Chapter 424: Treeterview

Ashlock had kidnapped not one, not two, but twenty aether Qi trees from Stella's pocket realm, and they were all gathered before him like a small, out-of-place forest. Their translucent trunks shifted in and out of reality, giving them a ghostly appearance, and their starlight leaves seemed unfazed by the violent winds. Their roots were exposed atop the stone, yet they showed no signs of needing stabilization.

He stared down at them with his Evil Eye to confirm his hunch—they were, in fact, all Star Core Realm spirit trees. Since they all met the minimum qualifications, it was time to conduct a... job interview.

"I can't believe I'm about to do this," Ashlock mused as he moved his ethereal roots to wrap around and connect with the translucent trees roots. He made sure to be gentle. As a fellow spirit tree, he understood the struggle of being unable to run or flee a superior foe.

"Can you all hear me?" He asked as he pushed his voice through his roots and into their souls. A flood of replies came back. They were closer to raw emotions than speech, but he could get the gist. The mental capabilities of these spirit trees were on par with Quill, the ink affinity tree that oversaw his library. Meaning they were smart enough to understand their situation. Yet they were more curious than scared.

Perhaps the survival instincts of an aether spirit tree that grew up in a monsterless pocket realm were less than a demonic spirit tree like him.

"Okay, I suppose we can start with introductions. My name is Ashlock." He began and just took a moment to appreciate how strange this situation was. "Now, yes, you have been kidnapped by me. However! It was done with good intentions. What is kidnapping? Don't worry about it. All you need to know is I have a job offer—yes, nutrients, Qi, and water will be provided. No, I'm not looking for a girlfriend at the moment, maybe in the future. Can we get back on track?"

They weren't even communicating with words, yet these trees were so darn talkative. They had an endless flurry of questions as if they had been condemned to silence for a thousand years and had finally been set free.

"Listen, here's the deal. I'm building a floating island that will serve as my sect's flagship, and I want to incorporate aether Qi into its capabilities. I need one of you to agree to be fused with a Bastion Core to provide the island with your Qi. Of course, I will replenish any lost Qi—no, I don't have a fine-looking trunk. Hey—" Ashlock used an ethereal root to slap away a long whisp of aether Qi coming at him from one of the trees. "No touching me. Are any of you interested or not? Yes it means you get to stay here—all of you? Seriously? You all want the job?"

Receiving a confirming wave of agreement, Ashlock felt conflicted. He only needed one to turn into a Bastion, which he planned to merge with Erebus to make it the ultimate flagship with access to both aether and void Qi. He had this image in his mind of a ghostly floating island. It would appear out of nowhere, obscured by fog, and decimate any foes before vanishing like a phantom.

While he would manage the long-range teleportations of the flagship within his root network, the island needed to be able to move itself quickly during combat scenarios. As Vincent had so kindly taught Ashlock during their fight, shields couldn't block every attack thrown at it, including the Voidstorm Aegis, which he could activate if he was controlling the Bastion directly.

Void Qi could do a lot of that, but compared to aether Qi, it was far too costly to use void Qi to move such a large island around. Increasing the size of Erebus from 30 meters long to over a hundred had certain drawbacks. While it did look far more imposing, the cost of moving it through the void had more than tripled.

Ashlock opened his sign-in system.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3668

Daily Credit: 10

Sacrifice Credit: 1870

[Sign in?]

There were still two days until the Mystic Realm ended. While his sect members were off having fun, he had amassed nearly 2000 credits through passive income to his divine stock market from his worshipers and eating a few weak monsters from the beast tide. An amount that could have been game-changing a few months ago, but it felt like so few now with many things demanding its expenditure.

"Lifestyle inflation comes for us all, huh? Though I expect to get far more credits once the beast tide scales up to my cultivation level and the new city is built." Ashlock dismissed the system screen and switched his focus to the Divine Flesh Tree in his Inner World. "Say system, would it be possible to turn one of these trees into an official bastion but link them all to one bastion core?"

[So long as they are confined to the area designated as the Bastion, it should be possible if they curl their roots around the bastion core and the leading tree is willing to share]

"Okay," Ashlock returned to Red Vine Peak and addressed the kidnapped aether Qi trees. "Listen up. I just confirmed that the floating island can accommodate all of you, but I need a leading tree that will become my offspring—woah, okay, fine. You can all become my offspring, but only one will have access to the Bastion Core."

What Ashlock witnessed next was a Mexican standoff between... well, trees. Their translucent trunks faded to the point where he could only see them through his Evil Eye, and it was in the in-between where the fighting happened. Qi crackled violently through the aether, causing reality to tremble and warp around the small forest.

"Okay, stop. I'll just pick the one with the highest cultivation. Yes, it's fair. No, I don't care what that tree did centuries ago."

It was the fate of all trees to compete over the same scarce resources, so the one who had managed to progress their cultivation the furthest seemed the best fit for the job.

"You, your name is now Akasha. It represents sky or ethereal space—" Divine energy arced off his trunk and struck the chosen tree. Veins of golden light flashed down the length of the tree's trunk before settling down a moment later. Anyone could tell at a glance that Akasha was special compared to the other aether tree's around it. "I forgot that as a god, giving out names carries a weight, but was it always that obvious? System, how much divine energy did that use?"

[You named a being in the Star Core Realm and older than you. They are also not a worshiper, nor one of your offspring. So, bestowing a name used a lot of divine energy. But it was siphoned from the ambient amount in your Inner World that hadn't yet been used to increase your number of sacrificial credits]

"So the passive growth of my credits will be greatly decreased for the time being until I recoup that divine energy?"

[That is correct]

"Darn it. What advantages do beings I have named have?"

[Their names become intertwined with your fate and gain power over time. Furthermore, their cultivation potential is unlocked, and any actions they do in your name will result in divine energy]

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"So they basically become my named champions? What would happen if I tried to name all of these trees?"

[You would run out of divine energy and burn through all your sacrificial credits before reaching the 5th tree]

Ashlock decided to hold off on naming the other trees, but he thought he might one day create a council of named spirit trees to help him manage his rapidly growing sect.

Their roots fused, and unsurprisingly, Akasha accepted him. "Now that you are my offspring let's begin."

[Do you wish to turn Akasha into a bastion?]

"Yes, but not yet. First, I need to plant all these aether trees on the Bastion." Ashlock shouted into his shadow, "Anubis!"

"Creator, you called?" Anubis asked as he stepped out of the shadows.

"Get the Mudcloaks up here, I have a job for them. It's time to make the flagship unbeatable."

"As you wish." Anubis left to fulfill his orders.

Ashlock didn't have time to waste, so while awaiting the Mudcloak's arrival, his vision blurred as he headed as far west as possible. Hitting the absolute edge of his roots and maximizing the distance his {Eye of the Tree God} could see, he managed to gaze upon what he believed were the outskirts of the Sliverspires family's lands. There were vast fields tended to by people in rags. The storm of the beast tide hadn't reached here, yet the skies were darkened, and there was the sound of rumbling thunder and enraged lightning.

He had experienced heaven's wrath one too many times to not know it when he heard it. "Judging by the intensity, this is definitely caused by someone ascending to the Nascent Soul Realm."

An airship drifted on through the sky, casting a looming shadow over the farmers. The difference between the poor farmers in rags toiling away at the soil below and the airship embroidered with enough metals to make it gleam like a mirror was like the gap between heaven and earth.

"This airship seems too fancy to be carrying miners," Ashlock peeked onto the airship deck and confirmed his suspicions. Standing at the bow of the ship, flanked by what appeared to be guards, was a man with long silver hair that seemed weightless. His gaze was locked on the horizon, his pale violet eyes shimmering like stars. He appeared on high alert as he kept tabs on his surroundings.

"Commander," he suddenly said, and the man beside him straightened.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Power up the shields."

The commander's eyes widened in panic, "Is it the Soul Eater?"

"Soul Eater?" Ashlock wondered, "Is that what they are calling Nyxalia?"

"No, we are too far west and close to Argentum. The Soul Eater was last spotted near Terraforge Peak." His head eerily swiveled like an owl, and he looked into the sky at Ashock. "It seems we have caught the interest of something else—a being far more sinister."

"Oh? This guy can feel my gaze." Ashlock was surprised. One of the only people who had noticed his gaze while using his {Eye of the Tree God} skill had been Valandor. He could understand if they noticed him watching through spiritual sight, but his system skill? "This guy is dangerous to me. If I had to guess, he must be one of Ryker's half-siblings. But what is with his eyes? They seem to hold an insight that shouldn't belong to metal Qi."

A metallic sheen shimmered to life around the ship, and Ashlock noted it speeding up. Since this was at the very edge of his effective range, the window of opportunity for him to do something was quickly closing.

"Should I kill him? He is a risk, and it would eliminate one of Ryker's siblings from the competition, not that he will lose." Ashlock felt hesitant. He rarely went on the offensive, especially over something like this where he wasn't directly threatened. It could have unknown repercussions.

"Contact Silverspire Peak," Ryker's half-sibling said to the commander, "It seems we have earned the ire of that fake god that made itself known at the meeting in Nightrose City."

"Fake god, my lord?"

"Yes, the All-Seeing Eye," the man said as he stared directly at Ashlock. "The one the Starweaver family was so concerned about."

Ashlock decided at that moment what stance he would take.

***

A farmer reached up and wiped the cold sweat accumulating on his forehead. With the new year's arrival, temperatures remained low, but he had no choice but to toil away, preparing the fields for planting.

Unlike the elusive Silverspires, who lorded over him from a mountain of sparkling wealth, he was destined to tend to the earth until he died at an age those immortal figures considered a long cultivation session.

A sudden shadow loomed over him, blocking out the precious few streaks of sunlight that had been warming him through the clouds. Stretching his back and looking up at the cause, he was unsurprised to see one of the Silverspire family's airships.

In haste, he got down on one knee as it passed, as did every other farmer. It was tiresome having to show his respects when tending to a field so close to Argentum as it saw a lot of traffic, but there were stories of slaughters that he didn't wish to experience. Showers of metal would descend upon those who didn't show their respects, wiping out entire villages.

After all, those immortals hardly even needed food. The freaks could sustain themselves by absorbing Qi from the metals. So, disrupting the food supply was a second thought to them. Their fragile egos were far more important than if people starved.

The farmer clicked his tongue. His mood was especially sour as the echos of heaven's wrath had kept him up for days, and the clouds made working the fields miserable.

All this work just so I can afford a ticket on a darn airship to live another few decades. He scrunched the soil and clenched his teeth in sleep-deprived anger. I wish those bastards would get a taste for once. They claim there are great horrors out there that they protect us from, but I don't believe that for one fucking second—

A bell suddenly rang out, resonating across the land. He glanced up, and the ship overhead radiated with a silver glow—its shields were up. "Huh?" his eyes darted across the fields as panic set in, "Did someone not show respect? Are they going to slaughter us?"

Everyone else was glancing around like him with fear on their faces. He could shit-talk the cultivators in his head all he wanted, but in reality, they were practically gods to him and the other mortals.

A tense moment passed, yet the ship continued sailing across the sky, showing no sign of attack. Yet the bell kept ringing out, and the shields glowed with intensity.

"Is that bell a distress signal?" The farmer slowly stood up as the airship was now in the distance. He had to use his palm to block out the sunlight to get a clear view, "But nothing is attacking them—"

The bell's ringing was cut short by a sonic boom that sounded like two godly frying pans impacting. It popped his ears and sent him stumbling back. "What the?!" He yelped as he kept shielding his eyes and watched the airship explode into pieces as if a giant arrow had shot right through it.

As the pieces of the ship rained to the ground below, leaving a trail of crackling metal Qi in its wake, the arrow in question turned out to be a giant flying sword suitable for a titan. It whistled through the air and did an arc around the falling ship as if searching for survivors. An aura of black mist tinged with silver wreathed the blade, and it seemed to have veins along its surface that pulsated as if it were alive. The farmer felt a chill run down his spine as he looked upon the living sword. It seemed to hunger for more.

The farmer's mouth gapped wide open, his eyes so wide they felt like they would fall out of his face. Never in his life had he witnessed such a sight. "W-What is that sword?" he was at a loss for words. A Silverspire airship belonging to the immortals of this land had been obliterated in a second by a floating demon sword.

However, it was not alone.

A few cultivators stood on floating swords before the demon sword. Their pristine white robes embroidered with silver and purple stars bellowed in the wind. Streams of silver orbited them, and a few had even drawn swords.

Purple stars on their backs? They must be from the Astral branch—one of the four great branches of the Silverspire family.

A devilishly handsome man in the middle of the group raised his sword and pointed it at the demon sword, "Demonic blade in service of the All-Seeing Eye. For what reason do you attack an envoy of the Silverspire family!"

The All-Seeing Eye? Who is that? The farmer wondered as he slowly backed away. He knew what happened to mortals who dared to stay too close to a fight between cultivators. The mere sound waves caused by the clashing of their blades could rearrange his organs.

"Is this how you treat a potential ally?" The Silverspire cultivator looked at something in the sky and said, "We are happy to go along with your little game if it were to also benefit us."

The farmer felt the breath taken from him in shock as he watched the demon sword seemingly teleport and pierce the Silverspire young master through the chest. The cultivator seemed just as bewildered as he looked down at the sword impaling him and coughed blood.

"I'm the Silverspire's 5th son. How could you—"

"You overestimate your worth." A voice that sounded like a tortured soul came from the sword as it twisted and tore the cultivator to pieces. The farmer felt his stomach lurch from the sight, and he became even more disorientated as the bloody pieces didn't fall to the ground like he and the other cultivators likely expected.

No, the demon sword absorbed the Silverspire cultivator's torn-up body, and his blood-stained robes were reduced to dust that flew away in the breeze.