Chapter 24- The Wrath of the Gardener

Tian and Hong exchanged looks. There was no breath of immortality coming from the lake, so it wasn’t a cultivator or cultivating animal. Though, the whole area was saturated with wood and water qi, to the point where it almost overwhelmed their senses. The crane crouched slightly and drew in her neck, ready to attack or run.

Tian got his rope dart out. Hong already had her spear in hand. They carefully approached the pond. The tree had small green leaves, somewhere between heart shaped and arrow shaped, with little clusters of grey-green berries hanging down.

“No berries on the ground. The ground looks almost swept.”

The pond water was dark green and still. They edged closer. Tian instinctively started circulating Snake Head Vine Body, and stopped as electric tendrils of pain spread through him. There would be none of that.

A hand reached out of the pond and slapped the shore. Too-long fingers dug into the earth, and a long green arm pulled the rest of the body from the water. The creature was all long limbs and long head, as though a normal human was carefully vertically stretched by someone who thought humans grew “up.” The rough, woody brown, green and grey of its skin showed that it was no kind of human at all.

“Demon?” Hong’s voice was tight.

“Caretaker. I am the caretaker of this place, little thief.” The creature’s voice was rough. “You have broken into my mother’s house. No matter, no matter. You go in the hole with all the others. Everyone who tried to steal what is rightfully ours.” It tilted its too-long head side to side, slit eyes watching them carefully.

“We haven’t come to steal. We have come to study the pictures on the wall, and if you are willing, we will trade for some of the oranges growing here.” Tian kept his voice calm. He desperately tried to remember if he had ever heard a demon speak before, and what it might signify.

“Thieves. Come to steal what isn’t yours, and to take what is rightfully mine. My oranges. My pictures. The Great One created this place, planted mother and her servants, painted the pictures on the wall, all to preserve them for their inheritor. Me.”

The creature gave no indication. No shift of tone, no sudden tensing of the body. It went from swaying hostility, to all out attack. Arms and legs swung forward, moving with eerie fluidity as it raced over the ground.

“Dragon Suppressing Palms! It’s using-” Tian yelled.

“I KNOW!” Hong was already in motion, planting herself in front of Tian and stabbing forward with her spear. The thing from the pond squatted, its legs too wide for a human, then swept its palms forward and up. Fast. Too fast. The long arms and legs stretched even further, and suddenly it was past her spearhead and moving to strike her lower dantian.

Tian whipped his rope dart around, trying to spear the palm as it came in. It struck, but not hard enough to pierce the skin. The palm slid off to the side and Hong hammered down her spear as she stepped sideways. The crack to the skull smashed the creature down, but it was up again a second later. Pressing forward, relentlessly. Always swinging. Always stretching.

Tian had the oddest moment of recognition. “Tree demon.”

Hong just grunted and kept her spear in motion. Her spearhead danced, the red tassel flickering, stabbing for the creature’s face and slitted eyes. It hissed, an awful parody of a laugh, and grabbed the spear by the shaft. Long fingers stretched and twisted, tightening around the hard wood. It pulled forward even as it planted a palm out in front of it, ready to smash apart Hong’s guts.

Her Highness stabbed it in the back of the head with her beak. Tian really couldn’t understand it. Who would focus on the two crippled cultivators when there was a fully capable Level Nine Crane standing next to them?

“HOW DARE YOU!” The monster screeched. The back of the head cracked open, filled with fatty, waxy, white matter. Arms shaped in parody of the human form whipped backward, clawing for the crane. She batted them away with flaps of her wings, shifting around with ungainly hops.

Tian and Hong piled on, smashing at the demon and pinning it down while the crane did the actual damage. Tian had his rope dart wrapping around limbs every second he could, but the demon was stronger than him. Once it got its feet literally planted, it could yank him around, rather than the reverse. Likewise, Hong was struggling to do much. The spearhead lodged a fraction of an inch into the bark, leaving no mark as it was withdrawn. Smashing it didn’t do anything much either.

It didn’t feel good at all. Not one bit. Tian didn’t even dare try to use the saw teeth on his rope, lest he injure himself without Snake Head Vine Body. The intuitive use of his arts had served him well, until now.

He kicked the heavy dart head up, snagging a stretching arm. The crane drilled her beak forward, destroying the demon’s shoulder. That got a scream! The three didn’t need to share a look. They just settled into their killing work. Hong and Tian had been fired in the furnace of the Redstone Wastes. It didn’t matter who killed the enemy, so long as someone did.

It was a suitably grim sentiment, but the tree demon refused to cooperate. It regenerated. Worse, it looked like it was slowly starting to sprout. There was an unpleasant smell, rancid but herbal. Greasy. Tian finally remembered where he saw the tree before.

“Pin it down! Better still, poke a hole in it!” Tian sent an image to the crane while he readied his trap.

“You can’t kill me! You can’t even hurt me!” The demon howled.

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“Sure we can.” Hong started using her spear like a two handed club, not even trying to damage the demon. She just knocked it around and kept it from getting planted. The crane stabbed out with its beak, shattering limbs and digging holes in the demon’s chest. Each crack and hole revealed a fleshy, oily white interior.

Tian dashed in and flung a fistful of powder from his left hand onto the creature’s body. The right he raised to his mouth, and blew.

The Steelburning Powder ignited, then spread to the demon. The white hot flames caught the oily, fleshy insides.

There wasn’t even time for a final scream. There was a flash of light and the dull thud of a pillar of flame igniting filled the orchard. Soon after came the smoke, black, oily and choking. The crane flapped its wide, white wings, driving it away.

Even with the Steelburning Powder, it took a long time to burn out. The demon was quite rich in fuel.

“I finally figured out what that damned tree is. It’s a tallow tree. You can get oil from the seeds.” Tian collapsed on the ground. It was bare dirt. Tallow trees famously didn’t like competition. Or rather, they simply didn’t allow it. Once they could shade out competitors, that was it. Pretty soon, all there was, was tallow trees.

“Edible?” Hong sat down heavily beside him. Both were trying to keep away from the slag heap that had been the demon’s corpse. Just because they were used to nasty smells and vile sights, that didn’t make them pleasant.