking was just a small side business of his.

When the tree spirit noticed what was going on, he’d exerted the full extent of his spiritual force and attacked the burly man. But his attack was quickly dispelled when it got close to the burly human, and rebounded, causing a wave of internal injuries.

“PAH!” The boy spat from the rebound. He felt like some of his meridians had burst. He shivered and curled on the floor, holding his abdomen.

“Naughty child. Attacking your master has dreary consequences.” The burly human gave a sly smile.