Chapter 15: Give & Take

The man's attention lingered on each fruit as he stroked his chin and hummed to himself.

After a while, the cultivator looked over his shoulder, scouring the pavilion's many windows, presumably for any sign of the female cultivator.

As Ashlock nervously awaited his fate, he tried to devise a solution. But then a thought occurred to him. Did he even need a solution? After all, he was a tree. What problem could the cultivator possibly have with him?

But then Ashlock tensed as the cultivator returned his sights to the fruit and casually reached up to grab a cluster of indigo fruit that looked similar to apples. As the man felt the weight of the fruit in his hand and caught the scent of Qi emanating from it, the cultivator's smile grew wider.

Then, the fruit vanished from the man's hand in a seemingly magical spectacle. The golden ring on his hand briefly glowed before fading back to its original dim state. Clearly, the ring had played a role in the fruit's sudden disappearance.

"A spatial ring," Ashlock grumbled as he watched the cultivator use the artifact to loot the fruits that had taken months to grow and required a significant amount of his Qi. "Classic cultivator trope. Carrying things in bags is so last century." Despite his annoyance, Ashlock couldn't help but envy the cultivator's use of the spatial ring. Ashlock rolled his nonexistent eyes in frustration as the cultivator continued his looting spree.

"Luckily, I can grow these fruit back, so if it gets him to leave..." Being robbed blind and feeling helpless to stop it was beyond infuriating for Ashlock. If he were a human, the cultivator likely would have killed for these fruits and looted his dead corpse without hesitation—the Grand Elders' offhand comments about the value of his fruit played in his mind.

This tree is a great find... but I fear if the Ravenborne's learn of its existence, they will storm in here unannounced and make a scene. These fruits alone would save them thousands of spirit stones a year in cultivation pills for their juniors.

Despite his anger, Ashlock knew there was nothing he could do to stop the cultivator from taking what they wanted. He was just a demonic sapling.

Blue flames shrouded the cultivator as he moved with impressive speed, grabbing hundreds of fruits as he dashed between Ashlock's branches in a blur. The ring kept flashing as the fruits vanished from the cultivator's hands faster than Ashlock could see.

At the edge of Ashlock's perception of the courtyard, he felt one of the doors open. The cultivator, who was busy stealing his fruit, also noticed this and practically teleported back down the tree with the last bundle of fruit in his hand—a cluster of red-berry-looking fruit.

The cultivator's ring flashed, but the berries didn't vanish. "Shit, it's full," the man muttered, his eyes widening in panic. He closed his eyes, likely trying to clear some space in the ring, but it was too late. The female cultivator had already appeared behind him in a single step. The man didn't hesitate any longer and threw the small clusters of fruit into his mouth and gulped them down.

Two cold grey eyes peered through the mask of the female cultivator. "I told you not to leave any evidence or take anything." The man didn't turn around, so her eyes narrowed. "Popping pills on the job, are we?" She asked with an irritated tone. "I looked through the entire pavilion during this time. So what have you been doing? Found anything?"

The man didn't answer. Instead, he was frothing at the mouth as the brutal poison in the red fruit that acted like cyanide took full effect. His cultivation erupted as he tried to suppress the poison, causing the blue flames coating his shoulders to flare up.

The female cultivator took a step back, and a sword materialized in her hand. Blue flames shrouded the blade, and she brought it up in a defensive position. "Showing your true colors now, are we?" She couldn't see the man's face.

Ashlock watched the scene play out and considered his options. "Ideally, they both leave, but I fear the man will die any second now. Will the woman think I killed the man and chop me down in revenge, or is that just paranoid thinking? Probably." Ashlock's mind raced as fast as his biology allowed. In a perfect world, the man would die, leaving his corpse here, and the woman would leave him alone.

Was there a way to alter the course of this situation to his ideal outcome? Ashlock brought up his status screen to recheck his skills.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 7)]

[Qi Realm: 8th Stage]

[Skills…]

{Eye of the Tree God [A]}

{Deep Roots [A]}

{Language of the World [B]}

{Lightning Qi Protection [B]}

{Qi Fruit Production [C]}

{Devour [C]}

{Hibernate [C]}

{Fire Qi Resistance [C]}

{Basic Poison Resistance [F]}

{Basic Meditation [F]}

"Yea, as expected, other than {Devour}, I still lack any offensive abilities. But, wait... what about my inventory." Ashlock still had the bottle of lightning Qi pills. Ashlock suddenly came up with an idea, one so nefarious he almost felt evil. "She already thinks he is popping pills on the job, why not make it a reality? The bottle of pills I got was so cheap anyway..."

Similar to how he summoned the wooden stick all those years ago, Ashlock concentrated on the pill bottle, and it suddenly vanished, rematerializing in the air in front of the male cultivator right as the man was turning around.

The female cultivator behind the man watched as the open pill bottle fell, and nine pills spilled out onto the purple grass. "So you plan to betray me." She cursed. Without hesitation, she brought up her burning blade and, in a dazzling display of swordwork, not only decapitated the man but also chopped off all four of his limbs.

Ashlock desperately resisted the hunger as a Soul Fire realm cultivator's blood painted his roots and bark. The purple grass went a darker shade as the various body part fell to the ground with a thud.

The woman expertly shook the blade once, successfully removing all the grime that had coated the sword. She then placed the clean weapon into her spatial ring while looking around the empty courtyard. Deeming the surrounding safe, the woman finally removed her mask and hood, revealing short black hair that gave her a tomboyish appearance. She took a deep breath, shook her head with regret, and walked toward the corpse with a sigh. It seemed killing the man had been a regretful affair.

Despite her cute face, her cold gray eyes betrayed her true demeanor as she searched one of the man's chopped-off arms for something. A second later, her dull eyes lit up slightly—she bent down and pulled the golden spatial ring containing Ashlock's stolen fruit free from the man's finger.

Whistling to herself, the woman pocketed the spatial ring. Then to Ashlock's horror, she approached him. She observed his naked branches stripped clean of fruit with a hint of suspicion. "Mhm." She hummed to herself as she traced a finger down Ashlock's smooth bark but then paused.

"Qi?" Her head tilted.

Ashlock had tried to make himself appear as innocent as possible by directing all of his ambient Qi away when she approached, but it seemed to have been unable to fool a Soul Fire cultivator's intuition.

The woman closed her eyes, and Ashlock felt a pulse of invasive Qi. He practically scurried away inside his own body, fleeing from the woman's unbelievably powerful Qi with all his might.

Her eyes fluttered open, "A spirit tree? Although a rather weak one..." She shrugged and stepped away. The discovery of a spirit tree seemed not all that impressive to her.

"Now, what to do about this." The woman sighed as she looked at the many bits of human scattered across the purple grass. There were even pieces on the runic formation, dyeing the stone red. "This should be a demonic tree, right? They like bodies."

Getting to work, the woman piled the many body parts up against Ashlock's trunk, which made his hunger unbearable. Then, happy with her work, she scooped up the pill bottle and thunder Qi pills, which made Ashlock grumble as he'd hoped she would leave them behind.

"Well, it's clear where Grand Elder's brother's corpse went with a demonic spirit tree here." The woman turned on her heel with a frown. "This will be a lot of trouble..." Blue flames erupted around her feet, and with a spectacular leap, she crossed over the pavilion's walls and shot down the mountain with breakneck speed.

Those words were rather ominous, but Ashlock didn't care as hunger consumed him. "Finally!" Ashlock cast {Devour}. Black vines erupted from the ground and mummified all five pieces of the cultivator. A few hours passed, and the message he had been looking forward to appeared in his mind.

[+100 SC]

Along with the message came a rush of Qi that Ashlock now knew was the sign of a stage advancement. As the sun crested the horizon to signify the start of a new day, Ashlock finally had his rampaging Qi under control and had the state of mind to check his status.

[Demonic Spirit Sapling (Age: 7)]

[Qi Realm: 9th Stage]

"Only one more realm to complete until I form my Soul Core!" Ashlock felt a sense of excitement. That cultivator may have stolen all his fruit, but the body of a Soul Fire cultivator had provided him a hundred days' worth of credits and advanced him an entire stage. "It's fine... those pills were worth only a few credits, and my fruit will grow back quickly with the Qi from this Soul Fire cultivator."

Thinking of Soul Fire cultivators... Ashlock wondered how he was supposed to form a Soul Core. Was it something he should know how to do instinctively? Or perhaps he would need Stella to guide him?

Ashlock looked out at the morning-lit courtyard and saw the runic formation dyed with blood and the scraps of clothing littering about. "Well, this will be hard to explain to Stella when she returns..."