Year 11, Day 38
[1 Copper Ticket has fused with 6 Copper Tickets]
[+1 Silver Ticket]
Root decided to ignore that for now, and focus more on his children beneath him.
Beneath deep roots, dark caves.
The Spiders from Hell were dealt with. Although they were a bother to kill, Fire Qi did a wonderful job! So much so that the giant “egg” made of ores that they were inside of originally was now completely cleansed of their presence and Poison Qi by now. Root sent in Ahteus and Lilth to deal with the aftermath, Ahteus because of his Earth Qi body and Lilith because of the control she had on the ants. Ants dug straight through the dark metal ore into the giant nest of Hell Spiders, Root made sure to give them light by growing these bioluminescent pale blue mushrooms. The mushrooms were filled with Moon Qi, which is the mixture of Yin Qi, Dark Qi, and Ice Qi - contrary to the Moon Qi of this world, the Moon Qi that Root produced had the right Yin Qi instead of the Yang Qi that is natural to this world.
“This place is really creepy…” The spiders had completely taken over the giant ore! Now, Ahteus couldn't really tell either it was hollow from the beginning or the spiders somehow turned it hollow: “Urgh, there's spider ash here too…” Ash was everywhere inside the nest, since Root had killed everything inside this with fire: “Oh, there's some weird things here.” Looking everywhere with her ants, Lilith found something new and interesting. She turned to look at her brother Ahteus who was lifting large boulders and grinning, it looked like pieces of the giant ore that had somehow fallen from the top of the egg-like shape of this ore: ‘Who knows, maybe it was an egg…’ The thought of this once being an egg was chilling, mostly because of the sheer size of the whole thing.
According to Father's calculations, this egg-like geode was about 12 kilometers deep (7.4 miles deep, in yeehaw per shotgun units). The size itself of the thing was about 14 meters high and with a diameter of 15 meters (45 feet high and 49 feet in diameter, in freedom units)- just thinking what could've laid this if it was an egg was terrifying. “Ahteus, help me here.” Calling to her brother, Lilith used her Demonic Qi to push against the largest piece of dark metal that the ants were having a hard time pushing: “Comin’...” Ahteus called and turned around, he saw three ants and Lilith trying to turn a dark stone out of the way and failing at that, so he went to help while chuckling a little. “Here, let me help you with that-” The moment Ahteus touched the stone, it cracked. “-huh?” There was this release of this dark smoke.
Immediately, Ahteus reacted and pulled Lilith and himself backwards before the smoke could touch any of them. A root came down from above and quickly touched the black smoke, it started to wither and decay but Root didn't care about that, he cared about the safety of his children. The root started to quickly absorb the black smoke- Thinking quickly, Root directed all the black miasma into a fastly growing seed.
He was going to have another child.
The black miasma sank into the seed that was growing from the tip of the withering root, the greenish seed turned a pure black color before it started to fall… It fell right on top of this black sludge that was left behind from the rock that also released the black smoke- The black seed started to absorb the sludge as well, and it started growing. Small roots spread out from the seed as vines and these gnarly black and gray wood-like fingers started to spread towards the ceiling. In the end, a new “tree” was born. This 10 meters high (or 32 feet in freedom units) and 5 meters thick (16 feet, you know the drill by now) with enormous roots that sank to the ground, and branches that looked like fingers that touched the ceiling above and touched Root's roots.
This was Root's new child.
“...father!?” Ahteus asked, a little scared, as this face appeared in the bark of the tree. Lilith also was taken aback when the face spread open to reveal this hollow interior. Inside, they all could see these thin and sharp looking vines and branches that moved around. Both of them, and all of the others, felt a new bond connect to theirs. A new sibling was born! “This is your new sibling… Bones."
[Status]
Name: Bones
Race: Spirit Tree of Rot and Decay
Cultivation Root: Nature, Death, Poison [Very Good]
Age: 0 Years
Qi Realm: Foundation Formation [1st Stage]
Techniques:
A Rank: [Medical Puppeteer]
B Rank: [Poison of Decay]
F Rank: [Decaying Cultivation]
“Father…?” Bones spoke for the first time, their voice was like grinding of rotting teeth and breaking of decayed bones, but it was adorable to Root. Why? Because this is his first kid that is a tree! His own roots came down from the ceiling above his child and each root connected to the branches of Bones’ body. Enthusiastically, Bones also began to reach out with their finger-like branches that broke and bent to wrap around the roots of their Father and Maker: “Ooh~” Like a newborn child, it ooh'ed at the new sensation it was experiencing- Feeding.
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Like spoon feeding a toddler, Root shared the nutrients he received from the soil and that was produced by his enormous body every second. For Bones, that was a banquet to be remembered for ages to come! Such a great feast was overwhelming and bone shattering! “Thank you…” Bones, differently from his other children, did not speak much. Instead, they spoke with their emotions, thoughts, and sensations, focusing more on the bond they now shared to convey what it meant rather than fickle things such as words and sentences. “Bones, my little one, you now have a very important role in this sect… you are the sect's doctor now.” There was the sensation of acceptance and glee as Bones smiled, the horrendous face that stamped the bark of the tree had a large grin, a grin that exposed the interior of the tree that now, besides those branches and trees, there also was a… bed of white wood resembling bones.
No- wait, those were bones. That was a bed of bones. Neat.
“Father?” One word conveyed exactly what Bones wanted to say- They wanted to know how they could learn to use their natural abilities for the good of the sect when they didn't even know the basics of how their skill works! They required test subjects, beings that they could test their many ideas upon, and see the results of mixtures and matching of poisons and other toxins, study their effect, and create medicine for the good of the sect! “Huh, child, I believe you will be getting some test subjects, they won't be human mortals for now… But they will be ants.” Lilith felt the shiver of her ants, they had no rational thoughts, but they did have emotions, and they felt dread that came out of nowhere before fading away into nothingness like it was never there to begin with.
“Father~
/) /)
( ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ )
/ づ づ ~ ♡”
“...how did you just say that?”
Beneath a scalding sun, fire and flames.
The Flareburns had lost two youngsters.
It happened suddenly, one moment they were out of the Canyons of Many Voices, and in the next, Elder Flareburn is fighting against this beast of black skin and red eyes that had taken the life of two youngsters. They were Ahtei Flareburn and Ohtei Flareburn, twin brothers that, both, had a highly pure Fire Qi Cultivation Root. Their talent and potential, however, was blown out like a candle by this creature… It was weird.
Well, seeing as it suddenly collapsed a pile of dark liquid when Elder Flareburn used Heavenly Fire on the thing, I'd say it is pretty weird. It didn't have Demonic Qi, it had simply Death Qi and Dark Qi, but beneath this corrupted being was a once living being too. The monster used to be a Sand Bear Beast, a beast that had Earth Qi within it and would lay beneath the sand, waiting for prey to get close so it would jump at them. But that type of beast would've never attacked the Flareburn family because they would be able to feel their strength, so it would keep its distance!
But this thing? It had no mind, it was a beast of killing and destroying. Elder Flareburn burned away the black sludge liquid it left behind, to make sure it was truly gone.
They did not mourn their dead brothers, they had to keep moving after the giant red-orange cloud in the sky, but they carried the grief within them. Those two were considered geniuses by both Hyun Houn and Heron Houn Flareburn, the duo that had been teaching them and laying the foundation for having them learn both their techniques - the “Demonic Flames” technique and the “Cleansing Flames” technique. Such deaths were heartbreaking, but they had no time to mourn so they kept going.
And so they moved.
A long time passed, they were now starting their journey of passing from the end of the Canyons of Many Voices into the Demonic Fields of the Fhenzi Region, which meant they were going to pass by that lush green region once more. Some of the more sensitive Elders that had trained their Qi Awareness knew that the Qi around them was changing, which meant that the Boundless Bountiful was about to begin. Soon the endless desert that they have lived in for the past 5 years will give way to a single year of enormous trees and nature. That also meant that they would meet the Ancient Nature Spirit, last time he was asleep and his children told them to leave so they did, maybe this time he would be awake and they could bargain with the spirit to allow them a place to stay… Ancient Spirits of that strength are able to -according to the many stories and legends passed down by the Flareburn ancestors- change their surroundings to match whatever they wished it to be.
They could create sights that no other cultivator has ever seen in their immortal lives. Ancient Spirits never truly die as well, they go into slumber, waking up every once in a while, stronger than they were before. They know from stories that these Ancient Spirits are benevolent and kind to those they see as worthy, and Elder Flareburn remembers to this day the disgraceful behavior that his family had the second time they passed by that region… They wanted to take one of the Ancient Spirit's children as their slave. Their greed blinded them for a moment, and the price they paid was to wander after this cloud for more years.
‘This time…’ Elder Flareburn thought, a sigh escaping his mouth as the weight of his age fell upon his shoulders: ‘This time we must convince the Ancient Nature Spirit…’ They prepared treasures for the Ancient Nature Spirit to persuade him into allowing them to stay and even attempt to keep the Fire Cloud they chased around. Elder Flareburn was pretty sure that the Ancient Nature Spirit would be able to pluck the Fire Cloud from the sky and drag it down for them… Or maybe, he would do something they never thought of.
Only time would tell, and only fate would guide them.
They truly hope that hope is not lost.
???
The Shard of a Broken Soul fell from the heavens. Chaos Qi flickered and flashed around as the poor soul shard that carried the consciousness of the unlucky cultivator within was cracked. A piece of it flew away, and took alongside it the knowledge and memories of the cultivator's name and age, another small piece was taken by the void and with it the knowledge of a few martial arts that the cultivator knew-
The shard was going to be destroyed, but this small teardrop fell upon the endless void.
“Huh? What do we have here…” This hand softly picked up the shard, shooing away the Chaos Qi and Void Qi that were trying to devour it: “Curious… The soul still lives… What a curious thing, isn't it?” The mysterious figure glanced at the shard again and grinned: “Let's see… Ah, this world here will do… Good luck, little shard.”
The shard fell through the endless void, appearing above a lush forest in the middle of a desert. The tiny shard could not integrate into an already formed soul, so it could only enter the body of a newborn.
And look- A child has just been born.
What a lucky soul shard.