Year 11, Day 20

Wrath. War. Weak.

Wrath Instigates.

War Breaks.

Weak dies.

That is the three basics of this world.

And Root is experiencing the first part of it.

A few moments ago.

[ has died]

That message appeared before his eyes, as one of his children died. He felt the theater that linked him and his boy break, the brightest brown star in his inner sky fading away broke something in him, his soul cried as he felt a piece of itself being lost with his son's death- A small hole that was filled with despair and anger. He used his own Spirit Qi, sending it further into himself, reaching out for the broken connection with Ahteus and forced it to be recreated!

[Your comprehension of the Dao of

Spirit +15%

Fate +25%

Nature +5%

Change +15%

Has increased.]

In his despair, he didn't even notice that his own soul was being cracked under the pressure of pulling Ahteus' spirit against the will of the fates, changing his Certain Death and pulling him into his own spiritual realm, which made him feel a mind breaking amount of pain. He could feel the cracks on his soul as he went against the heavens, but he didn't care- A lightning bolt hit his body, a clap of thunder echoed, and in an instant…

He held Ahteus' soul in his hands.

He needed a body again.

Pulling the earth from beneath his roots, he forged Ahteus a new body. He pulled Gold Qi, Iron Qi, Silver Qi, and Earth Qi and copied his previous body. In a way, he improved Ahteus by giving him a new and better body! He made his Qi paths out of gold, he made his bones out of iron, and he made his heart out of silver. He made his son once again-

[ has died]

Immediately he pulled Lilith's soul as well, this time he did it better than he did a few moments ago. His understanding of Change and Spirits was higher, and he would not allow his children to die! Their Qi did get weaker after he rebuilt their bodies and forced their souls inside, but that was a price he was willing to pay for the well being of his children. He pulled Nature Qi into himself and converted it into Spirit Qi, so much so that it started to spill out of his body into the world around him. Zhu Tei started cultivating that Qi and using it to reinforce his soul further and further.

For Lilith, he pulled and dragged the Demonic Qi from all the ants he killed around him, his roots drained the Demonic Qi from their cores and he condensed it as much as he could- Then he began to use Spirit Qi to shape and give it form, imitating Lilith's body and how she was. As he was finishing doing that, Ahteus began to wake up while his siblings, having felt their Father's anger and pain (as well as the absence of their brother), came running to see what had happened. They only saw Ahteus getting up from the ground, hand on his forehead as he had a powerful headache… His eyes widened as he ran to Lilith, who stood still, eyes closed. They all gathered around the two, worry and concern on their faces.

[You've created a new technique-]

'After!' He dismissed the screen in his barely contained fury

"...what?" She whispered, and soon Ahteus was on her: "Are you okay?" His hands were on her shoulders as he pulled her up, patting her down to see if there were any injuries in her body. He didn't know, Root was sure that they didn't know this were their new bodies he made in a hurry, unsure if their souls would fade away if they didn't have a body to inhabit. "Tell me." Root whispered in the wind, his anger slipping into his voice: "Who killed you?" As he asked that, he used [Root of Knowledge] to go see through his little girl's memories- He saw them going down the tunnels, he saw Ahteus using a technique very similar to how Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender would do to "see", and he saw the jagged sharp stone piece through Ahteus' body, he saw it crumbling and he knew that was the moment his soul hurt.

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When he saw the humanoid ant in his daughter's memories, he had a target for his hatred. "...Leaf." He called out to his oldest son, aware he would take this very seriously (as would all his children, but only Leaf had the strength for what he needed him to do) so he said: "Prepare yourselves, we're at war now." His spiritual form manifested itself, there were some cracks and few pieces missing from his form, making his children clearly see what happened to him when he went agaisnt the heavens to revive two of their siblings. He saw their determination, so he showed them his: "They killed my children… I will not rest until every single one of them is turned to dust."

With a single deep breath, he looked towards Leaf: "I want you to do a quick turn around the forest, check for anything amiss. Take Zylph with you too, she's faster and her sight will help you." Both kids bowed to him before flying away to obey his orders, so he turned to Fiero: "I want you and Yan Zhun to be ready in case we need fire, because you and the little boy will have to use fire to be the last line of defense…" He then turned to the rest of his children, looking through their information- Their Cultivation Roots, they needed to be improved. He hated the thought of causing pain to them, but it was necessary. "I have a way to improve your cultivation roots, my children, but it'll bring a pain so strong you'll wish for the release of death… and I do not want to bring such a pain upon you, so, those who wish for this opportunity, be aware that it'll be painful and I cannot stop the process once it begins… And to reach greater heights, you will have to experience the pain several times."

His children- none of them backed down from such opportunity.

"Are you sure?" He asked- They nodded, and he used [Purification] on their Cultivation Roots. Their screams were like knives to his heart, their pain was like the wails of restless spirits that made him feel painfully aware of their determination to be strong. In the end, he increased and purified the root of all his children -

Leaf: [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Lily: [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Ahteus: [Poor] > [Average] > [Decent] > [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Fiero: [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Namis: [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Chaos: [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Lumin: [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Lilith: [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Freeze: [Trash] > [Very Poor] >[Poor] > [Average] > [Decent] > [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

Frost: [Trash] > [Very Poor] > [Poor] > [Average] > [Decent] > [Good] > [Very Good] > [Excellent] > [Legendary]

The reason he stopped at [Legendary] was because he felt like their soul would explode if he pushed further. After the enormous amount of pain he put them through, he guiltily (Even though they knew the risks and what would happen, he still felt guilty) guided them to his roots where he used [Mycorrhizal Network] to connect his Qi to them momentarily, feeding them the Qi they needed to use for cultivation by simply converting the Qi he had for the ones they need.

They stayed still for seven days.

As these days passed, Root's umbilical Qi feeding worked really well, and in these seven days a lot happened- Leaf has reached the Core Formation realm, jumping between the stages of the Foundation Formation realm by having his dad help with setting his foundation so his cultivation would not break in the future, making a solid foundation for his future. Lily and Ahteus reached the peak of the Foundation Formation realm thanks to Root doing the same to them, the Qi Gathering realm was really easy to go through so he did not assist his other children as they went through the Qi Gathering realm, only helping them with building their foundation as they entered the Foundation Formation realm, so they could shoot up the ranks really easily.

You might think it's dumb to rush through forming a foundation, but when someone of a higher realm helps you build your foundation, it's almost impossible for it to be wrong. Why? Because those in a higher realm can see the lower realms perfectly, like seeing something from above. They can see and point out any mistake, so the one in the lower realm may rectify them.

His children… They are growing so quickly.

Leaf was at the [Core Formation] realm, Stage 2.

Lily had just reached [Core Formation] realm as well, being on the peak of Stage 1.

Ahteus was also able to reach [Core Formation] realm, just being at the beginning of Stage 1, alongside Zylph.

Fiero and Namis were both at the [Foundation Formation] realm Stage 9, they needed a little bit more time to increase their cultivation as well.

Chaos and Lumin each managed to achieve [Foundation Formation], only they were both on the 8th Stage.

Lilith achieved [Foundation Formation], but her stage was 6th one because she needed Demonic Qi, and Root used all the gathered Demonic Ants cores that they had to increase Lilith's cultivation.

Freeze and Frost were a whole other thing- They shared Qi amongst themselves, so they needed to be on the same realm and same stage, or else it would be bad for them. Root managed to get them to the [Foundation Formation] realm, but only to the 1st stage due to their connection. They had to help each other increase their cultivation, because while one made this mistake, the other did that mistake, and if Root helped them rectify the mistake one made it would influence the Cultivation of the other, making a mistake as well in the process. This was the effect of [Resonance], that although made them perfectly in synchrony so they could boost each other's abilities, their Cultivation was also linked alongside it, which made it so they needed double the amount of Qi than their other siblings.

Year 11, Day 27

Root had almost no Qi in his body.

Sure, his own Qi core produced its own Qi, but it is not enough for him. So what did he do? He had his kids turn on the massive production mode! All his lesser children, his Nature Lesser Spirits, started doing their Qi Photosynthesis and gave to him the Qi they made- All 9,658,976 ones that were close enough to him to come and give him the Qi they created.

Let's do a simple example- if every Single Lesser Nature Spirit has the capacity of making 1 Unit of Qi every minute with the maximum capacity of storing 100 Units of Qi (UQ), in 100 minutes they are full and release all of their produced Qi. 1,6 hours to fill themselves with Nature Qi and then release it into the world out.

He has 9,658,976 kids that are doing exactly that, but they give all their 100 UQ to him, so he receives about 965,897,600 units of Qi every 1,6 hours. Following this example, this much Qi could be used to power up a Qi Gathering cultivator up to the [Core Exaltation]! If they were humanoid, of course… because guess what? The larger something is, the greater the amount of energy needed to fill it.

This is why Trees need hundreds of thousands of years to cultivate while mortals cultivate in only thousands of years! I call this bullshit, but hey, it's because of the way it works here. The larger something is, the larger their soul, the greater the amount of Qi needed but also the greater the strength of the being. Root can only imagine how big he can grow and how powerful he'd be then…

Right.

Back to math, sadly. This amount of Units of Qi are not enough for him, but it covers about 1% to 2% of his entire core- Which means the amount of Qi he requires cannot be achieved in a whole day, because it would only get him between 15% to 30% of his whole Qi reserves, meaning he'd need more than a day to recover with this method.

Thankfully, he is a tree and can also do Qi Photosynthesis and produce his own Qi! This greatly increased the speed, making him able to recover in two days at least, and three if things went slower.

And of course, the fucking ants attack when he has not enough Qi to defend himself… But hey, at least his kids are badass.