Gardener of the Grove
He enjoyed watching the sunrise each day. Really, it was the little joys that added up and made being an immortal worth it. It was never the biggest or fanciest things that really brought lasting joy. Those things were a flash in the pan, powder smoke igniting and then fading away. No matter how many you got together or how big it was it was always just a flash and then gone. Not like the little things that were like sticks. You have one and sure it's not very bright or warm but you gather a bunch of them and you have yourself a nice little campfire to keep you warm.
With a yawn Zheng Wuneng turned his eyes from the sunrise. He wished he could have had a few more little joys in his life right now, like midnight naps, he hadn't been able to have one of those in a few months. He supposed things like that were bound to happen when you reached the fourth realm and started to take on more responsibilities.
Wuneng looked out over the vast rice fields that were his pride and joy. They stretched out almost as far as the mortal eye could see. Carefully tended to not only by his own hand but the hands of dozens of lower level cultivators. It was a grand project of his, to breed and grow the most resilient, the most plentiful, and fastest growing rice plant he could that would still be edible by mortal mouths and not completely destroy the ecology of where they were planted.
It was too bad most other Zheng saw his pursuit as a noble hobby and not a true goal. Though he supposed he wasn't like a lot of the other Zheng.
While other Zheng were consumed by wanderlust and want for adventure, especially in their younger years, Wuneng had wanted to put roots down and just farm for about as long as he could remember. Other Zheng's spirits and determination burned bright and hot like flames, Wuneng's was much more like a constant drip of water that slowly but steadily cut through mountains. Other Zheng were fast and loud, Wuneng preferred to walk and listen.
He was broken from his musings when he felt another cultivator approaching. He knew who it was, Zheng Nuhai, a student his old master had sent his way. Apparently the girl wanted to travel to the other provinces and needed to learn a bit of patience and nothing taught patience better than a bit of farming. "Sir Wuneng, I'm sorry to bother you-" The young Zheng started before Wuneng was waving her off.
"No need to be sorry if it's something that needs my attention Nuhai, what's going on?"
"I'm… actually not sure what exactly is going on Sir Wuneng." He blinked and turned to look at Nuhai, hands still covered in dirt and manure from whatever work she had been doing. "I was adding the fertilizer to the trees you have me looking after and I believe I heard one of them… crying? I'm not as in tune with the spirits of the orchard so I-" With another wave of his hand Wuneng cut the extremely polite(for a Zheng) girl off again.
"Did you count the fruit?"
"I'm sorry, sir?"
Wuneng shuffled around where he was sitting to look at his temporary student better. "Did you count the number of fruit on the crying tree? Most of the ones in your area shouldn't be so moody to start crying over a bent twig but they all get sad if their fruit is taken before it's ripe. It's best to keep a count of their fruit and make sure they are all there at least every few days. If you can't remember how many, you should write it down."
The girl bowed her head. "Sorry Sir Wuneng, I have not been keeping count."
"Make sure to start doing that. Each fruit these trees produce is very valuable. Could feed a mortal family for months or be a nice bit of change for a cultivator. Show me what tree is weeping though." With a single nod Nuhai dashed off to show him the spot. Wuneng gave her a bit of a head start, picking up his nine-point rake and stretching it high above his head and felt a few satisfying pops as he started to cycle his qi. It's not like his muscles and joints could actually crack and pop like that anymore but it was more a performance, or maybe routine was a better word, of something that got him ready as a mortal and early cultivator and so continued to do so even at the fourth realm.
It took hardly any time for them to reach the tree in question and after standing still for a moment Wuneng was in fact able to tell that the tree was lamenting that two of its fruit had been picked before their time. Wuneng soothed the mourning tree by simply pointing out that if it couldn't grow more fruit than its neighbors then it must focus on growing better fruit instead. In fact this was a boon because now it had more time and energy to focus on its remaining fruits. Many tree spirits could be vain like that, always wanting to outgrow, outshine, and outperform any other trees nearby, even its own offspring.
Trees also tended to think slow and in the long term, even if they took notice of every little thing going on with themselves, so Wuneng did give the tree a bit of a… jolt. A wake up call, a bit of energy to get it into a more talkative mood. To any eyes and ears still clouded by mortality he probably looked like a madman, leaning on his rake with one arm while the other was drawing odd patterns on the tree while he seemed to have a conversation with it, but anyone with true senses would be able to feel the push and pull of qi.
"Did you notice who took the fruit? Beast, spirit, person?... Really? Nothing at all?... Not even a leaf out of place… Yeah, don't worry, I'll make sure you get a bit extra fertilizer and water." Wuneng let the flow of energy stop and turned to Nuhai. "Nuhai, get this one a few pinches of the Xuan fertilizer and then get back to your normal duties. I think I know what's going on here."
He didn't even wait for a response back before letting his senses fall away. With hardly any effort he was seeing the world through so many eyes it was a bit disorienting still. He had to focus on just a few sections at a time and only through a few eyes. An eagle from above did not notice anything unusual but did spot a rabbit for its next meal, the rabbit had seen nothing of interest until it found itself lifted from the ground, a colony of ants had found a bounty in a rotten fruit tossed to the ground by one of the trees. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until Wuneng came to the eyes of a finch, contemplating flying down and picking at the discarded core of an eaten fruit before being scared away as another core was tossed to the ground.
Of course they would be so brazen, he thought with a sigh. With a twist of shen, Wuneng became much less… Wuneng for a bit and a lot more part of the orchard. It allowed him to quickly traverse the roots and fungus that connected just about everything here together, even touching briefly on those large golden roots that dug so very deep here, before rematerializing in an explosion of dirt.
With a sigh he brushed himself off and then with a wave of his rake put everything back in place. Wuneng could've sworn he had timed that right so he should have materialized right at the trunk of the tree and not at its roots half a foot under ground. There was a snort and then a high pitched giggle from the next tree over and Wuneng couldn't help but sigh again as his suspicions were confirmed. "What are you doing here Zheng Shimao?"
The girl, because Wuneng was not in any mood to describe her as anything but that at the moment, let her giggles die down as she lounged on a large tree branch. Dressed in from fitting Sun Tiger leathers and with short brown hair messily cut and somewhat tousled she smiled down at him. "Aww, is that anyway to address an old friend Zheng Wuneng, gardener of the grove and protector of rice fields?"
"An old friend? No. A constant thorn in my side? Yes."
Shimao scoffed and shook her head. "Come on, we've been friends since childhood! How can you be so rude?"
Wuneng shook his head. "We've
known each other since childhood. When I beat you in that little tournament our masters put together. Where this… obsession of yours started!" Honestly, it seemed to be at least once a year, and often much more than once, that Shimao showed up to bother him ever since.
"Hey, it's not an obsession! I'm just being friendly. Geez, if this is how you treat your visitors, no wonder you're so lonely." Shimao pushed herself up into a sitting position and started to swing her legs back and forth underneath her. Like a child. "But not to worry! I've come to whisk you away on a grand adventure! The grannies noticed an upstart spirit court and asked yours truly to go take care of it. But I know that this can't be done alone! So, of course I thought-"
"No."
Shimao stopped and looked down at him with wide eyes. "No? What do you mean no? I hadn't even asked anything yet!"
Wuneng quickly realized that any plans for naps for the next week were going to be shot but it was the lesser of two evils at this point. "I mean no. I am not going to go with you on some stupid chore given to you because you're layabout with nothing better to do. I'm actually busy."
"Busy with what!?" She shouted and jumped down from her perch. "Watching grass grow and making sure your rice is all in a neat little row?!" Shimao threw her hands around as if to encompass all the land he oversaw.
"Basically, yeah."
"How are you busy with that!" Shimao stomped over and glared up at Wuneng. She barely came up to his chest and he wasn't tall by Zheng standards. Wuneng did have to admit she did look a little cute like that, face all pinched up in indignation.
"Do you know how much work actually goes into maintaining this place? Not to mention all the work I'm going to have to put into updating the wards that keep this place safe because apparently they aren't good enough to keep thieving little monkeys like you out. I haven't been able to have a nap in months!"
"Then ditch it for a few days! You're worrying about a few missed days of watching plants grow when a beautiful woman is offering to take you on a relaxing adventure." Shimao cocked a hip to the side and gestured at herself with one hand on her hip.
Wuneng couldn't help but give a snort of laughter at that. "What beautiful woman? Usually beautiful women come with melons when offering to take me for an adventure but I don't see any here."
It was an old insult but apparently Shimao was still just as vain as when they were younger. "Hey! Plenty of people prefer peaches to melons!" There she went, actual anger showing on her face now.
"Well, maybe if you had some peaches I'd actually consider your offer but you don't even have any dates!"
Stamping her foot several times Shimao waved her hand and brought her hunting spear out of storage. "Fine! You want to work in your stupid orchard, I'll give you some work! I know you have an Immortal Peach tree here! Let's see how much work you'll have if I knock it down!"
Shit. Wuneng was already reaching out to grab Shimao as the words left her mouth. "Don't you-" But she was slipping through his fingers like wind and sunlight. "Damn it!" He couldn't let anything happen to that tree! It was basically sacred! Its fruits were eaten by the eldest of the clan! If he let anything touch that tree besides himself his hide would be flayed from his own body! He'd be lucky if a crippling and banishment were his only punishments and if Shimao touched it she'd be executed for sure!
He sent out a pulse of qi that covered the entire forest that he called a grove and then he was off, chasing down that sneaky little prankster. She wouldn't get far. As much as she joked about it, Zheng Wuneng was a gardener and this was his orchard, his grove, his territory. His Domain!
At his command the entire ecology began turning against Shimao. The branches of trees spread out and entwined to make it next to impossible to flee to the sky, spiders wove webs so thick not even an immortals breath could pass through, roots, vines, branches reaching out to ensnare her, and at every turn a boar or eagle or some other beast was harassing her, doing their best to slow her down but to not be killed from her spear.
Zheng Wuneng knew he couldn't catch her, not even with the entire help of the orchard slowing her down but he was directing her, making her take a specific path. A path with a pile of red leaves, completely out of season considering it was the height of Summer. "Luoye! Now!"
Of course Zheng Shimao knew who Luoye was, it was one of Wuneng's oldest and closest bound spirits. A spirit of decay and change, the fall leaves falling and becoming mulch for the new year, the dead being reused for the living to grow and thrive. So of course Shimao would strike out at the pile of leaves, the form that Luoye took on as it crawled along the ground and ate up anything it could get its hands on.
But that was just a trap, a clever decoy made to seem like the resting spirit of decay but was actually a snare. As Shimao's spear scattered the leaves they became a whirlwind of blades around her, each leaf now stronger than any steel but still not strong enough to cut even Shimao's most basic defenses. That wasn't the point though.
The point was to let the real Luoye launch from Wuneng's dantian. Just as Shimao was able to break the whirlwind that had trapped her, the vaguely human shape of Luoye rammed into and over her. It
devoured the qi she had been surrounded with and before Luoye could go for seconds Shimao was leaping away.
Right to where Wuneng had expected her to.
He dashed forward and brought his nine pronged rake down right onto her head!
It wasn't a killing blow, not even close, but it was enough to get Shimao to stop for a minute. Wuneng pulled the rake out, three of the prongs sporting a tint of red at their tips, and watched to see how Shimao would react. A bit of blood started to trickle down her forehead and her eyes started to water and her hands started to reach up to the wounds on her head. "Shimao are you really-"
A loud wail from the girl cut him off. Shimao fell onto her behind and started to kick her legs out as she wailed and sobbed. "That hurt! That really really hurt Wuneng! You're a big jerk! A big jerky jerk face! I don't even know why I like you!"
Oh spirits she was crying and throwing a tantrum like a child! Wait, did she say she liked him? "Wait, what do you mean you like me?!"
"I've been flirting with you ever since we met, idiot!" Shimao was… not calming down but wasn't kicking and screaming like a spoiled brat anymore.
"What you've been doing isn't flirting, it's harassment! You literally just stole from me and threatened to basically get us both killed!"
"I wasn't going to do anything! Probably. I'm not that stupid." Shimao sniffed and wiped at her eyes. Wuneng was still beyond befuddled.
"There first time we met you forced me into betting on our fight. Whoever lost had to do whatever the other said for a day. You were going to make me, like, do your chores or clean your master's feet or something weird like that!"
"I was going to have you take me on a picnic date you doofus!"
"What about all the other times! The constant crashing of my meditation sessions, the stealing, the one time you destroyed one of my rice fields!"
"I didn't know how else to get your attention! You only ever paid attention to my bimbo of a bond sister and always ignored me!"
Wuneng blinked and shook his head. "Zheng Shu? Of course we talked, she was a plant and life cultivator similar to me. We were sharing cultivation notes! You were always trying to get me to go off and do something stupid or dangerous or both. Usually both!"
At this point Shimao had stopped crying and the two of them were angrily yelling at each other. "I was trying to be coy about spending time with you! You were also so noble, talking about wanting to help the people and watching out for the mortals, so I thought, why not go do some good works together as like… a date sorta thing!"
He couldn't stop himself. Wuneng planted his face into his hands and groaned. "Do you have any idea what the most consistent killer of mortals is?" As he dragged his hands down his face Wuneng saw Shimao staring up at him with a confused look on her face.
"Spirit attacks?"
"No. Starvation. Famine. After the Cataclysm it wasn't an increase of spirit attacks or rogue cultivators that killed the most mortals, it was starvation. They always need to eat. That's why I spend so much time and effort with those rice fields and with breeding better strains of rice plants. Because that will save more lives than I could ever otherwise. Maybe if you actually talked with me you'd have known that."
"Oh…" Shimao let her head hang in shame. "I… I should probably go. I really am supposed to go take care of a spirit court that's acting up and… I should just go."
Well now Wuneng was feeling a bit guilty. This is why his master said to never try being coy about feelings, it never ends well. "Look Shimao… once you're done dealing with that you still need to pay for those fruit you stole. Maybe… maybe you can come back and do some work to pay it off. And maybe we can talk, actually talk, and learn a bit about each other.
"Oh? Oh!" Shimao's face broke into a grin and she waggled her eyebrows. "Want me to come
work off my debt, huh?"
"Not like that." Wuneng leveled her with a glare before dropping it. "But maybe not not like that either."
A.N.
@yrsillar Another omake for the omake throne. This sorta idea had been bouncing around in me head for a bit and finally decided to write it. Basically the idea was, Zheng gardener with bound spirit of decay. Then it morphed into... this... Also, how do you get Zheng stealth cultivators? Their pranksters. Just... the most insufferable pranksters.
