Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

"Welcback," Ashlock said to Stella and Diana as they stepped through a portal with {Abyssal Whispers}. Neither girl so much as winced as his presence bloomed in their minds. "Stella, did you complete the tasks I gave you?"

"All in a single morning? Good work," Ashlock replied, "Catchup and then go check on your Disciple before she has to go hfor dinner. She's cultivating in her hut and said she had something to show you."

"I've missed having you around over the last few days," Ashlock said. Is this how parents felt when their children went to university for the first time? Hsuddenly felt so quiet and empty without the usual people around.

"That's true," Ashlock chuckled, "But without you around, the silence is deafening."

"That's true. But what about reaching the rank of Jade Sentinel?"

"I agree," Ashlock replied as he looked at the demoness standing nearby, watching the sun hover over the distant mountain range with her arms crossed.

With that, she was gone, soaring through the sky toward Ashfallen City.

"That reminds me," Ashlock said, returning his attention to Stella, "Where is Larry? Why didn't he follow you two through the portal I made?"

"Yeah?"

"Elysia thought Larry was Diana's summon?" Ashlock felt a headache coming, "I hope the misunderstanding was cleared up?"

"What the...? How did Diana respond?" Ashlock asked. From what Stella had told him, Elysia had displayed a cultivation level comparable to Diana during the duel, and Diana knew nothing about mystic Qi, so it would be a rather fruitless master-disciple relationship.

"That does make sense..." Ashlock chuckled, "Elysia refused to surrender by abusing the duel's rules, forcing Diana to waste a lot of Qi and becPluto's plaything for ten minutes. So it's no wonder she would have such a reaction, though I fail to see what this has to do with Larry."

"What... Larry has beca cult leader?" Ashlock imagined Larry in a dark cave surrounded by a cult, all praying to him. "I suppose that's fine? It's probably for the best that Larry stays protecting the Duskwalker residence for now anyway while we get everything set up."

"Anyway, we are getting off track. What did the pavilion evaluate the pills at?" Ashlock asked with a hint of excitement. He felt like a student waiting to hear back from a test he thought he did very well on.

"Interesting. Though I doubt the price will change much after the evaluation."

"My fruits are impressive for a cultivation resource, but we use one fruit to make ten pills, greatly reducing the effect. It's for the best. We don't want to attract as much attention with these mass-produced low-grade pills." Ashlock replied, "That aside, how much are Yinxi Coins worth?"

"I see," Ashlock replied as he fell into thought.

"Due to how bountiful food is in this world of Qi, from what I have seen by scouting out the menus outside restaurants in Darklight City, you can get an entire meal for the equivalent of around ten dollars back on Earth." Ashlock mused, "So that means one Yinxi Coin is worth $10. With that in mind, a single one of these pills sells for $100 or $1000 for an entire bottle of ten... and I can produce dozens of bottles a day. Who the hell said money doesn't grow on trees? I am about to be a very rich tree!"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Ahem, nothing much," Ashlock dismissed Stella's words with a cough, "What about the other two pills?"

Ashlock was honestly surprised anybody would be willing to pay the equivalent of $20 for a pill that let them handle plants slightly better. The fruit's full effect was quite useful, but it was quite weak when split between ten pills.

"Honestly, it's surprising how expensive being a cultivator is," Ashlock mused, "No wonder only noble families that exploit mortals for labor can afford to cultivate to the higher realms. Just a small Qi gathering formation needed a thousand High-Grade Spirit stones, so around $10,000 in Earth money, and that's not even factoring in labor! It took Douglas and Stella a few hours, and I bet cultivators aren't usually cheap to hire as they have to use up their Qi. Hell, that technique manual Stella bought from the Merchants that contained the knowledge of short-range portals was a thousand Dragon Crowns, or around $3000." Ashlock snorted in his mind, "For a book that was more poetry and nonsense than an actual guide and once learned only let the cultivator make portals between their hands that was a steep ask."

"I don't trust him at all. Be extra careful, and remember I can't help you directly."

"Is that even possible? What about the defensive formations?"

Stella shrugged, "I noticed the defensive formations were weaker in the Crimson Tracker area than in the Iron Seeker area. Although Qi is quite suppressed on the mountain, I don't think people would find it too strange if the demonic tree there turned into a weak spirit tree."

"Okay, I will look into it."

Ashlock knew nothing could stop his ethereal roots, not even the extensive defensive formations of the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion. It's just that he didn't want to earn the ire of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator like the Celestial Warden, but if a demonic tree was already there that he could sneak a root to, that made it easier.

"Yes, I need to devour cultivators or monsters with those affinities to form an Inner World and advance to the Nascent Soul Realm," Ashlock replied. He wanted to form his Inner World as soon as possible, ideally before the Mystic Realm later this month.

"Really?"

"You are growing up so fast that I sometimes wonder where the little girl who was so clueless about the world went." Ashlock sighed, "I wouldn't put too much truth on that cosmic being's words until we find your Father."

***

"Quite a spectacular sight..." Ashlock mused. He was using {Eye of the Tree God} to gaze down at a fissure running through a mountain range as if sgodly being had tried to crack the mountain apart like an egg.

At the mountain's base and near the opening to the fissure, he could see a fortified town protected by formations populated mostly by mortals with a few cultivators here and there. It was a mining city, evident by the constant stream of mortals hauling bags of rocks on their backs out of the fissure and into the town.

Stella had given him a long list of bounties and missions, and he had chosen a mission that had led him here.

Bounties were more problematic for him to pursue for now as he wouldn't be able to recognize his target even if he saw them standing out in the street. Tracking down a bounty required a lot of talking to those close to the target or stalking places they are known to frequent. It was not his area of expertise, but hunting down monsters and gathering plants? That he could do.

"This looks like the right place. Ironclad town south of the Tainted Cloud Sect." Ashlock shifted his view away from the town and followed the line of mortals into the fissure. Evening sunlight barely reached here, so the mortals relied on lamps hammered into the silvery spirit stone veins for light.

The pay for this mission was terrible, considering it was to kill a Star Core level wyvern, but Ashlock didn't care. The monster apparently possessed the wind affinity, one of the affinities he needed to form his Inner World. The fissure was also hto a metal affinity flower he planned to harvest when nobody was looking so he could make a grove for Ryker and Sebastian.

There was a chorus of agreement that cacross as fatigued and depressed. Ashlock went closer to one particular miner who was discussing something with the person beside him.

A roar from a great beast echoed through the fissure, and Ashlock could sense something fast approaching through the darkness like an arrow. A howling wind threw up a wave of dust, announcing the arrival of the monster he had cto kill.

The wave of dust was pushed aside as a looming shadow revealed itself to be a dark green-scaled wyvern. It was around the size of a bus, with a maw of shark-like teeth. A ball of condensed wind was gathering like a dragon's breath within its mouth, and if fired, it would annihilate everyone trying to escape.

Ashlock needed the monster's corpse in good condition so Stella could prove completion of the mission and he could guarantee enough Star Core wind Qi to satisfy his Inner World requirement, which limited his attack options.

"First, I need to stop this dumb lizard from moving," Ashlock muttered as he surged spatial Qi through his roots and opened up a massive rift above all of the fleeing miners. Through it, he glared at the wyvern with his {Demonic Eye} and slammed his entire presence down upon it.

The wyvern let out a strange cry as its eyes widened in horror. It lost control and veered to the left, smashing into the side of the fissure and diving down to the ground in a shower of rubble.

Ashlock used telekinesis to pause all the flying rocks from pulverizing the fleeing mortals before hurling them back at the downed wyvern.

"This almost feels unfair," Ashlock thought as hundreds of black vines shot through the giant portal and wrapped tightly around the injured wyvern limbs. The wyvern struggled and thrashed around, which was annoying, so Ashlock crushed its neck with his vines. It let out a final shriek as the life left its eyes. With the corpse secured, he used a mixture of his vines and telekinesis to haul the monster through his rift and back to Red Vine Peak.

"I should grab sflowers while I am here," Ashlock hummed to himself as he used his vines to smash at the rock and free a few flowers, which he also floated through his rift. With the goods secured and the mortals safe, "I wonder how the mortals are reacting to my benevolence..."

He looked through the portal with his {Demonic Eye} and saw hundreds of miners had frozen in fear. They were all looking up at the rift looming overhead with blood tricking from their noses and wide eyes.

"I think this is my hint to leave," Ashlock said, closing the rift and withdrawing his presence from the area. Back on Red Vine Peak, Jasmine was poking her head out of the doorway of the hut with a look of awe at the dead wyvern.