Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

Stella opened her eyes as her consciousness withdrew from deep meditation and returned to the real world. As the constant buzz of heaven's whispers faded, she heard the early morning chorus of birds, the rustling of leaves, and the autumn wind playing with her unkempt hair.

Huffing the blonde strands of hair out of her face, Stella yawned and then stretched her back in a vain attempt to remove the stiffness from many hours of meditation.

The honest answer was that they had no other choice, and she had also been like that in the past. They could either ponder the secrets of heaven or succumb to the deathly grip of time.

It was either cultivation or death.

But ever since Ash had gotten strong to the point he could open pocket dimensions overflowing with Qi and give her such overpowered cultivation resources, Stella felt that cultivating on the mountain peak was a waste of time.

In fact, she wouldn't have even bothered cultivating overnight if not for the fact she had been completely drained of Qi yesterday—her gaze drifted to the culprit—a two-meter-tall humanoid creature that seemed to erase existence around it.

Although Khaos was motionless like the other two Ents and all the trees encircling the mountain peak, she could tell from a glance that Khaos could kill her before she could even react. That thing was an apex predator—and she had contributed to its creation, which was an odd thought.

Stella sighed. It had been a few days since the tournament, and although so much had happened since then with the Ents, she still felt restless.

Glancing around the rest of the mountain peak, she spotted Diana busy cultivating. Since the black-haired girl was still in the Soul Fire Realm, she didn't have a Star Core within her passively generating Qi, so she needed to cultivate back the Qi she had spent on assisting the creation of Khaos.

Stella laid her head against Ash's bark and wondered how to further unlock her bloodline. It seemed to be one she couldn't activate whenever she wished, but she could tell it was still there.

The power of a ruler.

What that entailed, she still didn't know.

What did it mean to rule?

"Tree, are you there?" Stella murmured aloud.

The sun had just crested the horizon, so she wouldn't be surprised if he was just waking up.

"Got anything for me to do today?" Stella asked while tying her hair back.

A few minutes passed, which Stella spent plucking fruit from Ashlock's branches with telekinesis. She had eaten quite a few fruit during her night of meditation and almost felt like it was cheating.

The amount of Qi she had spent trying to keep Ash alive yesterday should have taken her weeks, if not months, to recover. But with the mountain peak being so dense in high-quality spatial Qi, her spirit roots being so pure, and with the help of Ash's overpowered fruit, she could recover a third of her Qi reserves after half a day and night.

Ashlock's presence returned with good news.

"Sure," Stella stood up from the bench, "Oh, by the way, Tree, when can we next enter the Mystic Realm?"

Stella furrowed her brows, "Day 3552? What do you mean?"

"Does that mean you have a birthday?" Stella wondered. He should know his exact birthday if he had a biological clock.

"Not too far away!" Stella grinned.

"It's—" Stella's grin turned to a frown. When was her birthday? She couldn't even remember the last time it was celebrated. Did she even have one?

"I have no idea," Stella's shoulders sagged. She didn't even have anyone to ask except maybe the bastard Patriarch, who wanted to turn her into a pill furnace. All her family were dead as far as she knew, and she had never entered high society and socialized, so she had no friends to ask either.

Stella nodded as she felt warmth in her heart, "I'd like that."

Stella didn't want to start crying, so she hummed in agreement while summoning a portal to the cavern. If she had to wait until midday for this activity, she might as well busy herself with alchemy.

***

Ashlock spent the rest of the morning watching Douglas and Geb carve out an enormous cavern just below the White Stone Palace.

Spiraling up the massive pillars of grey stone that kept the ceiling from collapsing were many platforms. Some had dirt and were likely there for Ashlock to grow plants, while the others were clearly there for alchemy as they had stonework benches. Bridges and slopes connected all the platforms, making the giant cavern easily traversable.

It had taken the pair a day and a night working together to create this vast space that was around three times the size of the cavern below Red Vine Peak in both width and depth.

Ashlock watched as Geb walked in a straight line, his feet turning the hard stone below him soft, which Douglas then molded. Basically, Geb was doing the grunt work, while Douglas did the more intricate part that required far less Qi to do.

"You did a good job," Ashlock said after activating {Abyssal Whispers} and targeting Douglas's weary mind.

Douglas scrambled away from the pillar, and his eyes darted around the pitch-black cavern that was only lit by his flickering earthen soul fire.

"Yes, it's me. You aren't under attack," Ashlock said, "I will portal you out of there and then send Stella to talk with the Redclaws."

With that, he withdrew his presence so poor Douglas didn't have a heart attack and opened a portal for them.

Stumbling through the darkness with hesitant steps, Douglas eventually made it through the portal after gesturing for Geb to go through first. Once back on Red Vine Peak, Douglas shielded his eyes from the glaring sun with a relieved expression.

"Have fun?" Stella asked Douglas, and the man flinched at her voice.

Stella didn't seem to know how to reply or apologize, so Ashlock gave her a way out by making her a portal to the White Stone Palace, "It's time to go speak with the Redclaw Grand Elder."

***

The Redclaw Grand Elder was surprised when the door to his study opened, and Stella walked in.

"Greetings, Grand Elder," Stella said with a smile.

"Stella? To what do I owe the pleasure," He replied while rising from his seat and gesturing to the one opposite him, "Please have a seat."

"I come on behalf of the immortal," Stella replied while graciously sitting. One of her many silver spatial rings flashed with power, and a porcelain pill bottle appeared in her hands.

"These are?" The Grand Elder asked after being handed the bottle.

"Mind Fortress pills, they are to be taken when receiving the immortal's words," Stella explained, "Elder Margret and others have already heard the immortal's words, and you may have noticed that without this pill to protect the mind, it's a rather terrifying affair."

The Grand Elder nodded, "I did notice that... does this mean the immortal wishes to speak to me?"

Stella nodded, "Yeah, so take one or maybe two of the pills and brace yourself."

The Grand Elder nodded seriously as he popped the plug on the bottle. A soothing fragrance tickled his nose as he tilted the bottle and deposited a single pill in his palm.

He popped the single pill into his mouth and noticed a trace of flavor from the Mind Fortress fruit he had eaten in the Mystic Realm to compete for the Spirit Forge Masters inheritance.

The Grand Elder felt a soothing chill wash over his mind as he fully absorbed the effects of the pill. Letting out a breath and feeling mentally relaxed, he nodded to Stella, "I'm ready to receive his words."

Stella smiled and snapped her fingers, making a head-sized portal appear right before the Grand Elder's face.

"This is?" He asked.

"Just stick your head through," Stella replied.

The Grand Elder eyed the wobbling portal, but all he could see through it was the black bark of the giant demonic tree on Red Vine Peak.

With a sigh, the Grand Elder leaned forward and stuck his head through. Immediately he felt an immense presence penetrate his mental defenses and overtake his consciousness—forcing him to reel back in his chair.

The portal then snapped closed as a white fog appeared at the edges of his mind. Before he knew it, he began hallucinating floating eyes. Just when he thought it couldn't get any more bizarre, a twisted black tree rapidly grew on his desk between him and Stella, causing him to almost fall out of his chair in shock.

"Immortal, it is a great honor to finally hear your voice," The Grand Elder replied as respectfully as possible.

"Understood," The Grand Elder replied aloud as he glanced at Stella past the imaginary twisted black tree that now dominated much of his desk.

"Redefine?" The Grand Elder massaged his temples and debated taking a second pill. There were now weird flashing colors of red in his vision and other shifting shadows between the study's bookcases that were unnerving him.

"Does that mean I lose my Grand Elder status?"

"Does that mean you accept Kane Azurecrest to work for you?" The Grand Elder asked.

"What are your plans for this influx of new cultivators?" The Grand Elder wondered as he leaned back in his chair, "Nurture them all into alchemists? I only ask so I can plan how I go about recruiting them."

The Grand Elder decided it was best not to ask sensitive questions as Stella had hardly reacted.

"How do you plan to raise these new cultivators? Do you want us to handle their education and nurture them?" The Grand Elder asked.

"I see, so the White Stone Palace will serve as the outer disciple peak, and then Red Vine Peak will be for inner disciples?" The Grand Elder mused while stroking his chin, "I can see this working out great. I will start a recruitment drive right after this meeting... I will also need to hire more servants to care for this palace if it has hundreds of cultivators living here."

Stella's spatial ring flashed, and she dumped a literal mountain of Spirit Stones and Crowns on the desk before him.

"Courtesy of the Skyrend family," Stella grinned, "Use these funds for whatever you deem necessary."

"Thank you. I will use them well." The Grand Elder waved his hand, and the pile disappeared. He tried to hold back, but he was beyond excited. How would the other noble families react in a few years?

With the desk clear, the Grand Elder was broken from his trail of thought when he noticed an envelope he had on his desk that he had forgotten about due to the sudden arrival of Stella. Leaning forward, he pushed it across to the girl.

"This was addressed to Roselyn. I received it an hour ago and was about to send someone to hand it to you before you arrived," The Grand Elder said while leaning back.

Stella floated the envelope with telekinesis and sliced it open with a black dagger. Pulling the letter free, she read it in silence, and as she reached the end, she was grinning.

The Grand Elder couldn't hold back his curiosity, "What is it?"

Stella glanced up, "It's from Nox, one of the merchants. After seeing my performance at the tournament, she wants to meet with me in a week to discuss the possibility of conducting business."