Root Maker: Tree Cultivation

Endless Mountains of the Raohna Region, Twin Mountains, Dead Mirroring Lakes - 1st Brother Mountain

Timeline in Comparison to Root: Year 11, Day 68

An endless black lake, still like a black mirror that reflected the endless void of darkness. This lake spread out for miles on end, every now and then you could see a skull floating in the water, a skeletal hand reaching out for the heavens as if begging for help, and even a sword floating above the surface, in a state of extreme rust and even broken in various pieces. Rarely, you could see a non-withered body floating above the surface of the black petrol-like water… These bodies were in all various different stages of decomposition, withering in different parts of their bodies. Approaching the center of this miles long lake, we reach a single pillar above the water- These dark tendrils of this weird black sludge crawled up this pillar, reaching the land above it, breaking through the very limited barrier that protected the pillar as a form of defense. 

It was an enormous coral tree. 

Imagine a tree, but instead of bark you see coral. Instead of leaves, you see algae. A colony of very small beings that come together to make a home for themselves- polyps, you know? They're really small and really cute too, or at least, in this world they are. This enormous coral tree was suffering a great deal, after his protectors died a horrible death and her waters were contaminated with a dark and deeply corrupting essence. They tried to resist, but his power over her own territory was broken so easily… But they could resist. 

“Hive mother!” One of the small, wiggly little Fire Coral polyps waved all his little tentacles in desperation: “We have lost more soldiers than before- We need to regroup with all our troops, the corruption is getting stronger!” The larger polyp sitting at the throne of the dead members of her species - Don't worry, that's normal for them! - the Queen Polyp gazed down at another soldier of her colonial hive. She turned to look at this big polyp with an enormous bulbous “head”, although all of them were these wiggly beings with tentacles, they all had different features that helped them easily identify each other and their functionality in the colonial hive. The Queen sighed for a moment as she asked: “Brain Lord, what was that idea that you had before? The one about-”

“Yes, my queen. The idea about the rescue voyage.” The polyp with the enormous bulbous “head” wiggled a little, turning around and raising two of his biggest tentacles. At the same time, three representatives of the different species of polyp stepped forward. “Here, Guardian Staghorn-” He pointed one of his tentacles towards the big hulking polyps. He was really massive when in comparison to the other polypses (even though they all are smaller than even normal ants…) and he also had these antlers on top of his head. “-alongside Feeder Lettuce-” This exquisitely elegant lady-like polyp stood beside the Guardian Staghorn polyp, she had this large plate-like head that grew upwards and opened up a little bit at the top in a dull brown color with bright lashes of yellow, and with that she and her workers could absorb nutrients and plankton from the water to feed the Colonial Hive. “-and the Black Jeweler.” The last polyp to step forward was this completely black thin polyp, he also had this enormous fan-like head with little branches reaching out for nothing, and unlike the others, he was completely blind. “These are the three different Lords that have agreed to help me with this rescue voyage of sorts… Well, it's more like a very long shot.” 

“Right, explain your idea please.” The Queen Polyp looked down from her throne as the Brain Lord, the Guardian Staghorn, the Feeder Lettuce Leaf, and the Black Jeweler all worked together to explain their plan to her-

“The plan is simple- We get the most loyal, most skilled, and most heroic little ones we have, and we give them our hard working equipment.” Brain Lord soon had this weird chart in front of him: “We've been working tirelessly on this, my queen, and I believe we might have found something-”

“-you mean, I found something.” This large, and I say large, flat head that resembled a table stepped forward, her movements were very eye-catching and if she had hips instead of a single wiggly tendril for a body, she would've looked exactly like a model walking down a walkway: “Only me and my girls are sensitive enough to even feel the changes, you little big head prick.” Behind her, smaller versions of herself followed her footsteps. They all bowed for the Polyp Queen before the leader of them spoke: “Madam Latistella at your disposal, my Queen… As this big brained idiot was saying, me and my girls- as you, in your infinite wisdom already know -are in charge of both quickly repairing our defenses but also detecting if the annoying enemy is approaching us faster than anticipated… But recently, me and my most sensitive girl, felt a disturbance in the heavens followed by a strong defiance.”

“And how would that help our colonial hive, Madam Latistella? Cultivators do not care about us, they believe us to be lesser beings… Look outside, the ones who felt superior to us fell by our hands, and in a last ditch effort, poisoned our waters.” The Polyp Queen sighed as one of her many, many tendrils reached out to adjust the small white pearl that stood at the center of this crown of golden rough rock, an air of melancholy gripping at her heart: “Tell us the information you've found, before I make my judgment.”

“Of course, my queen-” Looking slightly smug towards the Brain Lord, Madam Latistella started her explanation: “-we felt the changes in the heavens, my Queen, and those changes point towards the south into the endless desert… It took us a long time but we've detected, my Queen, the increase of Nature Qi towards the south. A Nature Qi Cultivator is one of our hopes… ” 

“Ah… A Nature Qi Cultivator.” 

That explained a lot. Maybe it's a biased opinion but in their experience, Nature Qi Cultivators are the only ones who ever treated them like living beings- It was a few thousand years ago, but they still remember how that old Nature Qi Cultivator saved their whole colony from that enormous bug monster that had eaten three fourths of their previous colonial hive, they have been trying to reconstruct, to make a bigger and better colonial hive reef, but they haven't even achieved half the original colony size before they were attacked by these Cultivators… 

“...but if its only one Nature Qi Cultivator-”

“My Queen, it's a Nascent Soul Nature Qi Cultivator.” 

“-...prepare the expedition.” 

Brain Lord, Guardian Staghorn, Feeder Lettuce Leaf, Black Jeweler, and Madam Latistella all smiled. 

Year 11, Day 90

Endless Green Sea of Trees

Static Electricity. 

“You're doing it, son.” Root felt proud of Thrümm as he watched him struggle but progress through the innovative Cultivation Technique he was helping him develop- The reason his system wasn't activating and simply making it, was because it wasn't something Root wanted to happen. Mostly because he wanted Thrümm to feel the happiness and pleasure that comes with the taste of victory and the sensation of success: “Let's try again-” He took control of the wind around Thrümm for a moment and helped him stimulate movement while he wasn't moving exactly, he was working on his cultivation technique. “-electricity is all around you, pull it into yourself and make it part of you.” He then started the rather chaotic movement of the wind he gathered around Thrümm, simulating the rather quick flights he would do. Because Thrümm was floating above the endless green forest beneath, Root took the liberty of shaking him more and causing more movement, so much so he visibly started to see sparks. He was building electric charges! How? Well, not only was Thrümm a Great Lightning Spirit, Wind Qi could also be converted into Lightning Qi very easily, joined Light Qi (that turns into Fire Qi), Ice Qi (that turns into Water Qi), and Nature Qi (that turns into… any Qi, really), into the “Club of Qis that easily change.” 

“The wind is a part of you too. Lightning, Wind, Storm.” Whispering right in Thrümm's head, Root guided the Qi to slowly circulate around Thrümm's body, making the clouds surrounding his body grow and darken. He could both physically see, but also sense with his soul, that the Qi within the clouds was slowly changing from its hazy and soft Wind Qi mixed with very small amounts of Water Qi into these sharply moving and angry clouds of Wind Qi and Lightning Qi… Storm Qi? “Like that…” He felt Thrümm was getting closer to a breakthrough, a revelation, or something deeper maybe- With a loud and sharp crack of thunder, the clouds charged with lightning echoed out in the sky, and lightning fell. 

For the first time in years, maybe hundreds of years, rain started to fall. 

The forest was always covered in constant morning dew, but rain? Rain was not seen in… ages! Root soon noticed it was a rather weak rain, the Storm Qi- a combination of Wind and Lightning Qi -was not strong enough to produce enough Water Qi for a good and heavy rain, so he decided to help! He sent a big sphere of Water Qi from his own reserves, it was a not very pure sphere of Water Qi, which was what made it such a fucking enormous amount of water- Heavy, heavy and full rain started to fall. “...this is beautiful.” Thrümm, broken out of his haze, looked deeply into the clouds around him as the rain befell upon the lower world- Looking down from up here made him understand why many cultivators considered themselves gods amongst mortals, everything looked so small! “Rain…” His light gray skin glistened as the rain droplets fell into it- he watched those droplets drag down from his skin, curiosity and happiness gripping his heart: “I did it dad- I can feel it, I can finally Cultivate- I'm not broken anymore!” He was so fucking happy! Finally, finally he wouldn't be left behind- Finally, he will start making progress. 

“You did, son.” Root watched as the rain fell, he felt it in his endless leaves, he felt the soil sing and smile upon drinking the water that fell: “You did.” He could also feel his other children- even Bones! (He still is thinking of ways of getting Bones some sort of humanoid body, so he can also experience the upper world) -appreciating the rain, and even playing. Even the ever lazy Namis was out, spraying Fiero with water as he tried to run away, he could feel Ahteus rolling on the mud with a stupid grin on his face, he could see Freeze and Frost throwing balls of mud on their siblings, he could see Lilith showing Scarlet how to make a small mud castle while also stopping her daughter from eating mud, and he could see Lily and Chrysalis approaching his tree body.

“Father.” Chrysalis greeted.

“Dad.” Lily repeated. 

“”We have some… ideas that you might like.””

“...I fear it already.” 

When they pulled out this weird skeleton plant hybrid capable of healing itself like a plant, he was fucking impressed.

-Author- 

Thank you: Dallas Meck, jean, Kaleb, underdog121, DarksoulS, Maxwell Joseph, Ether's Blessed One, Jared Tate, Sin of Sloth, Harrison Brown, Golden Mold, Yerock, Robbie, Jeremy, ry10970, Me Me, Gabriel, Captain Dragnee, Tah Ma, and HILLARY Tchuente for your support.

All the Corals of the Colonial Hive are actual species of corals! I just took the little polyp cutie and gave them the characteristics of their respective coral species and tadam! 

Also, plant undead hybrid, anyone?