Cultivating Plants

It didn't take long for Xochipilli to figure out how the Heartgrowths worked. The answer was practically given to him from everything he knew of the dryads and Aloe once he grew some specimens.

He was worried that they might not be getting enough nutrients, so he planted a Radiating Undergrowth himself – one of the worst decisions of his life, those fungi needed tens of thousands of Haya to be grown through the forced growth technique – so the Heartgrowths got enough light. But his fears were mostly unfounded as the soil was incredibly rich this close to the World Tree.

Soon the underground laboratory was filled with pulsating organs.

"What a… gruesome sight," Josephine had commented once she passed by. He was seeing her less and less as of late as she had personal duties to take care of and he was also busy with his experiments.

"They are plants," he nonchalantly commented.

"Plants can also be gross, monsieur," she stated plainly.

"I guess," the Prince of Flowers shrugged. "I guess I've been living amongst them for far too long to find them gruesome."

"I do not find them gruesome either, my liege," the disembodied voice of Shinobiyorutsurai announced. In reality, she was slithering through the ground like a snake in her vine form.

Josephine gave him the most tired gaze Xochipilli had ever seen in his life, one that spoke louder than words.

"Thanks, Shinobiyorutsurai. But considering you are a plant yourself, I don't think it's a fair comparison."

"That is rather reductive," a mouth and dangling eyes sprouted from the farmland. "It is like saying that you are a cat just because you are a mammal."

"I would say the Prince of Flowers would be more of a dog," Josephine added with amusement.

"Veritable!" The vine dryad wiggled her extremities around.

Xochipilli cleared his throat, a hint of annoyance in his visage. "We are stepping closer to finding out the truths of Evolution that Aloe had failed to share with me."

"So you can make dryads out of these plants then?" The former assassin asked.

"That is what I'm trying to find out, but it's being quite the endeavor. Aloe herself doesn't seem to know how they… spawn. And as interesting as it would be, that would get us too sidetracked. More manpower in the shape of dryads could be useful, but not that useful. I want to focus my efforts more on hybridization, I feel like that's where the truth lies."

"An Evolution Apotheosis?" Josephine suggested.

"Sort of," he shrugged. "I have the feeling that something is waiting for me at the end of the line, but I can't say what. Calling it 'Apotheosis' is… not fully correct, but I can't deny that if that made Aloe a goddess, then it truly would be alike the Apotheosis assassins are seeking."

"Let us hope for that," the mature woman smiled warmly. "So you are not going to do anything with these…" Josephine stopped as a nearby Heartgrowths made a rather loud and wet palpitation, "…plants, monsieur?"

"Not quite, though I do have something to show you. Follow me." With a sway of his hand, Xochipilli guided Josephine back to the laboratory, and Shinobiyorutsurai followed them behind as he heard her reform her body.

The laboratory was becoming more of a mess by the day even when he had many dryads to assist him. Between the fact that he didn't need a sterile environment to work in and dryads having a different concept of dirtiness from him, the laboratory ended up looking like a damp and overgrown arboretum where plants had reclaimed a lot of space.

Josephine slightly adjusted the collar of her coat, she wore the same beige explorer set that she donned when they had met, and the dampness still overwhelmed her. Which made sense, by now she was at the age of being a grandmother – even if he wouldn't say that to her face – and she was no cultivator but a normal person.

"So," the Prince of Flowers pointed at a parterre on top of a counter. "What do you think?"

Lingering atop the soil of the parterre lay a chimeric combination of plants that slightly writhed around at the tempo of an imaginary heartbeat.

"What in the nince-damned hells is that?" Josephine brought a hand to her mouth and made a gagging gesture.

"An arm, of course!" He responded matter-of-factly.

"I can see that…" She added with an unsettled tone. "But why?"

"Well, arms are not a natural specimen of Heartgrowth so I had to assemble it…"

"I do not mean that!" The mature assassin interjected. "I am asking why you have an arm growing on the soil in the first place!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I think it is rather obvious," the druid said.

"Same," Shinobiyorutsurai nodded.

"Alright," Josephine sighed, "I can guess why you have a vegetal arm in your possession, but you are not going to do what I think you are going to do with it, right?"

"I can't read your mind… but I think we are thinking the same thing, and that's a… yes."

"Xochipilli…" She said in a near whisper.

"Aren't you the one that says that we should strive for Aloe's divinity? This is one of the required steps," Xochipilli crossed his arms. Between his lifestyle and his backlogged vitality, they thrummed with power as their toned muscles and blood vessels palpitated.

"I… yes, but your arms are perfectly fine. Throwing one of them away for an experiment… It doesn't feel right."

"It's always about feelings with you, eh?" The man clicked his tongue. "This is the way forward, regardless of what you say. And having said that…" he reached for the vegetal arm.

"Alright, alright! I get it!" Josephine raised her arms defensively. "I will not stop you, monsieur, but please… do not do such acts before me. I… have had more than enough blood in my life." The former assassin said with a nauseated look.

"Acceptable," Xochipilli let his arm drop. "Is there a reason why you came here today?" He changed the subject.

"Well… you have spent a lot of time in the laboratory and have not left for ages…"

"You care not about that, Josephine. Don't act like you do."

The assassin sighed and her shoulders dropped slightly. "You got me. I heard from the dryads what you were doing, and I was worried that Mother Nature might be able to detect it somehow."

"Your paranoia is commendable, but I thought about that already," he added with a smile. "The bustling noise of Sadina is more than enough as a smokescreen for her senses, whether hearing, smell, or vitality. And just in case she can somehow connect to the ground, I planted every plant in these laboratories in isolated parterres and pots. It might be soil from the Evergreen, but it's not connected to it. With everything I know about her, Aloe should be incapable of detecting us even this close to her."

"That… does take a weight off my back," Josephine looked relieved as she spoke, but still somewhat weighted down.

"And what was your plan if that wasn't the case?"

"I cannot say I had one, but I thought of going to Tecolata. And the ocean would certainly be defense enough."

"Tecolata, huh?" Xochipilli looked up at the Myriad lights on the ceiling, his gaze lost in thought. "My mind has been so preoccupied with her that I never… thought of going back."

"This could be your chance," Josephine reiterated.

"You're pushing the subject quite a bit," the Prince of Flowers snickered.

"What can I say…? An ocean is frankly a strong defense."

Xochipilli smelled something more going on here, just not the assassin's fear of getting detected by Mother Nature.

"The offer is tempting, but no," the druid swayed his head. "I must stay here."

Josephine let out a soft sigh in response. "It is your choice, monsieur, and I will respect it. But I personally intend to travel to Tecolata myself. I have the feeling I can understand more about Enlightenment there. And the free time might do me good."

"Is trekking the most dangerous jungle in the world free time?"

"I do enjoy my travels," the mature woman smiled. "I do have one last tidbit of information to share with you, though. The assassins have Mother Nature in their sights."

"That doesn't seem something worthwhile informing me. Aloe has crossed them a handful of times already."

"…and they might be colluding with the Caliphate," she continued.

"Oh…" He smacked his lips. "That could be… problematic."

Neither Josephine nor Xochipilli said anything else, but as they exchanged gazes, they both understood what it could mean.

"Should we… do something about it?" By all accounts, he didn't believe that the Caliphate could do anything to faze Aloe but…

"I do not believe so, Prince of Flowers. This is yet another opportunity in our favor to make Mother Nature aware of her divinity," the assassin placed a hand on top of the druid's.

"I guess so…" The more their plans involved Aloe, the less sure about them he was. Xochipilli wholeheartedly believed that the way forward was to make himself an equal and that only he should be involved. Aloe deserved her rest.

Josephine smiled at him – her wrinkles apparent – and removed the hand, not before pressing his slightly.

"You still have a few years, do not press yourself this much." Xochipilli didn't have an opportunity to counter her words as the assassin vanished into the shadows.

"Shadow anchoring is such a conversation wrecker…" The Tecolatan man sighed and looked at the ceiling, his head twisted almost to ninety degrees. "Shinobiyorutsurai, could you leave me alone?"

"Of course, my liege," the vine dryad nodded.

"Oh, and bring that Blossomflame with you on your way out."

Shinobiyorutsurai squinted her eyes in doubt and her ever-present smile trembled a bit, but she didn't say anything as she picked up the potted evolved flower and left the laboratory, closing the door behind her.

It took a handful of minutes before the Prince of Flowers moved again, now with far more Haya in his system. He switched to potency and slowly twisted his left arm by a full rotation with his passive dexterity, only to then promptly rip it out of its socket. Violent jolts of pain assaulted him and threatened him with unconsciousness even when his passive toughness was as potent as it was. Several of his teeth had cracked as he pressed his jaws closed because of potency, but that was a non-issue.

Before his wound could bleed, Xochipilli grabbed the vegetable arm and showed it into the socket. With an afterthought, he had already switched to recovery, and between the arcane doings of the Heartgrowths and his body, the two parts joined together in a handful of seconds, sowing flesh and vegetable matter together.

The few drops of blood that had fallen onto the ground were regrettable, but most still remained in his body and the cut extremity. Dislodging his jaw a bit with his passive dexterity, the druid shoved his cut arm into his mouth and gorged on his blood. The process was tedious and took quite a bit of time, but he had shoved most vitality out of his arm with the flowing stance before cutting it away, so the unavoidable losses were minimal after recovering most of his vitality.

By the end, as he drank the small pool of blood that had formed on the tray, he had only lost around twenty Haya. A treasure trove for the average person – or even cultivator – but not that significant for him.

"Ah," he exhaled after feeling his teeth finally repaired through recovery. Xochipilli sent a jolt of vitality through the arm, and as if it was second nature, the arm responded and moved as if it was the one he had lost. "Interesting…" The druid opened and closed his vegetable hand, feeling it to the full extent of his passive acuity. "Experiment successful."

Pain assaulted his being, yes, but the ecstasy of having climbed one more step closer to Aloe was unmatchable.

"It's a shame that the potency infusion I gave to the arm has disappeared now that it's part of my body, that could have been a very interesting new way of infusion… Oh well." For some reason completely unbeknownst to him, Xochipilli found himself grinning through the pain.

Divinity was at hand.