Stella stepped through the rift in a good mood as her Soul Core was filled to the brim with rich spatial Qi, and she felt on the edge of forming her Star Core and ascending to the next realm.
With the pop of the rift closing, Stella felt the sudden change in environment from the mountain air and sunshine to the dusty darkness of the mineshaft. She looked up and noted the end of the hollowed-out root that led to the surface.
Having been down here before, Stella strode down the mineshaft with measured steps, making sure not to trip on the roots and random bits of rotting wood or rusty metal minecart tracks.
The pulsing Soul Core in her chest made her body feel warm, and she couldn't help but place a hand on her chest as she walked.
I just need to solidify my foundation and absorb as much spatial Qi as possible before going into Ash's pocket dimension again, and then I will have no problems forming my Star Core.
Her musing was interrupted by a distant conversation between Douglas and the prisoner.
But until then, I have to deal with these people.
Stella sighed as she emerged from the mineshaft a while later into the expansive cavern. The overwhelming smell of flora took her by surprise as it starkly contrasted with the previous dusty and stale air of the mineshaft.
On the banks of the stream in the cavern's center were many soil patches housing various flowers, mushrooms, and even spirit grass. Stella didn't plan to pretend she knew all their names or purposes, but she wasn't totally clueless after reading that alchemist's journal she had retrieved from the deceased Voidmind Elder's belongings.
Those should be valuable ingredients for making pills.
Her eyes drifted to the large stone bowls on the opposite bank across a stone bridge.
And those stone bowls should house alchemy cauldrons required to form the pills with the alchemist's soul fire.
"Oh Stella, welcome," Douglas called out to her as he stepped into view from behind one of the stone bowls.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your esteemed visit?" The man was dust-covered, and his face suggested exhaustion from his hunched posture, so his sarcastic tone was understandable.
"I came to check on our prisoner," Stella said as she strode over the stone bridge and used the slight vantage point to glance around, "Where is she?"
"Elaine is right here," Douglas replied dryly as he reached to his side and gently pulled the woman to stand beside him.
Stella hadn't gotten a good look at the Voidmind assistant yesterday, so she took her time scrutinizing her.
Elaine was clearly older than her due to her more defined bust and figure, perhaps in her mid-twenties. Rose gold hair messily sprung from her head and somewhat obscured her face. And oddly, she wore thick glasses.
Have I ever seen a cultivator wear glasses before?
Stella pondered, but it didn't take long to conclude that the answer was no. Actually, she hadn't interacted with that many cultivators. Her list of people was pathetically small...
Realizing she had been staring for too long, Stella questioned Douglas, "The Patriarch told me he believes Elaine could make a good addition to our sect. What do you think?"
Stella had deliberately chosen the word 'Patriarch' to refer to Ash as it helped build some confusion, and she didn't ignore Elaine's look of shock and distress and the relief on Douglas's.
"Despite the situation surrounding her, I believe we require more members here," Douglas looked down and smiled at Elaine, "And I believe she would make a great addition. She has been a great work partner, and her insights were invaluable."
In truth, he wasn't wrong. The Ashfallen sect was far too small and lacked skilled individuals to cover all the fields a sect needed.
But why did I hope he would say she was useless?
Stella frowned behind her mask—deciding to confront these weird emotions another time, she spoke directly to Elaine. "We killed the head librarian."
For the first time, Elaine stopped looking straight at her shoes, and her head practically snapped up, her eyes wide behind those thick glasses coated in a thin layer of dust. "What—"
The words died in her throat as she was reduced to pure confusion. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air as she tried and failed to speak.
Douglas didn't have his mask on, so seeing his look of shock was rather amusing. Perhaps she had been too rash in spilling the truth to Elaine, but quite frankly, she had a few days until she went to form her Star Core in the pocket realm, so she didn't have time to waste on slowly explaining the situation with this new person—she had cultivating to do.
Deciding to continue the lie she had told the Redclaws, Stella continued, "You are currently in a cavern under the Ashfallen Sect, a secret group that controls the Blood Lotus Sect from the shadows."
"So you aren't a demonic cult?" Elaine blurted out but then clasped both hands over her mouth. Clearly terrified that she had misspoken.
"Where did you get that?" Stella inquired, "We don't participate in those rituals or demonic techniques."
"But... but..." Elaine stammered, her voice shaking and dropping to a whisper, "I overheard... that you wanted to kill me?"
"Yeah?" Stella said flatly and tilted her head in confusion, "All cultivators eliminate threats, not only demonic cults. I suggested to everyone that we kill you, but Diana insisted we give you a chance."
Elaine shrunk back from Stella, which she found amusing. But then she remembered Tree had told her to be friendly, so she quickly added, "Although there aren't any plans to kill you now that you are here."
Elaine breathed a small sigh of relief, "Who is Diana? I need to thank her for giving me a chance..."
"She's the mist demon," Douglas whispered from the side and laughed when Elaine yelped.
Are they calling Diana a mist demon?
Stella thought and felt it fit her quite well.
There was a moment of awkward silence until Elaine gathered the courage to ask, "So the Ashfallen Sect rules the Blood Lotus Sect? Is the Patriarch you refer to Lord Nightrose? Or is it the immortal Douglas keeps referring to? Also, what makes me a threat? Why did you kill my uncle? What am I doing here—"
"Woah, woah," Stella raised her hands, "There's no hurry. I can answer your questions, but please remember to breathe."
Elaine had frantically asked all her questions without pause and was now panting.
"But to answer your questions... the immortal is the true Patriarch of this land. The Patriarch you've known about all your life is merely a puppet." Stella almost felt like the heavens would smite her down any moment for sprouting such lies, "As I said before, we operate from the shadows and eliminate anyone who discovers our existence."
A look of realization dawned on Elaine's face. "So my uncle discovered this Ashfallen Sect when he went through a rift?"
Stella nodded, "Yeah, the rift led to a project we were working on. He then got aggressive and tried to fight the immortal, so he paid for his ignorance with his life."
"But uncle was so strong." Elaine seemed perplexed, but eventually, she slowly nodded, "I see... so what makes me a threat?"
Stella had to admit even though she was clearly a little older than her, the woman was incredibly innocent looking, coupled with her low cultivation—even she found it hard to see her as a threat to their continued existence.
Maybe I had been rather rash to call for her execution without even giving her a chance.
Discarding those thoughts, Stella had to be honest with her. "It's your family that makes you a threat, as the immortal noted that you witnessed the Elder going through the rift in the sky. We hoped to hide our activities as much as possible and avoid conflict, and you bringing the Elder's disappearance to light would hinder our plans."
Elaine needed a moment to compose herself. All of this information was a lot to take in, so Stella asked Douglas, "Is the alchemy lab ready? The Silverspires should be arriving soon."
"What do you think, Elaine?" Douglas asked the distraught woman, "We have done a rather good job considering how much time you spent trying to run away."
Stella smiled, seeing Elaine's embarrassment. "Douglas, don't tease her so much. Although I have to say, the place does look quite good."
"Yeah," Douglas looked around with a proud grin, "Not too shabby for a night's work."
"Err, excuse me, Miss..." Elaine glanced at Stella and pushed up her glasses, "What do you want from me then? Do I have to stay here forever as a prisoner?"
Stella honestly didn't have a definite answer to that question, as the whole situation surrounding Elaine was chaotic.
"For at least the next three weeks, you must remain out of sight and away from your family. After the alchemy tournament we are organizing, we can reevaluate your position here. You may become a full member if you do a good job, giving you massive benefits."
"Benefits?" Elaine seemed intrigued, "What type of benefits?"
"Well..." Stella tapped her chin, debating how much to reveal.
I have already told her a little too much but isn't the best way to win someone's trust to disclose secrets? It's not like she can escape or contact her family, right? So it should be fine?
Stella raised her palm, and her high-purity soul fire sprung to life. Elaine took an understandable step back, showing she didn't trust her yet.
"We can offer the greatest cultivation resources ever discovered to you." Stella gestured to the cavern with her aflame hand, "We have remained in the dark for so long to cultivate our strength, but we are finally about to expose the quality of our cultivation resources to the world through alchemy."
She then leaned forward and whispered for dramatic effect, "Have an impure spirit root? What about heart demons that plague you at night? Heck, forget about cultivation. What about a pill that improves your skin?"
Stella swore she saw stars in Elaine's eyes with everything she mentioned. A feeling of pride for Tree's capabilities swelled in her chest, making it impossible not to brag on his behalf.
"You really have such profound resources?" Elaine was barely concealing the excitement in her voice.
Stella chuckled, "Why would I lie? Look at my soul fire's purity for proof. Of course, the good stuff isn't grown down here, but even these mushrooms and flowers are bound to carry amazing effects."
To hopefully solidify some more trust, Stella's spatial ring flashed with power, and she fished out two wooden masks that Diana had given her. One was black and the other white.
They were cheap wooden masks, but giving a prisoner the illusion of choice and the feeling of inclusion would go a long way. "Pick which color of mask you want."
Elaine looked between the options and then up at Stella and then Douglas. Eventually, she hesitantly reached out and grabbed the end of the black one.
I bet she picked it because Douglas also wore a black one. Also, these two have a weird relationship going on. Why is Douglas being so sweet to her, yet he was so rude to me?
"Good choice." Douglas gave Elaine a thumbs-up as she tried to fasten it to her face. After some struggle, she gave up and sighed, "I can't fasten it with my glasses in the way."
"Give them to me. I can store them away in my spatial ring." Douglas said as he offered an open palm.
Taking him up on his offer, Elaine took off her glasses and handed them to Douglas.
"You will be able to see fine?" Stella asked, worried Elaine might walk into walls or trample the plants. The idea of a cultivator needing glasses was ridiculous to Stella. How bad had her sight been in the Qi Realm as a child for the affliction to follow her into the Soul Fire Realm?
Elaine looked around with the mask attached to her face and hummed. She even raised her hands and looked at them. "Yeah, I can't see anything."
Stella was about to offer solutions, but she heard Diana's voice echoing down the tunnel at the cavern's end beside the stream.
***
Ashlock had tried to devise a way to notify Stella about Diana and the Silverspires waiting outside, but a good opportunity never arose, and keeping them waiting outside began to get awkward.
After seeing Stella provide a mask to Elaine, he deemed that good enough, so he used his {Root Puppet} skill the move the void-tainted Bob to the side, allowing the curious Silverspires to enter the tunnel leading to the cavern alongside Diana.
"We are still getting things together," Diana said to Sebastian, "It should be all up and operational by next month after the tournament."
"But we get 15% right!" Ryker shouted excitedly, "That was the deal!"
Ashlock wasn't sure how the profit share had jumped to 15% from the originally agreed upon 10%, but whatever Diana had managed to wrestle out of them was likely valuable as Sebastian looked exhausted and far from thrilled about the 15% cut.
"Yes, you do!" Diana patted the Silverspire heir on the shoulder, "You will beat your siblings and get that silver core."
"To be honest, if everything goes at least somewhat to plan, that isn't an empty promise." Ashlock laughed to himself. He planned to be among the richest in the entire sect, surpassing even the Silverspires.
"What's this about a 15% share?" Stella stood before the trio with her arms crossed below her chest. Douglas and Elaine stood beside her on either side, their black wooden masks obscuring their features.
Ashlock was worried Elaine would speak out and ask for Sebastian's help, but she thankfully remained quiet, although a bit nervous by her shifting her weight from one leg to the other.
Sebastian was the one to answer Stella's question with exhaustion dripping from every word, "We spent a few days surveying Darklight City for other business opportunities, but none of them seemed lucrative enough to give the returns we require to win the inheritance war. With that in mind, we planned to take up your offer and invest in your business, but a 10% share seemed too low due to the high level of risk we are taking."
Stella sighed, "So Diana gave in and offered a higher share?"
Sebastian snorted, "Absolutely not. We had to offer the Silverspire name as the official backer of the Alchemy tournament for the extra 5%. If nothing goes wrong with all the families coming here to participate, it would be a miracle from the heavens, but Ryker was insistent that it was a good idea, so I shall let him learn from his mistakes."
Ashlock couldn't believe how great of a deal they had just gotten. After the incident with the Voidmind Elder, the safety of himself and his allies weighed greatly on his mind. There was a reason a small family like the Redclaws couldn't usually put on such a tournament, as what if a competing family used it as an opportunity to seize control of the city? Or a brawl broke out between two larger families at the tournament?
But with the Silverspires backing? He could be bolder and live without fear of repercussions, as he could always cower behind the banner of the Silverspire family and let them take the heat until he got stronger.
"Ryker has no idea the mess he has just caused his family." Ashlock felt like grinning, "Maybe I should taunt the Voidmind family a little more..."
Sebastian surveyed the cavern and honestly seemed too tired to care. "Looks good to me, although I know nothing about alchemy," He then took off a silver spatial ring and held it out for Diana. "As promised, here is the payment of a thousand high-grade spirit stones and fifty thousand Dragon Crowns."
As Diana took the ring, Ashlock felt the pressure of heaven as if it were taking note of the deal's completion. Had they taken an oath regarding the payment?
"Thank you for your patronage, and I hope for a fruitful partnership." Diana then handed the ring to Stella, and Ashlock knew she was super excited to use all those spirit stones to make more formations.
"Alright, that will be all. I'm exhausted—" Sebastian turned to leave but stopped when he saw Ryker dash over to Elaine.
"Big sister, I haven't seen you before," He asked with childlike innocence while trying to shake her hand, "What's your name? Where are you from?" He then looked between all the people standing before him, "Are you friends with Stella?"
"Oh, this little shit." Ashlock cursed.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶