While Ashlock questioned Stella about her newfound ability to make portals via writing in soul fire, everyone else stepped through the still-open portal behind Stella.
She ignored them as if they weren't even there as she walked over, sat on the bench, and patiently explained, "Because of your enlightenment truffle, I was able to grasp the basics of the spatial plane before entering the Mystic Realm, but it wasn't until I ascended to the Star Core Realm that I was able to fully comprehend its secrets. That's how I can make portals so freely now!"
She then explained how she could close her eyes and see the world in grids. Ashlock knew of the spatial plane's existence as it had been mentioned in Spatial Techniques of the Azure Clan technique book, and he had been utilizing it himself for his portals and other spatial techniques like telekinesis.
But it appeared Stella comprehended the abstract concept more profoundly than even himself, to the point that she could open short-range portals across a vast distance without having a tree body.
"Interesting," Ashlock mused as he listened to Stella rambling on. "Maybe I should spend more time learning techniques and practice with my spatial Qi. I feel like I have been neglecting meditation and improving my techniques in favor of system skills recently."
"So yeah, that's about it," Stella said while swinging her legs off the side of the bench, "The Mystic Realm was a lot more pleasant this time, despite being struck by lightning for a month straight while sitting atop of spike of rock jutting out of a molten metal sea."
Ashlock found cultivators' concept of what was pleasant to be so far removed from any logic that it was hard to comprehend. How could sitting still in an alternate dimension surrounded by molten metal while being attacked by lightning be considered pleasant? Just how bad had the previous time been?
That aside, Ashlock was confused about why the mountain peak was dead silent except for Stella's ramblings. Diana was off to the side, playing with little... well, big Kai now. The inky snake was going through his evolution and was already two meters long and looked barely small enough for Diana to have draped over her shoulders. It certainly didn't help that Diana was short, so Kai's tail almost touched the floor.
Diana aside, seven other people were present, but they were all kneeling toward him with the Grand Elder at the front. Looming behind them was the motionless Ent that cast a flickering shadow due to the spatial flames.
"What are they doing?" Ashlock was baffled. Had he done something weird without knowing it to cause them to kneel before him like this? Deciding to break the awkward atmosphere, as he had no idea what was happening, he asked Elder Mo a question that had been on his mind.
'Elder Mo, tell me more about this inheritance.' Ashlock wrote, and Stella relayed the message.
Elder Mo stood and had an almost fanatical demeanor, "Due to the immortal's infinite generosity, this humble one was able to obtain the inheritance of a spirit forge master!" He then raised the mighty hammer that almost seemed glued to his hand, "With my ghostly spirit fire, I can imbue weapons with my will, turning them into spirit weapons."
Upon hearing that, the only thought that went through Ashlock's mind was if he should ask Elder Mo to make the swords he stole from the Voidmind Elder more tree-friendly somehow. After all, he was the most extraordinary tree swordsman on the continent.
"He could also turn Stella and Diana's swords into something special. Ah, actually, I will wait until he has had more practice first before requesting anything from him."
Other than that, the fact there were inheritances of ancient cultivators within the pocket realms made Ashlock even more enthusiastic about sending his sect members in whenever possible. "Maybe I should even send in the entire Redclaw family next time. Although what happened to the two Elders concerns me regarding safety."
While he was lost in thought, Elder Mo kept rambling on.
"Of course, such an insignificant inheritance pales compared to you and your delectable fruits and...creations..." Elder Mo added as he looked up at the Ent.
"Okay..." Ashlock wasn't sure where this sudden offputting flattery was coming from. He had given them overpowered cultivation resources and even sent them into pocket realms, and they hadn't been this enthusiastic. They hadn't even seemed this enthralled when he demonstrated his SS grade skill which had been impressive enough to impress Senior Lee... "Are they flattering me in hopes of getting closer to Senior Lee?"
It was hard to know for sure, but he understood it must have been a humbling experience being frozen in time and then removed with a finger snap from a cultivator that suddenly appeared and called him a friend.
Whatever the reason, Ashlock wasn't interested in speaking with them when they were acting weirdly like this. "Let's get this over with so I can send them away. Having so many people up here on the mountain peak makes it feel crowded, and the giant Ent over there isn't helping. However, before I wave them off, I want to see their progress."
Ashlock had already felt the difference in the Grand Elder's cultivation when he had sliced the worm apart, and Stella naturally had reached the Star Core Realm.
'I will now check everyone's progress, and then you can leave.' Ashlock wrote as he opened his demonic eye. All of the kneeling people shivered slightly and kept their eyes glued to the stone to avoid eye contact.
Ashlock looked at them one by one. "The Grand Elder is now in the 5th stage of the Star Core Realm, and Amber is in the 7th stage of the Soul Fire Realm, although I can't remember what she was before."
He glanced at the Elders and was somewhat disappointed, "Although Elder Mo got the inheritance, he is still at the peak of the Soul Fire Realm. Meanwhile, Elder Brent and Margret seemed to have made some progress, each going up a single stage in the Soul Fire Realm to the 8th. Perhaps their lack of talent is holding them back. Actually, to be fair, they had been running away and burning their stored-up Qi to survive the worm segment hunting them down."
Ashlock had learned through a lot of observation and testing that combat was a great way to refine and learn techniques but an awful way to advance cultivation stages as it was a waste of Qi.
"Elder Mo had advanced right before entering the Mystic Realm and was likely too busy learning the secrets of his newfound inheritance to sit down and meditate to gather Qi. So his lack of progress also makes sense." Ashlock watched as the ghostly flames filled Elder Mo's entire body. It would seem the inheritance had somehow altered his affinity, a concept he had never seen before.
Ashlock then glanced at Douglas and noticed he had gone up three entire stages. "That's almost a stage a week. That cultivation speed is absolutely insane. Is Douglas secretly a genius cultivator? Or did he just get lucky with his pocket realm?"
Whatever the reason, Ashlock was delighted with Douglas's progress and was also glad to see that Diana was at the peak of the Soul Fire Realm and on the cusp of ascending to the Star Core Realm like Stella.
He studied Diana's Soul Core—a light blue storm tainted black due to the prevalent demonic Qi that was barely being suppressed. When his eye focused on her, the demonic Qi seemed restless, as if trying to escape and overtake Diana.
Seeing her pained expression and heavy breathing, Ashlock looked away as he wasn't interested in causing unnecessary discomfort. He skipped over Elaine as she still hadn't progressed from the 1st stage of the Soul Fire Realm, and he moved on to the final person here, Stella.
Unlike the others, she didn't shy away and openly accepted his gaze as if trying to show off her new power. Within her was a pulsing lilac star, much like he had before turning fully tree. Except hers was special as lightning arced between the star and the rest of her body.
It was to Ashlock's understanding that once Stella used the lightning Qi stored within herself, her Star Core wouldn't generate any new lightning Qi, only spatial Qi, as that was her affinity.
With his demonic eye still open as he had one last thing he wanted to check, he summoned a portal in the White Stone Palace's courtyard and ordered the Redclaws to return home.
The Redclaw Grand Elder relayed his ancient words to his family, and they all gave deep bows and expressed their gratitude before stepping through and leaving the mountain peak.
"Elaine and I would also appreciate being excused if that's alright with the Patriarch." Douglas humbly requested.
Ashlock actually had something he wanted to tell Elaine, so he wrote on his trunk, 'Elaine, did your Uncle ever mention someone by the name Senior Lee?'
Elaine translated his words and tapped her chin, "Lee... mhm, that name does ring a bell. My Uncle often said Lee had cursed him to die and had told him not to go outside. I also heard my Uncle ranting that this Lee person was supposed to show up months ago yet never visited."
Ashlock suspected that was his fault as Lee had stopped by his mountain on the way to visit the Voidmind Elder and left after saving Stella.
'Well, Senior Lee stopped by earlier, and I passed him a fragment of your uncle's soul.' Ashlock wrote, and Elaine seemed confused.
"So my Uncle... isn't dead?" She scrunched up her face as if deep in thought.
'He did perish,' Ashlock replied, 'However, a part of him will now live on, so in a way, he is still alive.'
Elaine readjusted her glasses and seemed rather flustered, "Well... that's good then? I think?"
'That's all I had to say. You may leave now.' Ashlock wrote and summoned a portal down into the mine. Douglas led the bewildered Elaine through the portal, which snapped closed behind them.
Ashlock breathed a sigh of relief. With everyone except Stella and Diana gone, it was much quieter. A lot had occurred in the last few hours, and he needed time to test and process everything; to do that, he needed peace of mind.
His demonic gaze drifted to the impossible-to-ignore Ent that almost rivaled him in height as this was the first thing on his list to investigate.
For this titan of a monster, he couldn't look down or even straight ahead with his demonic eye. He actually had to look up toward the creature's maw.
To his surprise, Ashlock felt intimidated by his own creation as it was at the 5th stage of the Star Core Realm. Searching the information in his mind about his {Necroflora Sovereign} skill, he realized the skill would always produce an Ent of equal strength to the corpse, assuming the monster still had enough Qi left in its body to fuel the seed's growth.
The corpse of choice impacted the Ent's features, size, and capabilities. However, if the corpse didn't have enough Qi to fuel the seed for all those additional features like the corpse Senior Lee had provided, it would turn out as a basic demonic tree Ent like the one standing before him.
"I see, so the skill hardly uses any Qi or nutrients from me to form the seed as it feeds off the Qi leftover within the monster's corpse." As great as that sounded, Ashlock knew this world had no free lunches. Something had to be powering this Ent that was two stages above him.
Following the flow of Qi throughout the Ents body, he confirmed that, just like himself, the Ent's own Star Core provided enough Qi to function independently. However, it was near empty right now, and it was drawing on his Star Core through the link to fill itself up.
Which was a big problem. Ashlock was two entire stages below the Ent, and its Star Core wasn't exactly small. Furthermore, Ashlock felt a significant strain on his body's nutrient and water reserves as the Ent had another problem.
It was a walking tree; even magical trees needed a steady stream of nutrients and water to live. But because the Ent was designed to always be on the move, its body hadn't come equipped with roots to acquire nutrients and water.
"Hmm, so no upfront cost other than losing out on potential sacrificial credits by not devouring the required corpse, but the maintenance cost of an Ent, especially of one stronger than me, is rather high."
Ashlock ordered the Ent to remain still and detach itself from him. The root connected to its leg fell to the ground with a thud, and Ashlock suddenly felt his Star Core begin to fill back up instead of being drained.
With his demonic eye, he continued to track the changes occurring within the Ent's body post-detachment. "Okay, the Ent's Star Core is still working and producing Qi, but it's not filling up or depleting. Just remaining perfectly stable."
Ashlock's Star Core naturally produced Qi by itself without needing to cultivate, but it was a minuscule amount compared to what he gained when meditating with his cultivation technique or drew in from the thousands of trees he was linked to.
"But the Ent doesn't seem to have a cultivation technique, nor is it attached to my network of demonic trees." Ashlock was starting to understand what he was working with. The Ent was powerful, but like an electric car, it needed to be charged or plugged in to function without depleting its reserves and rotting into nothingness. Although the Ent's Star Core produced some Qi, it wasn't enough to support any more than its massive body just standing there.
"So charge it up and then send it to war," Ashlock mused, "Wait, if I nurtured hundreds of trees to the Star Core Realm, couldn't I use them as charging stations like those that charge electric cars back on Earth? That way, the Ents won't use my Qi reserves."
It was a ridiculous-sounding idea. Ashlock could already imagine out in the wilderness a massive hub of Star Core trees all protected by a concealment formation with them charging up hundreds of Ents, which he could then transport anywhere within his root network at a moment's notice through portals.
Despite the ideal vision in his mind, it had some problems. Trees cultivated very slowly, and even his offspring were only around the peak of the Qi Realm.
He had to make some sacrifices here. Either he continued consuming a large portion of Qi from all the thousands of offspring around him to fuel his activities and advance his cultivation. Or he could reroute some or all of that Qi to a small group of trees to power-level them up to the Star Core Realm.
"Hmm, I think that's a good idea, but what group of trees should I pick?" Ashlock took to the skies with {Eye of the Tree God}. There were many options. For many reasons, it could be good to keep them close to home on the mountain range between Red Vine Peak and the White Stone Palace.
"Easy to protect as I won't get distracted and not see them get killed." Ashlock hummed, "But... keeping all my eggs in one basket by having them so nearby could also be bad."
His next port of call was naturally the trees within Darklight City, but he decided against there as it was too out in the open and close to a major civilization hub to keep his activities somewhat on the down low.
He then thought about the wall of trees in the wilderness but shot that idea down quickly. It was so far away that unless one of the trees was literally bitten, he wouldn't be alerted of any threats nearby, and his offspring were too weak to defend themselves.
"I could have Ents guard the place, but I only have one for now. And if I take on too many new Ents, I might not even have the Qi on hand to charge them up to the point they could run for a few days on their own," Ashlock lamented. Until his offspring were actually at the Star Core Realm and able to charge the Ents up without his help, he would have to limit the number he had.
"Actually, I have an idea." Ashlock had planned to eventually build some type of pavilion around himself, and he also planned to grow an offspring where the Mystic Realm spawned so he could use {Progeny Dominion} and enter the pocket dimensions alongside his sect members.
The mountain peak was large enough that it had once had a pavilion built upon it with multiple courtyards and enough space for thousands of people. So to plant some trees around the circumference to form a sort of tree wall and place one opposite himself where the Mystic Realm spawned seemed like a good plan.
"In the future, I could always have Douglas uproot them, and then I could move them all out into the wilderness through portals, so it's best to grow and nurture them close by."
Ashlock debated growing trees from scratch but decided it would be far faster to uproot around twenty carefully selected demonic trees and replant them around him in a wide circle. For this task, he needed Douglas.
'Stella, can you get Douglas for me? I need his help with something.' Ashlock wrote and then went to find Douglas down in the mine. The man was talking with Elaine, but it seemed they were nearing the end of their conversation, so he created a portal next to him which Stella poked her head through.
"The Patriarch wants you for something."
Douglas groaned but followed Stella through the portal, "I will be right back, Elaine. Think about what I said."
"I will," She replied with a smile and wave, "Have fun."
Douglas rolled his eyes but was soon up on the mountain peak.
"I wonder what they were talking about..." Ashlock mused as he was about to change his view, but then he noticed the end of the tunnel that led outside and came to a realization.
He had forgotten about Bob, the slime under control with his {Root Puppet} skill that had since upgraded.
What would happen if he turned Bob into an Ent?
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