Ashlock excitedly tried to send a command to his new Ent, but it refused to move no matter how much effort he put into it.
"Huh? Why isn't the skill working? Is my realm not high enough to command it?" Ashlock glanced around in confusion and noticed it wasn't only his Ent stuck in place and refusing his commands... his leaves were stuck, and none of his sect members were moving.
Everything was perfectly still, as if time had been frozen, but if he looked closely, he could see the eyes of his sect members still moving around in their eye sockets, and the spatial flames burning within the Ent were still flickering.
"My friend, we need to have a talk." A voice Ashlock was all too familiar with drew his attention.
Senior Lee stood on the edge of the mountain peak, his back facing Ashlock as he gazed at the distant Darklight City. His long white hair flowed down his back like a cape, and his simple white robes rustled in an invisible breeze.
"Senior Lee? Why are you back so soon?" Ashlock questioned the back of the man, "I thought you said you would meet me at the top."
Turning to face him, Senior Lee glanced up at the Ent's maw and lilac flame-filled eyes. "Well, I felt a sudden wave of death Qi near an old friend, so I came to check up on you before I entered my final meditation."
"Final meditation?" Ashlock asked.
"Indeed, what may be an entire lifetime to you is but a passing moment for me. Yet my time is running out. I have but one last eon of meditation left in this fleeting spirit of mine." Senior Lee's eyes flickered, and Ashlock swore he saw galaxies within his pupils. "Now tell me, friend, what is this creature of death you have manifested?"
"Ah, this thing." Ashlock relaxed a little. Whenever Senior Lee arrived, he feared he was about to dump some bad news on his plate. "This is an Ent I made with a new technique. It's completely under my control."
"Impressive. I knew my gift wasn't wasted on you..." The man circled it once, his eyes closed as if appraising it with his spiritual sense. "What a bizarre and fascinating mixture of death's decay, the nature of life, and absolute control. It's as if you have compressed all that governs the life and death of this universe into a single abomination."
Senior Lee then opened his eyes and began to walk over to Ashlock's sect members, "Hello Stella and Diana, long time no see. You both have grown so much in our little time apart. Star Core Realm already?" He offered them a warm, grandfatherly smile as their eyes followed his movement, "I just need to have a little private chat with my friend here, so you will all need to go for now."
Stella's eyes widened as Senior Lee snapped his fingers, and everyone vanished as if they were never there. Ashlock was about to panic, but he felt their presence reappear in the mine alongside Elaine.
Time wasn't frozen down there, so they all burst into chatter, and Douglas ran over to Elaine, and the two hugged. Ashlock wanted to listen in on what they had to say, especially regarding Elder Mo's inheritance and ghostly spirit flames, but he had a more important person to pay attention to.
Senior Lee perched himself on the vacant bench. His visage was that of a friendly elderly man—the facade he had employed the first time they met. The old monster in human skin had taught Ashlock to never rely on appearances when discerning the true nature of someone in a cultivation world where at the peak stages, the body was nothing but a vessel that could be warped and changed into a person's will.
"I believe the first time we met, I spoke of visiting an old friend." Senior Lee's voice took on a stern tone, and his warmth was replaced with a cold and unreadable face, "A sworn brother of mine, in fact. One from the Voidmind family..."
Ashlock felt his mind freeze as he took in Senior Lee's words, "So spirit tree, care to explain why I feel the lingering soul of my sworn brother trapped within your trunk and detect his niece in the mine below our feet?"
"Well..." Ashlock didn't even know where to begin. He felt like every word could be his last as an aura of pure rage lurked below Senior Lee's unreadable face. "After the Dao Storm got turned into demonic trees, the people of Darklight City demanded the trees blocking roads and crushing houses be removed. I took it upon myself to move these trees through rifts. That's when I seemingly caught the attention of the Voidmind Elder as he entered through the rift and ended up here."
Senior Lee clicked his tongue, "I told that old bastard to remain within his library and ignore what happened around him no matter how interesting it seemed."
Ashlock let Senior Lee finish his mumblings before he added, "He then spotted my eye and tried to pull it out. All the while claiming he needed it to finally ascend his cultivation."
"I've told him time and time again that his bloodline is cursed to never step into the Nascent Soul Realm." Senior Lee sighed. The man summoned a teacup to his hand and leaned back on the bench, taking a long sip of the steaming tea. "Spirit tree, tell me more."
"Well, the Voidmind Elder threatened to kill Stella and my other sect members, so Maple compressed him in the void and trapped him within my body."
Senior Lee shook his head, "He pulled that nonsense in the presence of a Worldwalker? What a fool."
"Worldwalker?" Ashlock asked.
"Worldwalkers are powerful creatures that guard the void to stop those unworthy from crossing the space between realms, and I believe that squirrel is one," Senior Lee replied, "Not sure why, but there's a Worldwalker trapped in that tiny form. I'm surprised it hasn't exploded."
So Maple really was the Worldwalker, yet in a tiny form? So his S grade summon all those years ago hadn't exactly failed but hadn't succeeded either.
"He does sleep a lot," Ashlock chuckled, "And often collapses after a single big technique."
Senior Lee hummed in agreement while taking another sip.
"Also, if you don't mind me asking, what is a bloodline, and why is the Voidmind family cursed?" Ashlock couldn't contain his curiosity.
Senior Lee shook his head, "Bloodlines belong to those of the higher realms. To speak about them down here would earn heaven's wrath. You will learn more about them when you initiate the Era of Ascension and escape this place."
Standing up from the bench, he added, "However, I can tell you that only those worthy can cross the void, and having void affinity does not give you that right." He reached over and tapped his trunk, "You should know that well as a Demi Divine being that's immune to the void."
There was a long pause.
Despite the man answering his questions, Ashlock felt Senior Lee was still suppressing some rage over his sworn brother's death, "I'm sorry for killing your sworn brother. I didn't really have another option..."
"Have I taught you nothing, young spirit tree?" Senior Lee stepped forward and placed his palm on his trunk, "A body is nothing but a vessel for the soul, and a fragment of my sworn brother's soul still lingers within you."
Ashlock felt a foreign presence, as if a ghostly hand was within his trunk, grasping at a whisp of something invisible to him.
"Death is merely a state of being that can be ignored, reversed, or inflicted by those that stand at the top of creation." Senior Lee drew his hand back, a visible black whisp following his fingers like a translucent black tar.
It squirmed as Senior Lee trapped it within his closed fist. A green crystal appeared in his other hand, and he then merged the two, seemingly trapping the black tar whisp inside the green crystal.
"Don't worry, I will punish this foolish man for his sins against you," Senior Lee said as the green crystal vanished, "However, now I must leave. His soul is already too weak, so I must find a vessel."
He turned to leave, but his eyes landed on the looming Ent. "Actually, talking of vessels for the soul, could you make another one of these?"
Ashlock mentally checked the skill description in his mind and confirmed that so long as he had a corpse, there were no problems. "If you can provide me with a corpse, I could."
Senior Lee rubbed his chin and grinned, "Interesting, very interesting. Why don't we give it a try?"
Although Ashlock was a little mad about Senior Lee wanting to bring the Voidmind Elder back to life, as that old bastard had tried to kill everyone he loved and even blew himself up in a vain attempt to kill him. Alas, Senior Lee was some kind of godlike being, and it wasn't worth arguing with someone that had given him so much help over something that had occurred in the past and given him a void-based skill.
A sudden pressure descended on him when a corpse materialized on the stone between him and Senior Lee. The man wasn't wearing rings, so Ashlock had no idea where he was summoning things from.
Ashlock simply couldn't describe what he was even looking at. It was as if his mind wasn't supposed to comprehend this corpse, even in death. It had a similar shape to a giant squid, but its body was overwhelmingly bright, while its tentacles were like the night sky.
"This is a Celestial Void Leviathan corpse, something you can find in the upper realms of creation." Senior Lee helpfully explained, "Use this to make a vessel for the Voidmind Elder. I care not for what shape it takes on nor how it looks."
Ashlock resisted the urge to devour the corpse with {Consuming Abyss}. Just the thought of how many sacrificial credits he could gain...
"Don't eat it. You will die." Senior Lee said as if he had read his thoughts, "Any corpse I bring out from the higher realms will overwhelm your pitiful Star Core like trying to shove an ocean into a teacup."
As if to demonstrate, Senior Lee made the tea in his teacup suddenly boil and then explode outwards. None of the tea ever reached his spotless white robes as it vanished someplace else with a wave of his hand.
"Anyway, I digress," He seemed excited, "Now show me what you can do!"
Ashlock was starting to wonder if displaying his new SS grade skill in front of Senior Lee was a good idea. He really should have told him that he could not create another vessel for some arbitrary reason.
Alas, he had no plans to let the crazed demi-god in human form down now, so with a mental thought, he activated {Necroflora Sovereign}. Once again, a thick black root emerged from the ground and approached the Celestial Void Leviathan. Luckily the skill handled everything for him as he could not even see where the mouth was due to the blinding light.
The sudden wave of death Qi suggested the seed had been successfully planted within the Celestial Void Leviathan's stomach.
Senior Lee was stood off to the side with his eyes closed and his hands behind his back, but the thin smile on his lips suggested he was enjoying the show.
The corpse began to convulse as its celestial flesh was twisted into wood. Very quickly, a tree sprouted between them, shooting up toward heaven. Its bark looked like someone had condensed the star-filled night sky into paint and smeared it on a tree. Ashlock looked up and saw its celestial leaves glowing like street lamps.
Within seconds the tree was taller than him, and a minute later, Ashlock swore it was touching the clouds. A loud crack resounded as the tree began to split into a more humanoid form, with two legs and arms breaking away. At the top, a maw opened wide, and Ashlock swore he saw a galaxy within. Its eyes also ignited with two small blue stars that looked down at him from above.
"What the..." Ashlock was speechless. He had thought his Star Core Ent was impressive, but it looked so small and pathetic next to this hundred-meter-tall titan that seemed to lord over all creation.
"Magnificent!" Senior Lee exclaimed, "In all my years, I have never seen a Star Core Realm cultivator perform such a tremendous feat! Even those on the first layer of creation would struggle to make something like this so quickly."
Ashlock was certain if he could get an Ent anywhere near as powerful as this one under his control, he could easily fend off the Beast Tide. Even the Patriarch and World Tree couldn't stand up against this.
He was about to ask Senior Lee if he could spare him another one of these Celestial Void Leviathans, but then he saw a crack in the sky.
"We need to move quickly. Heaven has taken notice." Senior Lee stopped looking relaxed. "Alright, first of all, this form is far too big."
The white-haired man clapped his hands, and an immense crushing force descended on the titan. Ashlock heard the wood cracking as the towering giant was compressed and shrunk. Within a minute, the titan had been reduced to the equivalent of a tall human of about two meters tall.
Ashlock knew Senior Lee was powerful, but this was just unnecessary flexing at this point. How could he reduce his Ent, made from the corpse of some mighty creature, into such a pathetic form with just a clap of his hands?
The world trembled as the sky opened, and Ashlock saw thousands of eyes glaring down at Senior Lee. They seemed to push against each other as if they wanted to be the first to squeeze through the gap in the sky.
The man met their glare with a frown, "This was not a good use of my energy. Let's wrap this up." He summoned the green crystal from an unknown space to his hand and reached up to shove the crystal into the heart area of the Ent.
Senior Lee then said some words Ashlock couldn't understand, and the black tar whisp spread out from the green crystal wedged between the night sky wood.
Like corruption, the Voidmind Elder's remnant soul spread out, and Ashlock suddenly felt his connection and control over the Ent cease, and it began to move without his command.
"Old Lee?" The Ent questioned. His voice sounded like ten people speaking at once. It was disorienting yet understandable at the same time.
"Brother Void," Lee replied with a light smile.
The Ent acknowledged him with a weird nod and then looked at Ashlock, "It's you. I remember you... You killed me."
It was clear the Voidmind Elder was still adjusting to his new form, as his speech was sluggish and confused.
The Ent's two glowing blue suns for eyes slowly turned black as if the void was corrupting them. The Ent then raised his arm and tried to reach up to tear one of Ashlock's branches off.
Senior Lee lightly slapped the Ent's arm, and with a loud crack, it was obliterated in a shower of splinters. The Ent slowly looked at where his arm should be, and Ashlock was amazed at how fast the roots of liquid night sprung forth to form a new arm.
"Why... stop... me?"
"Brother Void, We must leave this place before heaven traps us here for eternity. I will explain everything to you later." Senior Lee snapped his fingers, and the Ent vanished.
"Spirit tree, I will have to leave you to fend for yourself for the next eon or so. If you survive and meet me once again at the peak of creation, then fate smiled upon you."
By now, the sky had become a sea of golden eyes with perfectly white pupils that spread to the horizon.
"See you at the top old man," Ashlock replied, and Senior Lee grinned before he took a step forward and also vanished. The sky returned to normal at once as if it had all been a nightmare, and the world resumed as everything became unfrozen.
Ashlock felt the warm wind rustle through his leaves and enjoyed the chirps of birds. "How does Senior Lee freeze time in an area around him like that? Maybe I could learn how too?"
On the topic of unanswered questions, Ashlock looked up at his Ent and came to a realization. "Why didn't my Ent take on the properties of the worm corpse like the poison coating its skin?" Humming to himself, he went through a mental checklist of the differences. "All I can think of is that the worm corpse had little Qi left in it, so it was just a slab of monster meat, whereas the corpse of the leviathan still had Qi."
Whatever the reason, he would discover it with more testing. Senior Lee had given him a glimpse of his SS grade skills potential. All he needed was to ascend in his cultivation and go out and seek strong monsters to turn into Ents.
Excitedly, Ashlock gave his Ent a command to sit, and the lumbering titan collapsed onto its wooden butt before him, causing the entire mountain to rumble under its immense weight.
A sudden portal appeared on the mountain peak, and Stella ran through, "Tree! Are you okay?" She glanced around as if trying to find Senior Lee.
Ashlock was about to reply but paused. "Wait, since when could Stella create portals by herself like that?"
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