Tree Patriarch

Tree Patriarch is a long-form evolutionary mutation novel by the web author Zushu, serialized on Qidian from September 2013 and completed in January 2014, totaling about 1.6 million Chinese characters across 593 chapters. The story begins when an archaeological team discovers twelve giant murals in a cave, depicting a towering tree; the protagonist Qingmu accidentally activates these murals and is immediately reborn as a small sapling in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. He survives and grows in tree form, able to release vital essence that drives the surrounding plants and animals to mutate and evolve, thus embarking on a unique path of "evolution." The work uses dual narrative lines: one follows the reconstruction and transformation of Earth's ecology, showing how the protagonist takes root in the mountains, expands his territory, selectively cultivates various plants and animals to form his own "kin" group, and chooses cooperation after being discovered by human authorities, driving technological and civilizational development; the other extends to alien civilizations, other-dimensional forces, and even interstellar warfare, pulling the story from the growth of a single tree toward cosmic-scale questions of civilizational survival. The novel takes species evolution as its narrative spine, threading together resource competition, ecological change, kin cultivation, and technological revolution, using a "non-human perspective" to explore the symbiotic relationship between humanity and nature. It is a representative work in the vital-essence revival and plant-reincarnation genres, and an audiobook edition has been released.