Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

Stella pressed the dagger's blade against Ash's black root.

"Tree, is this really the only way to extract your cursed sap?" Stella asked, "I don't want to hurt you."

"Why wouldn't I be worried? I would hate to cause you pain," Stella replied, confused about how Ash could compare the suffering of her foes to her hurting him.

"So it's really okay?" Stella put more force on the dagger's hilt to see if he would react.

Stella pushed the blade deep into the root.

"Liar!" Stella shouted as she withdrew the dagger and noticed a sheen of black liquid coating the blade.

"Idiot," Stella muttered as she shook her head and summoned a wooden bowl to collect the black liquid dripping from the dagger that looked weirdly similar to blood.

"So this is your cursed sap." Stella wiped off the dagger with a cloth and placed the wooden bowl containing a few droplets of black blood on the rim of the earthen bowl, "Tell me more about it."

Stella drummed her fingers on the earthen bowl, "I see. But what about the worm? If all your roots have this cursed sap, shouldn't it have consumed large amounts of your cursed sap when it tunneled through the mountain?"

"Okay, that's interesting," Stella mused, "Would you agree the Dao Storm and the worm were comparable in strength?"

"Mhm, so you claim the storm was more of a threat, yet it was turned into a tree? So why could the worm resist the sap and not the storm?" Stella stopped drumming her fingers and leaned against the earthen bowl, "If we can identify what separates the two, we can look for solutions to make your cursed sap more effective as a poison."

Stella rolled her eyes, "Can't we just figure it out ourselves?"

Stella let out a sigh, "Fine."

There was a brief silence and then a ripple of spatial Qi. A human-sized portal appeared beside Stella, and she exchanged a confused glance through the portal with Elaine, who was standing over a desk in her study.

Elaine mouthed a question to her, but Stella had never developed the skill of lip reading, so she just gestured for Elaine to step through.

"What's up?" Elaine asked as she walked through and scrunched up her nose, likely due to the overwhelming flora scent in the cavern.

"Was I interrupting something?" Stella asked as the portal snapped closed behind Elaine.

"No, not really," Elaine shook her head, "Although I have a lecture to give in ten minutes. But that can always wait."

"That's fine. I just have a few questions."

"Sure, shoot them my way," Elaine said as she readjusted her glasses and looked around.

"What do you know about Dao Storms?" Stella asked.

"Dao Storms?" Elaine seemed surprised, "Well, to answer that, you first need to know what is a Dao?"

"The Dao is a fundamental concept or law under the heavens," Stella said, "It could be something simple like the Dao of water or a more abstract Dao like the Dao of sword intent."

"Theoretically, yes," Elaine nodded, "Although nobody in this realm can grasp abstract Dao's like sword intent. Anyway, I digress. A Dao Storm is simply a giant gathering of elemental Dao's that have morphed into a raging storm. They are usually birthed in areas of conflicting Qi and then rampage through the wilderness until they run out of steam, much like a regular storm."

"Mhm, I see," Stella crossed her arms as she leaned back against the earthen bowl, "And what would be the best way to kill a Dao Storm?"

"Kill?" Elaine seemed confused, "How would one kill something that isn't even alive? Dao Storms aren't exactly sentient, but they are attracted to dense Qi or heavenly Dao, which can give the illusion of intelligence."

"Okay, maybe kill is the wrong word," Stella mused, "How would you disrupt the storm? Assume you had to make a stand, and running away wasn't an option. How would you stop the Dao Storm?"

"Much like a normal storm, I guess? Disrupt the balance of the Dao's within the storm, and it will start eating itself until it dissipates," Elaine shrugged, "Although that's just a theory, it's too Qi intensive to try and stop a Dao Storm, so most cultivators just accept the damage to property and death of the mortals."

"What if you were to poison a Dao Storm?" Stella asked.

Elaine seemed baffled for a moment but then fell into contemplation.

"I guess it could be possible with the right type of poison? Since the Dao Storm isn't sentient, it wouldn't recognize the poison as something invasive and would greedily consume it rather than dispel it." Elaine began biting her nail and muttered, "Why did nobody think of this before?"

Stella was rather amazed at how much knowledge was crammed into that head. With a lot of time and experimentation, she might have come to the same conclusions as Elaine, but as Ash had pointed out, her time was better spent elsewhere when there was someone she could extract the answer from immediately.

Since Elaine was here and had sworn an oath of loyalty and secrecy, Stella had no qualms with showing Elaine the cursed blood and letting her in on what they were working on.

"Elaine, the reason for these questions is this," Stella gestured to the wooden bowl.

"Huh?" Elaine was broken from her mumblings and followed Stella's finger. Walking closer, she squinted at the bowl, poorly illuminated by the blue hue of the mushrooms.

"This black liquid is sap from Ash," Stella explained, "It turns whoever ingests it into a demonic tree."

"What?!" Elaine was taken aback, "Wait... that means..."

"Yes, all those demonic trees that appeared overnight were due to the Dao Storm tearing off Ash's branches and becoming poisoned by his cursed sap."

"Fascinating," Elaine pushed her hair behind her ear as she leaned in close to inspect the bizarre black liquid, "So what are your plans for it?"

"Well, I want to make a poisonous pill from it," Stella frowned, "But it's only ever worked on the Dao Storm. Any monster it's been tested on, including a Star Core worm, simply shrugged it off. So we were trying to figure out why the Dao Storm was so weak to it, yet it had no effect on monsters, and the answer seems so obvious now."

Elaine nodded, "Because the monsters notice the cursed sap and cycle their internal Qi to remove it, whereas the Dao Storm greedily absorbed the sap and then became corrupted by it and eventually turned into trees."

"I think I have an idea," Stella grinned, "Thank you for the help despite you being busy."

Elaine seemed flustered, "No, no, it's fine. Feel free to ask me questions anytime. Otherwise, I will feel useless to you guys."

"Sure, I think I can take it from here," Stella replied mentally—a portal rippled to life.

"Call on me anytime you need," Elaine said as she walked toward the portal, "Oh, and tell Douglas to stop working so hard. He needs to take breaks, too!"

With that, the portal snapped closed, and Stella was once again alone in the cavern with just the shifting white fog at the edge of her consciousness and the horrors she had kept at bay with many Mind Fortress pills.

"Right, let's get to work," Stella said as she cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders.

"We identified the issues with your cursed sap and will add other ingredients to the pill to counteract those weaknesses," Stella explained, "It's why pills with more ingredients are better. One strong poison is great, but it can be even more potent when enhanced with many other ingredients."

"The first problem to solve is how slow your cursed sap acts; an hour to take effect is simply too long for use in combat," Stella mused as she walked up the ramp to the second floor of the cavern, "Are these all the flowers you can grow?"

There was a pulse of power, and Stella watched as many soil plots of Qi Flowing Grass withered away and gave way to various beautiful flowers and even some bone-white bamboo.

Stella walked along the walkways, and feeling lazy, she spread out her telekinesis to pluck as many flowers as possible. Moments later, a storm of petals encircled her—with a flash of silvery light, the torrent of petals vanished into one of her many silver spatial rings.

"Ah, I also need some Heavenly Bamboo Essence," Stella said as she approached the bone-white shoots and sliced them in half with her dagger.

Returning to the cauldron and armed with all the resources she could get her hands on within her spatial rings, it was time to start making a poison.

"Qi Flowing Grass is known for its properties to facilitate the flow of Qi through the body's spirit roots, so it's a must as it will help spread the poison faster..." Stella tapped her chin as she tried to remember the various ingredients' properties, "Aren't I basically trying to make a toxic version of the Heavenly Purification Pill?"

"True, but I don't have a Nine-Tailed Fox's Tear," Stella pouted, "If only we had connections with the merchants already. We have enough money looted from the Skyrends to buy anything we need but can't."

"Why would a man be stranded on a desert island when he can cultivate until he can fly or swim to shore?" Stella tilted her head in confusion, "You know what, never mind, we are getting sidetracked."

With that ingredient removed, she was left with the Qi Flowing Grass, Dragon Marrow, Celestial Peony Petal, and Heavenly Bamboo Essence.

Humming to herself, she placed all the ingredients on the earthen bowl's rim in a line.

"Good point..." Stella frowned.

Stella wasn't sure what 'putty' was, but she got the general gist of what Ash was saying. The Dragon Marrow had helped hold all the ingredients in place while she layered them in the cauldron so it at least had some use.

"Ah, whatever," Stella shrugged, "What harm could some muscle enhancement bring? Maybe the Dragon Marrow will help the cursed sap infiltrate the cultivator's muscles, turning them to wood?"

She then picked up a pink flower, "The Celestial Peony Petal is known forits high concentration of pure celestial energy beneficial for purification. Ugh, this is hard. Is purification a good or bad thing for a poison?"

"What do you mean?"

Stella's eyes widened, "That's genius! If the pill purifies the entire body of impurities and enhances their muscles, then the person will believe it's good for them. We just need to obscure the cursed sap while it spreads throughout the body and for long enough that the person won't notice before it's too late."

Stella let out an excited breath as she turned to the cauldron with her brain overflowing with ideas. Nothing brought her more thrill than the possibility of a challenge.

***

Luckily, they were rich now, so with a single request, the Redclaws had sent them a runically enhanced metal cage by the end of the day to contain the beasts they had kidnapped from the wilderness.

Enraged shrieks from multiple demonic chickens filled the cavern as Stella floated a freshly made pill toward the fattest chicken that was in the lower stages of the Soul Fire Realm.

The chicken strained its neck through the bars to gobble up the pill and then tried to bite Stella's nose off.

A while passed, and the chicken did not become a tree.

Ashlock shared Stella's exhaustion and frustration. He spent almost every waking moment trying to help her create this pill, and she had even worked through the nights while he slept.

"Stella, it's been three days. The merchant meeting is soon," Ashlock calmly reminded the girl, who was entirely focused on her newfound passion project, "We need to start production on the pills we plan to sell to them. Also, the Silverspires are getting restless as they haven't seen any pills yet..."

"Wait, why would you need the poison in time for the merchant meeting?" Ashlock was confused. Wasn't this a passion project that would help the sect by boosting its offensive capabilities later down the road? Why would she need poison for a meeting with the merchants?