Beneath a Fire Cloud, in a Field.
"Senior Hyung." Hearing his name being called, Jy-Hyung turned to look at the newest little brother to the powerful Flareburn Family. Although the family has undergone a decline recently due to the rampaging Cycle of Chaos- Every five years, the world would go through a cycle of chaos. That's due to the fact that the world has been forcefully changed by a powerful cultivator that wanted this world to be destroyed slowly and painfully, but contrary to that cultivator's expectations, the world survived but turned into this chaotic world with Qi being completely scattered around.
This is why many cultivators call this world The Chaos, choosing to leave this world for another so they could cultivate peacefully. However, many weaker cultivators were left behind, giving birth and origin to many of the cultivator families that now exist.
The curse cast upon this world made so the world itself became confused- Nature Qi was deleted every 5 years in one side of the world so when the cycle restarted, most vegetation on that side would die, but at the end of that period of drought, a large abundance of Nature Qi would fill the part of the world that went through the drought, bringing vegetation back. It is rare for plants to survive, but those who do, are strong Spirit Trees that managed to cultivate and keep themselves alive!
Like that one tree his family found in the Demonic Fields and his elder gave the Pea of Nature Qi to. Jy-Hyung still asks himself why, even though the Elder said such spirit tree should be left to grow and maybe in the future it would save this world from the endless chaos. Even the sun and moon were changed! It is said that thousands of years ago, the sun and moon of this world produced positive and negative qi- Yin for the Moon and Yang for the Sun- but it was turned around by the curse the powerful cultivator casted upon this world, turning it upside-down. Many cultivators died because of this change, they weren't able to adapt like their family was able to, and as they traveled and accompanied the cloud of Fire Qi that their family used to cultivate, he couldn't help but ponder about the world before the curse…
Lush with life, full of cultivators, and not like this nightmare of a world they live in.
"Yes, Little Wei?" The new addition to their family was a boy the Elder found in the streets- You see, the source of Qi they use to cultivate is the Fire Cloud that floated above them. They follow it everywhere it goes because without their cloud, they would not be able to cultivate, they would have to find another Cloud of Fire to follow so they can absorb the Qi from and quickly advance… Because if they absorb Fire Qi from the sun, they'd end up poisoning themselves because of the Yin Qi mixed with it too. "What do you want?" He was gentle with the little kid, after all, Fire Cultivators weren't the only ones who had it rough, but they were certainly the ones who suffered the most. "I'm tired… I can't walk anymore, my feet hurt." Sighing, he picked up the young child in his arms, who smiled at him. The next generation was going to suffer, as does his generation, as will do the future generation too.
Under the Moonlight, in a Mountain.
Cui Rong sighed, frustrated.
Being an Ice cultivator was rough- Why? Because of the imbalance of the moon, obviously! Ice Cultivators are meant to be cold, their Qi is meant to freeze and kill, they should be filled with killing intent. That's what she learned from the Elder of the Ice Rose family! But the Yang Qi in the moon makes so their ice melts quicker, is weaker, and takes more Qi to use. The imbalance of the world has made cultivation a necessity but also a hassle! Qi was chaotic, many times the Qi in the atmosphere was a mixture of many Qis, many of them extremely impure and some outright dangerous to absorb!
She still shutters in fear at the memory of half of her family dying due to absorbing the Chaos Qi one fateful night.
The Ice Rose family lives atop the highest mountain in the Fhenzi Region, here there is a large natural lake that reflects the moonlight every single night, absorbing the energy of the moon and spreading the ice across the peak of the mountain, which was why the mountain had the natural Ice Qi necessary for her family to cultivate. But because of the Yang Energy mixed with the Ice Qi, her family has grown weaker. Some were even crippled due to the imbalance of Dark Qi and Yang Qi inside their bodies that ended up damaging their cultivation root.
This is why many members of her family were assigned as Yang Cultivators- She was one of them. She spent most of her life dreaming of becoming an Ice Cultivator, but the elder assigned her to be a Yang Cultivator to clean their home of Yang Qi and leave the ice and dark qi for the other members of the family to cultivate. Yang Qi cultivators were looked down upon by the Ice Rose Family, the dislike of the Yang Qi itself was turned to those who cultivated this Qi, even if for the good of their family. Many Yang Qi cultivators were abused by the family, some took their lives while others just left the family, going to the wild.
There were consequences for cultivating Yang Qi, seeing as they couldn't stop themselves from absorbing a little bit of Ice and Dark Qi when cultivating, it's impossible! And for their sacrifice for the Ice Rose family, they pay the price of never being able to walk in the sun again, for the Fire, Light, and Yin Qi from the sun hurts their skin- In fact, this is a common threat and punishment in their family. If you misbehave or go against rules, you are thrown naked in the sun, where your skin will burn as if you were set ablaze. Cui Rong has watched many of her family die by this punishment, their bodies turned to ash.
Such a tragic fate, she could only hope it would never happen to her
Amidst the trees, in the Drought
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Year 10, Day 8
Root dug deeply into the soil, the poor dry soil was easily dug by his powerful roots, with a little bit of Nature Qi produced by him and he could easily tear through brittle rock and stone to reach even deeper! He could feel the dry Earth Qi beneath the soil, it was part of it, and with this Qi he could do what he wanted to do.
You see, it's been 6 days since he has been working to spread out his Nature Qi to everywhere, and he has found many things- For example: The earth would reject the Nature Qi. Why? Because the Earth Qi beneath his roots was going crazy! So his solution was to take control over it, so the soil would not reject his Nature Qi, and maybe he could even terraform the world around him to his liking? Raise himself up to the sky in a mountain or maybe make a valley surrounding his body so not everyone could find it? These are great ideas that he'll put on hold for now. He started to aggressively pull the Earth Qi into his roots, and the reaction he got was what he expected- More Earth Qi filled the space left behind by the Qi Root took from the soil. For reasons unknown to him, the moment his roots took the Earth Qi, they started to wither.
It was painful yet painless- It's weird really, when you have a high pain resistance, you start to see pain as something trivial.
"Oh…" Hidden amongst the Earth Qi, he felt it- Death Qi. 'Shouldn't this be, like, around dead things?' That's the logic of it- But for some reason there was Death Qi in the soil, which explains a lot about the whole drought situation. When in contact with Nature, the Death Qi will quickly wither what it touches, and Root safely assumed it would do the same to any living thing. "So… How can I resolve this?" This is a problem for him who wants to help the trees- No wonder everything dies! The very earth that granted them life before now grants them death. They all must feel so betrayed huh? "Life? More Nature Qi?" To try it out, he used his own pure Nature Qi on his withered roots, instantly bringing them back to their lush and thick life. Oh, you must be thinking, how can he see that far down? It's easy!
[Spirit Sight
Rank: C
Description: To see without eyes is to see using one's qi. You can "see" as your qi spreads out, this technique also helps you perceive and see other Qis as well.]
See? He developed this technique, helping him see the world around him! This was rather easy to learn, and even easier to teach. That was when he called out his son, Leaf, and did three things- First, he explained to him what he could do and what he wanted to do, the dangers of it, and how painful it would be. Seeing the opportunity to grow stronger faster, Leaf took it and accepted the insight his father gave him alongside the painful Purification process he was put through so his Cultivation Root could be upgraded. Root also learned one thing- There was a limit of how many times he could purify someone else's Cultivation Root, he managed to increase Leaf's Cultivation Root only 4 times before he felt like he couldn't increase it anymore.
From [Poor], it went to [Average], [Good], [Very Good], and settled on [Excellent].
[Status]
Name: Leaf
Species: Nature Spirit
Cultivation Root: Nature, Sun, Water [Excellent]
Age: 9 Years
Qi Realm: Qi Gathering (4th Stage)
Equipment: Thorn of Pain and Protection
Techniques -
F RANK: [Nature Spirit Cultivation]
F RANK: [Nature Spirit Floating]
E RANK: [Nature Spirit Authority]
D RANK: [Qi Connectivity]
C RANK: [Spirit Sight]
The technique [Spirit Sight] worked differently for him, it only allowed Leaf to see Qi now, which was great in itself. Now that he could absorb more Qi, Leaf's cultivation was bound to increase faster too! Root even fed him [Excellent] quality Qi too, by purifying a bunch of Nature Qi he made and gave directly to his son, who thanked him profusely.
Right.
Back to the problem at hand- Death Qi. How to deal with it? If Nature Qi doesn't work, why not try other Qis?
He tried the Earth Qi he got- it didn't go well, seeing as the Death Qi just got fused back into the purified Earth Qi. He even tried to use his [Purification] ability, which didn't work like he thought it would, making the Death Qi purer and therefore more potent.
So he resulted to a rarer form of Qi for the living to wield.
Spirit Qi.
Well, he is a SPIRIT Tree, so it is only natural for him to be able to use Spirit Qi, right? And even his [Purification] ability uses Spirit Qi to purify other things. He guided the pale snow white colored Qi alongside his roots and used it to reinforce his roots, guiding the Nature Qi alongside it so he used the spirit Qi as a barrier to the Death Qi- and it worked! His test showed that Spirit Qi could interact with Death Qi, which granted him a source of energy to use against Death Qi!
"Work it is!" He had limited Spirit Qi, since it came directly from his soul, so he couldn't use it recklessly! He did use it to form a veil between his roots and the dirt, absorbing the Earth Qi and leaving the Death Qi behind. Said Earth Qi was stored by him inside his roots for later use. He worked for the whole day, and when the morning came, he was greeted by a message:
[Daily Prize Given]
[+1 Copper Ticket]
[Would you like to fuse 7 Copper Tickets to Make 1 Silver Ticket?]
"Yep."
[+1 Silver Ticket]
[Would you like to use it?]
"Nah."
What was Root doing? He wanted a Gold Ticket, he was curious about what reward it could give him. "Wait a minute." Through his roots, Root used the skill [Seed Make], making a small seed pop into the dirt beneath him, filled with the Death Qi- In an instant, the seed was filled with Death Qi that the seed absorbed. He quickly pulled the seed to the surface with a small tear in the ground using the Earth Qi he absorbed, and when the seed popped into the surface, he saw that it was completely black.
[Congratulations, you unlocked the achievement: Conqueror of Death]
[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.]
…did he just make a death seed? He just wanted to see if his seed could absorb the Death Qi so he could clean the dirt with it! But now, he received a reward from his system that granted him great power.
[Please name the Death Bloom Spirit]
The Death Qi beneath the earth rushed upwards, quickly being absorbed by the seed under his eyes- The seed quickly opened, and from it a black translucent spirit floated out, similar to the small elf-like appearance Leaf had, but this one was a female fairy with long black hair that dangled, and from her, Death Qi glowed. "...Lily." The spirit instantly looked at him, and much like Leaf, noticed her father.
"Father!" She could speak from birth, she could float from birth, and she knew things from birth. "My name is Lily?" Her bright red eyes glowed with curious wonder, her pale white skin was really different from Leaf's pale green skin and green eyes and hair. Although her ears were also pointy, like Leaf's ears.
"Yes Lily… You are my Queen of the Night."
[Status]
Name: Lily
Species: Death Bloom Spirit
Cultivation Root: Death, Yin, Nature [Good Quality]
Age: 0 Years
Qi Realm: Qi Gathering (1st Stage)
Techniques -
F RANK: [Death Spirit Cultivation]
F RANK: [Death Spirit Floating]
E RANK: [Spirit Sight]