Year 11, Day 88

Beneath Green Canopy, Amidst Mortals

Rottenwoods 

Elder Ahmi Chiang touched the soft pale light green leaf. She could feel the soft but strong Nature Qi within the leaf, she could tell the vitality within the leaf was not decreasing in the slightest, even after she pulled it free from the tree it belonged to. She observed the roots of the tree, thick and wide. She could feel the Nature Qi flowing through them down to the ground and flowing to another tree, and the cycle repeating itself as each tree was connected to another tree through the wide network that connected every single tree in the forest to one another, making it not a forest, but just a wide single entity with many bodies. She could feel the presence of a lot of the softly glowing pale green Lesser Nature Spirits. 

They were extremely common around this forest. She learned a lot thanks to the one and only Leaf- he was the oldest of the children of the Patriarch, as the Flareburns called him. It was a shock to meet the Flareburns in that mountain, and it was a greater shock to learn that the “Patriarch” was the one to free them from their fate of chasing that cloud of flames and misery for the rest of their lives. 

Their meeting went like this- 

Flashback: Year 11, Day 85

“You seem to be tired from your arduous journey, lost little saplings, I'll take you to a place you can rest-” Leaf looked down at the Rottenwoods, they clearly showed the signs of being exhausted, with some showing signs of extreme fatigue and even sleep deprivation. The majority of the Rottenwoods had these black bags beneath their eyes, they received them due to them not being able to sleep because of the deep desire to reach this forest as soon as possible. That pull that seemed to drag them across sand and rock until they finally managed to reach this place- the pull was still there, but dull, somewhat dull because when they focused on it, they could feel the strong pull directing them towards the largest tree that towered above the others with grace and majesty. “-the rest of you shall follow.” He looked at Jhin De Zhi and his subordinates (In case you need a reminder, he has 5 subordinates all in the Core Exaltation Realm. 3 with an Earth Qi Core, 1 with a Water Qi Core, and 1 with a Dark Qi Core) and finished said, a little bit of disgust in his voice: “...we'll keep eyes on you.” 

Part of Elder Ahmi Chiang couldn't understand why Leaf was being so hostile towards Little Golden Boy, but a stronger part of her easily understood it. A greedy Golden Qi Cultivator that grew stronger by consuming gold just happens to find your home, a paradise full of things that other Cultivators would kill to get. Imagine the fortune he could make by ripping apart your home, killing your family, and taking the pieces of their corpses to sell in the market. You can see the greed in his eyes, you can feel that he is going to a problem and that he is strong and dangerous. You can tell that nothing will stop him from wanting to steal from your home, kidnap your family, and destroy your life. 

She understood where the hostility came from. 

“Fair enough.” Jhin De Zhi lifted his hands in a gesture of ‘I give up’, trying to look as harmless as possible. Even so, Leaf did not let his guard down and instead connected himself to his brother Tahsm- ever since their Father had gone unconscious from the Heavenly Tribulation that he was put through, Tahsm entered their Father's Soul Realm and started to heal the damages it received. Three days after, he took over the communications amongst the entire family, reestablishing the connection that normally their father kept up. The only difference was now they couldn't really connect to one another, they had to give Tahsm their message so he could pass it to the sibling they wanted their message to go to. 

‘Tahsm, tell Zylph and Chaos to keep an eye on these six cultivators. Do not let them leave your sight and if necessary get Ahteus, Namis, and Lumin on it too. I can feel that they have Earth, Water, and Dark Qi cores so they might try to do something at night or beneath the home they'll stay.’ Leaf could imagine what they could do if left unattended to. They had Earth Qi Cultivators, so they could make a tunnel beneath the house Leaf pretended to keep them at ao they could go around beneath the forest. Maybe he should add Lilith to keep an eye on them with her ants? But she wasn't exactly having a nice time with Scarlet since Father has gone unconscious… She wanted food constantly and her Cultivation was staggering and growing slowly due to the fact that she couldn't eat as much as she wanted to, so he decided that it was better to just keep her out of it if he can help it. 

‘Got it! Sending this message to Ahteus, Namis, Zylph, Lumin, and Chaos.’ Tahsm's voice echoed out inside his head. It lacked that radio voice he normally had whenever he was doing his ‘announcements’, and that was because he wasn't as carefree as he once was- sure, he would sometimes do the voice, but he was occupied most of the time by redirecting messages from each of them to someone else. ‘Chaos, Lumin, Zylph, and Namis have sent basically the same message, that they'll keep an eye out. Ahteus has sent a message saying that he will keep an eye out for them too, but he doesn't have as much free time as he'd like, his little apprentice seems to be growing faster than he thought and has been of great help with molding and shaping the items, even though he cannot wield or use Qi himself.’ 

‘Ah, that sounds interesting…’ The kid he had taken as an apprentice was Anku's kid, he was named Anno as far as Leaf knows, and Abteus likes to call him Anno Ying. ‘A mortal kid that has a special talent for helping him forge, huh?’

It took a while- most of the entire day -but he guided the Rottenwoods and the other group of Cultivators to the Outer Circle and showed them homes they could stay in. He made sure to keep the group of the Golden Boy together while the Rottenwoods followed him to the Inner Circle because he could feel something inside them that pulled them towards his father. He couldn't fully see it, but there was something inside their souls that wanted to get close with his father… When they got to the base of his Father's enormous tree body, he could see Chrysalis spreading out this moss alongside the bark of their Father's trunk, to aid in healing his body. Floating beside Chrysalis was their new brother, the one born from lightning. He didn't have a name because father wasn't able to name him, so they called him Lightning whenever referring to him. 

Lightning was helping Chrysalis spread the moss on their Father's bark to help him heal, alongside them was Fiero, and with Fiero were the Flareburns Elders. The “Heavenly Elder” Hyu Yhan, “Demonic Flames Elder” Hyun Houn, “Cleansing Flames Elder” Heron Houn, “Sun Wrath Elder” Hyu Taiyan, “Chilling Flames Elder” Hyun Hanlen, “Melting Green Fire Elder” Hyu Suan, and at last but certainly not least, Elder Ránshão. All of them were speaking about something, but when Fiero saw Leaf approaching with an ensemble of people, he stopped speaking to the Flareburns and turned to look at him. The Flareburns followed his example and turned to look as well, and what they saw shocked them. 

The Flareburns and Rottenwoods easily recognized each other. 

“...so you're here now.” Elder Ránshão took a few seconds to look up and down the long white haired lady also known as Elder Ahmi Chiang, a.k.a, Elder Rottenwoods: “I knew I had smelled rot coming from somewhere.”

Fun fact-

“Ah, you again? Did you lose your cloud or something? Is that why you're here now? Only you could lose something that big and that slow moving.” Elder Ahmi Chiang visibly looked angry and smug at the same time, which wasn't very different from her own usual look. 

-They hate each other. 

Let's just say, Leaf and Fiero had to butt in to stop them from escalating this into a fight, but insults were thrown out by them. Insults such as: 

“You're a rotten old woman-”

“-oh you piece of coal!”

“-coal!? I'm fire, you woody bitch!”

“*gasp* You little ember.” 

“-how dare you call me an ember, you tree hugging moss fucking grass sucking roots lickin’ woman-”

“Okay” Both Fiero and Leaf said at the same time. They had to practically hold the two cultivators, stopping them from going at each other's throat: “Back down now- Hey! No hissing!” 

Yeah, they don't like each other. 

Flashback End

Year 11, Day 88

A few moments before Root awakes. 

“You're still in awe about such basic things, Elder Ahmi Chiang?” 

She didn't need to turn around to know that the one behind her was one of the children of the forest's owner. She simply held onto the leaf she had in her hand and closed her eyes, her Qi sensitivity was heightened in this forest and she could feel every single little thing and she was so amazed by it all. “It isn't something simple for me, Lord Leaf.” She had learned from the mortal Curator girl the names of all the other children of the Patriarch, and she was happy to meet and know about them all even if they weren't exactly welcoming to her or her family, because who is happy to meet Cultivators? They are a bunch of unhappy, powerful dickheads who like to take things for themselves without a second thought. “What brings you here, my lord?” 

“Well, I have to announce to you that my fears were right.” She could feel something wrong had happened, but she thought that maybe it was just a weird sensation and not reality. She cursed softly, thinking immediately of the Golden Boy and how fucking greedy that little son of a bitch is: “...what did he do, Lord Leaf?” 

“You seem to know that it was him who did something, maybe there is something you haven't been telling me, Elder Ahmi Chiang?” Even though he sounded soft like the falling of leaves, Elder Ahmi Chiang could still hear the implied question of ‘Did or did you not know that this shit would happen’, so she shook her head but answered: “I did not know he would do something, but I had my fears… He is a greedy man, too greedy for his own good.” 

“Well then, I will hold him accountable for the crimes of his little subordinates too then.” Leaf pulled out a sheet of paper, a report given to him by Namis about what she was able to figure out, with some doodles from Chaos and even Lumin's insight, Ahteus did not write anything down but did come to him to inform him of the underground tunnel they had made: “They've taken 234 of my Lesser Nature Spirit siblings, they've stolen about 569 pieces of raw gems and metals beneath our ground, they've stolen even fruits and vegetables from the mortals that live in the Outer Circle… They've harassed all mortals and killed 3 of them for a petty argument, I don't know if this is normal where they come from, but in this forest, this is unacceptable-” 

He stopped. 

Elder Ahmi Chiang also felt it. It was like the entire forest had come alive. It was like the trees were singing and the flowers were blooming. 

The Patriarch was awake.