Chapter 341: Evil Eye

Chapter 341: Evil Eye

Ashlock's leaves rustled in the chilly winter breeze as the sun set and the sky became a seemingly endless sea of stars. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and Ashlock knew that somewhere out there in the vast cosmos under the heavens, his sect members were doing their best in pocket realms to achieve their own goals and dreams.

In the stifling silence left in their absence, he awaited their return by distracting himself by mulling over a problem unique to him: how to spend his credits on his increasingly growing list of skills and mutations. For once, he had a rather large budget of 7680 sacrificial credits due to his antics in the shadow realm getting multiplied by Morrigan's slaughter, and he also had far more options than ever regarding what to do with them.

Upgrading skills and mutations was twice as expensive as an equivalent grade gacha pull, but it guaranteed that he would gain something useful for his current situation. Meanwhile, if he signed in with all the credits he had right now, he would get an SSS grade draw that could change the whole game.

There was also now a third option. Do nothing and let the credits multiply due to the divine stock market. But that was boring, and there weren't massive results due to diminishing returns the more credits he had, unless he got someone to do something as ridiculous as slaughtering the Skyrend family while wearing his cult clothes to generate an obscene amount of divine energy.

Ashlock may have gotten a huge boost in power from the Mystic Realm, but he still wasn't strong enough to let credits sit around idly. His Ents had high cultivation levels, but Ents were comparatively weaker than cultivators at the same cultivation stage due to their lack of techniques and being even more simple-minded than monsters.

On the topic of his personal power, Ashlock's jump in cultivation had been considerable, but he was still below many powerhouses. Apart from his unique biology, what gave him a tremendous advantage over the other powerhouses was his system, which gave him skills, summons, mutations, and items at the price of having to spend his sacrificial credits.

He had also gained control over a pocket realm, but it was unclear how that would affect his combat power as he hadn't gotten a chance to explore its capabilities yet.

"Mhm... This was easier when I only had the binary choice of to sign in or not," Ashlock hummed as he glanced over the floating list of skills and mutations in his mind for the tenth time since the sunset. He had already narrowed down a few options he liked and was now debating between them. "System, can you highlight this one and this one? Oh, and this one..."

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

[Nascent Soul Realm: 4th Stage]

[Soul Type: Nine Moons(Spatial)]

[Mutations...]

{Demonic Eye [B]}

{Blood Sap [C]}

[Summons...]

{Herald of the Divine Ash: Larry [S]}

{Midnight Ink Lindwyrm: Kaida [B]}

[Skills...]

{Skyborne Bastion [SSS]}

{Necroflora Sovereign [SS]}

{Mystic Realm [S]}

{Progeny Dominion [S]}

{Dimensional Overlap [S]}

{Nocturnal Genesis [S]}

{Ethereal Roots [S]}

{Voidstorm Aegis [S]}Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

{Eye of the Tree God [A]}

{Abyssal Whispers [A]}

{Magic Mushroom Production [A]}

{Qi Fruit Production [A]}

{Transpiration of Heaven's Divinity [A]}

{Abyssal Devourer [A]}

{Blooming Root Flower Production [B]}

{Language of the World [B]}

{Fire Qi Protection [B]}

{Mental Protection [B]}

"Yes, do it," Ashlock said, returning to his Inner World, where he witnessed over 5000 flesh trees wither to dust. A number on a status screen was one thing, but seeing the consumption of credits in reality hit home just how costly this upgrade really was.

[5201 credits consumed...]

[Upgraded {Qi Fruit Production [A]} -> {Dao Fruit Production [S]}]

Information flooded his mind, and Ashlock knew he had made the right choice. He hurriedly opened his Dao Fruit Production menu, and sure enough, he could now add the daos he had comprehended for his Inner World to his fruit and seeds.

He had previously grown poisonous fruits containing seeds that birds would eat and then perish to the poison far away from his trunk. Their bodies would provide the needed Qi to nurture his offspring. Despite being his offspring, he had little control over the affinity they would take on unless he heavily altered their environment by spawning in flowers. But now he could inject the knowledge of certain daos straight into the seed, guaranteeing which affinity it would take on and greatly speeding up their cultivation.

He could also do the same with fruits that people could eat.

"System, by having Nox merge with the Dark Throne, did I gain anything regarding shadow Qi?"

[The absorption of knowledge isn't yet complete, but soon you will have dao knowledge of shadow Qi]

"Not Shadow Qi law?"

[You cannot possibly comprehend a law without having the affinity, so no. Only Nox will be able to wield shadow Qi law]

"I see..." Ashlock said. If he gained shadow dao, that meant he now had eight possible daos he could imbue his fruit with. Fire, water, earth, wind, metal, soul, spatial, and shadow. With these new capabilities, he could speed up the growth of the cultivators in his sect and cult to a tremendous degree by giving them dao fruits directly and making larger groves of the various affinities' trees.

Now that he had seen the new feature of his upgraded skill, he was deathly curious about what his new S-grade fruits were capable of.

"System, could you list my new fruits and what they do?"

[Sure, generating list... altering skills not suitable for cultivators... upgrading old skills... done]

{Mystic Realm [S]} ->{Mystic Realmwarp} Upon eating the fruit, the person will leave any pocket realm and return to their last position or a soul anchor point.

{Progeny Dominion [S]} ->{Soul Dominion} For a duration after eating the fruit, the user has complete dominion over their soul. They can fracture it and even temporarily put their soul into items without risk of permanent soul damage.

{Dimensional Overlap [S]} ->{Dimensional Overlap} For a duration after eating the fruit, the user can create a large area around their body from their Qi reminiscent of a Monarchs domain.

{Nocturnal Genesis [S]} -> {Soul Meditation} Induce a level of meditation so deep it heals the soul.

{Ethereal Roots [S]} -> {Ethereal Spirit Roots} For a short time after eating this fruit, the user's spirit roots turn ethereal, allowing for effortless movement of Qi through the body.

{Voidstorm Aegis [S]} ->{Void Protection} Upon consuming the fruit, a large amount of the user's Qi will be consumed to produce a thin barrier of void able to block any single attack for a short duration.

{Dao Fruit Production [S]} ->{Florist's Infusion} After eating the fruit, the user can nurture a fruit with their Qi.

{Transpiration of Heaven's Divinity [A]} -> {Divine Enlightenment} Upon eating this fruit, become capable of understanding heaven's whispers.

{Abyssal Devourer [A]} -> {Corrosive Aura} After eating this fruit, the user can devour other Qi types to replenish their own Qi reserves.

{Mental Protection [B]} -> {Soul Protection} Eating this fruit protects the user's soul from external attacks.

Ashlock's mind was swimming with possibilities while looking at this list. Despite how short the description was for the Mystic Realm fruit, {Mystic Realmwarp} would greatly reduce the dangers that came with the Mystic Realm. If Evelyn had been able to eat a Mystic Realmwarp fruit when she found herself in such a dangerous place, he wouldn't have had to rush in there to save her. She could have simply eaten the fruit and reentered the celestial fog to pick a new one.

The other upgrades seemed to focus on soul-related things, which was perfect. Since many of his sect members were approaching their Nascent Soul Realm ascensions, anything that helped prevent soul damage would be useful when it came time for them to go supernova and split their soul in two.

However, out of all the new fruits, he liked Void Protection the most. Maybe because he was an overprotective parent, but he would be more relieved knowing Stella had a way to survive long enough if she got caught in a bad situation against a superiorly powerful foe for him to intervene.

"Stella has a habit of taunting powerful people, which is made all the worse by her bloodline, turning her into the sin of pride." Ashlock mused as he opened his production menu and began growing fruit containing these new skills. He also created batches of fruits that held the various daos from his Inner World and put seeds in some of them. He planned to create even bigger and better groves.

Ashlock took a moment to enjoy the lightening sky, signifying the coming of morning, before returning his focus to his status menu. It was time to upgrade his mutations.

"Let's do my Demonic Eye first."

[Directly upgrading the mutation {Demonic Eye [B]} will consume 1589 credits. Are you sure?]

"Yes, hit it."

[1589 credits consumed...]

[Upgraded {Demonic Eye [B]} -> {Evil Eye [A]}]

Ashlock felt an intense pain as his Demonic Eye was altered. Unlike a skill that was deployed on command at the cost of Qi or sacrificial credits, his mutations were permanent changes to his very being.