Stella had learned her lesson from the baker. While her Phantom Veil Pendant made her appear mortal to other cultivators, that didn't mean she would seem a simple mortal to other mortals. Since they lacked the spiritual sense to discern her cultivation level in the first place, they were more focused on her looks and mannerisms.
If a mortal threw large amounts of money on a table or was dry during a storm, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But it's so apparent now that ...
2024-11-16 15:47:23 +0000 UTC
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Stella's trip to Ashfallen City ended up being rather dull as everyone was hiding inside from the intense storm. Through her spiritual sense, she listened in on a few conversations, but they were mostly rumors concerning the destroyed harvest because of the storm, stories about the All-Seeing Eye, and a lot of moaning mixed with grunting coming from the basements of quite a few homes.
She debated jumping through the aether to ask one of the couples about what they were doing and ...
2024-11-14 11:40:57 +0000 UTC
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Stella looked out of her house's window, a light smile tugging at the edge of her lips. The slow ruin of reality before her eyes was simply beautiful. The endless meadow of lush green grass surrounding her house looked sick as it withered away to darkened soil. The once bright lilac sky had darkened to a deep purple with a gradient to grey and flickers of black. It was dreary and would likely invoke a sense of gloom or foreboding in those who gazed upon it.
But not for Stella...
2024-11-12 13:54:12 +0000 UTC
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Stella waited in anticipation that Ashlock would agree to her idea.
Aether affinity didn't suit him as it encompassed fluid movement through reality, and he was... well, a tree. Sure, he had Bastions and liked to move the sect members around. But at the end of the day, he wasn't going to use it to its full potential. This realization saddened Stella until she discovered another possibility. In Valandor's understanding, she had been shown a side to the spatial affinity she had nev...
2024-11-11 00:39:45 +0000 UTC
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Morrigan was having fun for the first time in a long time.
It wasn't every day that she got to wrap multiple higher-stage cultivation beings around her finger. She loved nothing more than seeing these arrogant children who called themselves cultivators reduced to despair, and there was nobody she wanted to see despair more in this lifetime than Vincent Nightrose.
So it was quite a surprise when a soul pressure she recognized to belong to Vincent showed up in her room...
2024-11-08 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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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 posi...
2024-11-06 13:03:24 +0000 UTC
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Ai generated picture of Ashlock's castle in Nightrose City and also one of Nyxalia. Neither are 100% accurate, but they mostly capture the vibe.
2024-11-05 03:05:37 +0000 UTC
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Three days had passed since Nightrose City saw a change in leadership. In such a short span of time, the Ashfallen Sect had made their overwhelming presence known. While cultists from the All-Seeing Eye flooded the streets, preaching stories of his past deeds and offering free pills and technique manuals to the masses, the Mudcloaks had been busy.
The initial one-day deadline to replace the half-destroyed castle with a new symbol of power had been extended to three. Even with Dou...
2024-11-04 15:06:21 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock's focus returned to Red Vine Peak to open a portal for the Mudcloaks, as Stella couldn't open such a long-range portal herself.
"Come to think of it, I haven't checked on them in quite a while," Ashlock mused as his spiritual gaze floated through the rain and roaring wind toward the Citadel. "I wonder what they have been up to."
Atop the monolith that served as the central core of the Citadel was Quill's library, and Ashlock could see his offspring's leaves f...
2024-11-02 13:18:56 +0000 UTC
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Stella's foot paused before the portal with a bone-chilling fear gripping her heart. Even with the Phantom Veil Amulet hanging from her neck, masking her cultivation and bloodline, making her appear as nothing but a mortal, she still couldn't take the next step.
Taking a step back, Stella gulped before looking to the ceiling, where she could feel Ash's presence. "Tree, how can you be so sure that Vincent isn't lurking in Nightrose City?" Stella asked, making everyone else pause a...
2024-10-31 13:42:36 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock stared down at the Starweaver Grand Elder with growing concern. The amount of Qi radiating from the man was well past what should have been possible from a cultivator in the Star Core Realm, and it was only rising. The old man blinked, and his eyes, which had been glowing a heavenly gold, were now black abysses. He continued to blink as if something was irritating his eye, and with each blink, a tiny white spot appeared in his utterly black eyes.
"What is going on?" Ashlo...
2024-10-29 11:17:38 +0000 UTC
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Nyxalia had to get as far away from Ashlock as she could. His all-encompassing presence that blanketed the land was all too enticing. It was as if Nightrose City's streets were slathered in sweet honey while she was starving—no, she was absolutely ravenous. It was driving her insane as her Netherwood Wraith body was trying to devour her from within.
It's fine. It's going to be okay. I'm okay. Nyxalia leaned on her other soul in Tartarus to maintain her sanity....
2024-10-25 14:20:57 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock stared down at Nox through his Evil Eye. He saw that her soul spread throughout the Netherwood Wraith's body like spirit roots.
"You aren't in total control, are you?" Ashlock said. If he looked at any other person or monster, their soul would have a focal point, and its influence would spread equally throughout the vessel. On the other hand, Nox was like a parasite that had taken root inside the Netherwood Wraith. Almost as if she was controlling th...
2024-10-23 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Nox was unsure if she should trust the words floating before her. It claimed Ashlock needed her to make a decision, but it used too many terms that she had never heard of.
SSS-grade? Mythical being? Netherworld Wraith? Nox raised her hand, and it effortlessly passed through the floating golden words, but they did shimmer in reaction to her Qi, meaning they were likely carved out of divine energy. Is another diving being trying to tempt me away from Ashlock? It just s...
2024-10-21 14:00:31 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock watched through his Evil Eye as Elysia commanded Pluto's tendrils to stop the castle from exploding. Of course, it was merely an illusion—not that he had told Elysia that. Ashlock worried she wouldn't put on a dramatic enough performance if she didn't believe failure would result in the loss of millions of potential new worshipers.
"Though I have to say that girl somehow became even more insane. I didn't expect to find her bathing in a pool of blood and animal parts whi...
2024-10-19 13:57:16 +0000 UTC
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In the darkest depths of the Duskwalker residence, Elysia Mystshroud was sitting cross-legged in a viscous pool of blood before a tiny red-leafed sapling growing out of a stone altar. A purple-tinted aura wreathed her body, making her appear ghostly to her family members kneeling in rows behind her, their reverence focused on the tiny tree.
Stella Crestfallen, the Grand Priestess of the All-Seeing Eye, had gifted Elysia a fruit that contained a divine seed of their god when Elysi...
2024-10-17 12:08:47 +0000 UTC
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Hello Tree gang, members of the All-Seeing eye cult, Mudcloak enthusiasts and fellow humans I come today with an update. As previously mentioned in an author note my family is visiting me in Tokyo, I’m honestly surprised that I managed to maintain the upload rate thus far with 5 new people sharing my house, but sadly writing time has been hard to come by the last few days.
I’ve taken my parents who have flown all the way to see me on a short 3 night trip to Kyoto to see all the sigh...
2024-10-13 22:44:35 +0000 UTC
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Vincent pressed his back against the stone wall as he carefully peered through a runically enhanced window. Down below in the Nightrose castle's courtyard lined by statues of him in his prime, he saw the few remaining Grand Elders of the Blood Lotus Sect who had stood on his side cowering before the Nascent Soul Realm shadow lich. He couldn't hear what the lich was saying to the Grand Elders as he was refraining from spreading his spiritual sense beyond the castle and possibly giving away his...
2024-10-12 15:04:30 +0000 UTC
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It looks like I successfully fooled him. Vincent hid a sigh of relief as he didn't have to do another demonstration and lowered his hand. While he had made it look impressive, a lot of work had gone into killing that Nascent Soul Realm shadow titan, and it started way before he drained the blood from one of his Elders. In fact, the draining of the Elder was more for show than anything else. A classic misdirection to draw attention away from the truth.
Since the momen...
2024-10-10 13:51:19 +0000 UTC
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"Morrigan, hang in there. I'm coming to save you." Ashlock couldn't believe what he was saying. Since when did he—a demonic spirit tree revered as an evil god—sprout such heroic lines?
"Why?" Morrigan replied through Abyssal Whispers of her own, as it was the language of the void. She sounded calm, too calm for her situation. Cultivators were very good at putting up a facade, but there was surely a limit. The Morrig...
2024-10-08 14:47:06 +0000 UTC
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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...
2024-10-06 15:30:19 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock used {Eye of the Tree God} to watch from the skies as his adopted daughter strode toward the castle of their greatest foe with two Nascent Soul Realm Ents and Diana in tow. She had a carefree spring in her step and a smile on her face that didn't fade even as dozens of members of the Nightrose family, all in the Star Core Realm, flew in from the castle and took up positions on the rooftops of the houses lining the central street.
As if they were living statues, none of th...
2024-10-04 14:24:45 +0000 UTC
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Stella glanced between Diana and the Nightrose guardian. She noticed the guardian's eyes were swirling with blood Qi as they examined Diana. His frown soon faded and was replaced with that stone-cold facade all old cultivators liked to wear. That it had been broken in the first place showed how Diana's presence deeply unnerved the man for some reason.
"I see you have awakened the Ravena Bloodline." The man's eyes stopped swirling, and his gaze became dull once more as if he were ...
2024-10-02 15:51:55 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock watched as Diana helped lug Stella onto the bench under his canopy and set her down while bundled in a cloak. She seemed utterly exhausted, both mentally and physically. Supplying the void shield with Qi had drained a significant amount of her reserves, and by how ferocious Stella had been while stabbing Vincent, he assumed the murder had let her vent a lot of pent-up frustrations.
They had made sure to burn her maid outfit to a crisp to avoid any risk of tracking from th...
2024-09-30 14:47:59 +0000 UTC
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"W-We are going to kill him tonight?" Stella stuttered as she felt a pain in her chest. They had slaughtered the Voidmind family to fake her death, used the last divine beast egg to create the amulet to hide her bloodline and Qi from the world, and she had hidden away for weeks.
Yet it was all for nothing?
Stella was struggling to breathe. Everyone will die because of me—Vincent is near the Monarch Realm with three affinities and can track me down thro...
2024-09-28 13:36:54 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock paused for a while, trying to think of the best way to explain how Stella was half tree, but the girl in question beat him to it.
"My background is quite the mystery. I've never met my Mother, and I only vaguely remember my Father teaching me a few techniques when I was tiny before he apparently died after failing to reach Star Core. Until recently, I believed both my parents were dead, so to me, Ashlock is the only one I could call family." Stella raised a ...
2024-09-26 14:15:23 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock was actually quite nervous as he held out the cup of spirit wine for the Redclaw Grand Elder to toast. Would they still take him seriously now they knew he was a tree? This concern had festered at the back of his mind for a while, but he felt he had shown enough competency for them to overlook his race as a spirit tree and still see him as their leader.
"Come on... please," Ashlock muttered as he watched the Redclaw Grand Elder's soul through his Evil Eye—the man's Qi h...
2024-09-24 14:07:34 +0000 UTC
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The truth behind the immortal? Magnus Redclaw exchanged a look with his family's Elders, who had gathered for the emergency meeting. Even Elder Mo had taken time out of his busy schedule of making spirit fire weapons to be here. His old war buddy looked at the portal overlaying the room's door with anxious anticipation. We have had suspicions about the immortal for a long time, but it was hard to prove anything. Is he really an old master recovering within the mount...
2024-09-22 13:11:52 +0000 UTC
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Stella bit her lip as she mulled over Morrigan's words. Having three affinities that were all near the Monarch Realm sounded unbelievable.
How did Vincent Nightrose even survive long enough to get strong? It will have taken him at least three times as long to cultivate as he had to rotate between gathering and processing three different Qi types. Is he a madman or a genius? The amount of insight into the heavens daos he must have... I shudder just thinking about it. Even with...
2024-09-20 13:45:48 +0000 UTC
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Ashlock left the Redclaw family to do damage control and calm down everyone while he called an emergency meeting. It hadn't even been an hour since Serena Blacktide was turned into a tree, and Celeste Starweaver announced to the thousands of people watching the tournament that the terrible storm outside wasn't a random act of nature—it was the prelude to something much more terrifying.
The Beast Tide.
An event on an eternal cycle that struck fear into the heart of ...
2024-09-17 22:05:54 +0000 UTC
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