Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

As a tree spread across a thousand miles, the little things no longer bothered Ashlock. It took a lot for him to feel anything and stir his fading humanity into action, let alone explode with rage.

But it had happened. A group of pathetic weaklings had taken advantage of his adopted daughter's recklessness and pushed her to the brink of death. If not for his interference, Stella would have died such an easily preventable death. Just the thought of these moon-loving bastards taking the thing he cared about the most in this world from him made him seeth with rage.

Uncaring of controlling himself, his peak Star Core flared up like a god's furnace, turning Red Vine Peak into a beacon of lilac soul flames reaching for the heavens. The mountain range glowed with power as spatial Qi surged down his ethereal roots like a dam spillway toward the Tainted Cloud Sect in the east.

Sensing their Father's rage, every demonic tree for a thousand miles copied their progenitor by igniting their leaves with soul flames and pouring their Qi into the network. Millions of birds fled to the skies in terror, and a chorus of monstrous roars to the moon spread across the continent. In Ashfallen and Darklight cities, the mortals were gathered in their thousands out in the streets, confused at what was happening, while spointed toward Red Vine Peak.

Darklight City and the mountain range were lit up with orange soul fire, but much of Ashfallen City was shrouded in darkness due to Nox, who was also aflwith shadow soul flames. Under her canopy of darkness, Jasmine was huddling with her mom.

Ashlock was uncaring of his unrestrained fury's effect on the continent, as his focus was above Nightshade City. Since the bounty mission had turned into a full-out war with the strongest family in the Tainted Cloud Sect, he had no plans to hold back. Having blanketed the area in his pressure through his roots, he was surprised that it seemed to carry wind affinity, likely due to his unformed Inner World. Read Web s Online Free - Fire Fire -

The cat was out of the bag, and the Grand Elder of the Lunarshade family had already taken center stage. If Ashlock wanted to win, holding back even a little would guarantee a loss.

Despite being stared down by a storm made of divine ash emerging from a colossal rift in the sky and Ashlock's tallest Ent's Titus and Zeus, the Lunarshade Grand Elder seemed mostly unfazed. An arrogance that was expected from a man who believed he was the strongest in the region at the 6th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Sending a quick message to Ashfallen's executioner, Ashlock allowed Albis to enjoy his last walk in the realm of the living undisturbed. Titus and Zeus slowly swiveled their heads as they watched him confidently walk toward his Father.

"Now," Ashlock said simply. Upon his orders, Khaos, the reaper of Ashfallen, silently emerged from the void behind Albis. It was a two-meter-tall creature similar to a wendigo, with long, spindly limbs ending in claws that might as well be swords and deer antler-style horns growing from its head.

The Grand Elder's eyes widened, and his entourage of beauties made hesitant steps back toward the building behind them.

Khaos burrowed a void-coated claw straight into his chest and pulled free his still-beating heart. Fear, the emotion Ashlock had anticipated, finally appeared in the man's eyes.

The unfazed Ent, honoring its Master's orders, crushed the heart over Albis's dead body, making blood stain his robes and bald head.

"Good," Ashlock said, his rage only slightly sated by the gruesdeath of the one who had orchestrated this trap for Stella, "Now, test the Grand Elder's defenses."

Khaos silently returned to the void, reappearing behind the Lunarshade Grand Elder a second later with void-wrathed claws as instructed. Since there was more than an entire realm difference between the two, Ashlock didn't expect this to be enough to kill the man, even with the usual strengths of void affinity.

"Let's see if that arrogance of yours is deserved," Ashlock muttered as Khaos rammed its claws into the Grand Elder's back.

The Grand Elder was unfazed. Gentle wisps of moonlight that coated his skin warded off the void as if it were an impenetrable wall. Switching tactics, the Ent tried slashing and clawing at him, but the Grand Elder ignored the attacks. His pupilless gaze was locked onto his dead son at the foot of the stairs, who lay on the ground with his hand outstretched as if reaching for salvation.

Sensing this wasn't working, Ashlock said quickly, "Khaos, get out of there."

The Ent vanished into the void, but to Ashlock's surprise, the Grand Elder raised his moonlight-wreathed hand and used sform of telekinesis to drag Khaos back to reality. He held Khaos by the neck with an iron-like grip as no matter how much the Ent struggled, it couldn't break free.

The Ents were disposable in the grand schof things, but Khaos was one of the most useful Ents in his collection, so Ashlock quickly shouted to the guardian of Ashfallen, "Larry, go! Stop him—"

A beam of concentrated moonlight pierced the sky and bathed Khaos in its wrath. The Ent uttered a silent scream as it evaporated into black smoke. The beam vanished as quickly as it came, and the Grand Elder dropped his now empty hand to his side. Khaos was nowhere to be seen, and the stone below the man's feet had becice. Just like that, in a mere second, the reaper of Ashfallen was gone.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Ashlock didn't hesitate. He quickly created portals and pulled a bewildered Stella and Diana to the safety of Red Vine Peak with his vines.

"Holy shit. If that moonbeam attack had been aimed at Stella or Diana, they would have died before I could even react, as it cinstantly without warning," Ashlock wasn't that familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of lunar affinity and the capabilities of a Nascet Soul Realm cultivator. Hence, he used Khaos to test those limits, which turned out to be greater than anticipated. The Grand Elder easily resisted void attacks and straight-up pulled Khaos out of the void, which was beyond expectations.

Having annihilated his son's murderer, Ashlock noticed the Grand Elder's milky eyes shift to the sky at the giant ash spider descending toward him. Stepping forward, moonlight began to gather around his body, and the ground around him froze over and cracked from the pressure.

"Hang back for now, Larry. I know you are immortal so long as sof your ash remains, but this person is powerful," Ashlock said, then instructed Titus, Zeus, and Sol to attack. "No matter a cultivator's strength, they are beatable once they run out of Qi. I should use my Ents to weaken him before Larry goes in for the kill."

Clouds crackling with golden lightning began to gather in the skies, and the night briefly turned to day as Sol shot multiple light beams at the Lunarshade Grand Elder. Flashes of lightning and roaring thunder soon followed as Zeus pointed his finger at the Grand Elder. All the attacks landed, with the light beams having a noticeable impact as they ate away through a few layers of moonlight but never so much as singed the man's bathrobe.

Titus strode forward, and with spatial flame-wreathed fists, he swung down both hands to pulverize the Grand Elder.

Ashlock took the brief moment that the Grand Elder was distracted to pull Sol and what was left of Titus away from the fight and reassess the situation. He felt like he was playing a gof chess where the repercussion for failure was death. If he could, retreat would be the best option. But there was no way this Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would let the murder of his son rest, and he now knew the nof the people behind it. Fighting here and now while the Grand Elder knew little about Ashfallen's capabilities and was far from Ashlock's trunk was for the best.

"So far, the Lunarshade Grand Elder has displayed teleportation and telekinesis, both spatial-type techniques, and he can even drag things from the void. His moonlight beam is similar to a powerful light attack, but it froze the ground, so lunar affinity likely also carries the dao of ice." Ashlock quickly summarized, "Sol's light attacks so far have shown the most damage, so light is likely his weakness, but Sol is too weak and unfocused on combat to make much of an impact on his own."

Ashlock had paid for this lesson by sacrificing Khaos and Zeus so far, but he had gotten the Grand Elder to show sof his moves and secured the 10,000 Yinxi Coin bounty by dragging Albis's corpse away when the Grand Elder wasn't looking.

"Right now, my trump card is Larry, who should be in the upper stages of the Nascent Soul Realm," Ashlock glanced at the living storm of divine ash in the shape of a spider looming in the sky. "But that might not be enough. If only the Grand Elder was near one of my trees, I could unleash my full potential as a near Nascent Soul Realm cultivator and help... wait."

It was risky, but he had just devised a plan—an insane one with a low chance of success, but it was better than no plan at all.

***

Grand Elder Lunarshade felt his blood boiling with rage beneath his cold, calm facade. His spiritual sense was spread across the entire city, but he couldn't locate the spatial cultivator coordinating this attack from the shadows.

Either way, it didn't matter. It needed to be defeated while he had the advantage of fighting under a full moon, and then he could track down and destroy this Ashfallen Sect. Taking a deep breath to calm himself and feel the flow of lunar Qi surging through his body, he knew he would have to use a technique that would wipe out months, if not an entire year, of his cultivation progress. But to avenge his favorite heir and squash this upstart sect that seemed to think he was trivial to bully, he would go all out.

"Soul manifestation," he said as he activated the technique that let Nascent Soul Cultivators use their infant souls to fight. His infant soul expanded outward, and soon, an avatar of moonlight surrounded him like a giant suit of armor. The air around him turned to snow that drifted in the howling winds from that spatial cultivator's pressure.

As a Nascent Soul cultivator, he could fly without assistance, so he floated up to meet the spider as a titan of moonlight with the plan to pulverize it in one punch. The spider glared at him with blood-red eyes under a crown of horns with a halo of ash swirling around it. The halo began to spin faster, and the Grand Elder felt a tremendous pressure weigh down on him equal to his own.

"You hurt the Princess and angered my Master," The spider roared in an almost indecipherable accent, but the Grand Elder recognized it as the ancient runic language. "For that, I will slaughter you and then your entire bloodline."

Not only had they so ruthlessly killed the most prized heir of the Lunarshade family, whom he had spent far too many resources and tinto raising, but now they uttered such threats after he had unleashed a year's worth of cultivation to manifest his soul?

The monster opened its maw and devoured his fist.

The spider dove down at him, obviously intent on devouring his real body rather than his avatar. It cfaster than expected, and its maw dwarfed him. Gritting his teeth, the Grand Elder poured out lunar Qi into the surroundings, creating a bubble of moonlight, but it wouldn't hold for long. Innumerable ash spiders poured out of the divine spider's maw from other dimensions and surrounded his bubble.

He needed to think of a solution quickly. Luckily, he had dealt with Dao Storms in the past and knew the best way to deal with them. Their scattered bodies were both a strength and a fatal weakness. He channeled the moon's power and unleashed his control over gravity and tides to tear the spider-shaped storm apart.

The divine spider howled as the millions of ash spiders were expelled, and its body was forced apart, but he wasn't done. Harnessing the cold of the moon, a wave of ice Qi shot from his avatar's hands. The flecks of silver ash that made up the spider decayed the frost but were consumed in the process, forcing the spider to retreat to a safer distance, giving him sbreathing room.

Most importantly, forcing the spider apart gave the Grand Elder a clear view of the moon, empowering him more.

Moving his avatar's arms, he tried to stop it, but sweird plants growing from its side shot out spatial explosions that blew his arm out of the way. "Oh..." He didn't even have tto react as the ship slammed him to the ground.

While pinned to the ground with the ship on top of him, the Grand Elder felt something invade his consciousness. A white fog appeared alongside visions that he easily ignored. However, he couldn't stop a tree of twisted black wood that bloomed in his mind, and its trunk split to reveal an eye.

"Who are you?" The Grand Elder asked the spirit tree in his consciousness. It seemed his family had earned the wrath of a rather unique being.

"So you are the Master behind the Ashfallen Sect," The Grand Elder grinned, "The pleasure is all mine."