2 Sprouting
'What kind of plant am I?' John contemplates as he regains his strength. While the plant instincts taught him how to grow, they didn't explain any details about who he is now. It felt like he'd been gathering energy from his roots for months. John couldn't sense the world around him. He lacks eyes and ears, so he couldn't be sure how long he'd been here. Still, John can feel the change in the temperature of the earth through his roots.
No matter how long it'd been, it is time for him to start to sprout. John knew from his experience, as a gardener, that this was the most dangerous time for a plant. This is especially true for spirit medicine and other mystical plants. Since John didn't know his new body's origin, he can only be cautious.
When new gardeners enter a sect, they are faced with this tall hurdle. Due to inexperience and underestimating the job, they kill one expensive medicine after another, leaving nothing of value. After many failures, these disciples will scrape together enough knowledge to finally proceed past the sprouting phase. Each sect will keep the data on how much and what kind of fertilizer to use for each medicine. Still, it isn't easy for new disciples to replicate these sometimes cryptic instructions leaving many in debt becoming indentured servants instead of great masters.
Thus John wants to wait for his energy stores to be full. However, if he waits too long, he might miss the best season to grow. This may cause him to wither in the fall, before gaining enough strength to survive the winter.
'Perhaps I'm overthinking things. I may just be an Annual that will die after a few months…' John broods. 'Even if that's the case, I should do my best! I'm a gardener after all,' he concludes, pushing aside his dark thoughts.
As John's mind returns to the work at hand, he is alarmed by the lack of energy in the ground. It'd been slowly disappearing as time went on. John can vaguely feel other roots around him, competing for the limited energy. 'I may never be anyone great. But I will live a full life this time!' John resolves.
John's goal now is to create a spirit core. With this in mind, he pulls all the energy he'd gathered from his roots into his seed. A spirit core is the foundation for all spiritual medicine. Every plant has the potential and will strive to create a spirit core. This core will function similar to a human's dantian storing mystical energy and circulating it throughout the body.
For a common plant to create a spirit core is genuinely heaven-defying. Only one in a billion will achieve such feats. Still, even less survive being eaten by animals never reaching maturity. It can be said that plant cultivation is genuinely the hardest of the three cultivation paths.
Of course, this is just for your average plant. There are many divine medicines, like the ones sects cultivate that will produce cores 90% of the time when appropriately treated. Perhaps a great master will never fail to induce core creation. John had never met such a great gardening master, but he had heard of the miracles they could create.
Now, however, John is alone. He didn't feel he had much hope for forming a spirit core. Since it is unlikely that he is a rare divine medicine. Failing to create a core will cut off his path of cultivation in this life. While he isn't overly attached to cultivation, John still felt he has to attempt it. The danger is that he may accidentally use too much energy and cut off his path of survival. It is essential to keep significant reserves to grow and take energy from the sun.
'Might as well give it a shot!' John thinks. He begins to focus his all on the core that is currently just a speck of gold. He guides the earth's energy to the center building up the core layer by layer. The energy flows into the tiny core without issue, causing John to want to jump for joy. Of course, as a plant, he's chained to the ground and can't actually jump.
As the precious energy coalesces, the speck of gold has barely grown. Frowning, John tries to sense what is wrong. 'How much energy does a plant core need? Is this the difference between a normal plant and a divine medicine?' John wonders. He will soon use up all the energy he had prepared for this attempt. Sighing, he decides to give up. There is no reason to waste his strength on a failed core.
However, John's instincts are as calm as ever, giving the feeling that everything is going as planned. John begins to wonder if this is why plants often die at this stage? They listen to the calm instincts until they dry up and wither. There is no time left. He has to stop.
John starts refocusing the energy into growing a stem abandoning the core when a mental explosion happens! 'Someone is fighting nearby. Will I be squashed in this life, before it can even begin?' With that, he loses consciousness as the battle wreaks havoc all around.
