Ashlock watched the scene unfold in horror.
His relationship with the Redclaws had gone far beyond the point where Stella could mess up, and he could simply eliminate them without a second thought.
They were too valuable to be disposed of now.
So why had she mentioned something like that?
Stella sighed at the Grand Elder's question and replied, "The immortal expended great effort to transform the Dao Storm into new life. Wouldn't you consider those beautiful red trees his children?"
The Grand Elder appeared bewildered, which was entirely understandable. Even Ashlock was somewhat confused by Stella's words, but fortunately, the Grand Elder dismissed her weird comments with a respectful bow.
"Mistress, please enlighten this old man with your request, as I am not sure I understand your profound words."
Ashlock let out a long sigh of relief. Stella had salvaged it somehow.
"It's rather simple. My immortal ancestor came out of seclusion to deal with the Dao Storm." Stella then pointed off into the distance at the huge demonic tree that occupied Red Vine Peak and was easily visible without the surrounding pavilion. "He was enraged when the storm dared to uproot the beloved demonic tree that he had nurtured for so long, so he bent the natural laws to turn the Dao Storm into a forest of trees, so his favorite demonic tree wouldn't feel alone anymore while he was in seclusion."
"I see..." The Grand Elder slowly nodded, "So the demonic tree holds great significance for the immortal?"
"More than just significant," Stella replied, crossing her arms. "That demonic tree is a spirit tree capable of basic thought, and it is connected to all these newly born demonic trees."
"A spirit tree, you say?" The Redclaw Grand Elder stroked his chin as he observed the tree in the distance.
Ashlock really didn't appreciate being gawked at as it made him feel naked, nor did he condone Stella saying he was only capable of basic thought! Was that a roundabout way to call him stupid or something?
Stella nodded, "Not just any old spirit tree. It has a fragment of the immortal's soul inside, so it could care for me and the Ashfallen sect like a guardian in my ancestor's stead while he cultivates. You know... just like Larry."
The Grand Elder's eyes widened as panic seemed to set in. Meanwhile, Ashlock found it astonishing that they would believe Stella's words, but in fairness, her explanation was more plausible than claiming he could communicate and had a sign-in system.
Stella gestured to Ashlock in the distance, "Every time a demonic tree is cut down, the guardian feels pain, as does the immortal whose soul is linked to it."
"I understand now," The Grand Elder bowed deeply again, "I should have foreseen such a consequence with all these trees appearing. I hope you can forgive this foolish old man; I can only beg for your mercy."
Stella approached and placed a reassuring hand on the Grand Elder's shoulder, "You have performed admirably so far, and the immortal is pleased with you. Don't dwell on this too much, but we must find a solution swiftly."
The Grand Elder straightened and adopted a serious demeanor. "We could impose the death penalty on anyone caught even touching the trees. My family is small, but we could work tirelessly to enforce this if the immortal wills it."
No. Absolutely not. Ashlock wanted the trees to live for his own selfish reason of generating more Qi. That was not a justification for taking people's lives so brutally. What if someone genuinely ignorant, like a playful child, touched a tree? Would the child be killed on the spot, no questions asked?
Ashlock had been concerned that Stella might be somewhat psychopathic when she seriously asked if he needed her to wipe out Darklight City, but now he wondered if they all shared this trait.
Fortunately, Stella shook her head. Ashlock had never been more relieved that he had provided Stella with a pre-outlined plan before she left. Otherwise, he wouldn't be surprised if they went to commit mass murder.
"Although measures need to be taken, we still have to consider the lives of Darklight City's people," Stella sighed. "Those are words straight from the immortal. I personally would have agreed with you otherwise."
"I fucking knew it," Ashlock groaned. He really needed to rein in her misguided loyalty—it was getting out of hand.
"So, what should we do?" The Grand Elder questioned.
"The immortal understands that some trees must be removed, such as those obstructing roads or crushing buildings. So, an earth affinity cultivator from our sect, as well as any other earth affinity cultivators seeking employment, can be hired to free the trees, which the immortal can then transport away via portals."
The Grand Elder nodded. "That can be arranged, although it will be costly. I hope you have enough Golden Crowns on hand."
Stella smiled, removed two of her golden spatial rings, and placed them in the Grand Elder's hand. "This should be enough for now. I broke the seals for you."
Ashlock watched the transfer of money with a pained heart. Why was everything to do with cultivators so expensive?
After inspecting the contents of the ring, the Grand Elder nodded. "This is a generous amount. Should I proceed with fulfilling your orders?"
With a simple nod from Stella, the Grand Elder took to the skies, leaving a blazing trail of crimson flame as he rode his sword toward Darklight City.
With Stella now calmed, she approached the Elders standing off to the side. "How goes the tournament preparations?"
They exchanged glances, and eventually, a stern woman replied, "To be honest, not great. We are a smaller family and don't have much influence within the Blood Lotus sect. As you may know, alchemists are rare and considered strategic resources hidden from prying eyes. So unless the rewards are truly extravagant, they'll likely show up with no one better than complete novices."
"I see..." Stella drummed her fingers on her crossed arm. Ashlock could tell she was carefully crafting her words to avoid sounding foolish in front of the Redclaws.
Elder Mo was next to speak up. "That issue aside, we have secured the training grounds of the academy as a venue to conduct the tests, but there's a slight problem... Actually, would you like to take a look?"
"Sure," Stella agreed. Ashlock then opened a portal to transport them directly to the entrance of Darklight City. This was another reason he wanted the trees to remain in the city: he could wrap his roots around them and use the trees inside the city as anchor points for portals.
***
"I hope you can see the other issue," Elder Mo said with a chuckle as the group stood in the stands of a building resembling a colosseum from ancient Rome. The primary issue Elder Mo referred to was that the place looked more like a zoo enclosure filled with demonic trees rather than a suitable location for a tournament.
"Indeed, Elder Mo, this won't do at all," Stella agreed. "We should be able to remove these trees within the next few days. When is the event scheduled to start?"
Elder Brent, the Elder Ashlock had seen on the wall that first spotted the approaching Dao Storm, spoke up. "I can answer that. We sent out a notice of delay a few days ago to everyone who had shown interest in participating. Some met the news with sneers, others with annoyance. For them, the event will start in a month. Only one family completely ignored our notice, though."
"The Silverspire family that the Grand Elder mentioned earlier?" Stella guessed. Elder Brent nodded in confirmation. "I never really dabbled in Blood Lotus politics. So what are they known for?"
"Wealth derived from creating spatial rings and being self-entitled arrogant bastards," Elder Mo grumbled.
"They created these?" Stella looked at her golden spatial rings.
Elder Mo glared at them with annoyance. "Unfortunately, their spatial rings are one of the largest exports of the Blood Lotus sect, so they naturally receive special treatment from the Patriarch."
A brief pause in the conversation led Ashlock to realize how certain affinities seemed more valuable than others. For example, what could the Redclaws really provide the sect other than firepower?
"Which families agreed to participate in the tournament?" Stella wondered aloud while looking at the horizon.
The stern woman known as Elder Margret replied, "Participate is a strong word. They're essentially just sending inexperienced alchemists as a ploy to check out our presence here in Darklight City and see if they can seize a piece or the entire city from our hands."
"But to answer your question," Elder Margret continued, counting on her fingers, "Of the seven remaining families excluding us and the ones that have been wiped out, five showed interest."
"Oh?" Stella raised a brow. "Who isn't coming?"
"The Nightrose and Silverspire families."
Ashlock was confused as he had never heard of this Nightrose family, and hadn't the Grand Elder said the Silverspire family was on their way?
Stella mirrored his concern to the Elder, who helpfully replied, "The Silverspire family doesn't have Soul Fire—they have liquid metal cores that aren't suitable for alchemy. I assume they're coming to find a way to profit from this event rather than participate, as they hate being left out. As for the Nightrose family, I'm surprised you haven't heard of them, considering they're the Patriarch's family. They're very mysterious and prefer to hide their powers, so their refusal was expected."
That was a lot of information to take in. Ashlock finally learned the name of the Patriarch's family. "I wonder what type of affinity the Nightrose family has? I should ask Stella when she returns to the mountain," Ashlock mused.
It was also interesting to learn that some affinities didn't have a Soul Fire. Did they follow a different cultivation system than everyone else? He was now even more intrigued to see these Silverspire people who were apparently on their way despite being told to wait.
Elder Margret added, "Those sending someone of importance are the Voidmind, Starweaver, Terraforge, Skyrend, and Azurecrest families."
Ashlock hadn't encountered most of those yet, but the Terraforge family rang a bell as they were mentioned in regard to Douglas and, finally, the Azurecrest family. After hearing from Diana what happened to Venik and his sister, he had a bone to pick with them.
Stella nodded sagely, but Ashlock suspected she didn't know about those families either.
"Are they only sending their own family alchemists?" Stella inquired, "Make sure the tournament is open to everyone who wants to participate."
"You sure?" Elder Margret questioned, "The quality of alchemists that haven't passed the exam could be detrimental—"
"Then they won't win?" Stella snapped back, "This is a tournament that only lets the best win, right? Why should we care what those snobbish alchemists think? There could be talent out there being wrongfully ignored!"
Stella then lowered her voice and added, "Also, we will only have a few people show up if we keep the entry requirements so high..."
"Ah..." Elder Margret blinked in realization and then scribbled something down on a piece of parchment. "That is a good idea. I will allow rogues to participate. It's good that we delayed the tournament by a month to give them time to head over here and prepare."
The group continued to converse for a while, and after an hour or so, the skies became filled with noise. Airships floated over the demonic forest-covered city, and a few low-rank cultivators empowered their voices with Qi and shouted to the streets below from the platforms.
"By orders of the Noble Redclaws and the Mortal Council, those found harming the demonic trees will be fined a Silver Crown as they are now deemed a protected species by the city. If you wish to remove a demonic tree from your home or street, you can pay ten Copper Crowns and enquire at the nearest guild building for an earth affinity cultivator to remove it."
Ashlock was surprised at how quickly the Grand Elder had put his plan into motion, which made things a little awkward as the city was enormous, and his roots didn't even cover a fifth of it. Fortunately, only the nearest half of the city was affected by the demonic trees, as the further one got from Red Vine Peak, the fewer demonic trees were present.
After a while, the city buzzed with people rushing toward guilds and requesting demonic tree removal. Ashlock was sure many of them would regret their decision once he decorated the demonic trees with beautiful flowers and magical mushrooms.
Something he planned to do overnight. Darklight City would wake up in the morning to a city they could hardly recognize. But while the sun was still up, he wanted to test out moving these demonic trees in the colosseum via his portals.
Back on Red Vine Peak, Ashlock opened a portal next to Douglas, who had been meticulously checking that the runic formation surrounding him was working properly. The man made eye contact with Stella through the portal, who gestured him through.
Once he stepped through and saw the colosseum filled with demonic trees, and a portal opened next to one of the trees that led to a random spot in the wilderness, Douglas seemed to understand his task.
Jumping down, Douglas landed in a cloud of dust and got to work. The ground turned into the same weird viscous state Ashlock had experienced two days ago, and he slowly pushed the tree up from the ground, roots and all.
Almost effortlessly, Ashlock used telekinesis through the root coiled around the demonic tree, guided it through the portal, and set it down on the lush grass of the wilderness. "Kid, dig your roots deep into the ground to stabilize yourself."
His root was naturally cut off when the portal snapped closed, but he had roots just below the surface of the wilderness, so he used them to help the demonic tree stay upright while it found its footing... rooting?
"This is going to be a tiring process, isn't it?" Ashlock sighed as he returned and worked alongside Douglas to move another one. Honestly, the fact he could lift trees with his mind was baffling, and it seemed to entertain the Redclaw Elders as well, as they stood watching with immense interest as trees many meters tall were uprooted and then floated through portals.
"The immortal is doing all this while cultivating two mountains away?" Elder Mo whistled in awe, and Stella grinned proudly from the side, "He sure is."
Things were going smoothly until late evening when Ashlock noticed something on the horizon approaching. Due to its size, he thought it was a giant cloud, but he was soon proven wrong when an airship that looked vast enough to be a floating city cast a looming shadow on Darklight City.
"Tsk," Elder Mo put his hands behind his back and grumbled, "The Silverspires are here. We should prepare to meet them—they hate tardiness and will raise a fuss that we can't afford right now."
Stella nodded and gestured for the Elders to lead the way.
Just looking at how large and majestic the Silverspires' airship was made Ashlock realize how small the Redclaw family was compared to the true powerhouses of the Blood Lotus sect.
All he could hope was they didn't eradicate the Redclaws and seize Darklight City for themselves because if they did, he would be shooting his roots through portals and popping that pompously big balloon.
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