As a Border Relic that occasionally emerged in Hell at depths beyond 20, the Jug of Tree Blood had effects that defied common reason.
Typically, Alchemists used it as a one-off crucible, more upscale and convenient than the second-hand ones Huai Shi had purchased—it was almost impeccably effective for grafting in the Domain of plant-based Potions.
It preserved the characteristics of both materials while endowing the Potion with a horrific vitality. Generally, whoever drank it would undergo plant transformation, but when used on plants, the effects were perfect.
In more lavish scenarios, it might even be used as a flowerpot in important conservation projects for prized species.
And were it to be used as a blood dialysis device, Huai Shi's vessel would be directly infused with this terrifying vitality, granting him plant-affinity traits.
And incidentally, turn him into a vegetable.
But with the foundation of a Stigmata Yin Soul, Huai Shi didn't need to worry about this outcome. With advanced materials, the evolution of the Mountain Ghost came naturally.
Not only did he acquire that surging vitality, but it also raised his starting point—a two-for-one deal.
The Raven, adhering to principles like, "It's the holiday season, everyone's dead, since we're here, life is hard, they're still a child, it's for your own good, you'll get used to it," decided to go all in and cause more chaos.
With his resistance to poison so high, he wouldn't die any time soon, so why not boldly introduce some poison...
After all, the core of the Mountain Ghost and Yin Souls lies in sharing.
With the Fear Aura formed by the Apocalypse Fog in place, what's the harm in adding a Plague Halo into the mix?
It's just that the variety of the plague needed careful selection. It had to be strong but not lethal to Huai Shi. It required growth potential, but its starting point couldn't be too low... Having received a gift from the Butcher of Heaven, Okun, the Raven simply elected to craft it herself.
Convenient and quick.
Right, just risking a failure that would send him spiraling to Heaven...
It's like not feeling the itch from too many lice. Since so many deadly things had already been done, what's one more, right?
After Huai Shi lay down, the Raven flapped her wings. An invisible force tore open a brand-new IV bag and inserted the attached tube into a blood vessel in Huai Shi's arm.
The other end was deeply wedged into the Jug of Tree Blood under the Raven's gaze.
On its wooden exterior, a face identical to Huai Shi's opened its eyes in an instant. As it was infused with streams of blood, its eyes turned a bright crimson, darting about with a shocked expression, its lips silently mouthing words.
"Mother of God, where am I?"
The Raven lip-read Huai Shi's words and shook her head helplessly. "A normal phenomenon of Source Substance flow, proving it has become a part of your body through the blood... Just lie still, don't move around."
With a flap of her wings, Huai Shi, who had been convulsing on the ground mat, lay still again.
The thick blood then began to rise slowly from the bottom of the Jug of Tree Blood, tinged with a hint of green.
As it was nearly brimming over, another tube was inserted on its left side. The connected dialysis machine began to hum deeply as it started to operate, extracting Huai Shi's blood from the jug and re-infusing it into Huai Shi's vessel.
Huai Shi felt like he was about to explode again.
Hm? Why use so many "again"?
Just as this overwhelming vitality poured into his vessel like a tidal wave, Huai Shi opened his mouth to scream, but felt his face becoming rapidly numb.
When he reached out to touch it, the sensation from his fingers was no longer that of soft flesh, but of the rough, fibrous texture of wood.
He saw it, on his own hands, as the wood grains spread rapidly along the protruding veins.
"It's starting."
The Raven looked down at Huai Shi as he slowly transformed. "Hold on a bit, don't lose your mind."
Huai Shi couldn't help but want to laugh.
Ha? Wasn't this level of pain just routine? Did it really require endurance?
Soon, he realized that more intolerable than the pain… was the itching spreading throughout his limbs, and what was more horrifying… was the crazily growing fingers and the air roots extending between them.
He froze, looking at the Raven. His hardened vocal cords struggled to vibrate, producing a sound, "I seem to have become..."
A tree.
Then he became a tree.
A human-shaped tree, unaware, frozen with an expression of astonishment.
CLICK!
As the flash lit up, the sound of the shutter clicked, leaving an image of Huai Shi's stupefied, terrified face on the Raven's screen.
"If there be someone on the mountain slopes, entwined with ivy and garlands of wisteria…"
She lifted her wings, opened the test tubes in the dry ice box, and poured the pitch-black virus entirely into the Jug of Tree Blood.
"Sweet dreams, young man."
Following the increasingly dark green blood, endless malice and despair flooded into Huai Shi's vessel… yet Huai Shi felt nothing.
He was merely a vegetative person, like a plant.
The sensation of becoming a plant was unexpectedly bizarre—so bizarre that Huai Shi began to wonder—with what organ was he thinking? Surely he had no brain left?
Without control of his physical body, Huai Shi's Soul lay within its tree-like prison, curiously looking around the darkness, then examining its own form.
Was the Soul human-shaped? Not a spherical orb of light, which seemed rather surprising.
He curiously manipulated his form, stretching it long, squishing it flat, twisting it into an S shape, then arranging it into…
After finishing his foolish antics, he started to contemplate reality.