Chapter 18: War

Year 11, Day 20

Ants.

Literal ants.

"...annoying pests." They burrowed beneath his forest, and now they were eating the roots of his trees and taking them to their Queen, quite possibly. Annoying as they were, he exterminated a large amount of them, and yet, more would come as if he just didn't annihilate about a large amount of their population. Root was tired of them, so tired that he started… experimenting on them.

First thing he learned? They were attracted to Qi, more specifically, Nature Qi. In other words: They wanted to eat him. 

And of course, like any living being that wishes to keep doing exactly that, he did not want or wish to be devoured, eaten, taken apart by these annoyingly large and insistent things… Ahteus was working on his forge at all times, but all he had to do was ask and he would collapse every single tunnel these ants worked hard to make. 

But no. 

He had other ideas for these tunnels after he deals with the ants, and all these ideas resumed to using the tunnels as eitheir mining for precious metals, or underground passageways for escaping to even filling them with water and making them a reservoir. Weird, right? 

The ants started to become a nuisance a few days ago, a little after Frost's and Freeze's birth. You heard it (or rather, read it) right! It happened when he gathered Ice Qi to make an Ice Spirit for the future Ice Branch of his Sect… Well, twins were born of a single seed at the same time. One boy and one girl, he named the boy Frost and the girl Freeze! Their powers were pretty much the same, but there was something unique to them: they shared this connection between them, that allowed them to speak almost telepathically to each other, which Root could also push himself into and speak to them. They liked when he did that because although their face could not show any emotion, their minds were colorful and bright. 

Their teamwork was amazing, while Frost shaped the Ice Qi, Freeze blasted it! 

They were also adorable children, bright and fun, even if their faces were frozen in eternal emotionless expression. 

[Status]

Name: Frost (Freeze)

Species: Ice Spirit

Cultivation Root: Ice, Yin, Dark [Trash Quality]

Age: 0 Years

Qi Realm: N/A

Techniques -

F RANK: [Ice Spirit Snowflake Floating]

F RANK: [Ice Spirit Cultivation]

E RANK: [Resonance]

A RANK: [Twinlepathy]

Besides the birth of Frost and Freeze, Root also officially dealt with Hui Yang's arrogance. Honestly, Root really didn't care much about members of his sect that weren't his children, his antipathy for humans was large but even that had a limit. He reprimanded the girl via Leaf once, warning her to leave her arrogance for only the strong were worthy of such an emotion, and she pretended. She pretended that she was a good child, listening to her elders… But then she lashed out one day at not her fellow cultivator and sect friend Zhu Tei. If it wasn't for the fact that Root is monitoring everyone at all times (It's not his fault, trees have eyes and ears, but they can't close them) he would've missed how Hui Yang was bashing and expressing her "superiority" on her previous father and his bastard son when Zhu Tei came to reprimand her about her behavior, sent by Root himself. 

The boy had potential, a large potential to become a great cultivator, loyal to his sect… which was why he was enraged when the little girl, who had a contract with one of his lesser children, lashed out at Zhu Tei, using a technique he had only seen Leaf use. A small blade of Nature Qi shot out of her hands, she also seemed shocked to do so as did Zhu Tei look shocked at being hit. 

The blade did almost nothing, but Root's punishment for her was to have her contract with her little spirit terminated. It wouldn't hinder her too much, because Root wasn't stupid enough to actually kill one of his future sect members, and the fact that she managed to immitate one of Leaf's techniques really shows how talented she was. But her arrogance had to be squashed! Root basically called her a "embarrassment for Nature Cultivators" because she could not see "that every life is valuable, and all lives are lives meant to be lived and let live". 

Basically, he told her to stop being a little bratty bitch and let other people be. 

She didn't take it well at first, but now, a week later, she was… better. She didn't curse at anyone and she did her chores and her dues correctly. When she was in the presence of mortals, she ignored them, which was way better than what she did before. She also respected all spirits and seedlings she saw, even though almost all seedling were working as servants would. Well, actually they were working as keepers of his main body, cleaning the leaves that fell around his body and gathering them to store because once they were gathered, they also served as weak Nature Qi resources for Nature Cultivators. 

Well, weak for him- In this cursed world, Nature Qi cultivators were suffering more than any other, and such resources were rarer than a Dodo Bird in his past world. The very fact that his tree body survived 100 years is already a large miracle, and the fact that he reached this far is nothing short of divine intervention at this point- in fact, he believes some of the things that happened to him that helped him were guided by some divine being. 

It's sad he can't see his own Fate Thread. 

Anyway, back to the annoying pests that are ants! Root found out that they all have Earth and Demonic Qi, so he assigned his children Lilith and Ahteus to gather information about how the ants "worked" and how they "operated" and if they had a hierarchy among them. He gave them as much they thought they needed.

Beneath the Roots, Among the Tunnels

"Urgh…" Lilith groaned as her small body floated into the long tunnels. Dad had asked her and big brother Ahteus to investigate the "annoying pests" as he likes to call them, she personally calls them Hungry Many because that's how they feel to her- A never-ending hunger and the desire to consume and consume and consume. Big Brother Ahteus describes them as "The Tunnelers" not only because of their ability to make tunnels, but also because of how the Earth Qi interacted in their bodies… It was completely gathered around their pincers, that they used to dig and burrow. "I hate this place…" Unlike Big Brother Ahteus, she doesn't have a 'Tremor Sense' as he so called it, being able to feel the earth and its vibrations, being able to see without his eyes or [Spirit Sight]. 

"Don't worry Lilith, I won't let anyone hurt you." At least her brother was protective of her- She was happy that she had a very good family, that loved her and were protective over her. She was born of Demonic Qi, so it's natural that she is more aggressive, but her siblings did not put it on her head when she would randomly lash out at them due to her failing to control her temper, Fiero would just laugh and entertain her with mock battles, Namis would simply roll her eyes and fall back asleep as Lilith couldn't break through her water barrier, Lumin would play with her by creating illusions made of light to trick her, Chaos would play with her by using their ability to simply turn anything into chaos and make her a mess for a little while. 

But Sister Zylph, Sister Lily, Brother Ahteus, and Brother Leaf all reacted almost the same way- They would either laugh or pat her head, not harmed by her Qi empowered punches or not caring for the damage they received that was already healing or completely healed in a few moments of their "fight".

She still felt bad though, so she would always apologize.

"Brother Ahteus, can you feel them?" She asked as her hand touched softly the rocky walls, feeling their rough texture. There were many of these tunnels, Father told them that ants came from them and ate the roots of his forest, and he wanted to exterminate them all, so they needed to gather intel on these ants besides the things we already know. Like how they are individually weak, the majority between the 1st and 3rd stage of the Qi Gathering Realm. "I think I can…" he hummed, but stopped moving for a moment- Lilith watched as he gathered Gold Qi on the palm of his hands before he slapped the walls of the tunnel, making this gold light to vibrate for a split second- Soon he opened his eyes as he looked forward: "There are about 468 of them ahead in a chamber about 345 meters forward." Lilth was honestly impressed by the accuracy of Big Brother Ahteus' ability to detect enemies beneath the ground. 

If only she knew that Zylph also has a similar ability, but to detect those in the air, and that Leaf and Lily are working on detection techniques that allow them to see everything that has Life Qi (Nature) and Death Qi in them. 

"Shall we go forward?" She asked, hesitation clear in her voice: "I mean, it's so many of them…" Ahteus sighed softly and nodded, it's more important the protection and safety of the family than the completion of the work given by his dad. He might disappoint his father but he won't allow any harm to his sister. "Let's go bac-" He could not finish his sentence, for a long, black and sharp stone pierced through Ahteus' stomach and into the ceiling. Ahteus' body crumbled into rock and dust, fading into the rock and dirt beneath- 

"B-brother?" 

The rocks that once resembled her brother no longer moved, they stayed still- she saw his eye, or the gem that made his eyes crack and turn to dust. She flew, she escaped, she ran. She could not win against what just killed her brother! 

She turned to look if something was following her, but she could only feel this sharp pain in her chest- Looking down, she saw the same sharp looking stone that had killed her brother go through her own chest. Her head turned around to look at what killed her only to see this small humanoid ant with a sharp and toothy grin, their red eyes glowing in the dark of the cave… Cultivation Realm: Foundation Formation. 

She died as well, her head was torn from her body and she felt… free. 

Suddenly, a tugging force pulled her spirit and consciousness back, she felt like she was being dragged against her will before she blacked out. When she opened her eyes, the very first thing she saw was her brothers and sisters looking at her, concerned. "Are you okay?" Ahteus, the one she saw die before her eyes, walked and offered his hand to help her- She did not hesitate, she jumped and hugged him, tears in her eyes.

Somehow, they were back? 

"Tell me." Her father's voice boomed, and she could tell- He was angry. "Who killed you?" She did not speak, she only looked at him as a root of Qi touched her forehead, the last memory she had before her death flowing out of her head and into the root of the Qi. 

"...Leaf." Father's voice was cold, cold and serious. 

"Yes father?" Leaf, the oldest of them, the strongest of them, bowed to his father.

"Prepare yourselves, we're at war now." Her eyes widened as she felt a hand touching her head: "They killed my children… I will not rest until every single one of them is turned to dust." 

[author] Enjoy this double upload I wrote while in the hospital! Lovely ideas come to mind when you're high on medication~ 

And before you ask, I am okay, it was only a regular thing. I do it every now and then due to my illness. Chronic pain is a bitch, but hey, my wheelchair is rad.[/author]