Root Maker: Tree Cultivation

Chapter 5: Earthbound



Leaf was surprised when he first met his new sister- She was beautiful, of course, but she also felt very dangerous to him. She was adorned in a black veil of death that made her very essence, she was like a beautiful but deadly flower. His father also told them "Get along well, for while you, Leaf, help me spread Nature Qi alongside your siblings, Lily will help me get rid of the Death Qi beneath the earth so the Nature Qi can spread beneath the soil." Leaf easily accepted such a thing while his father began to remove the Death Qi from beneath the soil, but he also started making more helpers, more siblings. But this time, they were like Lily! They were born from these small black beads that blossomed into small flowers, but from them were born things that could only be described as undeads.

The skeleton of a cat that moved like a puppet, being a marionette and the Death Qi being the strings, while the puppeteer was his father, who controlled the dead skeleton cat into helping his sister Lily before teaching her how to control these new siblings they had, just like Leaf could control his other siblings. Leaf did not mind that his father's attention was on his new sister, in fact, he was more than happy to have a new sister! But he was given a task by his father, and such a task was to be completed. He used his sword, [Thorn of Pain and Protection], to fight against a small Demonic Beast that took the form of an ant. This thing was in the Qi Gathering realm, at the 1st Realm, but that wasn't the problem. 

The problem was that Demonic Beasts have Demonic Qi, a corrupting Qi that burns. As he used the surprisingly sharp tiny wooden sword to hit the ant, he felt the ant lash out with a technique he saw many others of its species use- Demonic Qi gathered around its large pincers as it bit towards him, he floated backwards and easily dodged the attack from the ant, but such technique gave him the idea of doing the same! He wrapped his Nature Qi around his sword before floating towards the ant, hitting it with the sword while focusing on what his dad had told him- "Leaf, Nature is everywhere, Nature is life, but Nature is also a natural disaster. Nature is ruthless and aggressive. Be like nature." His Qi surged wildly, lashing out against the ant in a surge of power that exploded upon impact against the Demonic qi of the ant. The explosion was minimal, but it happened, destroying the carapace of the giant ant.

Oh, right. This "ant" had the size of a cat. There were bigger ones too.

He could feel that he was getting somewhere with this basic technique- He felt like he could, maybe, create something with this.

Year 10, Day 12

[Status]

Name: Root

Species: Spirit Tree

Cultivation Root: Nature [Heavenly Pure Quality]

Age: 110 years

Qi Realm: Core Formation (2nd Stage)

Special Achievements: 

[Crafter]

[Death Conqueror]

Skills - 

F RANK: [Flower Make]

F RANK: [Silk Make]

E RANK: [Hibernation]

D RANK: [Wood Make]

A RANK: [Seed Make]

S RANK: [Purification]

S RANK: [Pain Resistance]

Techniques - 

F RANK: [Tree Breathing Technique]

B RANK: [Mycorrhizal Network]

B RANK: [Root of Knowledge]

A RANK: [Twilight Qi Conversion Technique]

Sect - Spirit Forest Sect

Great Ancestor: Root [Core Formation (2nd Stage)]

Sect Master: Leaf [Qi Gathering (3rd Stage)]

Members: 

Lily [Qi Gathering (1st Stage)]

Unnamed Lesser Nature Spirit (×12,746,870)

Unnamed Lesser Death Spirits (×112)]

Inventory - 

SSS Rank: Tea of Heaven (Recipe)

Root had an idea about this sect of his… What if he made several sections of his sect that focused on one type of Qi? Let's call them branches. The Nature branch could be led by Leaf, while the Death branch is led by Lily! 'I need more children.' Children of different types of Qi! His skill [Seed Make] upgraded after he made Lily, so he thought about it before gathering a bunch of earth Qi and using his skill [Seed Make] to make a seed full of Earth Qi and a little of Nature Qi. "Leaf, Lily, come witness the birth of your brother." The two spirits stopped what they were doing as they floated towards him- Leaf had stopped fighting ants and was trying to come up with a sword technique, while Lily was gathering the Death Qi from the soil and cultivating with it. She was also using her lesser siblings as batteries to store the Death Qi from the earth beneath, making Root oddly proud of her. The two floated over towards him- ah, right. 

They started wearing clothes too.

Leaf had this long green robe with soft cherry blossom flowers embroidered along the sleeves while Lily had a similar robe, but black with red embroidery in it. How did they get these clothes? Easy! He made them.

[Silk Make

Rank: F

Description: You can use Qi and turn it into silk, depending on the qi, the silk has different properties.]

He learned that, in fact, he could make skills himself. It was hard to do so, he had to analyze a spider for three whole days to know how they made their silk- This type of spider was a very small black thing that could make silk with Demonic Qi, he just copied what it did for three days before he managed to make the technique. After that he learned that he could control qi into whatever he wanted before converting it into silk and weaving it into robes! He spent another two days making these beautiful robes, but his technique with weaving got better the more he kept working on it. 

"Father." Greeting him, Leaf floated like an immortal beside him- Although he was smaller than even a cat! His long green hair was tied firmly with vines that had flowers growing on them, giving him this peaceful look. Soon, Lily floated beside her brother, her long black silk smooth hair floated independently from her body, making her look hauntingly beautiful. "Father." A small smile grew on her blood red lips, a great contrast to her paper white semi translucent skin. "Your new brother is going to be born." From the deeply brown seed, a small gem started to grow, and from the gem another spirit appeared- Similar to both of them, yet very different. He was broad, his skin was a light brown while his hair was made out of crystals, his muscular body had these lines of golden energy that flowed through them too! With a pop, the crystal flowers he came from opened as he fell to the ground, blinking- His eyes were also crystals, but instead of the pale yellow crystals that were his hair, his eyes were deep sapphires. 

"Hhugh…" Groaning, he held a hand to his head before shaking his head right as Root used a bit of his Nature Qi to check if he was hurt, but found no damaged to his physical form. He just sent a small "Hello, Ahteus." Ahteus, the Earth Spirit, looked over at him and said: "Old man?" The new spirit smiled widely- His teeth were quartz shards: "Hi!" He looked over at his siblings floating in the air, he looked a bit confused: "Uhm, hi?" 

"These are your brother and sister- Leaf and Lily, you are the youngest right now." Root spoke as he watched Ahteus try to float as well, trying to imitate his siblings, only to fail. 'Huh, interesting.'

[Status]

Name: Ahteus

Species: Earth Spirit

Cultivation Root: Earth, Nature, Death, Gold [Poor Quality]

Age: 0 Years

Qi Realm: Qi Gathering (1st Stage)

Techniques -

F RANK: [Earth Spirit Cultivation]

F RANK: [Earth Spirit Burrowing]

E RANK: [Spirit Sight]

He can't float. Earth Qi is grounding, it is stable, it can't make one float like the others can- A Death Spirit is like a ghost, and a Nature Spirit? They are light like the air! But Earth Spirits? They are hard as stone, able to resist many attacks, but they sadly cannot fly. "Daad… I can't float!" Root admits he felt a little bad for his little one, the stress he felt was real. "Little Ahteus, you cannot fly." Seeing and feeling the sadness in his new boy, Root quickly explained: "But you can do something none of your siblings can. You can burrow, you can burrow beneath the earth so easily that none of your siblings could even dream of catching you." It worked at least, because Ahteus felt a little bit better. "Anyways, take this my child- You are not to be naked right now." He was rock hard- Okay, that joke was fucking terrible. 'Oh gods, I'm really a dad- I can feel the dad jokes overwhelming my spirit!' Root kept the perfect poker face, by not having one. He quickly used his gathered Earth Qi and weaved it into an earthly brown robe with small gems embroidered into it.

Ahteus quickly wore it before looking back at his siblings who were above him, so he kicked the ground and a pillar of earth raised him to their level. "Hah!" If he can't float, then he'll throw himself to them! 

"Ahteus, Lily, I'll trust you both with working on cleansing the soil from Death Qi. Ahteus, listen to your sister and help her thoroughly, don't make trouble okay? I'll be working on gifts for the both of you." At the mention of gifts, both Lily and Ahteus looked excited. They quickly excused themselves, with Lily walking upon the ground for the first time since her birth to be closer to her brother. Root felt proud of how his children got along well. "Leaf." Seeing his oldest son lost in thought, Root called him out: "What troubles you, my little one?" 

"Ah, sorry father." Leaf shook his head: "I feel like I'm almost making something, but I can't put my finger on it… My sword technique is going to be like Nature-"

"Leaf." Stopping him, Root knew exactly what his son needed- Inspiration. "Come closer." He floated closer to him, so Root started to share what he knew of nature with his skill [Root of Knowledge]. He showed Leaf many natural disasters: Hurricanes, Volcanos, Tsunamis, Mega Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Meteor Showers, Lightning Storms, Fire Storms, Forest Fires, and even a Whirlpool! When he pulled his root of qi back into his body, he saw how his son looked both terrified and enlightened at the same time. "It is good for you to have a vision of what your future will be, my son, but focus on the now. You do not have enough strength to do what I just showed you, so cultivate by my canopy, amongst my leaves. That's what you'll do today, and nothing more." Nodding but still lost in thought, Leaf floated to his canopy, where he sat down and began to cultivate with the Excellent Nature Qi his father was giving him.

Meanwhile, Ahteus and Lily were both working on removing the Death Qi from around their father. Ahteus was thinking about building something for his dad while Lily was focused on absorbing the Death Qi she could get- Her father did tell her that he could purify that qi for her, but she felt like she needed to at least have a little bit or else she'd explode from the too pure Qi. Death Qi is different from Nature Qi, the purer it is, the deadlier it is, so she couldn't cultivate with Death Qi too pure or she'd die, even if she is made of some pure Death Qi! 

"Ahteus, help me move this rock, please." Her brother quickly came to her help, and she smiled. Her little brother was adorable. He looked like a tough gangster (She learned this word from her father, not sure exactly what it meant, but she had an idea of what it could be) but was a sweetheart. 

They worked together easily, cleansing the earth from the Qi of Death, and as they did, grass started to grow from where the earth was clean. It was beautiful, because flowers soon started to blossom as well! "Hey, Lily- When can I get helpers too?" Looking at her little helpers, Ahteus asked. "You can ask our father to help you get some." 

Oh, for his idea to come true, Ahteus would need as much helpers as he could! 


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