Chapter 169: Satisfying Revenge [Start of Book 3]

Ashlock awoke to a pleasant autumn breeze that rustled his scarlet leaves. There were also the chirps of birds that had recently made the sprawling demonic forest across the mountain range their home.

As always, it took a while for Ashlock's mind to fully awaken from his slumber, but once he did, the all too familiar system message appeared in his vision.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3532

Daily Credit: 5

Sacrifice Credit: 28

[Sign in?]

"Seems I fell asleep while waiting for Stella to wake up," Ashlock yawned as he dismissed the notification and glanced around the mountain peak with his spiritual sight.

The three corpses of Blood Lotus nobles were still there as he hadn't yet decided what to do with them. In the past, the only real option would be to consume them for sacrificial credits and then unlock a skill. However, now that he had his SS grade {Necroflora Sovereign} skill that let him raise powerful Ents, he had to carefully consider what he used corpses for.

There was a loud yawn as Stella stretched like a cat on the bench and slowly woke up.

"Good morning, Tree," Stella said as she sleepily looked around, "Huh, how long was I asleep?"

"For half a day and night," Ashlock said through his {Abyssal Whispers} skill.

"That long?" Stella murmured as she retrieved a Mind Fortress pill from her spatial storage and gulped it down to resist the attacking nature of his telepathy skill, "Darn, it's my last one. I need to make another batch."

"If you teach the rogue alchemists how to make it, then you won't need to," Ashlock mentioned.

"Oh yeah," Stella said through their link as she attempted to tie her hair into a ponytail, "How did everything end yesterday? The second I came back here, I felt compelled to fall asleep on the bench, so I bet I missed some things."

"Well, if you look down near your feet, you will see some corpses," Ashlock said, "I need to decide which ones to consume to grow stronger and which to turn into Ents like Titus."

"Mhm, and what are the downsides of both options?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, power never comes for free, and I never fully understood how you get stronger, Tree,"Stella explained, "Like does consuming corpses corrupt your Qi? Or does raising an Ent drain your soul? Sometimes when deciding on something, it's best to look at what it will cost you rather than what you gain."

That was a good point. He always focused on the benefits rather than the cost, as his tree body gave him an unnatural advantage when it came to gathering Qi and other resources.

However, with the goal of advancing his cultivation and an upcoming war, he didn't want to be caught without any Qi in his Star Core again like he has been so many times in the past due to mismanagement. So he needed to be careful with raising too many Ents.

"Ent's cost a lot to maintain. The more I have control over, the more Qi I have to waste on powering them," Ashlock explained, "Whereas if I just eat the corpses, I will definitely get more powerful as I can absorb the Qi in their remains, and there's a chance I gain something new, but it will be random."

"Gain something new?" Stella tilted her head, "Such as items from rifts like my earrings?"

"Yeah, I basically stole those earrings from some other dimension for you," Ashlock half lied. He didn't know for certain where the items were coming from, and he also didn't consider the system's feats as being from him.

With a radiant smile, Stella touched the red maple leaf earrings dangling from her ears via a black chain, "I see! Well, that does make this decision rather difficult. I like new things, after all..."

She walked around the corpses while tapping her chin and paused, "Isn't someone missing?"

"Roderick Terraforge is still trapped in Titus's hands out in the wilderness," Ashlock replied, "I was saving him for you. What do you want to do with him?"

"Just crush him," Stella shrugged, "Ever since I won the tournament and don't feel threatened anymore, I don't care for revenge against a nobody like Roderick."

"I'm surprised. I thought you would want to slit his throat for crashing into your table during the tournament.".

"At the time, I did," Stella sighed, "But in a way, I actually owe some gratitude for them pushing me so far to a level of stress I have never experienced before."

"Why would you be grateful for that?" Ashlock wondered.

"I think they helped me awaken my bloodline during that final round," Stella stared at the bench behind her, "I don't know a lot about it, but I dreamed of this mountain peak and the things that have occurred here. They helped me focus to the point where I could create a Profound tier pill on my first try."

"So you do have a bloodline! Did it give you a transformation like Diana?" Ashlock excitedly asked.

Stella shook her head as she looked away from the bench, "No, and I don't think I will get one."

"Why not?"

"It's just a theory, but I think there might be different kinds of bloodlines," Stella mused, "For example, Diana has a transformation type that changes her species to one that's more powerful, whereas mine boosts my mental capabilities."

"Interesting," Ashlock was glad to learn even a little bit more about these mysterious bloodlines, and he was even more pleased to know that Stella had finally awakened hers. Since Larry said he sensed something ancient about the girls and Senior Lee mentioned that bloodlines belonged to the upper realms, he had been interested in them.

"Can you tell me more details about your bloodline?" Ashlock asked.

"I don't want to say anything for definite, but when I feel my throne is threatened, I enter a trance-like state that lets me perform at my peak capabilities," Stella shrugged, "It also seemed to rapidly drain my stamina, and I could hardly stand after using it multiple times in succession."

"And your throne is?"

Stella gestured to the bench, "I have no idea why, but my body and mind feel linked to this bench."

Ashlock hummed in interest, “The day that you tried to punch the heavenly lightning and almost died, Senior Lee saved you with a pill from a higher realm that seemed to anger the heavens. He later told me that was likely because our fates are tied. I wonder if you see the bench as your throne because of that."

"P-Please..." Roderick coughed blood as he glanced around and locked eyes with Douglas, "Cousin?"

Douglas diverted his gaze and looked up at the sky.

Stella was unfazed by his begging as she grabbed Roderick's hair, forcefully tilted his head to face the heavens and slit his throat. As the life left his eyes, Stella hauled the now-dead man via his hair out of the hand prison and dumped him next to the other noble corpses.

Everyone watched the scene in silence, some more shocked than others.

"I thought you said you didn't care for revenge against a nobody like Roderick?" Ashlock asked.

"I lied—that was far too satisfying." Stella replied through their link as she smiled sweetly, "Anyway, didn't you want to figure out what to do with the corpses? I was just hurrying things along."

"Right... sure," Ashlock said and then reanalyzed the corpses. Before him lay two Star Core corpses: Theron Skyrend and Lilian Voidmind. "I think I will turn these two into Ents, so what should I do with the other two?"

Ashlock stopped musing and realized he was being an idiot. He only wanted to consume the corpses to reach the next stage in the Star Core Realm so why not eat one and see if that was enough to advance?

Casting {Consuming Abyss}, black vines coated in thorns emerged from the ground and wrapped around Kassandra Skyrend as Stella requested to put her to eternal rest.

A while later, there was an immense rush of Qi through the vines as he finished devouring the corpse—Ashlock felt his Star Core pulse—expand a tenth larger—and then rapidly drain of Qi as he felt his entire body on fire with power.

[+311 SC]

"Phew," Ashlock sighed as the feeling subsided, and he opened his status menu.

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 9)]

[Star Core: 4th Stage]

[Soul Type: Amethyst (Spatial)]

[Mutations...]

{Demonic Eye [B]}

{Blood Sap [C]}

[Summons...]

{Ashen King: Larry [A]}

{Ebonflow Serpent Sovereign: Kaida [C]}

[Skills...]

{Necroflora Sovereign [SS]}

{Mystic Realm [S]} [Locked until day: 3552]

{Progeny Dominion [S]}

{Eye of the Tree God [A]}

{Abyssal Whispers [A]}

{Deep Roots [A]}

{Magic Mushroom Production [A]}

{Lightning Qi Barrier [A]}

{Qi Fruit Production [A]}

{Consuming Abyss [B]}

{Blooming Root Flower Production [B]}

{Language of the World [B]}

{Fire Qi Protection [B]}

{Transpiration of Heaven and Chaos [B]}

{Hibernate [C]}

{Superior Poison Resistance [C]}

Ashlock read over his ever-growing status menu and mentally grinned when he saw he had advanced to the 4th stage in the Star Core Realm. If he managed to eat a few more corpses, defeat some monsters, and cultivate in the Mystic Realm, he could see the possibility of reaching the Nascent Soul Realm on the distant horizon.

With that advancement out of the way, Ashlock could turn all three of the remaining corpses into Ents.

"Let's start with Theron Skyrend. I wonder what a 5th Stage lightning affinity human cultivator will look like as an Ent," Ashlock mused, "Will he be as tall as Titus? What about his skin? Will he have a weird texture like Bob?"

Deciding to find out, Ashlock activated his SS grade skill {Necroflora Sovereign} and watched the magic happen.