Douglas looked over his shoulder as he saw the distorted sunset on Red Vine Peak through the shimmering portal. Stella gave him a little wave before the portal snapped closed behind him with a pop of air that ruffled his short hair.
With a sigh, Douglas surveyed the large cavern that encompassed his view. His wandering eyes were naturally drawn to the sound of moving water. Built along the stream's banks that ran through the cavern's center were farms with mushrooms and flowers. Stone bridges connected the two sides over the slow-moving stream, and on the far side were earthen bowls that contained a large open-top black fruit that resembled a cauldron.
The whole place was dimly lit by the mushrooms sprouting from cracks in the ceiling and walls, emitting a soft blue glow. However, there was a recently added light source. Looking to the left, Douglas saw the massive opening that led to the hole that ran throughout the entire mountain, all the way to the peak.
It was almost nighttime, so only a slight orange glow made it this far down.
"Time to get to work," Douglas grumbled as he trudged into the cavern's center. He had made good progress on setting up something to impress the Silverspires last time, but now that he looked at it again, it was half-arsed at best.
Well, I was given the entire night to prepare the place for the alchemist tomorrow. I should be able to turn this into a place I am proud of by then.
After all, he was now a few stages higher in the Soul Fire Realm. He flexed his Soul Core, and light brown flames manifested on his fingertips. Just weeks ago, his soul flame was murky, full of impurities. But now, it was clear and flowed effortlessly through his body.
Dropping to one knee, he placed his aflame fingers on the ground and closed his eyes. Humming to himself, he felt as his earthen Qi easily penetrated the rock, and soon he had a mental map of the entire cavern in his mind. Every nook and cranny became crystal clear to him, as if the cavern had become an extension of his own body.
With a grin, he forced his 6th stage Soul Fire to overwhelm the rock around him and mold it to his will. The entire place began to shake as the hard rock softened like clay and shifted around to fulfill the changes he willed upon the world.
Thousands of meters of rock above him began to weigh down on the now-softened stone ceiling of the cavern. Luckily, with a combined effort of his own Qi and the thousands of roots from the Patriarch holding the whole place together, Douglas managed to prevent the cavern from collapsing on his head.
Bridges sprouted from the ground like worms of rock over the river and farms. Despite the cavern's grand size, he planned to have a multilayered farm as the cavern had limited floor space. So the bridges over the farms were the first step to this plan.
The mushrooms could grow on the lower layer, and then plants could bloom on the upper level. Douglas wondered how the Patriarch made flora grow underground when he was clearly a spatial affinity cultivator. But he wasn't going to complain.
As the rumbling of the cavern finally stopped, he reeled back his Qi and stood up. Glancing around, he felt satisfied. He had created a second layer of stone like a massive bridge over the existing farm held up by pillars. Many gaps allowed for stone ramps that led up to the higher level.
He had even created an aqueduct to carry water between the plants on the higher and lower levels. Douglas let out a tired breath as he noticed the absence of the orange light cascading down the hole that led to the surface, signifying it was night.
His soul core felt half used, and it was clear a few hours had gone by while he had been shaping the cavern to his plan. Going for a walk around the place, he followed a pathway that led him through a mushroom farm. Stone pillars marked the corners of each soil patch, holding up the structure overhead.
Reaching a ramp, he wandered up to the upper layer. As far as the eye could see, there were hundreds of bare patches of soil with pathways between them.
"The Patriarch should populate these with plants in the morning," Douglas said aloud, stroking his chin. His voice echoed around the cavern, and sudden loneliness overtook him.
His hand dropped to his side—it felt cold without the warmth of Elaine's hand. This cavern also felt far more empty without her bright company.
Feeling his shoulders sag, Douglas remembered the face of Elaine's brother. Something about his ghoulish appearance and air of superiority irked him. It was hard to believe they were related at all.
His ring flashed with power, and the black truffle Stella had gifted him materialized in his hand. He couldn't tell if this was a roundabout way of her calling him ugly. "Heh... that's definitely something she would do." Douglas stowed it away again, chuckling to himself. He didn't feel a need to use it just yet.
"Now, what should I do for the rest of the night..." He hadn't expected to finish his plan for the cavern so soon. The difference between his past and present power was unbelievable. Not only had his stage gone up, but his purified soul fire allowed his Qi to easily penetrate the rock and move it to his will with a fraction of the effort.
A brief flicker of pride and perhaps arrogance clouded his mind.
Should I try and challenge one of the girls to a duel?
Douglas slapped himself. That was stupid. They would beat him with their eyes closed and one arm behind their backs. He knew all too well how earth Qi corrupted his mind, as did all Qi types. It was especially noticeable after a sudden leap in power.
He decided the best way to stave off the loneliness and quell his muscle-brained thoughts was to empty out his Soul Core on something. Anything. He glanced around for a distraction, and his eyes eventually landed on the giant hole leading to the mountain peak.
"The hole is far too big for a staircase, but what if I create a vertical garden in the center..." His fingers itched to get started, so he waltzed over with a grin.
***
Ashlock tossed off the grogginess of sleep like a warm blanket on a Sunday morning and spread his spiritual sight in all directions to catch up on what he missed while asleep.
After sending Elder Margret back to the White Stone Palace last night, he'd told Douglas to prepare the cavern for many more plants he planned to grow once the sun rose. Not that he needed sunlight to grow plants, but he didn't want to tell Douglas that he was sleeping while the man was working hard.
Looking around, he saw Stella and Diana cultivating quietly under their chosen trees on opposite sides of the courtyard. A hazy mist of water Qi swirled around Diana, and the air around Stella seemed slightly distorted due to the spatial Qi.
Meanwhile, Douglas was nowhere to be seen.
"Is he still working?" Ashlock wondered. "I only asked for him to add a few more farms. It shouldn't have taken him that long."
A sudden rumbling from the giant hole in the courtyard's center drew Ashlock's attention. "What the..." Ashlock's vision blurred as he followed one of his roots that poked into the hole.
Surprisingly, he saw a pillar of grey stone rising in the center. Its diameter was less than the hole through the mountain, leaving a wide gap.
Ashlock could cast his sights down into the depth of the hole as he had roots running down its side and estimated that the freshly raised pillar was a few thousand meters tall, which only brought it slightly past the cavern area.
Red Vine Peak was many thousands of meters tall after all, and Ashlock would have been amazed if Douglas had the Qi on hand to create a ten thousand-meter tall pillar that was fifty meters in diameter.
Through his spiritual sight, Ashlock caught sight of Douglas, who looked so small from up here as he climbed up a spiraling staircase he had begun building into the outer wall of the hole.
Ashlock was confused... why was he building the staircase along the wall of the hole that was very wide instead of on the pillar?
Douglas stood on the staircase, his arm resting against the hole's wall and breathing deeply as if he had just run a marathon. Clearly, creating such a structure had taken a lot out of him.
Ashlock then noticed empty stone troughs built into the pillar, and everything became clear.
"Elder Margret claimed the Starlight Lotus requires starlight to bloom. I haven't grown that many flowers yet, so I assumed I could grow flowers wherever I needed... but maybe that's not the case." Ashlock knew he could provide nutrients and water to flowers through his roots from elsewhere, so he was confident in keeping most plants alive underground. But if a flower required something like a starlight? How could he provide that through roots... unless Qi somehow made it work anyway.
"Something to test then..." Ashlock mused.
It was clear Douglas had built the pillar as a place for him to grow the Starlight Lotus in more ideal conditions, so Ashlock sent his roots to begin crawling up the side of the pillar and begin emptying water into the stone troughs. Lotuses needed to grow in ponds, so this was a good substitute.
A while went by, and Ashlock had finally filled most of them with water that he had pumped from a lake at the mountain's base. However, as he opened his flower production menu to populate them with the Starlight Lotus, he felt something through his connection with Bob the Ent.
Closing the menu, he cast {Eye of the Tree God}, and sure enough, three cultivators with crimson hair were at the entrance to the cavern tunnel guarded by Bob.
"Elder Margret, are you sure we are at the right place?" A teenager standing beside the stern woman asked in a small voice. The boy clearly had doubts but was too scared to question the strict Elder with any confidence.
"Of course we are." Elder Margret snapped, causing the boy to shrink and stand beside a girl who looked almost identical to him in every way.
Are they twins? They really look far too similar to be merely brother and sister. That aside, it was time to welcome them in. It would be rude to keep them waiting.
Returning his sights up to Red Vine Peak, Ashlock debated waking Stella out of her meditation to deal with the visitors, but her peaceful face deterred him from such action.
Diana also seemed busy, and her ancient language studies were only partly done, leaving him with Larry.
"Larry, go lead Douglas to the tunnel. We have visitors."
A nearby demonic tree shook as the monstrous spider crawled out, his spindly legs hitting the ground one at a time as his many red eyes glanced around.
To make things faster, Ashlock summoned a portal that would lead Larry straight to Douglas.
***
Elder Margret stared at the weird wooden wall that blocked off the entrance to the cavern she had been informed about. After a few minutes, doubt began to fester at the back of her mind.
Despite her confident response to one of the twins she had brought with her, she had only been informed of this place via vague instructions and was unsure if she was supposed to stand here, knock on the door or just walk straight through.
The only reason she played with the ludicrous idea of walking straight through was the wall's slimy texture, making her think she could push her hand through.
Just wait a few more minutes, Elder Margret reassured herself as she tapped her foot. We did arrive a little earlier than expected. Or maybe this is a test of our patience, as that is one of the many virtues of alchemy—
Her thoughts were silenced as the wall began to shift—towards them. Elder Margret hated to admit she took a few steps back alongside the twins.
The grey wall pulsed with a lilac hue as if a flickering candle was nestled somewhere deep within. There was a squelching noise as the wall morphed and freed itself from the tunnel. The grey mass surged forward, formed limbs, and then stood up.
Moments later, the sun was blocked out by a towering five-meter-tall Ent made from grey slime resembling wood.
Between its legs was a dim tunnel illuminated with a blue glow. Elder Margret was about to take a cautious step toward the now exposed tunnel, but her Qi-empowered eyes noticed something big moving in the shadows.
And then she saw a second figure also emerging, this one smaller and humanoid.
Elder Margret felt Olivia's hand grip her robe when an ashen-furred leg the size of a small tree emerged from the tunnel, followed by another leg and then a head with many scarlet eyes that looked curiously around.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming," A gruff voice echoed out of the tunnel, and then a hulking man wearing a black robe with a large hood and mask emerged into the morning sunlight beside the monstrous spider.
"Relax, it's just the Underlord and the spirit beast of the Ashfallen Sect." Elder Margret whispered to Olivia and Oliver, the twins she had brought with them. They were both young, at fourteen years old, and had shown a lot of promise and interest in alchemy.
Elder Margret knew of Douglas's real name and face as they had met in the dining hall a day earlier, but he clearly wanted to keep his identity hidden, so she used the title he had been introduced with previously.
"Why did you lead me here?" Douglas asked the spider in an annoyed tone and then glanced around. His masked gaze eventually landed on her, "Elder Margret? Is that you?"
Elder Margret could tell this man was exhausted, even with the mask and hood, from his tone of voice and slumped shoulders. She gave him a nod, "Yes, it's me, and I brought along the two aspiring alchemists the immortal asked for."
"Oh!" Douglas seemed to wake up, gesturing for them to follow him, "Come in, come in."
He turned, and his form vanished back down the tunnel. Elder Margret began to walk and noticed Olivia and Oliver exchanging a nervous glance before falling in line a step behind her.
A thin smile appeared on her lips as the tunnel's darkness enveloped them, and they descended into the cavern. Reaching the base, Elder Margret only saw Douglas standing there. The spirit beast had clearly gone off somewhere else.
"Welcome to the cavern." Douglas's voice drew the attention of Olivia and Oliver, who curiously glanced around at the sea of mushrooms growing in neat plots of dirt.
Elder Margret glanced up at the five-meter-high ceiling and wondered where the rest of the vast cavern had gone. After all, they had taken shelter down here to escape the Dao Storm a few months ago.
"Before I show you around, what are your names?" Douglas asked the twins.
"Oliver." "Olivia." They answered at the same time.
"Err, right. Your parents have a good sense of humor," Douglas chuckled, drew back his hood, and removed his mask, "My name is Douglas. I manage most of the Ashfallen Sect's construction projects and will be your tour guide today."
Both of them nodded.
"We will be working a lot together in the future, so let me know if you have any problems... anyway, onwards with the tour, please follow me and don't stray off the paths."
Douglas then led them down the darkened path. Elder Margret summoned a fireball to her hand to help light the way so the youngsters wouldn't accidentally stray off the trail and crush the mushrooms underfoot.
Elder Margret was then surprised to feel the path curving upwards into a ramp, and soon enough, she was on an upper level and looking out across a vast flatland of bare soil patches that reached all the way to the cavern walls.
Douglas gestured around, "This is where the Qi Flowing Grass—"
A sudden wave of power blanketed the area, sending a shiver down Elder Margret's spine. She blinked and then blinked again—unable to register what she saw.
The numerous soil patches exploded as thousands of yellow-tipped grass stalks sprouted all at once. The vast barren land had been transformed into a lush grassland within seconds.
Elder Margret stood witness to this unfathomable miracle, her jaw hanging in disbelief, the mechanics of closure forgotten in the face of an incomprehensible domain over nature.
"—will grow." Douglas finished his sentence with a smirk.
"How..." Oliver murmured.
"So this is the power of an immortal..." Olivia mirrored her brother's disbelief.
"Come on, a bit of grass isn't that exciting." Douglas began to wander toward a large hole in the cavern off to the side with sunlight pouring down it.
Elder Margret had to disagree, but she followed along anyway—grateful that the twins had been too busy being shocked to catch sight of her shameful face of awe.
Calm yourself. You have seen things as ridiculous as this before. You went into a pocket realm, for heaven's sake!
Shaking away the nonsense plaguing her mind, Elder Margret mindlessly followed Douglas until he stopped.
"Woah," Olivia said as she glanced over the edge into the abyss below.
They were currently standing on the steps of a staircase and looking at a stone pillar covered in black vines that seemingly led all the way into the darkest depths of the earth.
"And this is where the Starlight Lotus will grow." Douglas declared with a smile.
Elder Margret uttered a disbelieving murmur, "Impossible." Her eyes, however, remained unwaveringly riveted on the pillar. She was skeptical, resistant to accept the potential for the same miraculous spectacle to unfurl again.
Despite her doubt, the impossible unfolded once more before her as that same godly pressure descended.
The stone pillar pulsed with life bursting into a breathtaking spectacle as innumerable Starlight Lotus blossomed from the water-filled crevices. Their magnificent petals, a celestial blue, unfolded like a million stars had descended from the heavens to bloom, decorating the pillar as if it were a cosmos rising up from hell and challenging the heavens.
A once unremarkable stone pillar had transformed into a stunning canvas of floral brilliance, a monolith shimmering with the cosmic beauty of the night sky—an ethereal celestial garden.
Elder Margret collapsed to her knees as she realized the event's gravity. To the immortal, an inconvenience as minor as sourcing Starlight Lotus could be solved with nothing more than a wave of his hand.
She had never felt so small yet full of hope in all her long life.
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