Root Maker: Tree Cultivation

Endless Mountains of the Raohna Region, Ice Peak, Manor of the Icerose Family.

Jileng Rong looked earnestly at the floating screen before his very eyes that others seemed to ignore completely. The words that before him floated were ones that gave him hope to improve his situation- After a week of being in the Yang Manor, being forced to regularly cultivate the Yang Qi of the moon at night and work tirelessly during the day as a servant, and to makes matters worse, he was bullied by all other Yang Cultivators due to to his identity as the son of the Icerose patriarch's son, which did not give him a lot of time to rest but did give him a lot of bruises and headaches. Ever since he received the [Heavenly Emperor's Roots Healing Waves Technique], he has been practicing it at any moment he has free time, which is usually whenever he was cultivating under the light of the moon.

Thanks to the fact that this technique uses any available Qi to function, it looked as if he was cultivating normally, which allowed him to actually recover his Cultivation Root and not accumulate Yang Qi as the Yang Qi was transferred to his soul, circulated into his Cultivation Roots and turned into Spirit Qi that was used to recover his Cultivation Root… This, in theory and by sheer technicality, made him a Spirit Qi Cultivator.

[Analysis completed]
[Qi Affinities identified, would you like to see them?]

‘Yes.’

Ah, right! This new thing that he received one day was called the [Endless Library System], a system that had access to- and he quotes -"an interdimensional endless realm of books and information, created by the Goddess of Divine Knowledge and Wisdom, Quo-Yhen, who in her infinite wisdom and merciful generosity, decided to give those of lower realms access to her knowledge that expands across endless realms.” So, apparently, he was chosen to have one of the keys to access this endless library that gathered knowledge of all the realms and worlds Quo-Yhen had influence over. To gain more information and more knowledge, the system assigns tasks to their host, and whenever completed, these tasks can grant them “Library Card Points”, which are used to access the Endless Library of Quo-Yhen.

Due to his unfortunate situation, the system decided to take advantage of his situation and grant him access to tasks that were compatible with his situation. So he was granted the quests of “Clean this room in this time limit”, “cook this many meals in this time limit”, “cultivate for this amount of time”, and the one that he completed just yesterday night:

[Completely cure yourself from your Cultivation Root Deficiency N-05°: Short Cultivation Root Syndrome]
[Reward: Cultivation Root Affinity Analysis, +100 Library Card Points, +1 Low-Tier Book on any subject]

And now that he has completed this quest, he has been thinking and working on how to properly escape this place- “I still think that using the Reverse Trojan Horse strategy sounds way more fun, just saying.” -ah, meet his new… “roommate”, the most irritating and annoying being in this entire realm of Cultivation, Alfred Mathias Andromia. Died at the age of 22 by having his head held beneath water until the bubbles stopped and his body went limp, and then had his corpse thrown away like a garbage bag. “You know, entering a weird object that is going to be thrown out sounds like a good plan to me!” Just a few days ago, he decided to look into the past memories of “his” past life, which is a weird thing to say considering the fact that it was and wasn't his past life. You see, when Mathias died, his soul traveled across the void that separated worlds, leaving the natural boundaries of his world's reincarnation cycle, which caused his soul to mutate due to the prolonged exposure to the void without having Qi to protect it.

Considering the fact that his soul could have ceased to exist, a mutation seems way better.

There could've many mutations that his soul could've gone through, but the one it did was one that the [Endless Library System] categorized as the [Yin Yang Soul Mitosis], a process in which a soul will separate into two aspects of itself- The Yin Aspect, which carries the “negative” aspects of the soul while the Yang Aspect carries the “positive” aspects of the soul… This isn't technically true, seeing as Mathias was a more neutral individual, which gave his soul no good and bad aspect to truly deviate from, so it copied itself. Due to this soul mutation being unique, the souls can not be separated, which explains why Jileng Rong was born with two souls! And also, this [Yin Yang Soul Mitosis] thing was also what caused his soul to develop the [Short Cultivation Root Syndrome] in the first place.

“I already told you… The trash thrown out is specifically thrown down the mountain, and I don't think that hiding within it would be a good option.” Jileng Rong sighed - Ever since he “woke him up”, Mathias has been trying to find a way for him to escape this place because this whole place sucks. “C'mon, let me just see this-”

[Affinity Classification Explanation:
The higher percentage, the purer the Affinity. The purer the Affinity, the easier you can use, communicate, convert, cultivate, and control the Qi you have Affinity for.
Below 10% is a Trash Affinity.
Between 10% and 15% is a Poor Affinity.
Between 20% and 30% is an Average Affinity.
Between 50% and 80% is a High Affinity.
Between 85% and 90% is a Superior Affinity.
Above 90% is a “Godly” Affinity.]
[1st Soul Cultivation Root Affinity:
Ice Qi (80%), Dark Qi (78%), Yang Qi (76%), Yin Qi (70%), Water Qi (50%), Spirit Qi (22%), Fire Qi (5%)]
[2nd Soul Cultivation Root Affinity:
Void Qi (100%), Space Qi (90%), Spirit Qi (88%), Time Qi (85%), Light Qi (77%), Earth Qi (70%), Fire Qi (68%), Wind Qi (50%)]

“-...huh.”

Now, this is interesting… It seems that his little friend has another use than to give useless advice and annoy him.

Beneath Green Canopy
Year 11, Day 88

Jhin De Zhi stood before the largest tree he had ever seen in his entire existence. The very presence of the being before him weighed down on his very soul like the world around him had gotten heavier, or somehow, someway, something was pushing him down forcefully with the strength and weight of a mountain. He was brought here by the floating red fire hair prick that he really disliked. The fucker was really pretentious and annoying to him for some damn reason, but now he understood the guy's position in this whole sect- Oh yeah, this entire forest was a sect, apparently -and that kinda scared him… A sect was notorious for the fact that it took a lot of resources to maintain, but it was equally as strong, seeing as with that many resources the cultivators that are part of the sect are usually strong…

Or that's what the stories say.

“You stand before the Green Father, the Judge of Conqueror Death, the Conqueror of Fate, the Twister of Souls. Human Cultivator by the name Jhin De Zhi, you answer for the crime of greed to the one that so selflessly took you in… You answer for the crime of attempting to kidnap his children, steal his fruits, and kill the people under his protection.” A woman that could be described as a jade beauty floated above him, looking down at him with disdain in her eyes. Her long and beautiful black hair dripped down her back like a waterfall, and her beautiful black robes with red flowers seemed to accentuate her delicate features. Even Jhin De Zhi, who has seen many beautiful cultivators in the past that always described themselves as “jade beauties”, could now truly understand what that term meant. “You and your companions are found guilty of such petty crimes… And are, hereby, declared to-”

“This is bullshit-” One of his subordinates shouted. He turned to look at the one who was stupid enough to do so, only to sigh when he saw that it was Ghun De. Ghun De was, in fact, a very prideful and confident Cultivator… He was very confident that he could escape, even if he offended the Lady of the Golden Hand herself, he would be able to escape, because that is what Dark Qi Cultivators can do! “-I understand that we are being judged and condemned for the crime of stealing from another cultivator, but we're being punished for killing mortals? That is beyond ridiculous.” Silently, he agreed. Mortals, as all cultivators know, are a waste of space and resources. Food that could be easily used to feed other Cultivators was used on them, and the majority of them didn't even live for long! It was like feeding rats, but in this case, the rats have the use at least being able to become their servants. His hands clenched as he felt humiliation flow through his mind- Heaven does not punish humans when they step on ants, so why should they be punished for doing the same!?

“...It seems you misunderstood my daughter's words, child.”

Like the sound of a breeze flowing through thousands upon thousands of leaves, a whisper echoed around. Suddenly, a very heavy presence descended upon them, a tall human-looking green skinned man, with hair so long it reached the ground and sank beneath the earth, like roots piercing through stone. His skin seemed to, at times, open in small circular shapes around his body, and from those circular holes one could see a bright amber colored glossy crystal-like sphere that would stare at them like an eye. His skin never stopped opening and closing, almost like he was breathing through it, and as he moved towards them, the trees screamed. It was like they were hearing the sound of thousands upon thousands of people being brutally murdered- blood curdling screams that made chills go down their backs. But others were not reacting to the screams, they didn't even seem to hear it at all.

“Mortals are many, and will always spread like roots, grow like leaves, and wither like bark… They come from the earth, and to the earth they shall return.” That same voice now sounded singular, a single male voice that spoke to Jhin De Zhi and his group. “I do not care for them. They are part of the never-ending cycle of nature- growth, change, decay… I do care, however, when someone disrespects my authority over my own home.” A single tendril of green Qi slithered to the back of Ghun De's head, sinking into his skull like an arrow. Ghun De screamed, screamed like he was dying, screamed like his entire body was burning- and then, like a puppet that had its strings cut, he dropped. “Ah… Ghun Gloomrose, was it? You were the one who disrespected my authority and killed within my forest… Were it for responsible hunting, I wouldn't have minded, but you killed due to your own annoyance and disrespected my authority within my land, and therefore, you shall be disrespected in the most beautiful way.”

All the cultivators watched in horror and awe as Ghun Gloomrose blossomed. His skull was the first to change, turning into this mass of red meat that cracked like a branch, morphing into a bloodied and putrid flower-like thing. Soon, his body started withering and turned black like charcoal. His skin cracked open, and maggots started to fall out of it like he was deeply infested by them. In a matter of gruesome seconds, Ghun Gloomrose's whole body was morphed into a glorious and glamorous blood flower of death and decay - His petals were bright red, being made of his flesh. The center of the flower was also completely white, as that was what remained of the cranium!

Oh, and he smelled putrid, like a rotting corpse.

“For you, my beautiful daughter.”

“Thank you, Father.”

Lily smiled, accepting the gory corpse flower that was easily as tall as her. ‘...I can make a garden like this.’

Unknowingly, Root had just given Lily an idea. In the future, the many corpses of mortals would be arranged in a decorative manner, and it would be a great pleasure and honor to become one of Lily's Flowers in the Grandiose Death Glorifying Garden of the Deceased and Decorative.

-Author-

Thank you: Dallas Meck, jean, Kaleb, underdog121, DarksoulS, Maxwell Joseph, Ether's Blessed One, Yerock, Sin of Sloth, Harrison Brown, Golden Mold, Robbie, Jeremy, ronald bakame, and Me Me for your support.

Hey, I'm still depressed and insomniac, but at least I wrote a chapter, right?

I'm gonna go try and NOT kill myself now, bye. 

Posted on Patreon: February 28.