Ashlock left the meeting behind, and with {Eye of the Tree God} active, he gazed at the Redclaw's mountain peak from high above. Dominating much of the south side of the flattened mountain peak and facing Red Vine Peak was the White Stone Palace in all its glory. Back on Earth, it would have been a home for royalty, with grand marble pillars supporting the ten-story structure that could house thousands of servants. Attached to the palace's west side was a courtyard facing the cursed forest and Darklight City, with room for hundreds of people to gather without issue.
Compared to the royal palaces from Earth, all it lacked were fountains and perfectly maintained gardens. But that issue was somewhat rectified by the literal miles of scarlet forest surrounding the palace in all directions and the many miles of meadows and lush green forests populated by the mortals before the wall to the eastern wilderness.
Ashlock had watched this grand palace of white stone being built over many months with the wealth and manpower of the now-eradicated Evergreen and Winterwrath noble families during his youth. So it made sense for the rebuilt half, by Douglas and his rag-tag group of hired cultivators in only a week, to be referred to as the White Stone Pavilion as the contrast between the two was too great to refer to them with the same name.
Or at least that had been the case a few days ago...
"What the hell is going on? This place looked like a disorganized construction site a few days ago. But this..." Ashlock was baffled. He had been checking in on the build's progress during breaks from his meditation. He had been impressed with the speed of construction but estimated it wouldn't be finished before the Mystic Realm opened. Yet everything had improved drastically in such a short space of time. It was basically complete?!
The flattened mountain peak had been further extended, so the new White Stone Pavilion covered far more space than the palace ever had and now wrapped around the north and east sides of the palace. It was massive and looked like a town with its own intricate road system leading between blocks of one-story tall pavilions, all centered around empty courtyards. The pavilions were built from simple stone but painted white to match the palace lording over them.
It was awe-inspiring, and Ashlock suspected he had found the source of this sudden development. In the very middle of all these courtyards was a large square that looked like it could hold a marketplace, and standing proudly on a pillar of stone in the center, puffing on what looked to be a smoking pipe and wearing a tailor-fit beige suit, was none other than Douglas.
"Why does he look like a mafia boss?" Ashlock mused as he inspected Douglas further. The black cloak of minor concealment he had worn in the past casually draped from his shoulders and his golden brown hair was slicked back with gel or something rather than left alone, giving him a dignified look.
Twenty people, a surprising mixture of muscular men and women who all looked like they mined during the day and entered arm wrestling contests on the weekends, surrounded the pillar that Douglas stood upon in a circle. They were all on one knee and looking up as if he were some god.
"Sir Underlord, we have recovered our strength," A woman with more muscles than seemed humanly possible called up, "We are ready to lend it anytime."
Douglas took a puff from his pipe, which glowed a pale blue.
"Is he smoking spirit stones?" Ashlock had no idea what he was even witnessing anymore. It had only been at most three days since he last checked on Douglas, and all he had seen back then was Douglas getting frustrated and fighting with the rogues he hired over his vision and their speed.
"Good, this task is almost over, and I can finally be rid of you useless bastards," Douglas grumbled as he fished a high-grade spirit stone from his trouser pocket and shoved it into the pipe. He then raised his finger to its base, and a small light brown flame sprung to life. With the pipe still in his mouth, he continued muttering, "Could have been done days ago without your useless inputs dragging me down."
"Sir Underlord, we apologize for our incompetence," A man with grey hair who appeared to be in his early fifties but was likely far older spoke up, "Please let us continue working for you."
"You mean keeping paying you an exorbitant amount?" Douglas snorted in amusement as he took a final puff and deposited the pipe into his spatial ring, "All you lot are good for is being my Qi source, so shut up and sit there," Douglas then rubbed his temples and grumbled to himself, "What a load of fucking leeches. A hundred spirit stones a day? For what? I should have done it all myself with these artifacts and the spirit stones I am paying these useless fuckers."
Douglas sighed as his spatial ring flashed again, and a strange walking stick made from what appeared to be a brown gemstone stalactite appeared. Douglas clenched the ornate golden handle in his massive hand and closed his eyes.
"Alright, you lot, give me your Qi," Douglas shouted.
"Yes Sir Underlord!" The rogues shouted with varying degrees of enthusiasm as they placed their hands on the stone column that Douglas stood on, which began to glow in a silvery light.
"Oh! It's a Qi gathering formation." Ashlock realized as he watched streams of earth Qi shoot up the runic lines engraved into the column and then went up through Douglas's gemstone walking stick and finally into his hand.
Douglas's body became engulfed in a column of brown flames, and Ashlock was baffled at how he was surviving, having so much Qi pumped into him.
"Is it something to do with huffing spirit stones?" Ashlock wondered, "Or will he spend the Qi quickly enough..."
With his eyes still closed, the ground trembled as Douglas raised his hand, and Ashlock saw off pillars of stone rising from the ground to the north in the distance.
Flying over, Ashlock witnessed a grand stone archway easily ten people high emerge from the ground and cast a shadow over the many pavilions. On the archway, the words 'White Stone Peak' were engraved. Yet it didn't end there; a stone staircase began to form down the side of the mountain and weaving between the demonic trees.
It got a thousand meters down the mountain before the rumbling stopped, and Ashlock saw Douglas lower his hand and open his eyes. He hid it well, but Ashlock could see the deep exhaustion overcome him. But he was far better off than the others.
All the rogue cultivators around the pillar had collapsed to the ground or were leaning against the stone pillar. Some were passed out, while others had staggered to the floor and struggled to bring out pipes and insert spirit stones.
"Is this how they can quickly recover their Qi?" Ashlock pondered.
Douglas replaced the walking stick with his pipe and shakily loaded up another high-grade spirit stone into it and brought it to his lips, "Tsk, if only Geb was here, I wouldn't have to do this shit," Douglas cursed as he lit the pipe with his soul fire and took a puff. Qi was drawn from the spirit stone and into Douglas's lungs.
After a few puffs, the high-grade spirit stone turned a dull silver, and Douglas tipped the pipe over, kicked the dull rock as if it were trash off the side of his pillar, and loaded another.
He went through ten high-grade spirit stones before he looked slightly better. After finishing the tenth one, he sat down and began to cultivate.
"Ah, so the spirit stones contain Qi without an affinity, and Douglas now has to use his Soul Core to convert the raging Qi within his body into usable earth Qi," Ashlock concluded, "But he could have achieved the same thing by just absorbing the ambient Qi in the air... although it would have been slower, I suppose."
Since it was boring to watch people cultivate, Ashlock changed his area of interest to the forest of his offspring and tried to find fire Qi affinity trees that were too closely grouped and competing too much for sunlight.
"Ah, here we go." After searching for a few minutes, Ashlock found one of his offspring growing from a depression in the mountain face, getting surpassed by his siblings and living in the shade of their canopies.
"Buddy, would you like to be moved?" Ashlock asked the tree, and he felt a wave of agreement flow through the root network, "I will take that as a yes."
"Okay, wait there one second," Ashlock said and then felt silly. Where would the tree run off to? That aside, he went and found Titus, who was wandering along the mountain range.
"Titus, come help me uproot some trees." A portal manifested, and Titus naturally followed his master's orders and strode through the provided portal. "Pick up that one in the middle," Ashlock instructed the Ent that loomed over the group of trees. Titus carefully bent down and pulled the demonic tree free from the rock.
Ashlock then suspended the demonic tree in the air with telekinesis and directed Titus to the next tree he wanted to be uprooted. Hours went by, and now there were over a thousand trees suspended in the air around White Stone Peak under the evening sunlight.
Having learned from the last time that he had so carelessly floated trees around and ended up with a Voidmind Elder inside him, Ashlock waited until the rogue cultivators headed home to Darklight City for the day.
Once the last one had made it down the mountain, Ashlock mentally moved all the trees at once up the mountainside and cast a large shadow over the whole White Stone Peak.
Douglas stood upon his pillar of stone in the empty marketplace with a grin as a thousand trees floated overhead and began to descend toward empty courtyards.
Taking a final few puffs of the high-grade spirit stone pipe, Douglas closed his eyes and spread out his arms. The pillar pulsed with power as the ground in the many courtyards split open and revealed holes big enough for the trees and their roots.
Over a hundred Redclaw youths rushed out of the White Stone Palace and through the pavilion-lined streets, pointing and cheering at the floating trees as Ashlock carefully lowered them into their new homes.
Now, among the sea of white buildings, there were splashes of scarlet that rustled in the mountain breeze. It was a breathtaking sight in the warm evening sunlight that tinted everything in an orange hue.
The pillar Douglas stood upon stopped glowing with power, and the weary man dropped his arms as the ground stopped trembling. His long work day was finished, and the White Stone Peak was complete.
All that was left to do were the finishing touches and for Ashlock to relink and fuse his roots with his offspring overnight.
Ashlock watched Douglas as he stood on the pillar gazing at the sunset and felt almost... proud of the guy. Perhaps it was the new look or how the man had carried himself while dealing with the rogue cultivators today, but Ashlock felt his opinion of Douglas change. Douglas was no longer in his mind a loudmouth, argumentative guy hired to do the dirty work and manual labor who was weak in cultivation and replaceable with any other rogue cultivator Mister Choi could find. Douglas may have only been with the Ashfallen Sect for a short while, but Ashlock now saw him as a leader—a pillar of the sect, just like Stella or Diana.
"And a leader needs a team," Ashlock mused, "I should get him a legion of earth affinity Ents or perhaps allocate him funds to hire as many rogue cultivators under him as he wishes. Actually, you know what would make him really happy..."
Ashlock's vision blurred back to Red Vine Peak, and he dug into his inventory piled high with random stuff from the Voidmind Elder and other places. Digging deep, he searched for something suitable to reward Douglas with.
"Oh, this is perfect!" Ashlock freed a ruthless-looking mace. It was made of some dark steel-looking metal. The shaft was around a meter long and ended in a round ball covered in spikes. With that secured, he also picked out some nice-looking rings, a chain, and truffles he had grown and stowed away.
Putting all the items inside a silver spatial ring, Ashlock glanced around Red Vine Peak and located Stella, who was lounging under his canopy on the bench and reading a book.
"Stella, can you give this ring to Elaine and tell her to give it to Douglas and say it's from me as a reward?" Ashlock asked, "Oh, and add that I am looking to get him Ents, and he can hire rogue cultivators if he wishes."
"All for that annoying guy?" Stella put the book aside, rolled off the bench, and onto her feet, "Fine, give it to me."
Ashlock floated the ring over, and then Stella teleported beside Elaine, who was in the middle of training with Diana. Stella grabbed her shoulder and pulled her aside just in time to dodge Diana's sword swing.
"Phew, thank you, Stella, you really saved me there," Elaine chuckled wearily as she stabilized herself and then wiped the sweat from her brow with her arm, "So what's up?"
"This spatial ring is for Douglas, and Ash wants you to deliver it to him personally as a reward for his hard work. Oh, and also, Ash says he will make him more earth Ents or fund any rogue cultivators he wants to hire."
"Oh, how romantic," Diana said flatly, and Elaine's ears went red as she accepted the ring, "To deliver something to him personally... I suspect you are part of the reward." Diana added with a chuckle.
Stella looked between them in confusion, "How is that romantic? She is just delivering a spatial ring to Douglas?"
"So young... so innocent," Diana shook her head sadly and turned to leave, "Or maybe just clueless... Ah, whatever, I will go and cultivate until Elaine returns."
"Don't just leave. Explain it to me..." Stella grumbled and then turned to Elaine, hoping she would answer.
Deciding to save Elaine from having to explain anything to Stella, Ashlock created a portal that led straight to Douglas on the stone pillar.
"Sorry, Stella, got to go!" Elaine seized the opportunity to escape and gave Stella an awkward wave as she jumped through the portal.
***
Douglas felt a ripple of spatial Qi behind him, so with his guard up, he spun around, "Who goes there—agh." He stumbled back a step as a cheerful Elaine embraced him in a tight hug. Her flowery perfume assaulted his nose, and he was stunned. What is she doing here?
"Elaine?" He awkwardly returned the hug, "What are you doing here? Weren't you training with Diana?"
He felt the bundle of hair buried in his chest look up at him, "I was... but I came to see you, silly." She stuck out her tongue at him and pushed herself out of his embrace.
"Here," She said, presenting him with a silver spatial ring.
Douglas raised a brow, "This is?" Taking the ring, he inserted his Qi, looked inside, and gasped. Is this all for me?
"They are rewards from the Patriarch for your hard work!" Elaine said excitedly, unaware of his turbulent thoughts, "He also said he will make you lots of Ents and fund any rogue cultivators you wish to hire."
Douglas withdrew the mace from the spatial ring, and as he held the cold metal in his hand, his heart had never felt so warm and happy. A feeling he had never felt in his life manifested in his soul. Acceptance.
"Are you okay?" Elaine asked worriedly, but Douglas just hugged her tight as a tear trickled down his cheek, and he watched the distant sunset.
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