Before Ashlock could create his second-ever Bastion, he needed Kaida to stop freaking out.
"It's me," Ashlock said in as soft a voice as he could muster, "Calm down."
But it was already too late. Kaida had already inserted his Qi into one of his scales near his neck. The ancient runic words he had carved into the ink scale glowed with a heavenly light, and before Ashlock got a chance to read what had been inscribed, the scale consumed itself, and a purple glow suddenly enshrouded Kaida.
The Lindywyrm began to float into the air with his tail still curled on the ground. His claws were opened at his sides as if ready to lash out, and his golden eyes were firmly set on the tree ablaze with spatial flames before him in the middle of the ink lake.
"So you learned levitation?" Ashlock said casually. "I didn't expect you to learn how to fly before you got wings."
Kaida seemed to finally realize the suddenly flaming tree was his master, not an attack on himself or the Midnight Inkwing eggs he was entrusted to protect. Kaida visibly relaxed and began hissing happily. He lowered to the ground, stopped glowing with the purple light, and etched into the ground in ink with the tip of his claw: 'Yes.'
"You were never one to speak much, were you," Ashlock laughed at Kaida's simple response.
Kaida reabsorbed the ink into his body to not waste any of his precious ink and then wrote, 'Prefer reading. Writing hard.'
"I suppose most would consider reading easier than writing, but in your case, it's even more so since you can gain heavenly insight from words written via ink in a book. That's how you managed to learn the levitation technique, right? Was it from one of those books I gave you from the Azure Clan?"
Kaida nodded his head instead of bothering to write a response. Now that everything had calmed down, under the flickering light from Ashlock's ablaze offspring, he could read some of the ancient runic words inscribed into Kaida's scales.
It was clear that Kaida had not been idle the last few weeks since leaving the Mystic Realm, as he already had something prepared on around twenty of his scales. This was impressive, considering it had taken him half a day to comprehend the Spatial Blades technique and then another few hours to inscribe it into one of his scales.
"I can see five Spatial Blade technique scales, which should have taken a day or two of concentrating on inscribing." Ashlock mused. "There are also two levitation ones near his neck with one empty space for a scale because he used it when he got scared, so there must have been three."
Ink affinity was one of the most double-edged-sword affinities Ashlock had encountered since arriving in this world.
Kaida could use any affinity he wished by exchanging his ink Qi, just like a moment ago when he used spatial Qi for levitation. So he didn't suffer from getting countered like other Qi types, such as light and shadow Qi.
However, that came with a high cost, much like void Qi. Since ink Qi is rare, Kaida had to rely on his Star Core's natural regeneration and converting untamed Qi, which is highly inefficient.
But with great cost comes many advantages, as Ashlock had experienced when he didn't even manage to get a word in before Kaida had already activated his levitation scale and prepared to fight.
"He can use any technique with an instant cast speed, which is a massive advantage until he runs out of prepared techniques on his scales, and since it takes him hours to make a new inscribed scale, Kaida would have no option but to retreat when he runs out of scales." Ashlock mused, "Also if anyone can read the ancient runic language, they will know exactly how many of each technique he has left."
Kaida had evolved all the way from an F-grade grass snake into a B-grade Lindwyrm and now sat somewhere in the mid-stages of the Star Core Realm, meaning with fighting practice and if he learned a wide range of techniques, he would have a combat ability on par with Stella and the Redclaw Grand Elder who were in the 4th and 6th stages respectively.
Studying his scales more, Ashlock saw something inscribed into one of the scales that surprised him.
"You learned Spatial Lock already?" Ashlock asked.
Kaida put his nose to the sky and acted very smug in response.
"You cheating bastard." Ashlock half-joked. At this point, he had spent a few weeks trying to learn that advanced technique and had only managed to grasp a single part. So, for Kaida to have comprehended it already alongside so many other techniques made him somewhat jealous.
Now that Kaida had his head to the sky, his neck was on full display, where he had hidden quite a few scales from view with his chin. Ashlock saw spatial techniques such as Spatial Step and Anchor Seal among the ones there.
However, one thing bugged Ashlock. Why were there no void techniques? He had given Kaida the books from the Voidmind Elder's belongings alongside the Azure Clan books, so why hadn't Kaida gotten around to learning any void techniques?
"Kaida, didn't I give you some technique books belonging to a void cultivator? Why haven't you learned any of their techniques?"
Kaida lowered his head and etched out on the stone in ink, 'Void impossible to understand.'
"How so?"
Kaida hissed with annoyance as he lumbered his ten-meter-long body over to the bookshelf and fished out two books from the bookshelf built into the room's wall.
"Stella or I, as real spatial cultivators, would just use telekinesis to float the books to us rather than bother walking over, but Kaida would have to sacrifice a scale to use a single technique. Sort of an odd drawback of ink affinity to consider." Ashlock mused as he watched Kaida place the books on the stone floor and flip them open with his claw. "I'm still working out how Kaida will contribute in future battles with the bounty hunters coming and the beast tide on the horizon. Kaida will likely be a heavy hitter capable of obliterating someone by unleashing attacks of various affinities all at once."
Which is why he had hoped Kaida could learn void techniques.
Kaida tapped the books on the floor while looking straight at the tree as if gesturing for Ashlock to pay attention. How could his pet tell when he was lost in thought? Was his lack of attention that obvious.
"Yes, I am watching. What are you trying to show me?"
Kaida rolled his golden eyes before tapping the left book. Pushing Qi into the page of the book under his claw, which Ashlock recognized as a technique book of the Azure Clan that Stella had robbed from their library in the pocket realm. The ink on the page glowed, rose off the page, and floated into his mind, easily phasing through his scales as if they weren't even there.
Shaking his head and body as if he were a dog trying to dry himself, Kaida managed to break himself out of the daze that occurred the last time he had used the heavenly insight skill on the Spatial Blades manual, which had lasted till sunset.
Letting out a hiss, Kaida turned his attention to the second book. He briefly flipped up the cover to show Ashlock the book title, 'Whispers of the Void.' Kaida then turned to a page in the middle of the book.
Ashlock noted that he could read the words, which described some sort of void skill. Sadly, it was written in even more confusing, flowery language than other books he had seen, and he couldn't make heads or tails about what the skill was supposed to do. He thought it was a technique book of some kind because it matched the format he had seen in Azure Clan books with diagrams flanked by blocks of flowery text like a science textbook.
Kaida once again pushed Qi into the ink on the page, but this time was different. There was no heavenly glow, and the words did not rise off the page. The confusing words remained their usual dulled ink on the page.
"So the heavens are unable to offer you any insight into void techniques?" Ashlock asked, and Kaida nodded his head.
In a way, it made sense. From Ashlock's own understanding, shaped by what Elaine had told him, void was something entirely outside of heaven's control, which was why it was so powerful but also so hard to cultivate. Therefore, the fact that heaven was unable or didn't wish to provide Kaida any insight into how to wield void techniques made sense.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The question now was if Kaida was totally barred from void techniques altogether. Was it impossible for Kaida's divine ink Qi to replicate void techniques even though it seemingly could manifest anything under the heavens will into existence? Likely no, but it was still worth a try.
"I will get Elaine to come over and try to teach you a void technique sometime, but before that, let's get you a proper cultivation environment." Ashlock said, "First, I need you, all these books, and the Midnight Inkwing eggs to leave while this tree undergoes its heavenly tribulation to quickly ascend to the Star Core Realm."
Kaida let out an annoyed hissed.
"Stop being lazy. It will only take an hour or so at most, and after that, you will have a constantly refilling lake of ink Qi fed by this tree. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Refusing to take no for an answer, Ashlock's vision blurred as he returned to Red Vine Peak, where he found Stella and Diana sitting on the bench and still happily chatting away about the bounties.
"Sorry to interrupt, but can you two help me with something?" Ashlock asked through {Abyssal Whispers}.
"Sure Tree, what's up?" Stella asked while gazing up at his canopy.
"The tree in the ink lake has finally formed a soul core with ink affinity, so it's time to create a second Bastion. But for that, I need Kaida and everything else to leave so nothing gets obliterated by the lightning."
"Oh wow, that was fast," Stella stood up and pulled Diana up, "Let's go! I haven't seen Kaida in a while. I wonder if he still hates me." A while passed with the two standing there glancing around. "Tree? Where's the portal? I know you are still here."
"I'm saving my Qi, so fly down yourselves. You know where it's located at the mountain's base."
The two girls grumbled—Ashlock started to notice just how lazy his sect members were. Was this his fault somehow? Had his slothfulness as a tree rubbed off on them?
"Do we have to fly?" Stella protested. "It's pouring down with rain."
"Since when did a little water hurt anyone? You're protesting about rain, but aren't you using me as cover right now? How do you think I feel?"
Stella rolled her eyes, "You are literally a tree. I bet you are loving it. But I am a human girl, in case you forgot, and I hate getting my hair wet."
"Have Diana dry it for you?" Ashlock replied.
"Do you want me to help you or not?" Stella crossed her arms, "Just open a darn portal. You regenerate Qi so fast it's a drop in the bucket for you. I don't want to spend my Qi making twenty portals to get down there just to still get my hair wet."
"You can rip space apart and fly around on a sword, but you revert to being a wuss the moment it's raining a little," Ashlock muttered as he made the portal. Admittedly, he didn't even notice the Qi inside his Star Core change, but it was still silly. Why should he have to spend any Qi at all?
Stella and Diana walked through the portal, and Ashlock closed it behind them.
"Am I the one being unreasonable?" He wondered for a moment. "Surely not. I never remember rain being that bad when I was a human, and they are cultivators, for heaven's sake. Diana is literally a water cultivator; she should love the rain more than I do!"
Deciding to drop the topic, Ashlock returned his view to the fragment of his soul inside the ink affinity tree. The heavy rain drummed on the dome stone roof overhead, and water cascaded down onto the demonic tree's leaves through the hole in the ceiling.
Glancing around, Ashlock saw on the shore of the ink lake a dozen meters from the tree that Diana had embraced Kaida in a hug and was busy patting his head. Meanwhile, Stella walked along the sides of the room and absorbed all the books into a spatial ring.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Diana broke the silence, gazing at the ablaze tree Ashlock was inhabiting while resting her head on Kaida's. "Someone ascending to the Star Core Realm is treated as a big deal in the wilderness. Doing this will draw the interest of any cultivators and bounty hunters lurking in Darklight City to this location."
Diana did have a point. He should wait until the Mystic Realm in two weeks and conduct the ascension there away from prying eyes... which is what he would have thought in the past.
"I agree. I should do it in the Mystic Realm, but I am more scared of attracting the attention of powerhouses lurking in there than those around here," Ashlock said truthfully.
Other than the top dogs of the demonic sects, such as the Patriarch, who was still in closed-door cultivation to his knowledge, and the Nascent Soul cultivators in the Tainted Cloud Sect, far from here, he didn't fear anyone else.
Stella paused near the eggs to say, "Yeah, compared to the Azure Clan, the Blood Lotus Sect and its Patriarch aren't as much of a threat. However, we should still be overly cautious of them. Unlike the Azure Clan that has been unable to follow us thus far down to this lower realm, we can't exactly run from the Blood Lotus Sect and their thousands of cultivators."
"Good point," Ashlock replied as he thought of a solution. "The ink tree's ascension to Star Core should take an hour or so at most compared to an average person who takes weeks. That alone should reduce suspicion as people will suspect the person ascending failed. But we still need to hide it from those lurking nearby. So, to be on the safe side while the ascension is happening, I will have Zeus obscure the area with an even larger storm, and Titus can shroud the area in fractured space as well."
He would also call Khaos and Larry to watch the perimeter and kill anyone who got too close.
The two girls agreed with his plan, and ten minutes later, all three of them returned to Red Vine Peak and took shelter under his canopy. With everything out of the way, he got Titus and Zeus in position.
Gazing up through the hole in the ceiling, Ashlock could see the two giant beings of twisted wood looming over, casting long shadows in the already fierce storm and grey skies.
"Nobody would find it strange if this heavy storm began to unleash roaring thunder and lightning," Ashlock mused, "Little do they know, it's all a cover for a little tree's rise to a realm mortals can only dream of within a person's lunch break."
Sometimes, Ashlock wondered if he was cheating. But then he had to remind himself of what he needed to kill to gather the thousand sacrificial credits it cost to make a Bastion, plus the five thousand credits he spent on getting the skill in the first place.
"Alright, let's do this," Ashlock said to hype himself up. "Second floating tree is a go!"
Under his direction, Zeus raised his hand to the heavens. The skies overhead darkened even more, and moments later, thunder began to roar out as the skies flashed with light.
"Make sure none of your lightning bolts hit any of my children, Zeus," Ashlock reminded the titan of white marble-like wood, "Your job is to obscure and absorb the heaven's lightning, not to cause forest fires and mass destruction."
With that talk out of the way, Ashlock opened his beloved system menu and activated his SSS grade skill {Skyborne Bastion}.
[Do you wish to activate the Skyborne Bastion? The cost is 1000 sacrificial credits and the required materials to form a Bastion Core]
The materials in question were the surrounding rock and spirit stones that Douglas had already ingrained into the floating island during its design process.
"Yes, I want to create a new Skyborne Bastion," Ashlock said, and he saw the message vanish and a new one appear alongside a thousand credits disappearing from his balance.
[Forming Bastion Core...]
The mountain began to tremble like last time, and waves of power began rolling across the mountainscape.
"Titus, distort the area now," Ashlock instructed, and the titan of black wood complied. His purple fire eyes blazed with power, and the surrounding area distorted as space cracked and twisted to an outside observer.
[Bastion's Qi source has been designated as {Ashlock}]
The roots that linked Ashlock to this ink affinity tree were severed and replaced with those ethereal ones that crossed space. From now on, he would always be connected to this tree no matter where it was.
[ERROR: {unnamed progency} cultivation too low to operate Bastion Core]
"There's the message I have been waiting for!" Ashlock cheered. A part of him had been worried that the error had been a one-time thing.
[Initiating tribulation...]
If the storm had been a five in intensity before, that system message dialed it up to a ten almost immediately. A bolt of white lightning slammed down on the Bastion, obliterating the rock ceiling of the room. Blocks of rock tumbled into the ink lake below like an avalanche, causing ink to splash everywhere.
Luckily, Zeus had caught one of the other lightning bolts and absorbed it into his body, while another was blocked by a rippling purple barrier, which was Ashlock's A-grade {Lightning Qi Barrier}.
Some of heaven's power made it through their layers of defenses and trickled down into the tree's Soul Core, causing it to crack and then reform bigger than before.
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 2nd stage]
"If we didn't dampen the power, the poor tree would be obliterated in a single strike." Ashlock cursed the heavens as he saw another round of lightning coming. Even with his system forcing the tribulation, his offspring still needed to survive it, just like any other cultivator. Still, since he was speedrunning the process, the little tree did not have a strong enough soul to survive.
"You're lucky to have such a powerful dad who can help you through this," Ashlock said but knew the tree would hardly understand him. Until the tree had formed its own Star Core, it was incapable of complex thought.
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 3rd stage]
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 4th stage]
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 5th stage]
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 6th stage]
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 7th stage]
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 8th stage]
[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 9th stage]
After many minutes of having its Soul Core nearly obliterated and then reformed, it was finally large enough and filled with Qi to rapidly expand outward into a blazing ball of darkness. It was time for the tree to form its Star Core.
The miniature sun that looked like the planet Neptune dipped in ink but on fire, rose above the tree's canopy and through the half-wrecked ceiling. The heavenly tribulation seemed to take this as a direct challenge as the lightning increased tenfold.
[Forming Star Core...]
Zeus and Ashlock worked tirelessly to try to shield the ball of ink Qi from being vaporized, and after an agonizing ten minutes that burned far more of Ashlock's Qi reserves than he was comfortable with, it was done. The storm overhead relaxed to its previous vigor.
[Star Core Formed]
The Star Core of ink Qi fell back into the tree.
[Bastion's operator has been successfully designated as {unnamed progeny}]
[Bastion's affinity type set to Ink]
Ashlock then noticed a ball of swirling ink larger than a person appear below the tree's roots. Which was different from the amethyst crystal that had formed below Willow.
[Skyborne Bastion Active]
The ground finally stopped trembling. It was all finished... Or so Ashlock had thought.
Ink began to seep through the tree's bark and rippled on the surface into a shape—text—runic text, to be exact. His offspring was writing to him. He waited patiently, and the result was hard to decipher, but there was no doubt about it.
'Father, please give me a name.'
His offspring wanted a name.
