Her cave was, well, small. And not exactly well made. Just a hole in the cliff, with barely enough space for all of her things as long as they were neatly stacked on the wall opposite her bed - and under her bed. And on the shelf above her bed. She felt like she was living in a storage closet full of seeds, jade slips and a small sack of personal belongings.

But she got to sleep in a bed in her own cave! Just like everybody else!

Mint knelt on the newly milled rock. What used to be bare cliffs was lots of wet sand in terrace fields now, thanks to the earth team. This was definitely the reason why she only had a hole to sleep in, not a proper cave like the others even after 4 days in this place.

The thought that they still had to think of names for their groups and the sect, since earth group was a dumb name, crossed her mind. But that could wait.

Newly milled volcanic sand was not exactly the right soil for an Orchard, certainly. The balls of mud with seeds soaked in spirit water would take months to be ready, but these fields would take just as long to become a good place for an orchard even with her full effort.

As the strongest this most difficult task was naturally her duty.

And as a practical person she chose the practical way. Step one, trow the plant matter they had ripped out in the valley on top of the sand all around the valleyand shred the plant matter while she was at it. Step two, make the qi training kids help because it takes too long to do that alone for the entire circumference of the valley and those kids had the most free time.

Next, she dipped her finger in a small pouch at her hip to get fungus spores. She closed it carefully after getting her spores and then smeared the spores all over the first few brambles. Add spirit water and then send out her wood element qi to encourage the fungi to grow.

Not even a minute later she felt fine threads spread through the moist matter. ten minutes later the mushrooms were growing and spreading out happily. If they slowed down Mint added more spirit water. She made them keep growing until the plant matter turned to mush all around the valley - which took about a week of hard work exhausting her qi, body and mind every day.

The first grass seeds he got to throw into that new soil were a miracle to her. Finally, a proper seed. She spread different kinds of mortal grass amd bush seeds all around the new Orchard's fields of sand and by the time she arrived where she had started and got to take a break Mint was too tired to go and talk to people.

Instead, she sat down, sent out a thread of divine sense and focused on one of the seeds. it had a fine layer of sludge all around from the moisture in the soil.

The seed awakened and spread fine roots, then the first, fragile leaves brocke through the soil. The roots searched for nutrients, found them and transported them to the stem to let the light green, almost transparent leaves grow larger, greener and more solid. Roots spread further, finding water and nutrients as well as competitors underground. The roots fought, the leaves multiplied and grew, catching sunlight to fuel their growth in an endless cycle. Yet the roots were losing. Deeper down there were no nutrients. There was no more spiritual water that had driven its extremely fast growth. The sunlight wasn't enough to keep up with the speed. The energy in its lifeblood faded.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

And then it dried up, slowly. The leaves went brown and dry first. The roots struggled to hold on, waiting for water, digging for nutrients. Yet there was nothing.

At long last the roots shriveled quickly, exhausted from far too fast growth.

And Mint exhaled. A shiver went through her body as energy pumped through her veins. Something was ever so slightly different. She took a deep breath, exhaled again, ran a cycle of her cultivation technique to see what had happened - and broke through to the second stage of Core Formation.

When she opened her eyes three pairs of eyes were watching her curiously.

"Good Morning...are you awake for real this time?" Amaranth asked.

Mint just blinked at her, still too deep to react properly. Or speak.

Amaranth sighed. "Okay, so you're not awake. Fine. Come on Blossom, apparenty we've got free time since our leader is still asleep." Blossom allowed the more active girl to pull her along without any resistance.

Nerine was the only one who remained, though the little girl seemed entirely satisfied just sitting there and watching Mint come to her senses slowly.

It took almost an hour for Mint to return to full awareness. For a second she contemplated announcing her breakthrough and celebrating, but this was truly not the right time.

The sight of all the grasses and bushes in the Orchard terrace fields, now dead, was a bit depressing. It was necessary though.

"Nerine." She called the little girl, who was still watching curiously. "Could you please get a few from the earth group to mix up the sand and soil a bit? I want to sow another round. More green, then a controlled burn, I think."

The girl nodded obediently, really taking her for an elder apparently. "Yes, elder." And then she was off to find the other group's elder.

Being obeyed like that, even if it was just a little girl that had barely cultivated for 2 years, felt odd.

This was just the second round to make the sand fertile. She would need quite a few more to fertilise the deepest layers. Maybe a bit of Moss? She would just have to get a good balance to get more nutrients into the soil before the trees could be planted.

A wave of panic spread through her as she thought of the trees - and her other seeds! She had been in meditation for days, what if nobody had thought to water her seeds?

At a speed she had never reached before thanks to her new cultivation she arrived at the greenhouse within minutes. The sight of mois, dark soil in the boxes through the glass wals helped her calm down, but she still had to go inside to check on her seeds personally.

They hadn't suffered at all, as it turned out. She could faintly feel traces of Blossom's qi all around. That had not been the first person she would have thought of - but then again, she didn't know the others in her group at all.

And doing things on her own only to lose her seeds because she was too caught up in something and didn't prepare a backup was just stupid. Plus, she probably wasn't the only one getting the occasional distraction from her work.

No, they needed someone to cover for each person and for later a schedule so people could spend time cultivating in peace. Maybe someone knew something about formations and could automate watering or something? That would be convenient.

With a smile at her and now also Blossom's seeds Mint left the Greenhouse. The glass was a bit murky, she noticed. A rush job. She would have to ask for it to be remade once everything else was built. With all the jade slips in her cave Mint really wished there was a library pagoda to store them.

With a sigh she went back to the terrace Orchards to wait for Nerine and hopefully a few earth root disciples.