[Tree] Chapter 433: An Unexpected Ascension

Ashlock appreciated Catherine taking the lead in informing everyone about the funeral. For some reason, he felt that if he were to speak about the funeral plans, it would carry less weight. It felt so much more genuine coming from Catherine—the scene of a mortal mother clasping hands with a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator was moving for everyone present.

Well, except for the mantis, the poor little bug likely had no idea what the hell was going on. Despite the harsh words from Stella, he agreed with her plan regarding Jasmine's pet. It was too weak to fight anything and too untamed for Jasmine to keep around as a guard while cultivating. But Ashlock was curious about the mantis's camouflage capabilities as that was a capability his Ents and summons lacked. Though, that would be for later.

Right now, he had some... questions, especially for the vice cult leader of the All-Seeing Eye—Elysia Mystshroud. However, he first needed to get mortals like Catherine and weaker cultivators off Red Vine Peak to avoid breaking their minds with his Evil Eye as he analyzed the stronger sect members.

Tapping into his spatial dao rather than his now easier-to-control desolation Qi, he created a few perfectly clear portals leading to various locations. He then ordered Anubis to stand before the portals to present them.

"Those below the Star Core Realm who want to participate in the funeral, please take your leave," Ashlock said through Anubis and had the towering shadow lich gesture to the open portals. "Everyone else, please stay for a moment so I can assess your growth in power."

Bidding farewell, the Redclaw youths left first. As they went, Ashlock checked them with his spiritual sense. Some were on the edge of reaching the Star Core Realm, which was crazy to think, as the Redclaw Grand Elder had been the only member of the Redclaw family in the Star Core Realm just a year ago. Yet now, every Elder and even Amber, a member of the younger generation, was at that level.

A small horde of Mudcloaks waddled through the portals next, and Ashlock felt like scratching his nonexistent head since they were supposed to be living on Red Vine Peak.

"I guess they have some business to tend to elsewhere?" Ashlock chuckled, imagining them in little suits and holding a serious business meeting. Overall, it seemed their cultivation levels had increased across the board, but none were at the peak of the Star Core Realm just yet. Though the day a Nascent Soul Realm Mudcloak stepped out of the Mystic Realm didn't seem too far away.

Next to leave was Jasmine along with her mother Catherine. However, on their way out, Jasmine encountered an old rival waiting beside the portal—Sam. Oddly, a Mudcloak stood at Sam's side, holding a small stick like a sage and looking mysterious. This Mudcloak also happened to have the highest cultivation realm that Ashlock had felt from the little monsters. However, he couldn't get an accurate read as he assessed through his spiritual senses rather than his Evil Eye.

"You've grown stronger, my little rival, but so have I. Though, I admit it's almost unbelievable that you have reached the 7th stage already. That's impressive, but don't count me out yet. I just stepped into the 3rd stage myself." Sam said, a light smile tugging at his lips. "You may have Stella as your Master and access to unlimited resources, but I will still surpass you one day. Outside help can only overshadow talent for so long."

Before Jasmine could reply, Stella appeared behind her in a flash of white flames. She narrowed her eyes at Sam, "Are you implying something?"

Sam was half startled to death by Stella's sudden appearance. He backed up a step and waved his hands defensively while saying, "I wasn't implying anything at all!"

Stella snorted, "If you're going to talk shit, that's fine. But at least have the spine to back up your words. The heavens don't smile kindly on cowards, and I don't appreciate people belittling my disciple." Stella ruffled Jasmine's hair, "Yes, she has me as a master and access to more resources than most, but she made a historic jump in cultivation this round. Five stages in one month, not even I can do that. Attributing that success solely to outside factors is disingenuous, you know?"

"Master, it's fine." Jasmine tried to protest, but Stella was having none of it.

"Have you also lost your spine?" Stella turned on her own disciple with a look of disappointment, "I don't suggest going around and killing or fighting people over every transgression against you, but come on! This is a good opportunity! A little rivalry to get the blood pumping." Stella stood between them and had her hands on their shoulders, much to their confusion and embarrassment. "Cat got your tounges? If one of you doesn't speak up, I'm going to have you both participate in a strict training regime—"

"Okay!" Jasmine seemed panicked by the prospect of the strict training regime as she pulled one of Stella's spatial rings off her finger and forced it into a bewildered Sam's hand. "Stella doesn't teach me much, and this ring probably contains a lot of cultivation resources. Let's both do our best!"

"Um," Sam was at a loss for words as he stared at the ring in his hand and glanced between Jasmine and Stella. "Is this really fine?"

"What do you mean I don't teach you much?!" Stella looked like an arrow had struck her heart.

Jasmine ignored her Master. Her gaze was locked on Sam as she held out her hand, "This should even the playing field, right? Let's both do our best." She looked deathly serious before hissing under her breath, "Just shake my hand."

The teenager gulped as he shook the little girl's hand, "Sure... you got it."

"Great!" Jasmine beamed before grabbing her mother's hand and pulling her through the portal, "Let's go."

"Who is that boy, Jaz? Is he your boyfir—" Catherine's voice was cut off as the portal rippled around them. However, through the portal, Ashlock could see Jasmine pointing at Sam and passionately denying her mother’s question.

Meanwhile, Sam was trying to hand Stella back her ring.

"Keep it," Stella crossed her arms, "But if I don't see results from the resources you take from there, I hope you accept how inferior you are to my disciple."

Sam bowed, "Mark my words, I won't lose out to your disciple."

Ashlock just watched on with amusement. "Stella will never admit it, but I know she has a soft spot for helping children and those weaker than her. Perhaps she sees herself in some of them or maybe she just likes helping."

"Guppy, take the mantis to the front lines." Stella ordered her pet, and the slithering nightmare obeyed as it began shepherding the terrified mantis toward a portal that led to the northern forest. However, the mantis froze in place as they passed the Mystic Realm fog, and Guppy soon followed suit. Both monster’s eyes were locked onto the fog as if they were being stared down by a predator.

"What are you two waiting for?" Stella shouted, but neither moved an inch. Annoyed, she strode over but then seemed to feel it too. Her eyes narrowed, "What's that?"

A serpentine shadow supporting two golden eyes that cut through the mist was slithering through the mystical fog toward them. The fog parted as it came to the forefront, and a sleek ink-black head peeked through. The monsters skin seemed more fluid than solid, rippling with every movement.

"Kaida!" Diana's voice rang with joy as she leaped into the air, her arms outstretched. She collided with the Midnight Ink Lindwyrm before he had fully emerged in a fierce embrace. Her arms barely encircled his thickened frame as he had grown in the short time they had been apart, and his scales were all restored.

While Diana patted Kaida, he radiated a divine aura befitting his most recent evolution, and he seemed to be brimming with power. Despite being Stella's pet and far larger, Guppy lowered his head in reverence before Kaida. Meanwhile, the poor Soul Fire Realm bug was quivering.

Kaida snorted in amusement and used his forelegs to pull himself across the cracked stone onto the purple grass that encircled Ashlock's trunk.

Ashlock didn't need a system prompt to know what his summon wanted. It was obvious the Lindwyrm had finally gathered enough Qi to surpass the B-grade.

Kaida planted his forehead on Ashlock's trunk and multiple system messages flashed in his consciousness.

[Kaida has accumulated enough Qi to evolve to A grade]

[A single evolution option has been made available]

[Midnight Ink Lindwyrm {Kaida} wishes to evolve]

[Yes/No]

This was quite an unexpected development as it was hard to tell how close his summons were to evolution compared to cultivators that simply moved up stages.

“I can’t believe it’s finally time for Kaida who was once a little F-grade grass snake to ascend to A-grade.” Ashlock was honestly overjoyed. Despite his cultivation lagging behind Larry due to his lower starting grade, Kaida had proved his worth time and time again. Even at B-grade the ink snake had the potential to unleash unfathomable destruction if he expended all his scales.

"Just out of curiosity, what was his last evolution message?"

[Midnight Ink Lindwyrm (???+)] B grade

As a lesser evolution of the Midnight Inkwing, Kaida would inherit the blood of a divine being from the upper layers of creation, granting him unlimited cultivation potential. Midnight Ink Lindwyrms have snake-like bodies made entirely from divine ink. Their bodies are also covered in black scales of hardened ink that they can use as a medium to affect the world, such as creating talismans or runic arrays out of their scales. They also can infuse their will through their divine ink to create contracts overseen by the heavens. Also, due to the connection with the divine, Midnight Ink Lindwyrms can gain heavenly insight from words written in ink.

It had been a substantial upgrade from his C-grade evolution as he had consumed the flesh from a divine being's offspring, the Midnight Inkwing. Thankfully, the mother of those eggs had yet to track them down.

"I do feel quite bad for the Midnight Inkwing, but there's a chance I wouldn't even be here right now if not for stealing those eggs. By consuming them, Larry became far stronger than he would have been, and I also used them to make the Phantom Veil Amulet, which kept Stella safe during the saga with Vincent Nightrose."

Diana stood beside Kaida, grinning, "Is Kaida going to get stronger?"

"Oh, most certainly," Ashlock replied with {Abyssal Whispers} as the weaker people had left. Everyone left standing on the peak had enough mental fortitude to resist his words. "System, show me the evolution option."

It made sense that there would only be one evolution path as his previous upgrade had included a (???+) in the name, meaning it had unlimited potential. If anything, this evolution was simply a formality rather than a choice.

[Celestial Ink Dragon (???++)]

While Midnight Inkwings are considered one of the apex divine beings that possess the ink affinity, there exists its ancestor—The Celestial Ink Dragon. Thought to be extinct, the Celestial Ink Dragon possesses a long, flowing body of divine ink that at their maximum length can span between dimensions. Rumored to be the ancient scholars of the heavens, Celestial Ink Dragons have heightened comprehension of heavenly texts, allowing them to decipher even the most complex runes, lost techniques, or divine edicts inscribed in ink. However, the biggest difference between the lesser Midnight Inkwing and the Celestial Ink Dragon’s scales is that the Celestial Ink Dragon can shed their scales and control them from range, letting them dominate battlefields with floating talismans, formations or binding even demi-gods with their divine contracts.

Ashlock just stared at the explanation in disbelief. “Holy shit. Kaida is going to evolve into the ancestor of the Midnight Inkwing? It was one thing for Larry to evolve into the Herald of the Divine Ash, but that evolution sounded like a unique divine being. However, evolving into one believed to be extinct? That’s a completely different ball game. For instance, if the Midnight Inkwing tracked us down, would she bow before Kaida now? And how will other dragons react if they meet him?”

Coming to terms with the whole Kaida evolving into an extinct divine being and moving onto what a Celestial Ink Dragon was actually capable of made Ashlock even more excited. The ability to comprehend heavenly texts was bound to become useful as they moved up the layers of creation and got closer to the heavens. What really piqued his interest though, was the Celestial Dragon’s ability to shed their scales and manipulate them from range.

“The number of combat possibilities that opens up is insane," Ashlock mused. "Right now, Kaida can inscribe basically anything into his scales, but two main factors are holding him back. First, growing and inscribing the scale takes a lot of time and Qi, and they are consumed in the process of casting the technique, making them single-use. The second problem is that everything has to originate from him since the scales are attached to his body. For example, if he inscribed a barrier technique, he could only cast it on himself rather than for someone else. This led him to focus on more offensive techniques, but with this, he can create floating formations that could cover massive areas.” 

Ashlock realized he had gotten lost in his excitement and Kaida was still pressing his head on his trunk, awaiting his decision on if he could evolve or not.

“Yes Kaida, I approve of your evolution.”

[Evolution Path {Celestial Ink Dragon} chosen, evolution initiating…]

With that done, Ashlock turned his attention to the elephant in the room… or should he say the tree woman on the mountain peak. Elysia, had reached Nascent Soul Realm. He had expected as much as she had been at the 9th stage of the Star Core Realm before going in. What he hadn’t anticipated was whatever this was.

“Elysia, care to explain yourself?”

What followed was a nearly incompressible ramble in true deranged Elysia style. While peering at her with his Evil Eye and cross-checking her words, he managed to piece together the important bits.

“Okay, so she hasn’t turned into an Ent as I suspected. That bark is a soul avatar created from mystic Qi, and it has taken on that appearance because she somehow implanted her infant soul inside Mytherion. It reminds me of how the Lunarshade Grand Elder used his infant soul as spiritual armor during the Tainted Cloud Sect fight.” Ashlock mused as he stared at Elysia, pointedly ignoring how she seemed to shudder in ecstasy.

Sure enough, growing in her soul was Mytherion. The little tree’s roots clung to Elysia’s soul like an octopus to a rock, and if he dug even deeper, inside Mytherion’s trunk was Elysia’s infant soul. Ashlock’s gaze shifted to Magnus Redclaw. In comparison, the Grand Elder of the Redclaw family’s soul had transformed into a spiritual volcano, with what he assumed to be the man's infant soul floating above its rim like a blazing sun of hellfire.

“Grand Elder Redclaw, did you unlock a new affinity?”

The man smiled, “Not quite an affinity yet, but I gained deep insight into a dao. As I faced the heavens' wrath, they tested my resolve. I answered that I wanted to become the bedrock of my family, dependable and unmoving like a mountain, yet able to erupt with hellfire to wipe out our foes when necessary. It seems the heavens smiled upon my resolve, and I achieved enlightenment in volcanic dao.”

“That is indeed a fitting dao to comprehend for you,” Ashlock said, and Magnus gave a slight bow of appreciation.

Ashlock’s Evil Eye then switched targets to the only couple in the sect’s inner circle, Douglas and Elaine. “Hold on… Douglas, you went up three whole stages?” Ashlock said with genuine surprise. Unless he was remembering wrong, Douglas had been at the 2nd stage of the Star Core Realm yet he was now in the 5th.

“Haha,” Douglas chuckled as he scratched the back of his head, “I had a fortunate revelation recently that dispelled what had been holding me back until now.”

“What was that?” Stella asked, clearly interested.

“I realized I’m not built for fighting,” Douglas shrugged.

“Eh? That’s it?” Stella squinted at him.

“It’s the truth. I felt like I was constantly playing catchup with everyone and kept beating myself up over failing. Do you remember as a kid, if you had something important to do the following morning, you would go to sleep early, only to stare at the celling for hours? The more time passed, the more frustrated you grew with your inability to sleep, feeding the cycle. That was me, but with cultivation.” Douglas tapped the ground with his walking stick. The ground rumbled as it rose up into the shape of a hand, “Once I accepted fighting wasn’t for me and I should focus on construction, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders and I could finally be me.”

Elaine playfully pulled on his ear, “I’ve been telling you this for months. You should listen to me more!”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Douglas sighed, “I was seeking purpose when it was there all along.”

Ashlock looked at Elaine. She had gone up a more modest two stages, compared to Douglas’s three. But that was almost more impressive, as she had two affinities she had to cultivate at once, with one of them being void.

“Big sister!” An all too familiar voice called out as the Mystic Realm finally dissipated. The last two to leave was Ryker and Sebastian Silverspire. The kid had somehow jumped from the 1st to the 4th stage of the Star Core Realm.

“He really is a heaven-sent prodigy,” Ashlock sighed, wondering if he was in the presence of the true protagonist of this world. In comparison, poor Sebastian had been overshadowed, having only advanced one stage and now being multiple stages behind the five-year-old Young Master he was meant to be guarding.

Sebastian met his Evil Eye’s gaze with the steel like resolve Ashlock expected from a seasoned metal affinity cultivator. However, the stream of metal orbiting the man betrayed his restlessness.

“Speak Sebastian, what’s on your mind?”

The silver-haired man bowed slightly. "I apologize for my haste, but are the preparations for the visit to the Silverspire residence ready? I just received a concerning message sent days ago from Ryker’s mother and wish to return to Argentum as soon as possible.”

“Concerning is certainly one way of putting it,” Ashlock said as he opened a desolation rift above Red Vine Peak and lowered Moros through it. “Transportation is prepared, but the situation has become… complicated.”

“How so?” Stella asked as she curiously eyed Moros along with the others.

“There’s a Monarch Realm spatial cultivator hailing from the Celestial Empire along with many Star Core Realm Enforcers at the Silverspire residence,” Ashlock said and gave pause to let the gravity of his words set in.

“What?!” Sebastian’s eyes widened in shock, “How did you learn of this?”

“I had a fight with him,” Ashlock admitted, “And he stole my sword.”

[Author Note]

Sorry for the delay! I finished this chapter two days ago. I planned to upload it to my beta readers during my layover in China, but the internet blocks there prevented me from going on Discord to send them the file. I then had an 11-hour flight without Wi-Fi and crashed out asleep once I got to the hotel.

Now for a more important update:

As I mentioned above, I'm traveling. I'm currently in Istanbul on a birthday trip for my girlfriend. We are then going to hop around a few European countries as she has always been fascinated by the area. The other reason for this trip is she's starting her full-time "black company" Japanese job in April, meaning the time we can spend together will go from most days to... hours at most. Her work hours will be from 9 AM to around 9 at night on a good day, it's brutal.

This trip wasn't supposed to take up too much time though, but then my brother moved to Thailand and is building a house. He wanted me to come and see it and how could I say no to that?!

Suffice it to say that, with a packed month of travel ahead, my writing time is being squeezed. But I didn't want to leave you guys out to dry with such a hype arc coming up, so the plan is simple.

I will try to write 2x chapters a week until the last week of March. Upload times will, of course, be hectic and random. RoyalRoad is on semi-break until the end of March as well, so they are getting 1x chapter a week. So maybe this will be a good opportunity to increase the chapters ahead? As always, if you feel the drop in uploads isn't worth your subscription, feel free to DM me through Patreon, and I can offer a refund!

Oh, also, I went to a coffee fortune teller here and asked her if I should keep writing Tree or start a new series, and she said that if I continue writing Tree, I will have a strong financial future. That's of course thanks to all of you guys and your continued support! <3

I also have a few exciting projects coming up that I look forward to announcing when I can.

Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and see you soon!