Ashlock felt a tinge of dread as he tracked the worm's titanic body moving swiftly toward him at an impossible speed. It had delved deep beneath the earth, so the tremors on the surface were minimal, but it was a different story through his roots.
"Shit, why is it heading straight for me all of a sudden?" Ashlock panicked. He kept lighting up trees to show its path to the Redclaw Grand Elder and Stella flying overhead on a sword of crimson flames, but he had to admit they were rather useless here.
Unfortunately, so was Ashlock. Unless he could fight the worm on the mountain peak near his trunk, he had few options for combat against an earth-based enemy. His roots were used for resource management and intel gathering rather than combat.
"And my spatial Qi is beyond useless underground due to the earth Qi stopping me from making portals." Ashlock cursed.
It was why he couldn't conjure a portal inside someone's stomach or in the earth below their feet. A person or environment's Qi interfered with other types of Qi, and when the earthworm could surround itself with soil drenched in earth Qi, it almost acted like armor it could use to shield itself from most enemy attacks.
While half distracted, Ashlock shoved a little too much Qi into the demonic tree above ground and noticed the worm's direction briefly change as if it were a moth attracted to a flame.
"Hold on..." Ashlock was starting to realize why the worm randomly went after the Redclaw Grand Elder and Stella. The worm must have sensed a tasty snack flying in the air. "I forget that monsters get stronger by eating and absorbing the cultivation of others. Basically, just like how I get stronger."
With that realization in mind, Ashlock checked his Star Core Qi reserves. Due to the large number of fruit and truffles he had growing, over half of his reserves were gone, and his passive Qi regeneration from his pulsing Star Core was also being wholly consumed.
"This is going to be hella risky... shit." Ashlock had taken a gamble he didn't even consider, and it hadn't paid off. Since the Mystic Realm opened up in a few days, and it took around that long to grow all the fruit, he had gone all in and produced them all at once while not considering that the worm would return with a vengeance.
A rather big oversight on his part, but this was the trade-off. Suppose he had not spent any Qi on fruit and instead kept all his Qi in reserve for a rainy day. Then, when Stella wished to enter the Mystic Realm in four days, she would go in without his produce.
Ashlock wasn't entirely fearing his death at this point as he still had his {Consuming Abyss} and his guardians, Larry and Maple, as trump cards. The problem was Larry undoubtedly lacked a way to fight the worm underground, and he was unsure about Maple's true capabilities.
"Ideally, I want to divert the worm away so it doesn't destroy Red Vine Peak or eat me somehow." Ashlock decided. "I will make sure to keep a little Qi in reserve for some rifts if needed, but hopefully, this will work..."
Spatial Qi surged through his root network, and a line of trees leading away from Ashlock and Darklight City was ignited in lilac flames. It was a rather haunted sight and seemed to spook the nearby residents, who suddenly watched the trees catch fire with an almost ghostly flame. Nevertheless, his plan worked.
He could feel the worm diverting and following the long line of trees that led away from him and the city. The problem was that when the worm reached the end of the line a while later, it paused as there was no reason to continue.
Without a way to pump spatial Qi that far away, as it was beyond the limit of his roots, the worm seemed to lose interest. Noticing the worm's behavior change, Ashlock cut the supply of spatial Qi through the roots and watched silently. Hoping it would go away.
His Star Core was a flicker of its previous brilliance, so he had little to do besides tracking the worm's movements.
The worm seemed dormant for a while, remaining in the same location.
Just when Ashlock had a glimmer of hope that the worm was far enough away and that he had emptied out his Star Core enough that it couldn't detect his Qi anymore, the worm slowly began to slither through the earth toward him, gradually picking up speed, and very quickly, it was rocketing straight for him.
"Larry, get ready. There's a Star Core level earthworm on the way that's large enough to gobble this mountain peak whole." He called through the black tether, "You too, Maple. We got incoming."
Maple was resting on his branch and let out a long yawn as he rolled over, falling back asleep. Meanwhile, the ever-diligent Larry stood ready in the courtyard's center.
"Master, what should we do?" Larry asked gruffly, "I await your guidance."
Ashlock had forgotten that neither Larry nor Maple had witnessed the monster as he had fought it through rifts the first time and then out in the city the second time.
As for Larry's question. What should he do?
"Alright, let's evaluate. The monster is attracted to the largest source of Qi. Its mouth is large enough to gobble me up in one bite, and none of us have any capabilities to fight it while it remains underground—except Douglas, but he is an entire realm below the worm, so his value here is questionable."
This thought trail made Ashlock realize again how fights worked in this world.
"Swarm tactics aren't advantageous. No matter how many weak Redclaw cultivators I throw at the worm, it will never falter as its body, and Qi can easily resist attacks from those below its cultivation." Ashlock mused as he felt the worm rapidly approach, "Therefore, it's the heavy hitters on my side that matter, and they need to be varied in skillset and affinity; otherwise, I risk losing to a weaker foe due to them having a counter affinity."
Ashlock hummed to himself as he looked at the mountaintop. The worm was still a way out despite its speed. Ideally, he wanted to make this the final battleground so he could unleash his trump card, {Consuming Abyss} and penetrate the worm's defenses with void Qi.
"If swarm tactics don't work, I should draw it to a spot where all my heavy hitters can strike it at once." Ashlock mused to himself while Larry patiently awaited his orders.
"Larry, stand as far from me as you can while still being at the edge of the runic Qi gathering formation and unleash as much Qi as possible."
Larry crawled backward, away from him, and perched himself at the very edge of where the silvery runes lay. Cocking his massive head, he asked, "Here?"
"Yeah, just there is perfect. The worm will arrive soon, but it's drawn toward Qi. I want it to emerge away from myself by using you as a distraction." Ashlock slowly explained to his loyal pet, "So you must jump out of the way at the last second. Do you understand?"
Larry grunted in agreement, and the ashen halo orbiting his crown of black horns began to spin faster. An immense pressure descended as Ashlock felt the full force of Larry's cultivation. Then, as if unable to stay contained, the ash halo rapidly expanded until it was like the rings of Saturn and orbited around Larry's enormous body.
The rapidly moving ring of ash generated a whirlwind that violently rustled Ashlock's leaves, making his thick black branches waver slightly. In times like this, he was thankful that Larry was an ally rather than a foe. If he could train Kaida up to this level of strength... he would feel much more secure. What would an ink affinity serpent at the A grade be capable of? Ashlock looked forward to it.
The silvery lines of the runic formation suddenly began to glow with power as the formation got to work, trying to absorb the sudden abundant Qi in the air and transfer it down into Ashlock's roots, which he resisted by pumping the last remnants of his Star Core Qi into the formation.
He didn't want Qi to be transferred toward him. Ideally, he would like to appear as a random tree of little interest so the worm would target Larry and the formation rather than him.
This whole plan was risky and heavily relied on the worm targeting the greatest source of Qi. If he miscalculated, he would find himself in the maw of a mountain-sized worm that could crush him with a single bite.
"You know, it's in times like this that I wonder how the hell the world tree in the center of the celestial empire ever reached the Monarch Realm without being mauled to death by monsters or chopped down for spirit wood by greedy cultivators."
While mumbling to himself, he almost missed seeing Maple open an eye and snap his paws, making the runic formation go from glowing silver to a blinding beacon of Qi.
In fact, so much Qi was being forced into the runic formation that the silvery metal began to liquefy and boil.
"If the worm ignores all this and still aims for me, then it's not my fault. It's just blind." Ashlock joked with himself, trying to stay optimistic. If he could survive a Cloud Titan crushing him to death, why shouldn't he survive a stupid worm?
"Come on, Ashlock, what tree has ever feared worms?"
The mountain began to tremble as the worm drew closer.
Ignoring the fear gnawing at the back of his mind, he went through his mental checklist one last time and suddenly remembered something.
His vision blurred, and he eventually arrived in the cavern deep within the mountain. The place was already faintly shaking due to the rapidly approaching worm with bits of rock tumbling down from the ceiling and splashing into the slow-moving stream or flattening the flora.
Douglas stood behind Elaine, using his large body to shield her from the falling debris. The falling rocks broke into dust as they impacted his head and back.
Without further hesitation, he sent a flash of Qi through the mountain and summoned a portal right before them. Elaine's eyes went wide, and Douglas cracked a smile. "Seem's salvation has arrived."
Ashlock didn't know why he was acting so dramatic. He could always have used his earth affinity to tunnel out of the cavern or just walked out via Bob. "There should be no reason Douglas felt the need to stand and protect Elaine here... he could have just left with her."
He felt suspicious of Douglas's overly heroic actions, but he had bigger things to worry about, so he dismissed it for now. The duo held hands, stepped through the portal, and emerged in the courtyard of the White Stone Palace with matching black masks obscuring their features. The Redclaws naturally welcomed them with respect as Ashfallen members, and Ashlock hoped that Elaine wouldn't run her mouth and ask questions.
Moments later, the rift back in the cavern collapsed, and despite his roots being so intertwined with the structure, the whole place trembled as the worm began to shoot upwards.
Until now, Ashlock had just felt the distant tremors of the worm's movement, but now he felt its progress toward the mountain's peak in a very unpleasant way.
Pain as if he had shoved his foot into the rotating blades of a combine harvester overwhelmed him. "Holy shit!!!" He screamed in his mind space as he reeled back his consciousness. Now all he could feel was a distant dull ache and the intense shaking of the entire mountain.
Unable to track the monster's movements without experiencing the excruciating pain again, Ashlock waited patiently for its emergence on the surface. Then, as the dull ache got louder and louder, he shouted through the tether, "Larry! It's here!"
Larry curled in his legs before jumping to the side just as half the mountain peak exploded in a surge of rock. A great shadow loomed over Ashlock as the grotesque slime-covered body that looked like a skyscraper-sized diseased intestine eclipsed the sun.
Its body then curved in the air, and its abyssal mouth of razor-sharp yellowed teeth, dripping with molten spirit ore that had made up the now destroyed Qi gathering formation, turned toward Larry. Seeing so far down the monster's throat was harrowing as its body convulsed and globs of poison dripped between its teeth and melted the stone below.
After a brief hesitation due to the pain of his roots being torn through and literal tons of rock raining down on his branches, Ashlock activated his {Consuming Abyss} skill and mentally selected the void affinity option.
A timer appeared in the corner of his eye, ticking down. He had five sacrificial credits stored up, so he could use his skill for five minutes.
"That's all the time I need!" Ashlock shouted as the mountain peak became enveloped in a lake of pure void. Tendrils of void like an abyssal kraken emerged from the lake and shot toward the worm's body. As much as its size gave it many advantages, it also made it unable to even try to dodge the impending void attack.
The worm, intelligent enough to notice a threat, tried to swivel its giant maw away from Larry and toward Ashlock.
Its skin shimmered with dark brown flames as earth Qi coated its skin for protection and pressure so immense he thought a literal star had been dropped on top of him, causing half of Ashlock's branches to snap in half as they couldn't resist the excessive gravity from the worm's Star Core, which was undoubtedly a few stages higher than his.
"I see that size doesn't only work well for me." Ashlock cursed as he identified that this monster likely had a Star Core that wasn't fist-sized. It might even be larger than his trunk-sized Star Core.
A screech that blew off all of Ashlock's remaining scarlet leaves escaped the monster's mouth as the void tendrils from his {Consuming Abyss} skill impaled straight through the thick earth Qi flames as if it wasn't even there and skewered the creature's body.
It was fascinating to see how different a void affinity attack had been compared to the fire lance the Redclaw Grand Elder had unleashed only minutes ago.
Ashlock's guardians weren't idle either. Larry opened his maw and sent a powerful ball of ash into the worm's gaping mouth—it burst, and soon enough, the worm had millions of spiders crawling around inside it.
Things were looking good until the mountain shook even more, and the worm began to fall forward... toward Ashlock. Now he was one strong tree, but having a monster that likely weighed about as much as a skyscraper falling on him when his Qi reserves were near empty was far from ideal.
Maple, who had remained sleeping on his branch this entire time, seemed annoyed that the worm was blocking the sunshine as he slowly got up. Then, there was a shudder in reality as Maple vanished into the void realm and reappeared, standing defiantly in the air beside the falling worm.
He reeled back his tiny paw and thrust out.
There was the briefest moment as the worm's body rippled, the immense energy from the punch desperately trying to find somewhere to go. Then, after rippling a few times, the worm's flesh seemed to give way to the tremendous energy flowing through it, and like a popped water balloon, it burst.
A plume of poison accompanied a literal surge of grotesque black blood and pieces of worm. Like a building experiencing a demolition, the explosion traveled down the worm's body until it paused just below the surface.
With pieces of worm skin draped over his bare branches, black blood trickling down his trunk, and with no soul fire to burn it off, Ashlock felt genuinely disgusted. But he did his due diligence and checked on his foe.
"Is it dead?" Ashlock wondered as his spiritual sight drifted across the mountain peak, and he cautiously stared down the giant hole with streams of poison and liquid silver pouring down into the darkness below.
Confused, Ashlock looked a little closer and saw that the darkness was alive—it then tore open, revealing thousands of freshly grown teeth. It let out an awful screech, and then the mountain rumbled.
Ashlock still had his {Consuming Abyss} skill running, so he commanded the void tendrils down into the hole, but to his surprise, the worm wasn't interested in revenge; instead, it retreated downward and back into the depths of the earth below.
There was a long silence as Larry, Maple, and Ashlock just stared down at the giant hole that went through the center of the mountain. The tunnel did cut into the cavern but had mainly avoided it, so his alchemy farms were fine, but the runic formation they had spent so many spirit stones on had been gobbled up.
"At least we hadn't started on the concealment array yet, so those high-grade spirit stones haven't been wasted yet." Ashlock didn't know how to feel about all this. Neither side had explicitly won.
They had destroyed its head, but it had somehow cut its losses and regrown its head.
Although Ashlock hadn't died, the monster had taken away all of his Qi, significantly damaged his mountain, and eaten the formation Stella had spent so much effort on.
Looking around the mountain peak, he saw massive chunks of flesh and teeth everywhere, so he quickly turned off his {Consuming Abyss} skill and then unleashed his black vines to devour what was left.
"Got to get something out of this mess..."
The sound of teeth snapping and large chunks of flesh being dissolved filled the courtyard. To his shock, he also noticed some of the chunks of flesh slowly turning to wood... It seemed his cursed blood had started morphing the head of the worm into a tree.
Then, finally, a system notification brought Ashlock out of his sour mood.
[+100 SC]
"Huh?" He was surprised by the rather large sum. He hadn't been left with much to absorb after the explosion, and he estimated he had only devoured a small part of the worm's overall length.
"That entire monster should be worth well over a thousand credits... enough for another S rank skill draw." Ashlock suddenly felt hunting down that monster might be a good use of his time and resources.
As he looked around, Ashlock breathed a sigh of relief. His concealment technique was flickering and still active—
The frozen space shattered as a man on a flaming sword crash-landed and barely missed the enormous hole, landing near Larry in a heap. Stella was also sent flying from the back of the sword and caught herself on one of Ashlock's branches.
"Tree!" She whisper-shouted. "Are you okay?"
Without Qi to answer her, he opened his trunk and revealed his Demonic Eye that glared up at her. Stella gulped as she let go and dropped to the blood and flesh-splattered rock below.
"I'm sorry I brought the Grand Elder here..." Stella's eyes begged for mercy, "I was just so worried as I saw the whole mountain tremble from afar but couldn't see through the spatial concealment and feared the worst..."
Ignoring Stella's pleas for now, he turned his Demonic Eye to glare at the Redclaw Grand Elder, that was brushing the blood and guts off his robes. He froze when he felt Ashlock's gaze on him.
The man instantly knelt despite the condition of the floor, splashing black blood on his face. He then clasped his hands, "This useless one greets the esteemed immortal."
Ashlock let out a long sigh. Despite the seemingly doomed situation, perhaps this was a golden opportunity. Through his roots, he could feel the injured worm retreating out into the wilderness and back toward his wall of demonic trees.
That worm was worth far too many credits to let it leave so peacefully.
"But there's no way it's dumb enough to come back here after discovering I have void affinity." Ashlock's gaze drifted between his sect members, whom he considered heavy hitters.
He had grown an abundance of cultivation resources, enough for everyone, even the Grand Elder, Douglas, and Elaine. So maybe it was time for him to send everyone into the Mystic Realm for a teamwide power-up.
And then they could go worm hunting. Nobody messed with his peaceful mountain peak and got away with it.
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