Beneath deadly sun, Fhenzi Region, Endless Desert of Despair.
Rottenwoods.
“...are we there yet?”
“No.”
Almost like a universal question, the little boy kept looking at the green bunny floating away and asked if they had arrived at their destination. The elder man beside him answered his question with a simple “No” as he used his own Nature Qi to encapsulate the floating bunny. This was a waste of Qi in his opinion, but the Elder decided! They had to follow her orders! ‘If only I had ascended to the Core Exaltation Realm…’ At the Cora Exaltation Realm, one would no longer have to depend on the Qi that flows around them, instead their core will start to produce its own Qi! Although at miniscule amounts, making barely any progress even after a hundred years of cultivating.
“...are we-”
“Someone please shut this child, before I turn him into a tree.” Elder Shù, a tall and lanky old man with a chin beard that reached his ankles, groaned. His scraggly long curls of hair seemed to be full of sticks and leaves that were almost attached to the roots of his hair. “Oh, don't be such a drama queen.” Rolling her eyes, Elder Huà said: “He is but a child, and children are… annoying.” With a flick of her hand, a small green thorn shot out from her fingers right into Elder Shù's behind, making the man yap a small “Gah!” in surprise at the sudden pain: “What are you doing, Elder Huà!? I could've lost concentration on this bubble here!”
“Bah! As if.” The old lady grinned, a few of her teeth missing and others looking like wood bark: “You're a perfectionist, there was no way under Heaven's eyes that you'd lose concentration on something so simple.” Elder Shù groaned as his eyes went back to the green bubble of Nature Qi around the floating green bunny. He simply refused to make a single mistake while keeping this thing around the Nature Spirit that was guiding them to the one that gave it life! “Elder Rottenwoods-” Like in many Cultivation families, only the head leader of the family could be referred to as the elder of the entire family, the family's surname being used to identify them. Like Elder Flareburn, Elder Heavender, Elder Aquinas, and Elder Rottenwoods! “-are you certain that this little thing will lead us to its birthplace?”
Behind them, atop the carriage that followed the floating Nature Spirit, sat beside the boy that was guiding the carriage: Jhin De Zhi, one of the most greedy people in the Golden Greed Guild of Merchants.
“I am certain, Elder Shù.” With a voice calm and steady, Elder Rottenwoods looked forward, milk white eyes open and staring into the horizon: “In a few weeks of travel, we might start to feel whatever this little one has been going towards.” Everyone in this world, any cultivator, has a sense for the Qi that they cultivate- How else would they cultivate in the first place? It's been a long known fact that strong cultivators have a larger sphere where their ability to sense the Qi they cultivate is increased largely, but it doesn't compare to the senses the Cursedkin have when it comes to detecting Qi. “When we're close enough, I will be able to sense wherever or whoever made this precious one.” The spirit was a blessing to them, even one so small could be nurtured to become enormous and powerful beings if their Qi alignment was right. Sadly for them, their Nature Qi was not enough to make this little one cultivate to a greater realm… They'd need to find the right place.
After all, you can't make a Fire Spirit cultivate in the sea!
Year 11, Day 36
It happened quickly.
Root was able to react, as well as Ahteus too, both of them used their Qi to defend themselves- in this case, Ahteus used his Earth Qi to quickly envelop his body while Root used his roots to wrap and protect Ahteus, which was easy to do.
Thanks to his [Death Conqueror] achievement-
[Conqueror of Death: You have somehow made life survive death, and now Death serves you as its master. Makes you able to wield Death Qi even though you are alive.]
-he was able to feel and easily deal with the attack that had hit his roots. It was a pure, rotting essence of a few different types of Qi mixed together. He could feel mainly three types of Qi. Death Qi, Water Qi, and Dark Qi.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
[New Skill Developed]
[D Rank: Poison Resistance]
‘Poison?’ He could feel this corrosion curling and slithering within his roots, and it felt like little critters were crawling inside his body. Immediately, he clenched his infected roots forcefully by applying pressure on them with his control over Nature Qi. Immediately, he felt the weird sensation fade away: ‘...what the fuck?’ Only now he could see what had attacked them.
The moment Ahteus broke through the pure dark metal that they were excavating, this shadow jumped towards him- A spider. Or it looked like one… But focusing more on its features, one could see it was an unholy mixture between a spider, a moth, and a scorpion. With the eight black legs of a spider that had various little hairs, with a pair of dark gray wings of a moth, and a pair of pincers and prehensile tail of a scorpion, this terrifying creature unhinged its jaw and let out this gurgling “*skriskriskriskri*” sound that made Root really feel gross all over. “Nope. Nope. Nope!” Faster than the spider could think, Root pushed his Nature Qi at it, making it go back to the hole in the metallic dark wall that it jumped out of, and sealed it with his roots. “Not dealing with that, time to call your brother Fiero to fucking deal with these things-” An enormous pincer pushed through the thick roots that were blocking the hole, immediately from the small hole that was left behind, a thousand or more small little spiders started to crawl out.
It was like he opened a dam, and all shitty water started to flow out.
“...okay.” Ahteus, who could definitely feel what was happening through the vibrations of the soil, paled. He, alongside his father, had an enormous aversion towards insects- ‘Actually, they're arachnids.’ -NOT HELPING, NAMIS! Anyway, where was I? Ah, right.
“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuc- OH SHIT!” Lifting his arm and slamming it down, Ahteus took control over the tunnel he and his lesser siblings had carved out of the earth and collapsed it. Many of his lesser siblings would be lost, most likely eaten by the arachnid abominations, but at least they wouldn't reach the surface, right? RIGHT!? “Fierooooo!” Ahteus screamed at the top of his lungs, pushing his control over Gravity to make himself jump higher, high above the canopy. He knew and felt his father use their mental connection that has been established since the ant nation - “Water. Earth. Ant. Wood. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Ant Nation attacked.” - attacked them.
His reasoning was very good too, put in simple words: “I keep this connection because I wanna know how to protect my kids.” Which was good because it came in handy.
“Fuck…” Cursing under his breath, Ahteus connected to the thread of Qi deep within his soul. This thread connected him to Father, and he would always know how to follow it, in case he ever gets separated from him. “Fiero, where are you?”
“You've called Soul Messages, please hold while I contact Fiero, your call is very important to us.”
“...Tahsm?”
“Yup! Father is keeping the spooky scary spiders down there, so I got to deal with your call… Let's see… Fiero, you there?”
Instantly, Ahteus felt Fiero's fiery presence, almost like they were side by side: “I got your call, Father's dealing with bugs right? I'm coming now, don't worry.”
“Thanks-” Ahteus sighed in relief and his “call” disconnected. He could still feel Fiero if he focused, but knowing Tahsm could easily manage their connection to Father - duh, he lived inside Father's Soul Realm, he literally had full access to every single connection Father has with his children! - and easily make them talk to each other by connecting them to each other. Tahsm could also help them direct their message to a specific sibling, which is better than broadcasting it to every single sibling they had… Father would sometimes forget that part and broadcast everyone's thoughts, which was a little annoying.
“Don't worry, now I deal with the communications… It's like being a radio station, I broadcast the news!” Tahsm's voice suddenly changed, becoming more… radio-like? He had this weird old voice and this weird accent now, like one of those really old radio narrators: “Now connected to Tahsm's Enthusiastic Program! We have urgent news, everyone-” Oh, he was broadcasting this to everyone huh? “-we seem to have a sudden spider craze! Watch out for these crawly fellas, they like to get into every nook and cranny they can find! With a nasty bite that releases a very powerful toxin, they seem to- Oh my fuck, is that thing giving birth!? What the fuck! Oh gods, its entire poison has small little spiders inside! Kill it! Kill it with fire!”
There was, following this outburst of panic, *muffled sounds of spider violence*.
“-...jeez weez everyone, our fiery hot hero has arrived to defend the civilians and lesser spirits of the Heavenly Spirit Forest! Greet the flaming Fiero! He is just warming up-” Where is that sitcom laughing track coming from? “-and of course, his radiant presence seems to scare these crawling creatures back to the hell where they come from and where they belong!” Ahteus was suddenly really grateful that he had run out of those tunnels. “- the Great Patriarch, Father himself, asks for the presence of the luminous Lumin and mountainous Ahteus! Call of arms has been declared! The newly and appropriately named Hell Spider needs to be exterminated!”
“So now our connection is a radio to him, huh?” Suddenly beside him was his brightly shining sibling, Lumin. Lumin had the same shining expression they always had in their face, under Father's help they were able to successfully keep themselves from losing control over their actions and their mind, but it also made them… A little snappy. “I'm glad he found his quirky thing.”
“Quirky thing?” Ahteus asked- What quirky thing were they talking about?
“Yes. You have the habit of sometimes talking or acting like a japanese Yakusa member or a cheap gangster, Leaf likes to look into the horizon and regularly cleans his swords, Zylph likes to sing and dance but also loves soft things like the dress you made her, Lily loves pink flowers and denies it firmly, Namis is lazy but she loves art, Freeze and Frost seem to like spicy things if the fact that they started to try to eat the fire flowers that have been growing in the Firelight Grove is a sign… Chaos does everything they like, and Lilith loves cute things with a fervent passion… Remember how she reacted to a Cowmel calf?”
Ah, right… She almost killed it by hugging it too tight.
“...and you?” Ahteus felt a little ashamed he didn't know that much about his siblings: “What do you do all the time, Lumin?”
“I observe.” They said: “I am Father's eyes… Everything under the sun is in my sight, nothing can hide from the light.”
“...cool, I learned to float.”
“That's fucking awesome and all-” A voice echoed inside their mind, it was Tahsm's: “-Sorry to interrupt sibling bonding right now, but we kinda have a problem! Various problems!”
Tahsm couldn't even finish his sentence.
Suddenly, various spiders started to crawl out of the ground.
They were of various sizes, but they all shared a single goal: Kill.
“...FUCK.”
Well, I guess it's time to kill some spiders.