Chapter 388: Sly Fox

Vincent Nightrose stretched his new limbs with satisfying clicks and groaned in relief.

He'd planned to craft a new body from scratch with the body parts he had harvested, but his current situation didn't afford him the time for fleshcraft. So he had to use something he had prepared long ago: Valandor. A cultivator with potential that he had taken under his wing and raised, all while deeply weaving his threads of control into his body. He had given Valandor everything. A position of great power, responsibility, and resources. He had been his most dependable pawn for years, a true backbone of the sect.

But even Valandor likely knew his true purpose deep down as he began feeling a deep sense of detachment between his body and soul. After all, Vincent had never been after Valandor's soul, as achieving utter Soul Dominion over another was a power in the realm of the gods, and he had no use for aether affinity.

No, what Vincent had always been after was a fresh body ready for use at any time.

Vincent looked inside himself and was quite content with how the transition had gone. He had washed out Valandor's soul by burning it in his soul flames. Leaving an empty husk behind that was strong enough to handle his soul without breaking. If Valandor had been in the Nascent Soul Realm, this process would have been far more messy, if not outright impossible. It was one of the reasons Vincent had such a strict policy of keeping his sect members below the Nascent Soul Realm, as the easiest way to escape his methods of control was by creating an infant soul and escaping to a new body.

"I will need to spend some time widening the spirit roots and altering the body to better utilize some of my bloodlines—" Vincent paused his mutterings, surprised by his own voice. No matter how many times he swapped bodies, it always took a while to get used to hearing a different voice when he spoke. "I heard Valandor giving me reports with this voice so many times, but it sounds so different inside my own head."

Vincent had to admit he was slightly saddened at having to overtake Valandor. It was a true waste of such a good pawn, but the man had been compromised, so his fate had been sealed.

Not to mention, this body won't last long. Vincent thought as he ran young fingers along the quickly healing cavity in his chest where he had bitten a chunk out to create a pathway for his soul to invade. This is a temporary solution. My soul is still damaged and nearing the end of its lifespan, so I need to get my infant soul into a new, specially-made body soon. But for now, this will have to do. I can't afford to be weakened to the extent that swapping souls would entail right now—huh?

The sound of cracking wood drew Vincent's attention. Looking over his shoulder, he saw his old body slumped in the chair with an unhinged jaw caked in blood and soulless eyes looking down at the floor.

"What the..." Vincent noticed a branch growing from the corpse's chest, and the veins around it were quickly blackening through the corpse's pale skin like sprawling roots. "Is this a result of that black blood I had been confining?"

He had left the black blood in his old body as it had drained on his blood Qi to keep it suppressed, and he didn't see any use in holding onto it as if he let it out in any capacity, it seemed to attract the ire of the Ashfallen Sect's leader.

"I've got to go," Vincent cursed as his two hearts pounded in his chest. He wrapped himself in a mixture of illusion and gravity Qi, to make him invisible. The sound of his old body being twisted into a tree filled the room, and he quickly became unrecognizable.

I could destroy this body, but the black blood seemed indestructible, and that would expose my presence here. I drained my old body of any trace of my soul, so they shouldn't be able to trace this back to me. Vincent turned and left the house that had belonged to a mortal family before he devoured them for a snack. He floated into the sky far above Darklight City and stared at Red Vine Peak in the distance.

He could easily peer through the giant illusion array surrounding the peak due to his higher cultivation level and understanding of illusion Qi.

A demonic spirit tree nearing two hundred meters high, whose canopy encompasses the entire mountain peak. It's unbelievable, but it appears to be in the Nascent Soul Realm and is the focal point of the divine energy bathing the area. I knew the Celestial Empire's chancellor was experimenting with world tree sap. Was this tree a result of those experiments? If so, who is controlling it?

Vincent had yet to find anyone who could be the leader of this Ashfallen Sect. The World Tree was the strongest being in the Celestial Empire, but the council of human cultivators controlled the empire, not the tree. In fact, the World Tree was enslaved by the council and harvested for its sap to progress their own cultivation.

Spirit trees simply couldn't lead a sect.

I heard that even at Monarch Realm, unlike monsters who gain a level of intelligence that rivals humans at the Nascent Soul Realm, spirit trees can barely string sentences together and prefer to communicate through raw emotions. Meanwhile, this demonic spirit tree is in the middle of the Nascent Soul Realm. Despite all signs suggesting it rules these lands, it's not possible.

Vincent sniffed the air. The Crestfallen scent was last there on the peak, but it's gone stale. They are hiding her somehow, or she has escaped through a portal to somewhere far outside my range. Either way... His eyes narrowed. Due to the illusion array and the very nature of the void, most wouldn't notice. But surrounding the peak in a dome was something sinister that promised an instant death, and Vincent had honed his sense of danger long enough to trust it.

I must find a way to get close to the scent without raising suspicion. The problem is I don't know Valandor's standing within the Ashfallen Sect. Not to mention, if the leader of Ashfallen uses whatever technique he used to discover that I had replaced the demoness with a blood clone, he might uncover that I'm not Valandor. Vincent raised his palm, and white flames appeared. With illusion and gravity Qi, I can simulate aether Qi to a point. But I can't traverse the aether, which will likely give me away.

Vincent snuffed out his illusionary aether Qi and looked back at the defensive void array surrounding the mountain peak. Wait, a void array? Only one family could have installed it and would know how to bypass or disable it. He turned and flew off toward Slymere. While even he was weary of the Voidmind family, he had to make use of the short timeframe where he was still at full power to gather some valuable puppets.

***

Vincent arrived at the Voidmind residence confused. The place was empty. He knew the Voidmind family had been at war with the Skyrend family, but he had never expected this. Ř

Did they go into hiding? Vincent wondered as he floated through the quiet corridors with light bending around him. Eventually, he slowly opened the doors to the main room. Peeking his head through, he saw someone's foot poking off the end of a large sofa positioned before a... tree? The person was softly humming and twitching their foot to their tune.

Finally, a person is here, but why is a tree growing inside a room? Vincent floated closer and wrapped around. He looked at the woman up and down. She was dressed in a nightgown and reading a book with apparent amusement. He drew up a blank as to her name, though; he had never been good at recognizing faces.

Sniffing the air, he realized. Isn't this Morrigan? She was at Nightrose City a few days ago. That means she should be on the side of Ashfallen. Not the best candidate to try and puppet, but there's nobody else here. Mhm, the Ashfallen Sect leader didn't show much initiative to save her when I trapped an illusionary version of her in a bubble of gravity Qi. Also, wasn't she accompanied by her daughter? Where is she?

Morrigan snapped the book she was reading closed and looked forward, not at Vincent. "Do you need something?"

Vincent raised a brow, "Morrigan, you can feel my presence?" He asked while using illusion Qi to alter his voice.

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"The others are currently preparing for a meeting where we will discuss countermeasures to the beast tide. I could maybe send Diana, but then you would have to attend the meeting in her place—"

"Okay, okay! I'm going!" Stella ignored Ashlock's chuckling as she put the book she had been holding on the table and stepped into the aether. She didn't even know where this darn tree was, but anything was better than being dragged into a meeting, and she was sure an out-of-place tree would be easy to spot once she got there.

This is concerning, though. Did someone get a hold of Ash's sap again? I thought Serena's fate at the tournament would have instilled enough wariness in the populace to not dare harvest his sap.

Stella rushed through the aether and was about to return to reality somewhere in Darklight City when a distant presence caught her attention. A monster? She whipped her head in the direction of the presence but paused. Here in the aether? She had never heard or read about the aether containing other beings. If this is like the void, could it be the aether equivalent of a Worldwalker?

"What should I do, Maple? Do I investigate or run?" Stella whispered to the sleeping squirrel on her head but didn't receive an answer. "Hey, listen to me," she smacked him lightly on the head, and Maple yawned. "I know speaking for you wastes energy, so just point or something. Do you think it's fine?"

Maple sleepily opened an eye and looked in the direction of the presence. Whatever he saw didn't impress him as he snorted before rolling back over and falling asleep.

"I'll take that as your seal of approval," Stella rolled her eyes. Maple had never been very reliable except when it counted, but if he seemed unconcerned, it likely wasn't a being on the level of a Worldwalker. "I wonder what it could be."

Stella walked closer as cautiously as she could toward it and narrowed her eyes. Is that a... soul? There was a blazing ball like a miniature star about the size of a fist. It was clearly alive and aware as it flickered toward her. Though even she could tell it was dying and fading away. Why is it floating there?

"Hello, little soul, who are you?" Stella asked as she extended her hand. She didn't feel any bloodlust or malice from the soul, but if it hurt her to the point of losing a finger, the Spatial Anchor would activate, and she would be dragged back through space to Quill's library.

The soul nudged her hand, and she felt an intense tingle. This soul isn't little at all. Stella's eyes widened. It's at least at the peak of the Star Core Realm. Far stronger than me.

"Is someone else out there with aether affinity as strong as Valandor?" Stella mused, and that got a reaction out of the soul. It blazed with power as if begging for her attention. "You know Valandor?"

It pulsed enthusiastically.

Stella tapped her chin as a terrible realization set in, "Are you Valandor?"

The soul did the universally known equivalent of an enthusiastic yes.

"What happened to you?" Stella asked in a panic but then remembered the soul couldn't speak. "Did someone kill you? Yeah? Who? Darn it, why can't you speak? No, wait, don't die on me." Stella desperately cradled the soul and tried to feed it Qi to no avail as the soul seemed to reject her offering.

Stella's mind raced as she thought about who could have done it. Valandor was strong, a Grand Elder of the Blood Lotus Sect, and was known as the White Reaper as he worked under Vincent Nightrose. He had a lot of enemies, and many people resented him.

"Could it have been one of the other noble families making use of the chaos to get revenge on you? No, that shouldn't be possible. You were too strong." Stella's eyes widened, "Was it Vincent? Did he kill you?"

The soul did one final pathetic flicker to say yes as it almost faded into the beyond.

"That bastard," Stella gritted her teeth, "I'll kill him one day. I swear to the heavens I'll rip his head off." She cupped her hands around Valandor's soul, "Don't go! Stay here to watch me get revenge. For the both of us..."

An intense tingle burned into her fingers, but she didn't dare let go. "Please stay," She whispered through the pain, "I still have a lot to learn from you. The books are too hard to understand."

Her brain and consciousness suddenly flared with pain, and her eyes glowed white as what could only be described as enlightenment flooded her mind. She floated there in agony for a long while, but she didn't dare reject the pain. She embraced it and desperately tried to comprehend everything being thrown at her.

If not for her bloodline, her consciousness may have fallen apart. But she managed to hold on until the end, and the result of what she had gained shocked her. The information Valandor provided her had perfectly merged with her own and what her ancestors could bestow into the very peak of enlightenment.

"This... this is..." She couldn't believe it, "Aether Qi law? I want to practice... no." She shook her head; now wasn't the time to grasp her new capabilities. She needed to inform Ash of her findings straight away. Vincent had killed Valandor and was likely here in Darklight City.

Stella stepped out of the aether into a house. A howling wind played with her hair, and rain fell on her face. She glanced up, the ceiling having been pierced by a tree. While big, it felt soulless to her. There was no hint of Qi coming from it.

"Where did this tree get such rich nutrients to grow so quickly from?" Stella was puzzled until she wondered why Valandor's soul was floating in the aether beside this tree. "Was it made from Valandor's body? But why? Wasn't Vincent looking for a new body?"

Stella rushed through the aether back to Red Vine Peak, and as she stepped out, she was surprised to see someone who didn't visit often.

"Morrigan?"

"Oh, hello." Morrigan smiled at her. Her mouth didn't move, yet she somehow whispered into her ear with a hint of amusement. "Vincent is listening."