Reborn as a Demonic Tree

When Ashlock activated his new S-grade skill {Nocturnal Genesis}, his world changed. He was still stuck on a mountain peak as a tree, but that is where the similarities between his previous reality and this dreamscape he found himself in ended.

The sparse cloud cover was gone and replaced with a sky full of stars that seemed to stretch on until infinity. However, this breathtaking sight was overshadowed by the nine giant full moons looming overhead in a vertical line from the horizon to the zenith. They were scarily close as if one could reach out and touch them. Ashlock noted that eight of the nine moons were dull in color, much like the Earth's moon, just a hundred times the size.

Ashlock felt a refreshing light on his leaves from these eight dull moons that he assumed to be the lunar energy his new S-grade skill made him capable of absorbing to heal his soul. Looking within at his own soul, Ashlock noticed some hairline cracks slowly fading, which had likely been left from his usage of {Progeny Dominion}.

He had assumed that the 1% damage to his soul caused by Tristan Evergreen many moons ago had been 'healed' by absorbing the divine fragment, but he now noticed the lunar energies wrapping around his soul, and he could feel a part of him... returning.

"Soul damage is scary," Ashlock muttered to himself. He hadn't even noticed that a part of his existence had been taken away until it started returning—almost like a distant memory of a summer long past that he was only reminded of when shown a picture.

Feeling relief at seeing his soul healing, Ashlock looked back outside his trunk at the dreamscape. A celestial wind that carried no scent or sound rustled his leaves, making him feel at peace.

There was just one glaring thing off about this place that was bugging him.

"Why is one of the moons purple?"

The giant moon closest to the horizon had a distinct purple—almost lilac hue—eerily similar to the color of his soul fire, and the light it bathed him in carried traces of spatial Qi. There was no chance one of the moons being the same color as his soul was a coincidence?

If so, what did the eight dull moons without a color represent? Ashlock thought for a while, but it was difficult to focus. Thinking in this place was hard—he felt half asleep. It was so relaxing under the moonlight that Ashlock wanted to stay here forever in slumber.

"If only the others could experience this," Ashlock slurred as he thought of how Stella and the others vanished when he activated the skill and was whisked away to this dreamscape. However, he wasn't totally alone here. "Are you guys enjoying it?" He asked his thousands of offspring, sprawling out like a scarlet sea in all directions.

There wasn't much of a response apart from a wave of drowsiness. Ashlock's offspring were in a deep slumber under the nine moons, and he decided to join them as his consciousness drifted off.

***

"Tree! Wake up!"

Ashlock awoke to shouts, sunlight, and the pitter-patter of rain hitting his leaves. Had the sparse clouds last night gathered into a storm?

"Huh? What?" Ashlock grumbled as he slowly awoke from his dream. His body felt brand new, as if he had just left the spa, and he noticed that his Star Core had refilled far more than usual during the night.

"Tree, stop ignoring me," Stella's voice caught his attention. Looking down, he saw her standing under his canopy with her arms crossed below her chest and pouting, "I know you are awake and can hear me!"

"Good morning Stella," Ashlock said through {Abyssal Whispers}. "What's got you in such a bad mood this early? The sun has hardly risen... is it the rain? A little water never hurt anyone."

"Water? Why would water hurt me?" Stella laughed, and her foul mood left with the wind, "I spent all night trying to wake you up like you asked me to, and after a night of ignoring me, you finally woke up and still ignored me."

"Oh..." It all came rushing back. How his reality changed the moment he activated the skill. The nine moons and how one provided him with spatial Qi while the others remained dull, giving him lunar energies instead. "It's morning..."

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Sure enough, his system confirmed that a night had indeed passed. Which was deeply concerning. It would appear the system hadn't lied about the deep slumber his {Nocturnal Genesis} would put him in.

"How hard did you try?" Ashlock asked Stella.

"Mostly just shouting?" Stella tapped her chin, "Oh, I also took some fruit and jumped around on your branches, but nothing worked. When you activated that new technique, I felt your presence vanish."

"My presence vanished? What do you mean?"

"It was as if your soul went somewhere else." Stella shrugged, "Hard to describe, but you could have passed for a normal tree. Your offspring were much the same. They all went into a deep slumber, and I struggled to tell the difference between them and any other tree."

"Interesting."

That hadn't been listed as one of the skill's features but was more like a happy coincidence. It was almost like a forest-wide stealth skill, letting Ashlock's offspring appear as nothing but typical trees during the night.

"Next time, try more forcefully to wake me up," Ashlock said, "I don't mind if you pull off my leaves, break a branch or punch me. I need to know if it's possible to wake from the deep slumber the technique puts me in."

"Damn, okay, I didn't realize you wanted me to try quite that hard—" Stella suddenly twirled in a flash of silver—a sword wreathed in purple flames appeared in her hand, and she took on a battle stance with her back to him.

"What is it, Stella?" Ashlock asked with concern. Had a bounty hunter slipped past his perception?

Stella squinted through the heavy downpour and let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's just the others coming over," she said as the sword vanished. "I could hear the faint sound of footsteps—I overreacted. Sorry."

Ashlock followed her gaze and saw Diana walking casually through the storm. The rain swirled around her but never touched her clothes and hair, keeping her perfectly dry. Elaine and Douglas also took shelter from the rain in her little bubble, and Elaine gave Stella a wave.

"I will ensure my Ents secure the perimeter, so try to relax," Ashlock told Stella. He then instructed Khaos and Sol to guard the mountain peak. They had both been linked to him with a black root to recover their cultivation overnight after yesterday's battle.

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The two Ents unlinked and moved through the rain. Sol was like a lumbering lighthouse, while Khaos was a ghost as she shifted through the rain.

Zeus and Titus remained down the mountain with Kaida to protect the collection of books and the Midnight Inkwing eggs. With Ashlock here, plus Larry crawling around in his canopy, Stella was heavily defended.

"Morning, Stella and Ashlock," Elaine called out.

Stella returned a nod.

Once they were under his vast canopy and safe from the rain, Diana dismissed her control of the surrounding water, letting it drop to the stone.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Diana likely noticed how on edge Stella was as she glanced between her and the demonic tree that towered over them, "It was getting too complicated to cultivate while also keeping the cold water off me, and these two happened to tag along."

"What nonsense are you saying?" Stella shook her head with a sigh. She sat down and patted the space beside her on the bench, "You're always welcome. Come take a seat." Stella then gave an apologetic smile to Elaine and Douglas, "Sorry, the bench can only sit two so..."

"No worries," Douglas waved his hand, and the ground rumbled as brown soul flames fanned out from his feet. A moment later, two well-crafted stone thrones rose beside one another, and Douglas led Elaine to them while holding her hand.

Stella blinked, "Well, that works perfectly."

"I'm glad you approve," Douglas said as he sat. "If I'm being a bother, just say so, and I'll go bunker down in the cavern. I just wanted a break from those darn Mudcloaks, is all."

Ashlock noted the gem-encrusted stone crown still atop Douglas's head as he slouched on his throne and propped his head up with his arm.

"Trust me, if you were being a bother, I would let you know," Stella smirked as she reached up and gave Maple, who had just appeared on her head, a little head pat.

A moment of silence passed between the four members of the Ashfallen Sect as the downpour only worsened.

When he had been a human, Ashlock hated nothing more than getting caught out in the rain, but now, as a tree, he welcomed the rain with open branches. He never felt parched since he could pump water through his roots from various rivers and lakes down on the ground, but the rain was akin to drinking an ice-cold glass of water rather than water from a bottle that had been sitting on a desk all day. It was fresh and hydrating.

"Stella..." Elaine spoke up.

"Mhm?" Stella met Elaine's concerned gaze, "What's up?"

"How are you feeling with the bounty looming over your head?" Elaine said with complete seriousness, "My uncle once angered someone from the Tainted Cloud Sect and found out he had a 2500 Yinxi Coin bounty on his head. He apparently stayed in our residence for decades, hoping they would forget about him, but there's a reason they are called the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion..."

"They killed him?" Stella's gaze was distant.

Elaine nodded, "While in our city, he never encountered a single one, but years later, the day he left into the wilderness with a group of youngsters to train and acquire beast cores, he was slaughtered by the day's end."

Stella pursed her lips.

"This all happened before I was born," Elaine added, "So I heard about it as a kid. It was one of the many stories the Elders would tell us as an example of why we should always be humble and careful of who we offend."

The image of Dante Voidmind flashed through Ashlock's mind, and he suspected those teachings had failed that man for one reason or another. Compared to Elaine, it was like night and day in personality. It was almost hard to believe they were siblings.

"Thank you for the warning," Stella said after a moment. "I truly believe that so long as I stay near Ash, no harm will befall me, which is helping with my nerves."

"Or are you just putting on a strong front for the others?" Ashlock mused after Stella's earlier display.

Elaine sighed with relief, "That's good. I would hate for you to be paranoid all the time, especially when this is likely a long-term problem that is difficult to resolve."

"Talking of bounty hunters," Diana interjected, "Didn't we have some spatial rings to crack open?"

"That we do," Ashlock said to everyone present through {Abyssal Whispers}. Douglas winced, quickly taking a Mind Fortress fruit. Everyone else seemed able to tolerate his A-grade skill, which showed they were getting stronger mentally and in cultivation. "Stella, bring out the rings, and I will break their seals."

Stella retrieved Nox's rings from her pocket and threw them up into the air.

Ashlock caught them with telekinesis. He then exerted his now 8th-stage Star Core pressure onto the spatial ring's seals. Since they belonged to Nox, who was at the peak of the 9th stage, even with the advantages of being a tree and having a large soul, it still took a few minutes.

Having opened a fair few spatial rings in his life and studying them every time he encountered them, Ashlock knew spatial rings were attuned to a person's Qi, allowing people to access a pocket dimension where their items were stored without needing spatial affinity.

Being linked to someone's unique Qi also acted as a protective mechanism to stop people from easily looting from someone's spatial ring simply by shaking hands. Even if the cultivator and the seal were weak, it would take a moment to break, and the seal being breached would be noticable to the cultivator wearing the ring.

While the multiple floating rings were wrapped in his soul fire, the seals all broke simultaneously. Ashlock didn't bother looking inside and simply pulled all the items from them and used telekinesis so nothing broke by hitting the floor.

"Wow..." Douglas said as he leaned forward with interest. A sizeable pile of items was now between the two stone thrones and the bench. The majority were clothes that belonged to Nox.

Stella fished out her other maple leaf earring straight away and briefly hugged it before having Diana help her put it back in her ear. After confirming that her eldritch gaze still worked, she sighed in relief, "We got it back, Tree."

"Indeed we did," Ashlock replied. "Although it was you who managed to chop her hand off, so it was your own hard work that got it back."

Stella nodded, returned to the pile, pulled out a dress, and laughed as she held it up against herself, "Is Nox really a woman? These would be a better fit for you, Douglas."

Douglas glanced up from fishing through the spatial stones and heaps of Dragon and Golden Crowns and scowled, "Don't get any funny ideas. There's no way I'm trying any of this shit on for your amusement."

Stella shrugged as she threw the dress aside, "Me neither. Even if it fits, there's no way I'm stealing that woman's style."

In truth, Ashlock could see that the dress was only a size or two up from Stella and would definitely not fit Douglas's large frame. But it did confirm that Nox was taller than Stella, who was already on the taller side for a girl.

Other than the heaps of clothes, there was a fair amount of spirit stones and mortal currency, which would be very helpful for creating runic formations on the Bastions. But there weren't a lot of artifacts, which made sense when Ashlock thought about it. Why would Nox keep any artifacts in her spatial ring? She would either be wearing them or, as a Merchant, would have sold them off.

"Oh hey, it's one of those masks," Stella picked up a jade mask from between two heaps of clothes that was exactly the same as the ones the bounty hunters had worn, capable of masking a person's voice and blocking attacks to the mind and senses.

Stella put the jade mask on and found it stayed on her face without straps. "Whoah, it feels totally weightless, and I can see everything better than before." She said with a distorted voice.

"Hey, anyone know what this is?" Elaine asked while holding a gold and black pendant. Everyone looked over and shook their heads.

Elaine flipped it over, and her eyes widened as she read something on its back. "This must be the thing Nox used to place the bounty on Stella."

"How can you tell?" Stella asked after taking off her mask.

"Look for yourself," Elaine said, holding up the pendant.

Stella used telekinesis to take the pendant out of Elaine's hand and drift it over so she could also take a look.

Ashlock looked over Stella's shoulder, and sure enough, a bounty was written in spiritual text on the pendant's surface.

[Death of Stella Crestfallen]

Target's estimated threat level: Star Core 1 [Unverified]

Affiliation with Ashfallen Trading Company: Star Core 9 [Unverified]

Bounty: 6,000 Yinxi Coins. Double if completed by sundown (failed).

The bounty is placed by Nox Duskwalker, and the target is at the marked location. For more information, consult a Lotus Informant.

"A bounty for my death..." Stella murmured as she stared at the pendant in her palm with a distant look. "Wait, only 6,000 Yinxi Coins? And they list my Star Core at the first stage?"

"Well, that is good," Ashlock said, "The fact they underestimate you and the bounty has halved since the night has passed should be good news? So why do you look annoyed..."

Stella sighed, "We aren't going to catch the big fish if they think I am weak and cheap." She handed Diana the pendant and jade mask, "You should go and be a bounty hunter and raise my bounty... at least set it back to 12,000..."

Diana looked at her blankly, "You're just annoyed because you thought the bounty was 12,000 when it's really only 6,000, which, may I remind you, is still two to three times higher than a normal one? You should be happy it's lower, not peeved." Diana handed the two artifacts back.

Ashlock could only laugh. "Stella, if we are done searching through this batch, give me the spatial rings of the two bounty hunters we killed. Let's see if they have anything interesting."