[Tree] Chapter 425: Soul Weapon

Ashlock was somewhat taken aback as his sword that harbored Vincent's vengeful soul devoured the Silverspire cultivator's body. He hadn't known it could even do that, especially on its own.

"Stella gave me this Bloodiron sword as a birthday gift. I know it can grow in strength if fed lifeforce, but since when could it eat people? System, is this a new feature—"

Golden words flashed in his mind, silencing his questions.

[{The Sword of New Beginnings} has devoured its first soul. 120 credits have been split between you]

[+60 SC]

"Wait, this soul weapon can farm credits for me?"

Ignoring his question, another notification appeared.

[The ego of your Soul Weapon {The Sword of New Beginnings} has begun to awaken. Continue to feed it to awaken it fully]

"It really is a demon sword!" The Silverspire commander shouted at the top of his lungs, his face twisted in utter terror. Ashlock was unsure if this man's fear was due to the floating sword before him or the fact that the young master he was supposed to be escorting had perished in such a gruesome way.

Whichever it was, the outcome for this commander was likely the same.

Ashlock used telekinesis to slowly tilt his Soul Weapon and pointed its tip at the commander as a bloody mist hung to the sword. Like an executioner, the sword radiated a subtle bloodlust.

"You're death was sealed the moment you deemed the All-Seeing Eye a fake god."

Like Anubis, Ashlock used the sword as a proxy to speak through so he could talk without having to use his {Abyssal Whispers} skill. The voice from the sword sounded quite similar to Vincent's final moments of anguish before death but was distorted as if he was shouting from within a metal helmet.

"This is Argentum! There's no place for a self-proclaimed evil god here!" Spittle flew from the man's mouth as he barked and pointed his sword at the demon sword, "Especially after killing the young master, the Silverspire family will not rest until your fake religion is decimated."

Ashlock wanted to tell this man how badly he was wrong, but he didn't get the chance. The fool flew forward toward Ashlock's sword and, with a two-handed swing, struck at the demon sword. There was a clang and shower of sparks as the two weapons collided, but neither yielded.

The commander's strength was admirable, being near the peak of the Star Core Realm. His metal affinity made his sword far more robust than it had any right to be, and his skin glowed with the silver sheen. However, Ashlock's Soul Weapon had been crafted from Bloodiron, a type of metal forged under ancient battlefields by resentful souls who refused to move on. While not usually much stronger than mere iron, when fed lifeforce, it became more robust to the point of being capable of parrying Monarch Realm attacks.

That was normal Bloodiron, though. Ashlock's weapon harbored the soul of a near peak Nascent Soul Realm blood, gravity, and illusion cultivator. A man who had ruled the Wilderness with an iron fist and had a bloodlust so intense it was like a raging sea. There was no telling what the capabilities of this Soul Weapon were; hence, it had a [?] grade on his status screen. Only once its soul fully awakened would it be given a grade. All Ashlock had to do was give it more souls to devour. Luckily, he had some silver-haired fools floating before his blade.

Ashlock increased his telekinetic hold on the demon sword as he prepared to go on the offensive. Surprisingly, the commander noticed the rising Qi levels and did the smart thing.

"Disperse!" The commander shouted as he fell back, creating a gap between himself and Ashlock's sword. Rather than pressing on, he actually retreated. The many cultivators acknowledged the order and fanned out in random directions, leaving the commander alone.

"That was the right move," Ashlock was impressed. Most cultivators were egotistical fools who wanted to throw themselves at any blade like a whetstone as they seemed to think life and death battles were the only way to grow stronger. "Hold on... why is he still here."

"Now, it's just you and me," the commander grinned, "My sacrifice will not be in vain. Word of what happened here will reach the Silverspires, and you will be brought to ruin."

"Oh, never mind. This commander is just like the rest. An utter fool."

Ashlock didn't care what a weak family like the Silverspires thought about him, but if they knew he had orchestrated this slaughter, Ryker's upcoming meeting was bound to be a bloodbath. Now, he was not strictly opposed to mass murdering obstacles, but the Silverspires were more valuable to him alive than dead.

"If he's so eager to make a last stand, I might as well play along and farm some divine energy in the process." Ashlock mused as he wrapped the sword with a thick layer of desolation Qi infused with metal dao.

"Do you think fleeing like rats will save you? Nobody can escape the All-Seeing Eye." Ashlock said through the sword before it shot forward like a bullet.

The commander met the weapon like before in a shower of sparks and grim determination. However, after a single exchange, the commander's expression said a thousand words as his sword, wreathed in metal Qi, decayed to rust before his eyes.

"Impossi—"

Ashlock's sword reeled back and cleaved effortlessly through the commander's rusted blade, its momentum carrying it deep into the man's chest and shattering his bones. A shocked gasp escaped his lips as he hurled up blood, which the demon sword greedily absorbed.

"No..." he gargled as he limply put both hands on the sword's edge and desperately tried to push it away. The black mist of desolation coating the blade hissed against his hands and from within his body as the commander's metal Qi defenses crumbled under the corrosive hunger of the metal-infused desolation Qi.

The once-lustrous silver sheen that had coated the commander's skin dulled to a sickly brown before flaking away, exposing flesh that blackened and disintegrated into ash. The commander let out a final helpless cry, and he showed signs of trying to go supernova before he slumped forward—dead. He was nothing but a husk after his organs had been disintegrated.

Metal qi condensed into a form similar to mercury and began to pour out of his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Not interested in seeing if his Soul Weapon could withstand a point-blank supernova and feeling bad for the farmers below, Ashlock needed to deal with the situation quickly.

"Devour him," Ashlock instructed his Soul Weapon.

As if the sword itself was alive, leech-like tendrils of blood erupted from its surface, writhing hungrily as they latched onto the remains of the commander, draining the last pieces of his body and soul until nothing remained but dust.

[{The Sword of New Beginnings} has devoured an 8th stage Star Core Realm soul. 364 credits have been split between you]

[+182 SC]

"Ain't no rest for the wicked," Ashlock hummed to himself as he spread out his spiritual senses and picked his next target. Using desolation Qi, he tore a rift through reality in which his soul weapon flew through.

He had turned the sword into the cultivator equivalent of a guided hypersonic missile. Unfortunately, his targets were regular humans. The cultivator he targeted managed a last-second evasive maneuver that saved them from being impaled through the back. It almost felt like precognition.

"Do these Silverspire people have abilities similar to those of the Starweaver family? Whatever, he will die eventually," Ashlock used telekinesis to change the sword's direction. Since his sword was being moved without the restriction of a limb, there were no limitations on how quickly the sword trajectory could change.

"Got you now," Ashlock said as the cultivator had hardly recovered from his maneuver, and the sword was coming from his blind spot. Yet, to Ashlock's surprise, the cultivator managed to avoid death again by jumping off his floating sword at the last second.

"Definitely some kind of precognition," Ashlock mused as he opened a portal below the falling man, and the guy screamed as he fell through. The portal led right to the sword, which the man was promptly skewered on. He had amassed quite the velocity, so his body lurched like a rag doll as it hit the sword handle guard. He let off a short gargle before dying and being devoured by the sword.

[{The Sword of New Beginnings} has devoured a 4th stage Star Core Realm soul. 288 credits have been split between you]

[+144 SC]

What was left of the cultivator's robes turned to dust and flew away in the breeze. A few farmers down below had witnessed the man's death, and they stared up into the sky with a mixture of terror and awe.

"Those who defy the All-Seeing Eye will die," Ashlock said through the sword for the farmers below to overhear before he picked his next target and teleported the sword away through a rift.

He wasn't worried about showing off a little because cultivators as egotistical as the Silverspires wouldn't bother questioning random farmers anyway. Might as well use the opportunity to build up his legend.

The demon sword barreled into the next target, and the man blocked it with an artifact.

"Oh buddy, that defensive artifact relies on metal Qi... yeah..."

Much to the cultivator's horror, the metallic forcefield around the man turned brown before disintegrating. There was a brief moment as the cultivator realized their looming death before they were promptly impaled.

A scream, another dead. "That's what happens when you depend far too much on artifacts."

[{The Sword of New Beginnings} has devoured a 2nd stage Star Core Realm soul. 164 credits have been split between you]

[+82 SC]

"Mhm, 82 credits? For how much Qi and effort this is taking, it's hardly worth the few credits I'm getting due to the split," Ashlock sighed as he picked his next victim, "Reapers should really get a raise. This shit is so bothersome."

The world blurred as he followed his sword and arrived at the location of the next person.

"Hold on, is that an incoming fleet?"

Ashlock realized a problem. In his spiritual sight, which was limited to a range not far beyond his roots, he hadn't seen what was on the horizon. But now that he was here, he saw through {Eye of the Tree God} a fleet of Silverspire ships fast approaching from Argentum. The cultivator he had picked as prey was barreling toward these airships at max speed.

Since the ships were beyond his reach, Ashlock could do nothing against them. He could only fight beyond his roots via a Bastion or sending one of his summons or sect members. His only option was to silence this cultivator before he reached the ships.

"I really should avoid doing things at the edge of my root range," Ashlock cursed as he infused his sword with more desolation Qi, this time with the dao of metal and earth and also the weight of his Inner World. He wanted to hit hard. Like a sledgehammer striking a tin can, the heavily empowered sword descended from above and smashed into the cultivator, sending the man plummeting into the ground like a meteor. The metal Qi-coated man hit the ground with a satisfying thunk and carved a long trench in the field.

Farmers screamed as they ran out of the way. The cultivator groaned as he tried to stand, but his body seemed far too broken after that hit. Ashlock decided to put the cultivator out of his misery.

The demon sword slowly floated overhead. The cultivator barely managed to glance up in time to see the demon sword descend like a guillotine, and with a crunch, the man's head was chopped off. The decapitated cultivator's body slumped against the sword that was half submerged in the soil as if it were his grave tombstone.

Like before, blood tendrils emerged from the sword and absorbed the body.

[{The Sword of New Beginnings} has devoured a 1st stage Star Core Realm soul. 176 credits have been split between you]

"176? That's a little more than the last guy, but this one's stage is lower; why did I get more credits this time..." Ashlock ran through some options before he noticed the body was a bit more intact than the previous ones, "Ah, I see."

[+88 SC]

The sword, wreathed in a black mist and pulsating with blood smeared across its surface, slowly rose from the dirt, having finished its meal, and turned in the air as it was about to seek its next target.

[The ego of your Soul Weapon {The Sword of New Beginnings} is close to awakening. Continue to feed it to awaken it fully]

"Close to awakening? Great, who should I do next?" Ashlock mused as he spread out his spiritual sight. In it, he could see blazing balls of metal Qi that were the fleeing Silverspires. "Ah, this guy changed direction and seems the closest to the airships in the distance." Desolation Qi buzzed around the sword for a moment before it was pulled through a rift, leaving the mortal farmers confused and scared.

Ashlock's view blurred as he arrived at the new location alongside his sword. The target was within striking range. Using telekinesis as before, Ashlock directed the sword to fly into the cultivator's back.

Somehow anticipating the quick strike, they twisted their body. While skillfully dodging the blade, their spatial ring flashed, and a metal net appeared in the sword's path. Like a fish caught in a net, the sword became entangled.

"What is this?" Ashlock thought with amusement, "Do you think you can catch my sword with a mere net? It's covered in desolation. Qi—" his amusement faded as he noticed the metal net was, in fact, not rusting away. "How?!" He looked closer and saw dulled spirit stones embedded in the net's links. They were quickly turning dark, and cracks formed on their surfaces, yet the net remained intact. The metal links were also heavily engraved with Qi absorption and redistribution circuits, which were quite impressive.

Ashlock had never encountered such an artifact before.

"Is this some sort of Qi restriction net? Is this used for catching monsters alive?"

Whatever this net was for, it had likely been costly to make. Ashlock decided killing these people wasn't worth it anymore, even if the demon sword was about to awaken an ego. He wanted to get his sword back. To his confusion, his sword wasn't responding to his demands.

His telekinesis has also been cut off. It was one of the reasons he usually wielded his sword with an ethereal root to avoid his spatial control from being disrupted, but he had wrongly thought that wouldn't be as much of a concern with desolation Qi, which countered other Qi types.

"Oh, you bastard." Ashlock warped the space around the metal net, but the Qi-absorbing circuits made it difficult to get a good telekinetic grip.

The cultivator hastily threw a metal line that magnetically anchored onto the net and connected it to their sword. They then kept flying toward the ships in the distance without even looking back, dragging his Soul Weapon with them.

"Shit," Ashlock cursed. He couldn't believe his Soul Weapon was being kidnapped by some stupid net of all things. The escaping cultivator was burning through their Qi reserves to increase their speed, and they were rapidly approaching the edge of his roots.

It had all gone so wrong. He had felt like an executioner, able to decide who lived and died on a whim by controlling a nearly indestructible sword. Yet he had gotten ahead of himself and paid the price. Now, he had seconds at best to retrieve his sword before the cultivator left the range of his roots. Not long enough to return to Red Vine Peak and call upon Larry or head into one of the Mystic Realms and ask for a sect member's assistance. He didn't even have time to open his Evil Eye or activate his {Abyssal Devourer [A]} skill. Almost everything in his arsenal required time for setup or for the opponent to be near a proxy through which he could use skills.

In the little time he had, there was only really one solution: to use his Qi. However, with the Silverspire ships fast approaching and how big of a waste this would be, he really didn't want to resort to this.

"You pushed me too hard, little cultivator." Ashlock's soul, which was many mountain ranges away, pulsed. Birds for a hundred miles around Red Vine Peak felt the disturbance and fled into the air, letting off harrowed cries.

Desolation Qi, carrying the full weight of his Inner World and 5th-level Nascent Soul Realm strength, surged down his ethereal roots. Reality trembled and groaned in its path. The air thickened with dread as the ground below the cultivator fractured, and from its depths, a tide of desolation Qi erupted upwards. A wall of darkness that radiated malice and promised ruin to those who dared to cross stopped the cultivator in his tracks.

The walled-off cultivator tried to desperately strike at it with his sword to carve a path, but the desolation Qi violently lashed out and reduced the weapon to dust in seconds. The cultivator retreated and began to fly upwards as if trying to crest the top of the wall.

Ashlock answered by compressing the space to increase the gravity many times. The cultivator gradually slowed down until they could barely make any progress, no matter how brightly they burned their Star Core. Blood leaked from the corner of the man's mouth as he desperately tried to escape Ashlock's clutches.

"You foolishly tried to steal something while in the range of my roots," Ashlock chuckled as he slashed at reality with blades of desolation Qi, tearing the man apart. He then overwhelmed the net with desolation Qi, causing every gem to explode, followed by freeing his Soul Weapon from its clutches.

[Your Soul Weapon {The Sword of New Beginnings} is awakening the ego of Slaughter]

"Ha!" Ashlock cheered. It had been worth the close call. He opened a portal below the falling sword and the remaining pieces of the cultivator. "Thank you for my sword back—"

A large golden wood airship suddenly appeared out of thin air above the demon sword. A man standing on the ship's brow had eyes of pure gold that radiated with ungodly power. Reality crackled around the man like shattered glass as he pointed at the sword, freezing it in place above the rift Ashlock had made.

"Desolation Qi?" The man noted—his voice was calm and tranquil, yet it reached all. "A rather sinister branch of spatial Qi. What is it you seek to destroy, little one?"

The cultivator slowly looked up right at Ashlock.

Ashlock tried to mobilize his desolation Qi, infused with spatial dao, to regain control of the net holding his Soul Weapon, but it felt like he was a child trying to steal a toy from an adult. This cultivator's control over spatial dao was absolute, meaning he had to be a Monarch Realm spatial cultivator.

There was only one force on the 9th layer of creation that would have a spatial Monarch Realm cultivator—the Celestial Empire. But what was a powerhouse like this doing in Argentum?!

"You seem too weak to be the Soul Eater that has been plaguing these lands," the man said, his golden eyes narrowing. "So, who are you?"

Ashlock obviously had no plans to answer. Instead, he sent the wall of desolation Qi to attack the ship. The Monarch cultivator raised his hand to block it. His glowing golden eyes widened slightly as he failed to fully stop its advance.

"Such a dense Inner World, yet your Qi has the density of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator," the man remarked as spatial Qi crackled along his skin and to his fingers, "And your level of comprehension of some daos surpasses mine. How curious." His head turned, and he looked at Ashlock once more, "To meet a hidden powerhouse out here in the Wilderness, the world truly is vast! I really should get out more. Mhm, I will be taking your sword for now, but perhaps we can trade pointers sometime soon? I will await for you in Argentum."

Ashlock didn't even have a chance to reply as the golden wooden ship, alongside his Soul Weapon, vanished with a thunderclap as air filled the vacuum left behind. Yet despite their separation, Ashlock could feel the location of his Soul Weapon and also something else...

It's intense hunger.

Ashlock tuned it out and calmed his anger. He had gotten ahead of himself and forgotten his weaknesses as a tree. However, it was the Monarch Realm cultivator who made the gravest of mistakes.

He had dared to steal his first-ever birthday gift from Stella.

"The Soul Eater that Monarch Realm cultivator seemed so concerned about is likely Nyxalia," Ashlock dropped the wall of desolation and retreated for now.

He may have lost this battle, but the war was yet to come. His roots were fast approaching Argentum, and he had a few allies to call upon. One in particular that he was sure wouldn't take the news of the lost weapon too well.