"Why would you want to poison the Merchants?" Ashlock asked Stella with a hint of confusion.
He practically got whiplash from her answer. It was so outrageous. Did she have some grudge with them?
The Merchants were imperative for the future of the Ashfallen Sect. Until they gained enough strength and connections to manage their own supply chains, they needed the Merchants.
"So if Stella goes around murdering them, that's a problem." Ashlock sighed. He was willing to put up with a lot of nonsense from Stella, but there was still a vague line in the sand that she shouldn't cross.
"How else will we keep control over them?" Stella seemed even more confused than him as she tilted her head, "Did you plan to make them sign oaths of secrecy on where they obtained the pills?"
"Why would I... Ah." Ashlock realized he hadn't thought that far as he saw the pills they would make as massive downgrades of his own produce, so why would anyone want to find out about the source? But even if his pills weren't special, competitors would pay good money to learn more about new competitors.
This was a world without laws—survival of the fittest. Who's to say a competitor wouldn't send assassins after Stella or even try to enslave him for their own production?
"I'm one of the strongest beings in the Blood Lotus Sect, to my knowledge, which made me careless. I need to remember there are the Grand Elders of the strongest families, like the Silverspires, whose Grand Elder is about to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm. There's also the matter of the Blood Lotus Sect's Patriarch, who could step out of closed-door cultivation any day now, especially with tensions rising and noble families dying. I wouldn't be surprised if someone dragged him out to extinguish the fires of civil war."
Ashlock sighed again. He had been approaching this too much like a business deal on Earth, where there were laws and regulations to be followed through a contract.
"I was naive to think the Merchants were like friendly guys who ran a shipping company and would distribute my pills worldwide for cheap on a shipping container. They are insane people who wander the wilderness, dive into rifts between dimensions, and try to extort money from cultivators. How could I trust people like this?"
With reluctance, Ashlock had to admit his ignorance to Stella.
"I hadn't thought about how we could keep the merchants loyal," Ashlock admitted.
Stella snorted as she sluggishly pushed herself off the cavern floor and slumped against the earthen bowl, "If you had heard the legends about them like I have or met them in person as I did, then keeping them loyal would have been your first thought."
"You met them in Slymere, didn't you?" Ashlock asked.
Stella shuddered, "Yeah, back when I was so weak and ignorant of the world. That Nox woman terrified me, but Hammond was worse."
"Hammond? Who's that?"
Stella shrugged, "Nox's right-hand man, I assume—he was a spatial affinity cultivator, and I bought the short-range portal technique we both use so much from him."
"What made him worse than Nox?"
Stella attempted to put on a gruff, manly accent, "This technique is perfect for assassinating people. Just open a portal next to their head, shove a dagger through, and BAM. Dead. Killed plenty of... old acquaintances that way."
"He said that to you?" Ashlock asked.
He couldn't believe Stella had interacted with such a dangerous person when she was weak.
"Yeah," Stella shuddered, "Does he sound like the type of person we want to trust our pills with blindly? He openly admitted to murdering his old acquaintances, likely to silence them, and to make matters worse, he is a spatial cultivator who is probably stronger and more experienced than both of us. These Merchants are ruthless and insane. To trust them even a little would be truly foolish."
Now that Stella laid it all out, why were they trusting the Merchants in the first place at all?
"Do we have to work with them?" Ashlock asked Stella, "Can't we have the Silverspires sell the pills on our behalf to the rest of the Blood Lotus Sect?"
Stella shrugged, "I asked Diana the same question, and she told me it was a bad idea due to the inheritance war among the Silverspire scions. Suppose we go through the Silverspire's connections to distribute the pills. That means Ryker might be disqualified from the competition, and even if he isn't, the other scions will catch wind of the new pills, and to protect their position, they will seek to eradicate Ryker's source."
"Of course, it always comes down to sect politics," Ashlock grumbled, "But what makes the Merchants a good distributor? Can't we sell the pills ourselves somehow?"
Stella seemed to notice how dusty her hair had become during their conversation, so she began to walk over to the river in the cavern while answering, "Well, when I met them the last time in Slymere, Nox informed me they hailed from the Tainted Cloud Sect west of here. So if we sell to Nox, she can distribute the pills to a distant demonic sect far from here, making it harder to track us down as the source."
Arriving at the river, Stella knelt on the stone and gasped as she cupped freezing water onto her head. She did this a few times, and then once her long hair was thoroughly drenched, she combed out the dust with her fingers and eventually got frustrated and summoned a comb from her spatial ring.
While she was sitting on the riverbank and drying her hair with a towel, Ashlock asked, "Do you know anything about this Tainted Cloud Sect? Why haven't I heard much about them before?"
"Demonic sects keep to themselves and don't really trade with one another, so it's not surprising you haven't heard much about them, but I would assume they are of similar size to the Blood Lotus Sect, considering we haven't conquered them," Stella explained while having her head wrapped in a towel, "Only the Merchants are insane enough to traverse the wilderness, and they are only allowed into demonic sects because the nobles want to buy from them."
"Where did you get all this information?" Ashlock wondered.
"Diana caught me up to speed on many things over the years," Stella grunted as she stood up and began walking back to the cauldron, "But I knew about the Merchants before I met Diana. They are very famous and a popular story to tell children so they don't wander off. Everyone is arrogant enough in youth to think they can outsmart the beasts, but the idea of people as strong as their parents hunting them down for coin is enough to make them stay put."
Stella chuckled as she deposited the towel into her spatial ring, "Heck, even I was arrogant enough to venture out deep into the wilderness in a vain journey for power. If not for Maple watching over me, I would have died a hundred times over!"
Ashlock found that story rather amusing. "So the Merchants are the boogeyman to the children of demonic sects in this cultivation world? Also, thank god for Maple watching over Stella. That was when we were both so weak and could only dream about making it to tomorrow without somehow dying. To think she did something so dangerous..."
It was weird to think how in control of their lives they had become in such a short time. Senior Lee hadn't been wrong—even if someone was stronger out there, reducing the number of threats led to a more peaceful and assured existence.
Regarding control, Ashlock was now more on board with the idea of poisoning the Merchants. Oaths were too hard to enforce as the other party had to agree, but maybe they would be more open to taking one if they were slowly turning into a tree?
"So, your plan was to poison the merchants with my cursed sap and then offer them an antidote that only you could provide?"
Stella nodded, "Yeah, I was going to let them try each of our pills, and then I would sneak in a poison one. Then, I'd sell them an antidote, and the poison would take effect once they were far enough away. They would be forced to use the antidotes they bought from us to keep the cursed sap at bay."
Taking a breath, she continued, "Then they would go and buy pills from other places to try and dispel the cursed sap, but it wouldn't work as the cursed sap would have already corrupted their soul, so they would be forced to come back to us for more of the stronger antidote to keep the corruption at bay."
Ashlock was just amazed at Stella's insight. Since when had his murder-happy daughter become such a schemer?
"They grow up so fast," Ashlock mentally wiped away fake tears. He felt proud as he watched Stella return to the earthen bowls with a much fresher look after her primitive shower.
"Stella, should I bring Elder Margret over to help?" Ashlock asked after seeing Stella looking over the long line of ingredients with a deep frown again, "She can also help us decide what pills the White Stone Palace alchemists should make for us to sell."
"Sure," Stella replied surprisingly positively, "I already gave it my all for three days, and I'm stuck. No harm in asking someone with centuries of experience to hopefully hurry this process along."
With Stella's agreement, his vision blurred across the vast mountain range and came to a halt in the other cavern.
"Has each alchemist taken a pillar for their own?" Ashlock wondered as he noticed each pillar had a single alchemist on the highest platform. The vault door that led up to the White Stone Palace had been closed and sealed, so there was only a blue hue from the glowing mushrooms and the orange glow from the Blaze Serpent Rose's illuminating the cavern.
Other than the twins harvesting bamboo together on a lower level, the other alchemists were hunched over a cauldron fruit and frantically making pill after pill.
Ashlock noted a few of them were making Body Strengthening Pills, which was the one they made in the tournament, while others were making pills he had never seen before.
"Elder Margret," Ashlock spoke into the woman's mind as she took a break from her own pill-making.
"Oh, Patriarch?" Elder Margret replied as she wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve and popped a Mind Fortress pill, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I came to ask you for some help over in the other cavern," Ashlock replied, "But you look exhausted... You know you and the others don't have to stay trapped down here all day. You can take breaks and go outside."
Elder Margret chuckled as she withdrew her flame from the cauldron and gathered all the ingredients and pills into her spatial ring, "Don't worry, we all know that. We just can't help ourselves as we all share a deep love for alchemy, and getting to practice as much as we want with such pure ingredients is a dream come true."
"Oh, I see," Ashlock replied. He sometimes forgot how precious alchemy ingredients were to ordinary people who couldn't grow them in seconds.
"So, what do you need my help with?" Elder Margret asked.
"Stella will explain," Ashlock said as he conjured a portal for her. Still, to this day, he was so glad he rerolled his affinity to spatial instead of sticking with ice affinity. It just made life so much easier, transporting his sect members around in seconds rather than waiting for them to walk or fly.
"The Patriarch says you need some assistance?"
Stella tore her gaze away from the line of ingredients and greeted the woman who had just stepped out of a portal with a smile, "Elder Margret, yes, I am having quite the trouble."
Stella then caught Elder Margret up regarding her attempts at making poison from Ashlock's cursed sap.
Elder Margret let out a breath of amazement once Stella finished her half-hour rant about the different combinations and difficulties she had encountered during the process.
"So you need a poison that's slow acting and undetectable by the Merchants," Elder Margret whistled, "That's quite the tall order. Those Merchants are tough bastards to control, and you aren't the first to have the idea of trying to tie them down."
"Do you think it could work?" Stella asked.
"Mhm, Merchants are often in the Star Core Realm or higher." Elder Margret tapped her chin, "And you said this cursed sap worked on a 9th-stage Star Core Elder?"
Stella nodded.
"I see potential," Elder Margret reluctantly agreed, "But have you thought about what we are selling to the merchant? It's in four days, and the alchemists in the other cavern have been awaiting your orders."
"Ugh, I put that off since it's so simple," Stella lamented as she trudged over to the earthen bowl, "The pill recipe for most of them is just a Body Strengthing Pill with the fruit added in, and then the Mind Fortress one involves a Dream Weaver Orchid."
"Do you plan to sell the Mind Fortress ones?" Elder Margret asked.
"Heaven's no," Stella laughed, "How would the Patriarch scare people if they can just buy a resistance pill off the market? We only want to sell things that will not impact us or cause massive political issues."
"Political issues?" Ashlock asked them both. Since they were standing so close, it was easy to cast a wider net and simultaneously force his presence on multiple targets.
"Yeah, like the lightning resistance fruit," Stella replied.
"Ah yes, that makes sense," Ashlock replied. That fruit would cause issues as it would directly disrupt the Skyrend family power, so he would need to sell them through discreet channels to any allies he can make for the war or keep it internally.
"If you want my opinion on the matter, could I get a list of the options again?" Elder Margret asked, "Are they the same as the ones you provided us for the Mystic Realm? Or are there other fruits I am unaware of?"
Bringing up his system screen, Ashlock decided to read out all the fruits while trying not to sound like a waiter at a high-class restaurant, "Clairvoyance, Mind Fortress, Florist's Touch, Lightning Qi Barrier, Enlightenment, Neural Root, Language Comprehension, Vampiric Touch, Deep Meditation and Superior Poison Resistance."
Stella drummed her fingers on the earthen bowl as she listened to the list and then gave her thoughts once Ashlock was done, "I think we should remove the ones that could be used against us like Clairvoyance, Mind Fortress, Language Comprehension, and Superior Poison Resistance."
"That makes sense," Ashlock agreed, "I'll remove those alongside the politically questionable Lightning Qi Barrier. Anything else?"
"Do you have any fruit similar to your new telepathy technique?" Stella asked, reminding Ashlock that he had never tried to make a skill fruit from {Abyssal Whispers}.
