Young 'Budding'

"Come on Budding, move your feet. We do not have all day!" Shu was waving its branches, trying to encourage Jin to stand up. However, each time he tried to do that, the magnets on his wristband would be attracted to his right ankle band. It made him adopt a fetal position where his back was leaned forward, head bowed, limbs were bent and drawn closed to the torso.

"Just a question, why are you calling me Budding? Not bud or seedling?" Jin asked with his face planted on to the ground. He was getting tired of not being able to move the way he wanted.

"Ohhh, are you lecturing me now?" Shu uprooted his own root and smacked Jin lightly with it.

"Ouch! Why are you hitting me?" The root somehow managed to hit his butt.

"Then why are you lecturing me? I am older!" Shu attacked helpless Jin again.

"That does not mean you are right! Ow!" Jin managed to evade the strike for the first time. The root broke the ground effortlessly but Jin was too busy trying to avoid its attack that he did not notice. Nevertheless, he got smacked at the butt again by Shu. At the rate of Shu being needlessly provoked, Jin will indeed have a flower budding out of his butt by the end of the day.

"I will call you whatever I like. Budding!" Once again, Shu lifted his root and wanted to smack poor Jin but Jin rolled around on the ground. It was the basis of Panda Tumbling a movement skill he had read briefly in the cultivation manual. Jin did not know that it would be useful in this situation. However, the more he tried to evade, the more violent and frequent the thrashing became.

"Well. you do not make any sens- Wait wait wait I'll like to parley!" Shu finally withheld its root and gave Jin a chance to talk.

"How about a compromise? You call me seedling and I shall do a favour for you!" Jin was gasping for air after rolling crazily around on the barren ground.

"How about accepting the word budding!" Shu was still angry that Jin tried to correct him.

"Before that, why are you insistent on the word budding?" Jin was really curious. Was Shu really arrogant to not change his ways or did something happen to him?

"Because…" Shu was dumbfounded by Jin's question and tried to search his memories but all he could remember was a scene of a married couple carrying a newborn baby girl. He clearly remembered that was the first time its sakura flowers were beginning to grow.

"Look! The tree is finally budding!" The mother was rocking the sleeping baby girl as she pointed at one of the sakura buds from the tree.

"Hahahha, our efforts to revitalise this ancient tree worked! How about commemorating the tree's revitalisation and her birth by inscribing her name on this tree? If she ever feel that she lost her calling, this old ancient tree may act as a symbol of strength and stability for her?" The father spoke with much kindness in his voice as he kissed his baby child on her forehead.

"You druids trust your trees too much." The mother asked her significant other to hold the baby and she weaved a spell in midair with two fingers.

A magical symbol appeared and an egg emerged out of the magical symbols. The moment the mother grabbed the egg, it cracked and a small white snake with red eyes popped out in front of her. To her pleasant surprise, the baby snake had its first contact with their cute little baby girl and it immediately slithered towards her to lick.

"Well, that saved me a lot of effort for imprinting my gift to our baby girl." The mother chuckled

"Then I shall say the same to you. You beast summoners trust your animals too much." The father laughed heartily as he passed the baby to his wife.

"Not funny, dear. What are you going to name our child?" The mother gently caressed the bark of the ancient tree.

"Have we already not decided? Ke Mi. Cute and sweet." The father laughed loudly again as he inscribed the name on the Sakura Tree with a few other druidic symbols on it.

"I do hope the seeds of these young budding sakura flowers will eventually grow into magnificent trees too." At that point when the father placed the druidic symbols on the tree, Shu was born.

As Shu was reminiscing the past, it unknowingly released his chi through the gentle swaying of its leaves and infused with the memories of his past. Jin who was in desperate need of chi from the overexertion of his chi absorbed Shu's chi and learnt the past of his awakening.

Treants are fairly unique creatures as they were one of the many helping hands of nature. The chi they released were similar to how normal trees produced oxygen. Both the environment and cultivators can easily harness the chi treants released into the ecosystem or body and converting it for their own use.

"Isn't that the Zither Mistress?" Jin remarked to himself.

"You know her? I will call you seedling if you can find her for me." Shu heard Jin and realised he could be absorbing its chi and possibly read its memories too.

"Hahahahah! What are you talking about? That girl is in the same dungeon as you!" Jin could not believe if Shu was joking.

"What? How can that be? That girl with that evil aura within her? You must be kidding me!" Shu shook its branches vigorously.

"I am clearly not joking with you." For some reason, Shu's chi was churning wildly within Jin and he managed to get up slowly from the fetal position although it took a lot of concentration.

Jin painstakingly took his phone out of his pocket and tapped the monster app with all his effort to show Shu the stats of Zither Mistress. Suddenly, a bright light shone out from his phone and Zither Mistress was riding the Great White Snake right in front of Jin.

"How did she even appear?" Jin immediately looked at his phone and saw that the picture of Zither Mistress had disappeared from the stats profile.

"Is that really her?" Shu bent its trunk and looked at her closely. However, instead of letting Shu look at her, the Great White Snake brought Zither Mistress to the back of Shu where the druidic symbols were inscribed.

It signalled her to touch Shu and though she was initially hesitant, she plucked her courage up and laid her palm on the symbols. At that instant, a burst of warm light enveloped Zither Mistress and the Great White Snake. "It really is her…" Jin saw a tear dropped from Shu's face on its upper trunk. The lush green foliage it initially had, immediately grew young buds of sakura flowers out of its stalks.

"Ke Mi…" This was the first time the Zither Mistress spoke and she teared upon touching the druidic symbols. The young buds immediately bloomed into sakura flowers and petals started to fall as if to reminisce the scene when Shu had first awakened.

"Seedling. You have done me a great service for finding my creator's daughter." Shu bowed slightly to Jin.

"Please Shu, I didn't do anything at all. The system conveniently placed the two of you together." Jin waved off and refused to accept any thanks.

"Ahh, regardless I believe the first part of your training is completed." Shu chuckled as it asked Jin to look around him. The majority of the thrashing that Jin evaded had thoroughly softened the land. In addition, the tear fell from Shu's wooden eyes was a Tear of the Treant. A fairly precious item, if collected, which had the ability to enrich this barren land.

"All you need to do now is to plough the land. For an old treant, I'm really nice aren't I? Now, off you go Seedling. Continue your training as I catch up with young Ke Mi." Shu shook its branch as if asking Jin to move away from them.

"Oh, and the copper hoe is right beside the tent." Shu then started talking to Ke Mi, the Zither Mistress.

"Speaking of copper, I guess the system's phone is indeed omnipotent for it not to be affected by such strong magnetic waves." Jin thought to himself as he controlled his muscles and walked like a tin man towards the tent.