Root Maker: Tree Cultivation

Zhu Tei was not having a good time.

"-...What?" He asked again, just to be sure he heard it right the first time. The woman before him was beautiful, yes, but… marriage? "I want you to marry me, please." She looked forlorn, almost begging him to do so. Why? "Uhm, no thank you?" What is he even supposed to say in this type of situation? He is on the path to immortality, now that the Great Ancestor/Grandmaster of the Heavenly Spirit Forest Sect has awakened again, he was ready to cultivate to increase power! Spirit Qi is hard to cultivate, because unless you have a source of it, you need to make your own. 

Conversion of Elemental Qi is not ideal, since a great majority of the Qi used for making Spirit Qi is wasted. Zhu Tei has learned that patience is essential for cultivation, but seeing two children growing stronger than him day by day while he struggled was… humiliating in a way. 

Even more so when Hui Yang started to get arrogant about her power.

It started with her disrespecting anyone who wasn't her mother or her fellow cultivators, then it got worse and she was not even respecting him or what he said anymore, only caring for her mother. She even did very petty things, like using her Nature Qi to grow vines and trip others, making flowers very smelly or down right rotten, and even almost poisoned Yan Zhun, if it wasn't for Fire Sect Master Fiero. She got scolded harshly, but it only made her worse because she was under the branch of Nature, whose Sect Master was Leaf, the oldest and strongest of the siblings. 

"Please, I do not wish to marry that bastard-" The woman was about to throw herself into his arms, but he easily stepped out of the way letting her fall. He did not care, not because he was a cultivator and therefore better than other mortals, but because he didn't care about women. Nor men. In fact, he did not care about anything other than cultivation- Sex in itself was a concept Zhu Tei simply could not get. Why do people just do it? What do they get off of it? Pleasure? A hand can also do the same. Emotional Intimacy? Hugging and kissing can do the same! Reproduction? Well, that's one of the few things sex is good for… "-...please." Zhu Tei ignored the woman, he had no real motive to marry her nor did he want to, if she was so desperate to marry someone, then she might as well find a pig and marry him.

He is not going to marry, period. He has better things to do- Like cultivating! 

He went in the direction of the enormous tree, his branches reached out to the heavens and casted a shadow beneath it that was illuminated by only the glowing spirits. His pink petals and green leaves were an odd combination, but many mortals started calling him the Heavenly Blossom of Spring, which was a good title for the Grandmaster… He was very powerful, capable of scaring off even a whole family of Fire Cultivators, who would have an easier time fighting someone like Hui Yang, a Nature Cultivator. '...I really need to cultivate more.' He sighed heavily as he came closer and closer to the one and only Heavenly Blossom of Spring, already feeling the same pressure of his sheer presence. It was majestic and made anyone who saw it be filled with respect, fear, dread, awe, and maybe a tiny bit of hope. 

"Grandmaster." Bowing, Zhu Tei greeted the spiritual form of the tree- A tall and handsome man with long green hair, his skin was pale like Death Sect Master Lily's skin, he had gem eyes like Earth Sect Master Ahteus but the left one was bright silver like Wind Sect Master Zylph's hair and the other one was blue like Water Sect Master Namis' eyes. He had a pair of bat-like wings on his back that rested and curled into themselves, his body emanated this soft pale yellow glow, and his mouth had an endless void of ever changing color and pigment. Suddenly, his form shifted, and all the features changed, becoming others. It happened again and again, every 5 seconds he would look like one of his children just to then shift it all together and look like another one. 

It was chaotic.

"Ah, Zhu Tei." Hearing his name coming out of the Grandmaster's (Patriarch? What title would fit him better?) mouth, Zhu Tei was honestly surprised! He did not expect that trees had a good memory. "Come, it's time for me to help you cultivate… But first-" A small, parchment-like piece of paper floated before the spirit, and as he spoke so were written the words upon the parchment: "-I, [REDACTED], hereby declare- I will use my special ability [Purify] on my a member of my sect named Zhu Tei, purifying his Cultivation Root to the maximum of his capabilities, whereupon he will go through enormous amounts of pain but his cultivation will grow extremely faster. To repay such debt, Zhu Tei shall be loyal to the Heavenly Spirit Forest Sect and me, never betraying us intentionally or not. He is also not allowed to share secrets of the sect, or go against the sect, intentionally or not." The paper, now written with red letters from a floating feathery pen, floated towards him. "Sign the contract, little one, and I will bring you to heavens unseen by your eyes." 

Zhu Tei hesitated- But he picked the feather, took a deep breath, and said with the utmost courage he could gather: "I don't know how to write." 

…

"Ah, right."

Amidst the Drought, Beneath Deadly Sun

Cui Rong felt her skin brittle and crack, the sandstorm they found themselves in was harsh and unrelenting, the small pieces of sand hit their bodies with the strength of a mountain! "Hold!" Shouted Anku, the tall man was one of their additions to the group- Ah, right, let me explain.

After going in the direction Yun Chen felt the strong Nature Qi for two weeks, they found another group, this time they were larger but the majority of them were mortals who had lost their homes and were running from Demonic Beasts, trying to settle where a clan of Cursedkin resided or something similar. However, when they found their group and discovered they were about as strong as a whole clan (Mostly the Moose thing, Yun Chen called him "dad", he could destroy a mountain apparently.) they started following them. Yun Chen was too good for his own good, so he would offer help to the mortals, something which Cui Rong could not understand very well but did not criticized, for she had no power to. Every night she cultivated the Qi from the moon, but it always made her feel worse, so she stopped doing so and her body began deteriorating… Or she cultivates and dies, or she doesn't and dies. 

She chose going down on her own terms, so she cultivated every single night. 

Yun Chen also tried to heal her, but he had almost no Qi due to the Drought of the Dead… If it was time for the Boundless Bountiful then maybe he could've healed her, but sadly he couldn't. She had given up, and then came this fucking sandstorm just to make her decaying life harder! She exhaled softly as her body was covered by Yun Chen trying to protect her, then suddenly the storm started to dissipate as the large Moose (Really, what even is a moose? And why does it have four horns?) slapped his hoove upon the ground. Was he a Earth Cultivator? It seemed so, unless he understood the Dao of Earth, but that option was very unlikely. "Dad!" Yun Chen shouted, at first Cui Rong thought it was because of what the big thing did, but as it turns out, he wasn't. 

Cui Rong was also surprised by what was before her very eyes- "Are those… floating green animals?" Wei Wei asked, his eyes narrowed as he looked towards the things Cui Rong knew very well from her forced education- These were spirits. And judging by their coloration, they were Nature Spirits. "That's impossible…" She whispered to herself, but Yun Chen, who was holding her grinned: "It came from the source- That's what I've been feeling, someone or something is full of Nature Qi, and spirits are being born from it." Realization downed on Cui Rong then and there- Oh fuck, oh shit. If they follow where these spirits come from- "Then we find the source." Yun Chen smiled. Has she been talking out loud? "Yes you have." Wei Wei giggled, his tail moving mischievously behind his back: "Also, for a lady, you curse a lot."

"Indeed." Father Moose chuckled. "But it is only natural to curse, every being capable of speech knows at least one curse." And that's the gospel truth. Yun Chen laughed as Father Moose did some sort of noise that resembled laughter, but only if you put someone in a blender, shake it a little as it is cutting up the person, and then that person laughed. See? Not very nice, now is it? "Father, Anku, Let's follow where the Spirits come from!" Yun Chen could feel the Qi from the spirits, and they flocked to him. These little buddies absorbed sunlight and released Nature Qi in the atmosphere around, and they could survive just by doing so! So there were thousands of them, all just floating around and doing Qi Photosynthesis. 

They followed the "trail" per say, and that lead them- Nowhere. 

Basically, the spirits just wandered, they didn't have a destination in mind really. What the group of survivors did, though, was follow Yun Chen as he pointed the direction the largest source of Nature Qi could be found. They couldn't see as far as the horizon goes, and it was a little wobbly too, so they couldn't really trust the mirages… Which is why no one believed the lush green forest they saw, until after a few minutes that they got closer and closer and the forest didn't simply vanish before their eyes. 

However, they had to stop.

Why? 

Because of the fucking enormous army of Demonic Ants! As far as the eye could see, they saw this red sea of ants coming from beneath the ground. Thankfully they were far away from them so they were not attacked by them, but what they saw was both breathtaking and horrendous at the same time. 

They saw people, or rather, things that resembled humans. From afar they could not define if they were or weren't human, they could only watch as the ground in one side simply flattened and a large number of ants were squashed in one move while on the other side there was a flash of heavy Ice Qi and a large portion of the ants were frozen before shattering into endless pieces. Cui Rong felt shock at seeing such a strong Ice Technique that she envied the one who used that technique- But the most shocking was when everyone felt a very threatening presence as from beneath the earth a large humanoid ant appeared. 

Cui Rong had only read of them before- Red Swarm, a type of Demonic Beast that has a potent reproduction capability, alongside their hunger and their Demonic Qi, they are fearsome foes to fight against because you'll be fighting millions of them at once! They are separated in Worker Swarm, Soldier Swarm, Guard Swarm, Royal Swarm, and Queen Swarm. And by the looks of this all out war… The ants wanted to annihilate the forest and its denizens. 

The Queen Swarm, stading at approximately 20 feet tall, pointed her giant finger forward and only then did they all notice as they focused on what they could see- A giant tree. 

Yun Chen started crying, not from fear for the forest and the trees, but from relief. Father Moose was shocked, for he was the one that felt the most- This presence, this pressure, this power. 

It was ancient.