(MC POV)
Sometimes life just decides to play with you a little, and you have no choice but to just accept it and go along with it.
Now I am father to twin girls, cute ones I might add, and trying to explain to my disciple that I did not mate with a woman in the woods who happened to be able to give birth to children as soon as she was pregnant.
That was what she speculated by saying that the woman was a seductress. Well, mother nature should be, right? And even the way that disciple looked at me was strange; I did not really care since he was useless anyways
"Papa want candy?" Lynda asked, offering me her small stash of candies that I had given them. I took one and popped it into my mouth and patted her head with a smile, to which she responded with a shy look as she looked at her little pouch.
"Papa, me two" Linda said, getting up from Chuyan's lap and, with extreme agility, making her way to me, handing me a candy, which I also took.
"But master, we can explain the girls, but what about the treants following us?" Chuyan spoke, looking behind through the window at the three-meter-tall treants that were following the carriage.
"I also don't know what to do." I just shrugged my shoulder.
The girls said the treants are like their children, which was really weird coming from seven-year-old-looking girls, but it seemed that they were right in some way.
You see, after studying what happened, I realized that I had made a blunder and overlooked some things. Firstly, the trees—it was so obvious, but my emotions when I saw how those villagers were turned into dryads made me overlook it. Secondly, it was when I put the elemental stones down.
When an environment is filled with a concentrated amount of elemental energy, Anything that has a foreign energy will be acted upon by the environment and will in itself develop properties of said element. Meaning that if you want a sword that is very durable, place it in a place with a high concentration of metal or earth elements for about five years, and your weapon will be naturally enchanted and not artificially by a rune.
Now, with tall-growing trees, dryads, and a high concentration of wood and life elements, contained by a barrier that won't allow any leakages, the dark sect had already set a stage or a base for some thing to happen, now when I added the elemental stones, it gave the environment a boost, and since these dryads had once been human, they would stilll have blood flowing in them, meaning they still had a soul, meaning they could evolve, and with evolution comes intelligence and with intelligence comes the urge to seek a leader, and since the dryads had somehow become treants, seeking a leader becomes more evident, but since they are inteligent but more of like controlled by instincts and they were once human, so why not create a leader?
Now that everything was ready, they needed a being with a soul. Since they had now become fully one with nature, they no longer required souls. But this soul needs to be intelligent, but of course they could have just used some animal too, but a handsome practitioner with a very high life force and soul suddenly appears—let's use him.
And boom, you have two cute twin daughters who have part of your soul in them.
I know this might sound confusing, but hey, it's nature; it's always confusing. Just like how it's confusing why monkeys and those thieving little night bandits called raccoons were even made, they are not elemental monsters nor normal monsters, and yet they make you wish you were dead sometimes when they steal your food...
Anyways, moving with such an entourage would have turned heads, but as an elder of a high-ranking sect am made to turn heads... Okay, that was a bit cringe, but according to Lynda, they can make the treants wait back at the forest, but I had another idea.
Since my cute little daughters-- Yes I know that I accepted them too fast, but I can't help it, okay? they are just too cute. Anyways, since my cute daughters can be human-looking dryads, what is stopping these treants from doing the same? Imagine having an army, or more like a squad, or is it a platoon? I don't know much about armies, but if I had such a force, paired with my disciple and daughters, I would have that easy life I wanted.
That is if nobody comes to me claiming I am trying to stage a rebellion.
After several more days of carriage riding and camping in the woods, we arrived at Guming village... Not again.
"You shall not pass!" An old man with what I can only call beards, since they looked more like a squirrel, was sleeping on his face, was holding a wooden staff, and blocked the road.
"Is that anowther disciple?" LInda asked looking at the strange old man, with some candies in her mouth.
"No, dear, that is a senile old man," Chuyan answered, patting her head.
"Oh, swenile old man," Linda echoed, eating her candy.
"Should I go, master?" Chuyan asked, ready to put Linda down.
"No, he is way out of your league." I stopped her from getting up, giving Lynda to her.
I stepped out of the carriage, looking at the disciple, who looked back at me with a strained smile.
This guy is useless. Maybe I should get another driver or something. I can't stand the whole "Master, someone is blocking the road" line anymore.
Looking at the old man, I could not help narrowing my eyes.
"He has the same wood elemental signature as Linda and Lynda." I muttered.
It seems the same thing has happened to Guming village, and the fact that he is outside here protecting the entrance like a guard instead of a treant with Linda and Lynda's case tells me that he might not be the leader of this forest.
"Step aside," I said, hoping to see if he was easily intimidated.
"Forest vines!" He said, raising his staff.
I guess not.
Dodging to the side with some air magic, I also erected a fire shield with my fire techniques, protecting the carriage. I also made sure that I was not close to any form of vegetation when I changed my position.
I did not want to be caught off guard.
After making sure that the carriage would be fine, I looked at the old wizard as he looked at the treants behind the carriage and looked at me.
"So he was right, you monster," The old wizard said as he pointed his staff at me.
"Forrest rage!"
The first few seconds, nothing happened, which made me confused, but then the ground started shaking, almost throwing me off my feet. thinking it was some kind of earth attack, I flew to the sky. that was when I noticed that the birds were flying out of the tree canopies, gathering into a swarm as they flew in my direction.
"Aerial attack?"
Using a wind blade and using my space magic to increase its size, I sent it towards the incoming flock of birds, but it seemed that this was not the only animal attack. Hearing roars and growls, I saw how different animals—tigers, wolves, pythons, and even frogs—came out of the forest, all looking up at me.
"Attack the lost children." The old wizard ordered, and the animals went straight to the treants, giving a gap to the ball of fire on the road.
Looking at this stamped of animals, I suddenly realized that the roads were indeed too quiet before.
I sent another wind blade, this time attacking the old wizard; he erected a barrier made of vines, and remembering the little trick the treants "Showed" me before, I turned the inside of the shield into a thorn barrier hoping to skewer the wizard, but then a bunch of leaves seeped through the gaps in the vine shield, reforming to the old wizard.
"World tree!" He had not even fully formed and cast another spell as a huge tree appeared beneath me, not even giving me a chance to evade, so I used my space technique and teleported out of its range.
"Fast," I heard the wizard say under his breath, but I did not give him the chance to recover from that surprise as I teleported again, and using a fire dagger I made stabbed his head.
Always go for the head; unlike some god of thunder, I always go for the head.
But what greeted me was a burning bush shaped like the wizard. I quickly gave distance to the bush as thorns burst out from it in all directions.
Using my air magic to sweep them away, I quickly looked around for the wizard but could not see him. That was when I noticed that one of the animals, a small green snake, was actually heading into the forest.
Quickly using my space technique to appear above it, I killed it with one swipe of my fire dagger and quickly moved away, observing it, but saw that it was actually a normal snake.
"This guy." I could not help smiling. He had tricked me
"It seems I am facing a Leshy."