Realizing his immunity to void-based attacks, Ashlock found some comfort in knowing he wouldn't be reduced to splinters by the Voidmind Elder's newly formed arm of pure void. But his mind was troubled by concerns for the girl's safety.
He wasn't certain if Larry could even stand against a peak Star Core cultivator, yet he had to try. "Larry, return immediately!" he called through the tether. A confirmation pulsed through their connection, but dread still choked him. Would Larry make it back in time?
The Voidmind Elder stopped cackling with manic laughter as he seemed to notice Stella and Diana, who were frozen off to the side, their legs trembling under this Star Core Realm gravity. Even Ashlock felt his branches creaking from the pressure, but he was naturally more resistant as a tree also in the Star Core Realm compared to the girls who were fleshy beings in a lower realm.
The Voidmind Elder's hollow gaze lingered on the girls, a spark of recognition flickering across his weathered visage. "Ah! Stella Crestfallen, is that truly you?"
"Head Librarian," Stella wheezed as the gravity tightened around her. "Please... spare the tree."
A sinister smile spread across the Elder's face. "Ever since you sought my aid in deciphering those ancient runes, I've wondered who this Ashlock might be. I delved into the archives, spent countless hours in fruitless research, and eventually resigned myself to not knowing."
His gaze turned back to Ashlock, scrutinizing. "So, this spirit tree is Ashlock, yes? It hardly seems ancient or powerful enough to be from the old era." His voice, eerily detached and calm, heightened Ashlock's unease. What was this man plotting?
Under the crushing gravity, Diana was the first to succumb, her knees buckling beneath her. Stella quickly followed suit. "Please, Head Librarian!" Stella cried, tears welling in her eyes as she pleaded with the ground beneath her. "Spare the tree! There must be a way to restore your arm..."
The Voidmind Elder slowly walked over. Every step he took had the weight of a deity behind it as the formation Stella had carefully created just days ago shattered below his feet. "You dared to hoard such a treasure? Do you have any idea how long I've been stuck at the threshold of the Nascent Soul realm? Centuries! I even lost my position as the Grand Elder of the Voidmind family when my brother surpassed my cultivation by achieving a half step."
He knelt down, gripped Stella's chin with his gnarled hand, and forced her to meet his abyssal gaze. "Look at me, child. Do I strike you as someone with the patience to wait for another opportunity? It doesn't matter who discovered or nurtured this spirit tree all this time." His grin was predatory, his words chilling. "Even if it takes another century, I will extract that divine eye from the tree and savor its essence. There's nothing you can do about it—"
In response, Stella sent a golden bolt of lightning through her chin into the Elder's hand, causing him to stumble back, his arm spasming. "Only I may touch Tree!" she yelled.
Diana gave Stella a peculiar look, to which Stella retorted, "Obviously not like that."
"What did you mean then..." Diana began, but her words were cut off by the Elder's furious outcry, "Despicable girl! You dare to ambush this old man after I've assisted you!"
Ashlock had no idea what Stella had insinuated and was even more confused about the man's words. Were all high-rank cultivators so arrogant and delusional? The man did say he was ancient, and his elderly appearance, despite being in such a high realm, suggested he was telling the truth.
"So his aim is to consume my eye to attain the Nascent Soul Realm?" Ashlock's bark shuddered at the thought, and he frantically considered ways to assist Stella. Alas, the Elder's strength far outmatched either of the girls', rendering them virtually helpless. His own Qi reserves were critically depleted, and he had already failed to make a dent in the Elder's defenses.
His system was equally worthless in this situation. With only a meager amount of credits saved and an inventory devoid of high-grade items, Ashlock was at a loss. "If I could somehow trick him into drinking my cursed sap and transform him into a tree... or if I could just delay him long enough for Larry to arrive, we might have a chance."
Creating a portal to whisk the girls to safety had also crossed his mind, but the Elder had already demonstrated his uncanny ability to traverse portals near-instantaneously. Furthermore, Ashlock's strength was at its peak when the Elder was within proximity of his trunk.
"Head Librarian, don't be rash." Stella said carefully, "I have truffles that can improve your spirit root or help you comprehend heaven and overcome your bottleneck!"
The Elder scoffed, dismissing her offer as if it were the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. "At least propose something plausible. For centuries, every waking moment of my existence has been dedicated to surmounting my bottleneck." His voice escalated, "I've aligned myself with merchant groups, delved into rifts in search of opportunities, mastered alchemy in attempts to concoct medicinal pills, and meditated for decades uninterrupted!"
His eyes narrowed, "And now, obstructing my path to the solution I've been seeking, stands a girl destined to become nothing more than a pill furnace. If you truly possessed such an exceptional cultivation treasure, you would have already consumed it to save yourself from such a miserable fate."
"What if I've already eaten one of these truffles..."
"Do you take me for an imbecile?" The Elder roared, "Do you believe that rare cultivation resources simply sprout from trees?"
Stella, still pinned to the ground by the Elder's formidable gravitational force, grunted as she struggled to raise her head. "Please! I'm not attempting to deceive you. What do you stand to lose by allowing us to prove the existence of these truffles? The tree isn't going anywhere, and we pose no threat to you."
The Elder glanced at his void arm, seemingly struggling to maintain control. "Delaying tactics are futile. My only interest lies in the divine eye nestled within the tree. Compared to its potential, your hypothetical truffles are a trifling waste of my time."
"But...!" Stella shouted at the ground. The Voidmind Elder just kept walking closer.
"Even if they existed, you attacked me," The Elder grinned, "Such an act warrants a punishment far graver than death."
A wave of intense murderous intent engulfed the entire mountaintop, prompting Stella and Diana to try summoning swords from their spatial rings as the Elder got too close, but the tips of their blades were forced against the floor by the pressure.
This was the insurmountable difference between realms that was almost impossible to overcome. What level of power would the man wield if he got through his bottleneck and made it into the Nascent Soul Realm? Ashlock didn't even want to imagine.
"Don't kill her!" Diana shouted, "What about the wrath from the Patriarch? Her body is... reserved for him." She winced at her words as if in disbelief they even came out of her mouth.
"That old buffoon?" The Elder sneered, spitting to the side, "Once I attain the Nascent Soul Realm, what is there to fear? Moreover..." His gaze refocused on Stella, "You would make an excellent vessel for my nascent soul."
Events unfolded in a swift blur. The Elder's pure void arm morphed into a sword of utter darkness. Poised over Stella's head, he readied to execute her.
Ashlock's near-depleted Star Core roared to life with its dying breath—over ten portals materialized between the Elder and Stella, but the sword cleaved through them easily. Ashlock also sent more black vines coated in spikes with {Devour} at the man, but the void flames enshrouding the man deleted them out of existence before they could even leave a tear in his cloak.
A cataclysmic eruption of spatial Qi ensued as all ten portals were annihilated, followed by a piercing scream. Then, a dreadful stillness enveloped Ashlock. He knew his defensive efforts had been futile in shielding Stella, who had been unable to lift her head to see the blade destined to end her life.
"Oh?" The Elder's confused voice gave Ashlock a hint of hope, and as the flash of spatial Qi faded away, it revealed a defiant paw holding the void blade a few centimeters from Stella's blonde hair.
Maple, perched on Stella's head, stood tall with his white fur shimmering radiantly under the noon sun. His mythical golden eyes met the gaze of the Grand Elder. He then twisted his paw and ripped the void blade in two, compelling the Voidmind Elder to retreat and regain control over the leaking void from his arm.
Stella reached up as the immense pressure lessened, "Maple!" She happily shouted as the squirrel accepted head pats.
A wave of relief washed over Ashlock as one of his most powerful allies finally appeared, but he knew he wasn't out of the woods just yet. The Elder had suffered some damage from Maple's attack, but through his pact link with Maple, he could tell that blocking the attack had taken a lot out of the squirrel despite his defiant stance.
"A void creature?" The Elder asked through clenched teeth, "Are you the guardian of this tree? Is that how it has remained unclaimed for so long..."
The man reached up and stroked his wispy beard while scrutinizing the squirrel, "Ah, that explains the fate of the previous families. I assumed internal strife, but they must have discovered the tree and quarreled over it, right?"
The Elder wasn't far from the truth. Ashlock wondered how he would react when he saw Larry—but the spider was still outside his portal range, and Ashlock doubted whether Maple could hold off the Elder on his own for much longer.
Unexpectedly, a pure silver blade materialized in the Elder's hand. It seemed to sear his flesh, causing him to wince as the void flames coating his hand receded. "A blade wrought from divine metal," the Elder elucidated, wearing a smug smile. Through his pact with Maple, Ashlock felt a wave of fear. Clearly, this sword posed a significant threat.
With a void step, the Elder virtually teleported across the peak via fractured space and slashed with the divine sword at Stella and Maple, the air shuddered as a shield of void from Maple's paws appeared, but the blade cleaved through it easily. Maple redirected the sword's trajectory with his claws, spraying silver sparks and leaving deep gashes in the side of the blade.
With the swing completed, the Elder retreated, a deep frown etching his features. "Stronger than anticipated," he muttered before launching another assault. This time, Maple's timing was off—though the blade was still deflected, it took a thin layer of Maple's fur and flesh in the process.
Maple nursed his injured paw as black blood trickled down and dripped onto Stella's forehead. She tried to raise her head to look up at Maple, but the pressure from the Elder's gravity had increased once more.
"Maple! Are you okay?" Panic crept into Stella's voice as she noticed the blood pooling on the stone beneath her.
Meanwhile, despite being pinned to the stone by the pressure, Diana had managed to cast her mist technique, slightly dulling the Elder's senses and providing Maple with some assistance.
Ashlock also kept casting {Devour}, but the vines were getting thinner and coated in less spatial Qi as he tried to save up enough Qi to cast a long-range portal to bring Larry here.
The spider was far out in the wilderness and would soon reach the wall of trees he had started building, which served as the current limit to his range out into the wilderness.
Maple and the Elder clashed repeatedly, but it was clear that the Elder had a slight upper hand as Maple sustained more and more injuries. Ashlock surmised that if Maple didn't have to shield Stella, he could unleash a full-power attack as he had against the Dao Storm. But the risk of injuring Stella or leaving her vulnerable to the Elder's attack rendered him to a defensive stance, doing his best to repel the onslaught.
After a while, Ashlock felt a pull on his tether with Larry. His vision shifted from the mountain peak to a distressed Larry stationed near a wall of demonic trees, with Kaida clinging to his back. "Master, I am here!" Larry's gruff voice echoed.
Using the last drops of spatial Qi in his Star Core, a portal that wobbled at the edges as if unstable manifested, and Larry crawled through without hesitation.
The Elder's eyes bulged as he saw the looming shadow of Larry through Diana's haunted mist behind Stella. Eight glowing red eyes glared at him as Larry lept through the mist and landed between the Elder and Stella.
Larry shot forth an ash-coated limb with lightning speed, nothing more than a blur. The Elder hastily raised his heavily damaged divine sword to parry the strike, only to have the blade shatter under the sheer force of the blow, sending him sprawling to the side.
Staring at the broken silver hilt in his hand, the Elder cast it aside with a frustrated huff. "Another guardian beast." His voice trembled with rage as he inhaled deeply. "What rotten luck to have salvation so close yet remain just out of my grasp."
His entire body flared up with Qi, and he muttered, "Reality Rend."
Reality ripped apart as if the man had peeled back the wallpaper of the world and stepped through the tear. Beyond lay nothing but darkness. Time seemed to distort, his figure elongating infinitely as if teetering on the edge of a black hole. The spectacle was baffling, but one thing was clear: this wasn't an offensive maneuver; it was an escape attempt.
If he succeeded, he could inform the Patriarch, gather his allies, and perhaps even the Grand Elder of his family that was supposedly stronger than him.
"As you so rightly stated, Stella Crestfallen," the Elder's distorted voice echoed across the mountain peak, "the tree cannot run!"
"Neither can you."A voice Ashlock had never heard before made his soul shudder. The day turned to a starless night as if the heavens had turned the lights off. In the distance, he could see the Voidmind Elder swimming through the liquid darkness surrounding them.
Ashlock found the strange voice's source, expecting to see Stella and Maple. However, only Stella was visible—Maple had vanished.
An enormous, pupil-less eye that Ashlock recognized from his unsuccessful S-rank summon from years past loomed over the mountain peak like a small sun. It tracked the fleeing Elder, who glanced over his shoulder, his vacant eyes widening in terror. "A Worldwalker?"
The eye offered no response to the Elder's question. The world quaked and fractured as if subjected to an immense external force compressing the void. The Elder attempted to resist, but he was overpowered. Moments later, the eye vanished, replaced by the warm sunlight as Ashlock found himself back in the real world.
Hovering in the midst of the mountain peak was the Elder, trapped in a bubble of nothingness, struggling against the crushing force yet managing to resist complete obliteration.
Maple had returned to his perch atop Stella's head, his golden eyes full of curiosity as they met Ashlock's. The voice from earlier resounded within Ashlock's mind, "I can't hold him for much longer. Open your eye. Your trunk will serve as his prison."
"You can speak?" Ashlock was taken aback. Maple had never communicated with him before. And the eerie eye in the sky... had that S-rank summoning attempt from years ago not failed after all? Could Maple be the Worldwalker?
Maple bared his teeth, "Do it now."
With no other choice as he saw the bubble begin to crack, Ashlock reluctantly opened his {Demonic Eye}, and the bubble containing the Elder floated through the gap and settled next to his eye.
Then after he closed his trunk, the bubble burst, and a very enraged Elder was unleashed within his body.
What the fuck kind of solution was this?
