[Tree] Chapter 375: Figuring Things Out

Diana blinked in confusion as she stared at Quill across the ink lake in the Ashfallen Sect's library. Just a second ago, she had witnessed the Silverspire Third Elder explode. Before she'd even had a moment to process the man's spontaneous death, she had felt an immense tug on her soul and ended up back here on Red Vine Peak. Glancing around, Diana noted that there was nobody else here. She was the only one that had returned.

"Ashlock?" Diana asked the ceiling. When she received no response, she cupped her hands and infused her voice with Qi. "Ashlock!!!" The ceiling shook slightly, and Quill's leaves rustled, yet she still received no response from the spirit tree that lorded over the peak.

Ashlock not responding when he's focusing somewhere else is normal, but why am I back here? Something triggered my void shield and activated my Spatial Anchor, yet Ashlock isn't checking on me to ask what happened. That means he's either busy dealing with whatever broke my shield, or he doesn't even know... which is a far worse-case scenario.

Diana began to get worried.

She thought back to Demetrios Skyrend, who Morrigan adamantly declared should be dead. His questions had seemed a little oddly phrased, and how he spoke to the Third Elder before he exploded was too convenient. If Vincent has some way to bring dead people back to life, who is to say he can't do the same for me? I've got to get Ashlock's attention somehow and let him know I'm safely back here. I could try to wake Larry, but I'm unsure if even he can get Ashlock's attention if he's focused elsewhere. Diana bit her lip as she desperately surveyed the room—her eyes landed on Quill. That's it! The ink tree is the head of Red Vine Peak's defenses when Ashlock isn't around, and I bet Ashlock won't ignore one of his favorite offspring.

Kaida was naturally aroused from his slumber by her shouting and presence. His annoyed expression faded once he looked at her and gave a happy hiss.

"Sorry, now's not the time for cuddles," Diana gently pushed the Lindwyrm's head away. "I need Quill to get Ashlock's attention—quickly. It's urgent. I need him to know I'm fine and here on Red Vine Peak."

Kaida bowed his head in understanding and poked Quill with his tail. The Lindwyrm and tree seemed to communicate silently with one another, and a second later, the ink tree radiated presence like a beacon. The ink lake rippled out in waves like a calling signal, and a moment later, Diana felt a familiar voice echo through her mind.

"Diana? What the hell are you doing back here? This doesn't make any sense..."

"I don't know! My void shield broke, and the Spatial Anchor brought me back here."

"But..." Diana felt Ashlock's presence briefly leave her mind before focusing back in again, "You're there, standing beside Stella right now."

"What?! That's not me!" Diana declared adamantly. "How can I exist in two places at the same time? This is definitely a trick of some kind!"

A portal suddenly tore into existence beside her, and she felt her soul tremble as Ashlock stared at her through a purple rift with his demonic eye. He looked her up and down before the rift snapped closed with a pop.

"Sorry about that, I just had to check it's really you before telling Stella to do something crazy—"

"Crazy? Like what..." Diana trailed off as Ashlock's presence withdrew from her mind as quickly as it had arrived. "Curse the nine realms. What is going on?!"

She was now all alone in the stone library again. Except for Kaida, who leaned in and playfully licked her face. "Kaida, what should I do?"

The Lindwyrm tilted his head to expose the optimal scratching location on his neck.

"You're not helping," Diana sighed as she obliged and humored the Lindwyrm. "If I ate another Void Protection fruit and had Quill set me up with a new Spatial Anchor, I could ask Ashlock to portal me over." Diana's face scrunched up in a frown at the thought of consuming another Void Protection fruit.

It had wiped out a week in the Mystic Realm worth of Qi. While not an amount of Qi she was unwilling to expend, she had no idea of the situation to know if it was worth it or not. After all, it could have been some stray blood from the Third Elder exploding or a Qi-infused wind that took her void shield out. Depending on a void shield was a double-edged sword. It was costly, a one-time use, and anything could trigger it. Not to mention poor Quill, who had to spend his ink Qi to form the Spatial Anchor each time.

Diana tapped her foot with impatience and worry. "I should have had my Spatial Anchor trigger if my skin got cut or something—no, that wouldn't have worked. What if I exploded instantly like the Third Elder? The Spatial Anchor would have transported nothing but pieces back here.

It was a confusing mess. Dead people were back to life. Someone was pretending to be her, and a Star Core Realm Silverspire Elder had perished in such a quick and gruesome way that Diana couldn't even begin to make guesses as to how he died.

"Is this Vincent Nightrose's power?" Diana bit her lip. "Maybe it's his third affinity or one of his bloodlines?" There was a flash of spatial Qi to her side, followed by Stella appearing. The girl was staring at the floor with a blank expression while holding two daggers that were dripping blood onto the floor.

Kaida reacted immediately, pulling away from Diana's absentminded scratching and hissing at Stella.

"Stella?!" Diana ran over, "What's happening in Nightrose City?"

Her best friend tilted her head to look at her, and relief seemed to wash over the girl. "Phew, you are fine. I just stabbed you—Ash told me to." Stella enacted the stabbing motion with the two bloodied daggers, "You were reduced to a pool of blood."

"So that's what Ashlock meant by making you do something crazy... wait, I turned into blood? Nothing else?"

Stella shook her head, "Nope, just blood."

"Must have something to do with Vincent Nightrose's blood affinity then. Maybe he can make blood clones of real people? Mhm, that would explain why Demetrios Skyrend is seemingly still alive." Diana tapped her chin.

"I don't even know how my void shield broke," Stella muttered. She seemed deeply confused, as if her brain had shut down. She was glancing around with a blank stare again.

Diana shook her shoulder, "Snap out of it and concentrate. Did anything hit you? Did someone explode again like the Third Elder?"

Stella took a deep breath to recalibrate, "Okay sorry, I'm here now. With the Third Elder exploding, having to stab you to death, dying somehow, and now being brought back here, and then my bloodline deactivating all within the span of a few seconds. It was a lot to take in and process."

"I understand, I was also disorientated for a moment when I was brought back here, but we need to devise a plan." Diana gave Stella a reassuring smile and patted her again on the shoulder. "Do you remember anything before you were brought back here? Perhaps the moment your void shield broke?"

Stella fell silent for a moment, her eyes shifting around as she seemed to wrack her brain. "Hmmm, a pressure? Though it was different from soul pressure."

"How?"

"I don't know... soul pressure radiates from a person, if you know what I mean? If I were to stand over there and unleash soul pressure, you would know exactly where I was and look in my direction."

Diana nodded.

"But the pressure I felt was more targeted? Concentrated? Like an attack, I guess."

Diana snapped her fingers as she remembered something. "Vincent has gravity affinity. That must be what hit our shields. It's a nearly invisible affinity, similar to sound. You will only sense the Qi once it hits you if Vincent is skilled, and for void shields, that's too late, as the moment it hits us and breaks, we are pulled back here. He can expend barely any Qi and get rid of us within a second before we even know what happened."

"I think you're right," Stella bit her lip. "That's bad, isn't it? We need those shields, as there's no way we can survive a high-stage Nascent Soul Realm attack without them. Surely he can just crush us like bugs with gravity at a snap of a finger..."

They exchanged a sudden look of realization.

"The Third Elder," Diana cursed. "That must be how he exploded so suddenly."

"Yeah, you're right. That's terrifying," Stella opened her palm, and a white soul flame flickered to life, "I wonder if I will ever wield such power."

"I'm sure you will if Vincent doesn't kill you first," Diana sighed. "Heavens, this fight feels way out of our league. I guess we will have to leave Ashlock to deal with it—" Spatial Qi suddenly tore through the room, and people began to appear one by one. First, it was the Redclaw Grand Elder, followed by his Elders. Douglas followed a few seconds later alongside Sebastian.

"Elaine?" Douglas looked around in a panic. There was another pop of spatial Qi, and a distraught Elaine appeared. "Mother, no!" She screamed as she reached for empty space.

Stella and Diana exchanged worried expressions before running toward their sect members to ask what happened.

***

Ashlock didn't like where this was going.

"Now that the children are gone, how about us old monsters have a talk."

Demetrios Skyrend's body had shifted in a grotesque display and taken on the appearance of Vincent Nightrose. A wave of Qi-infused gravity had wiped out his sect members by triggering their void shields, and now Vincent had Morrigan trapped in a bubble of reversed gravity. She was slowly spinning in the air and looked very grumpy about it.

At the snap of his fingers, Vincent summoned a chair and casually took a seat while staring up at Hades. All that remained of Ashlock's mini invasion of Nightrose City were his Nascent Soul Realm Ents and Morrigan, who wasn't offering much help as she tried and failed to escape Vincent's grasp.

"It would appear quite a lot has occurred during my closed-door cultivation. Not the first time a little revolt like this has been attempted," he casually gestured to Morrigan and Ashlock's Ents, "But I haven't had to get this serious in a long time. So why don't we have a chat?"

Ashlock remained silent, as did Morrigan.

"Look," Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose and seemed frustrated, "People like us are at the peak of this realm. The Qi is thin; cultivating is a long and tedious process for us. Fighting each other is pointless."

Morrigan laughed, "Maybe for you."

"You may be unable to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm, but void Qi is still hard to cultivate, is it not?" Vincent retorted, "What about you, newcomer? Ashfallen Sect, was it? Are you the All-Seeing Eye?"

Ashlock had no reason to answer his questions. Information was worth its weight in gold, and while his sect members were gone, he still held the advantage. It was technically three Nascent Soul Realms against one right now, and for Ashlock, Qi was hardly a resource worth preserving. He didn't mind pitting his vast Qi pool against Vincent's any day to see who would run out first.

"Vincent is only acting reasonably as he's in the dark. Antagonizing me right now while he's on the back foot wouldn't be smart, and I hate to admit it, but there's a reason this tyrant has lived for so long. I'm not entirely sure how he's doing it, but he seems to be using clones made of blood to talk with me, similar to my Ents. So, neither of us are actually here in person right now. Rather, we are using proxies."

Ashlock couldn't tell if that was cowardly or smart, but he didn't care. Right now, there was an invisible information war occurring between them, and he held the advantage. This was made all the more apparent by Vincent's assumption that he was some old monster despite barely being a decade old.

Vincent didn't know who he was, his affinities, capabilities, or goals. A lot could be uncovered about a person if one knew their end goal. If Ashlock was willing to negotiate a peace treaty for a piece of land, then that meant that land had something of interest—perhaps a rift or a Qi-dense area for a certain affinity. Call him paranoid, but he refused to play Vincent's games. While he did hold the advantage, there was plenty about Vincent that was still a mystery.

"I know you can talk," Vincent frowned as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Don't go quiet on me now. You were quite eager to talk while pulverizing my poor guardians. Those were my spawn, you know? Here I am, willing to work this out amicably despite that."

Ashlock continued to simply have Hades looming overhead, staring down at Vincent. "I wonder how long he can keep this act up for," Ashlock mused. "I really wish I could open a portal and look at this blood clone with my Evil Eye to uncover how it works, but that's far too risky. If the real Vincent shot through my portal and arrived before my trunk, there's a chance he can kill me and everyone else on the peak who are now without a void shield to save them. I must keep Vincent at range, fighting him here would be my best bet."

Vincent clicked his tongue and stood up. "I guess we will have to do this the hard way." He strode over to where Morrigan floated, and as if he were cupping the bottom of an invisible bubble around Morrigan, he clenched his fingers, and she screamed. Void Qi wreathed her body as she desperately tried to fight against the crushing pressure, but a realm of difference was nearly impossible to overcome.

The noble cultivators from the other families slowly stepped back, eager to get themselves away from Vincent's torture.

Ashlock had no idea why her Spatial Anchor wasn't activating. Morrigan hadn't taken a void protection fruit as there was no point since she already had access to void Qi, so having the fruit consume a lot of her Qi to create the void shield didn't make sense. Instead, the Spatial Anchor had been linked to the breaking of bones. Now, Ashlock was no doctor, but Morrigan had likely broken all of her bones as her body collapsed to fit a third of the space. It also didn't make sense that Morrigan wasn't using Void Step to escape.

"Did you think I didn't notice the neat little spatial technique the others had?" Vincent looked over his shoulder at Hades with a light smirk, "I could have trapped them here and done this to all of them, but I let them go. How reasonable of me, right? Trust me, there are many nasty rumors around me, but I can be quite easy to work with."

Ashlock didn't believe the man for a single moment, but Morrigan was in trouble. A part of him wanted to let Vincent kill her. As an origin, she wouldn't truly die, and he had been looking for a way to get rid of her for a while. But if Vincent was the one to do it, then it was a win-win. He would see more of his power, and Morrigan wouldn't be a problem.

That would be the logical thing. To let Morrigan die.

Ashlock sighed as he quietly opened a portal far away from the castle and beckoned Larry through. His guardian turned into a vaguely spider-shaped ash cloud and soared toward them through the sky.

He hadn't come here to watch his sect member's mother be tortured and killed. No, he had come here to kill a man, and that is precisely what he was going to do.