The man waited until Radeon changed into the spare uniform. With the helmet on, no one could tell anything was different at a glance. The armor smelled of old sweat and metal polish.

"Stay here. I will be back quickly."

Once the guard vanished from sight, Radeon stepped away from the entrance and slipped inside the tent instead of watching the path.

His hands moved fast, collecting each type of elemental stones one by one, feeling the stored power thrum against his fingers. He packed them into his cloak, making sure they did not clack together.

His hands shoved in half the stock and put the rest above a false bottom he built in haste, using spare tent linen as a base. It was a crude attempt to buy time.

'A small trick to the eye. Better than nothing.'

He knew that the seconds, maybe minutes, they spent poking at it would be to his advantage.

When he finished, he stripped off the borrowed uniform. He wiped it down, folded each piece with care, and left it exactly where it had been.

No dust. No sweat. No trace of him clung to it.

By the time he stepped back out, it was as if he had never been there at all. A passing ghost with full pockets.

He dashed toward the captain's tent, his face had settled into the easy calm of the old first mate, strides turning loose and unhurried whenever a crowd drifted close.

Radeon slipped inside and dropped the flap fast. The captain would not be back soon, yet the elemental stones would still shine like beacons that pointed at his crime.

Sooner or later the array masters would notice what was gone. Then the search would go tent by tent.

He snatched out the pouch of copper ink and dipped the brush into its opening. His aim was clear. He would rewrite the array.

He shaped his qi into a thin blade and scraped away the lines he did not need. The array shuddered and stopped drawing energy.

Its iridescent glow flattened into a dull, hungry light that begged for elemental power. Five empty points waited along the pentagon.

Radeon set the two meter trunk in the center and paused, listening for footsteps outside.

"Let us see your stuff right now for inspection. Please cooperate," said a guard with an awkward smile, clearly forced into the task.

"Why are you doing this?" a gilded core soldier snapped from the crowd.

No rush or panic stirred Radeon's nerves. Over three thousand low grade and two middle grade spirit stones poured into the formation.

'Just in case.'

He folded his cloak quickly and threw it outside the tent itself.

His aim was to feed the wood all five elements to wake its lost potential.

The quiet array began to hum. Then the glow swallowed the power in an instant and flared, an energy burst like a breakthrough.

The other cultivators noticed at once and grew curious. Breakthroughs came hard. Any sign of one promised enlightenment to trade.

"Someone's having a breakthrough over there!"

"Quickly now! Let's have a look."

Radeon had not expected such a strong reaction, every gaze drawn toward his tent.

The trunk seemed to feel his agitation. It drank in the raging energy. Treasures and stones turned to ash as if eager to help in his desperation.

Radeon slit both palms with his knife and smeared blood over the wood like varnish, forcing it into each carved corner.

For a breath nothing happened. Then the wood shivered. As if recognizing his blood as its own, the tree sank into him. Tree and man joined as one.

Radeon's gamble paid off. The trunk was exactly what he needed, a grown cousin to the glass peaches immortal lands gave their infants so they could shape a companion artifact as they grew.

With Radeon's two meter trunk the bond could be shared to others in time, yet his blood would mark the first master forever.

But that was not why he had taken the tree at all. In a breath he was a thumb sized seedling. No presence. No weight.

Radeon made sure to press himself near the linen flaps as his body shrank. His importance gone from the world.

The change gnawed at him. He had to breathe like a plant and think like one.

The array light faded. Curious onlookers probed the tent with spiritual sense, eager to pierce the man's privacy for any scrap of information for a breakthrough.

The guards, gilded core themselves, pulled the flap aside. Duty sat on their faces. Hunger for guidance burned under it.

The moment the tent opened they saw no one inside. For a breath the crowd just stared.

Cordiality broke. They clawed at the linen walls and tore through the formation that had woven ambiance, silence, and protection.

"Move aside! I was here first!"

"Calm down. We array, the masters will test this first."

"We're the guards! Order to you all!"

In the riot of hands the little seedling was flung far from the trampled canvas. He landed wedged between two distant tents, motionless and half buried in dust.

An alert cultivator still noticed the tiny plant. He prodded it with spiritual sense, pinched the seed hard, then snorted.

"Just some weed." He tossed Radeon aside and kept searching.

The shape of a plant should have felt nothing, yet he was no true seedling. Pain screamed through his real body as if his skull lay trapped in a blacksmith's vice.

Radeon forced the roots to creep toward his cloak, only a dozen inches away. Before he could reach it an angry voice cut through the camp.

"Have you all gone insane? What does my tent have to do with you?"

The captain stormed into view, face dark. He had wanted a short sleep. Instead his tent lay flattened and filthy under a dozen boots.

The gilded core guards glanced at one another, ready to explain, then thought better of it. No one who had lived past a century was truly harmless.

Radeon took their silence as his chance. He rolled the seed body with a flicker of qi, reached his cloak, and vanished beneath it. In the shadow of another tent, where no eyes watched, he let the trunk swell back to flesh and bone.

He jogged back toward the commotion with shock painted across his borrowed face, the tent formation clasped in one hand. Every line of his stance shouted innocent confusion.

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