Nox sat in the reception room of the Voidmind residence that lorded over Slymere from the peak. Sunlight streaked through the large eastern-facing windows, which was unusual. Nox had done business with the Voidmind family and had visited Slymere a dozen times, yet this was the first time she had seen the distant land from this room.
"I wonder what is going on?" Nox murmured as she took a sip from the tea provided. It was the fifth one she had gone through in the nine hours she had been made to wait so far. Quite frankly, if not for her dire need to see a void cultivator to purge this curse from her soul, she would have raised a ruckus for being made to wait so long. "It took me a week of travel to get here, so a short rest was appreciated, but this is getting ridiculous."
The lock to the grand door of the waiting room clicked open, and a servant walked in. Nox held back from giving the man a harsh glare.
"Is someone finally free to see me?" Nox asked as calmly as she could. However, the now near-empty tea cup in her hand cracked in two when the man shook his head.
"Sorry, Merchant, none of the Elders are free to see you today." The man dared to give her a raised brow at the shattered teacup at her feet.
"You made me sit here for an entire day and expect me to accept such an outcome?" Nox rose from her seat, "I have done business with the Voidmind family for years! How can there not be a single void cultivator willing to see me? What is going on? I demand an explanation."
"War with the Skyrend family is on the horizon due to Dante Voidmind's failure." The servant explained in a harsh tone, "All of the Elders are in closed-door cultivation to prepare. I asked around all day for you, but nobody seemed interested in wasting their precious void Qi on helping a poor Merchant when they could use that void Qi to save themselves and this family from destruction."
Nox felt her eye twitch. Would it have been so hard to explain this to her from the start?
"Feel free to wait as long as you like in case an Elder becomes available, but I would advise you to return in two months when the war ends." The servant turned to leave, "If not, you know the way out."
Nox watched the door close with irritation. The Voidmind servants were known to be brash with outsiders, but that was clear disrespect.
Just because I could not offer an exorbitant upfront payment, they treat me like this? Nox cursed as she looked at her freshly healed hand with a single golden spatial ring containing a few emergency pills she had purchased from the Lotus Informat. Cultivators often used spatial rings to gauge another's wealth quickly, so the fact she had a single golden spatial ring showed she was dirt poor.
Nox let out a long sigh to calm down and looked out the window. To think the Voidmind family is going to war, though. Wouldn't such an event force the Blood Lotus Sect's Patriarch to make a move? There's no way a war between two pillar families of the sect can go ahead. Right?
War aside, that didn't help Nox's problem. Despite the Celestial Warden's best efforts, he could not find a way to purge the curse festering in her infant Nascent Soul. She needed the help of a Voidmind Elder.
Although I could wait for the war to end. Right now, I am effectively crippled. My cultivation can't advance, and I am wasting Qi suppressing the curse from spreading from my infant Nascent Soul into my soul and body. I also have little wealth to my name, especially if someone manages to kill Stella Crestfallen, and I have to bid farewell to my 6,000 Yinxi Coins.
Nox looked at the mountain range to the east. With the smog gone, she could see the silhouette of the Red Vine Peak, where she had become cursed. This was all that bastard Stella's fault. Deciding to leave the room she had been trapped in for nine hours to clear her head, Nox exited and walked down the long, empty corridor, lost in thought.
I can't return to the Tainted Cloud Sect without getting this sorted. There is nothing the Celestial Warden can do for me. Let's see, I have two options here. Either I wait around at this residence in a desperate hope that a void cultivator will help me, or I somehow gather enough wealth to tempt an Elder to help me.
Nox paused mid-stride as an idea came to mind.
What if I went and killed Stella? That would nullify the bounty, and I would have my 6,000 Yinxi coins returned, giving me enough wealth to convince an Elder to help me. Yes, that could work—
"Excuse me, Merchant."
A sudden voice broke Nox from her thoughts—she turned around and saw a black-haired man with the distinct features of the Voidmind family. Searching her memory, she matched a name to the face.
"Jasper Voidmind?" Nox's eyes widened. He wasn't the most talented or well-connected member of the Voidmind family's younger generation, but that didn't matter. He had void Qi, and that was all she needed!
"If you are still looking for help, I have someone who wishes to meet you," Jasper said in a hushed tone, and his eyes seemed shifty.
"Who?"
"Dante Voidmind," Jasper replied with a strained smile.
That name reminded Nox that, according to the servant, it was Dante Voidmind's failure that caused this war to break out and was, therefore, the source of her problems. If anything, she would love to punch him in the face and give him a piece of her mind.
"Is there no chance you could help me with my problem?" Nox asked, "I will be indebted to you and can—"
Jasper raised his hand to silence her, "Absolutely not. My void Qi is far too precious to waste on such a thing when I might have Skyrend bastards hurling lightning bolts my way soon. I would curse your name to the afterlife if I ran out of Qi while trying to block an attack."
"Fine," Nox understood their apprehension about helping her. What was her promise of repaying a debt worth when facing the Skyrend family in battle? Not much. "Take me to see Dante Voidmind."
***
Dante kept stealing glances at the training room's door. He had caught wind of a well-known Merchant willing to trade a favor for assistance with something that required void Qi. Since he had no need to upkeep his void Qi for the upcoming war, as it would only start with his capture in two months, he was willing to trade his precious void Qi for any help.
Dante stood up and looked at both his arms, which had been replaced with silver prosthetics. Much to his mother's horror, he had meticulously chopped off and replaced parts of his body one by one with silver that had runic void gathering arrays inscribed into them. Thanks to replacing both arms, legs, half his face, and his chest with silver, he had soared up two stages of cultivation in a single month and felt unstoppable.
I have just reached the 5th stage of the Star Core Realm, so I have some Qi to spare for a worthwhile trade. I had hoped to reach the peak of the Star Core Realm before the year's end and challenge my Father to death, but this pace is too slow. Two stages in one month seem to be my limit with all these runic augments, and it will only slow from here, so the highest I can reach is around the eighth stage of the Star Core Realm at best.
With his grand plan of killing his own family off the table, Dante had two options left. Clear his name by finding the void monster, or run for the hills and wait for his inevitable death as the Voidmind Elder and even his Father would hunt him to the end of the realm.
"I have brought the Merchant as requested, Dante," Jasper called out as the door creaked open.
Dante had been abandoned by everyone since news of his failure got out, but to his surprise, Jasper, who had irritated him so much in the past, had stuck by his side. Even now, Dante couldn't understand the guy.
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A tall woman shrouded in layers of black robes entered the room and spoke gruffly, "Greetings Dante Voidmind. My name is Nox. I have done a lot of business with your family over the years and came seeking a favor in a time of need, which I will naturally return in the future."
"Let's cut to the chase. We are both busy people with little time to waste." Dante spoke seriously, "What do you need me to do?"
Nox fell silent momentarily before her shadow moved and swung around to her front. Her shadow then slowly stood up as if it were a person emerging from the ground and faced Dante.
"What is this?" Dante asked with confusion.
"Look a little closer."
Dante did as suggested, and only now did he see what appeared to be black roots spreading throughout the shadow, which he had mistaken as veins.
"I was cursed due to eating a pill provided to me by someone," Nox explained, "I managed to transfer the curse to my infant Nascent Soul, but without this curse being purged by void Qi, I have no way to keep cultivating."
For her to resort to void Qi to purge it, it must be one without a known counter. Dante concluded.
"Who gave you the pill?" Dante asked. Something about these black roots was ticking him off. They seemed eerily similar to those of the demonic trees infested Darklight City. Nox remained silent to his question, so he added, "Was it someone near Darklight City, perhaps?"
"How did you know?" Nox asked. Her tone was defensive.
Merchants are always so skeptical of everything, though I suppose that's how they survive so long. Dante mused as he stepped away from inspecting the standing shadow.
Dante pulled back the sleeve of his cloak and showed his silver arm, "I don't know what the others have told you, but I was framed. My Father asked me to seize control of Darklight City from the Redclaws during an alchemy tournament they were hosting. There, I noticed an infestation of demonic trees with roots similar to those throughout your shadow."
"Mhm, I see," Nox shifted a little closer, "Would the name Roselyn or Stella mean anything to you?"
Dante felt a thousand puzzle pieces fall into place. Somehow, everything strange that had occurred recently came back to that woman.
"Roselyn was present in the alchemy tournament and represented the Redclaws." Dante rubbed his chin, "She had a mysterious background. There were rumors that she was connected to the Celestial Empire, as she knew the recipe for a pill only made there." Dante explained as he began pacing the room, his silver legs clinking on the stone floor. "I commanded my Elders to capture Roselyn at the end of the tournament, but they all ended up dead after chasing her. Then the Skyrends scions were also murdered, and their deaths were pinned on me. Hence, the war became set to begin, and I lost my darn arm to the void."
"So we have the same enemy," Nox said as she withdrew her hood. Black hair fell over a skull mask that concealed her face. "Roselyn, also known as Stella Crestfallen, is the one who hid this horrific curse within a pill. I ask you to use your void Qi to eradicate the curse from my infant Nascent Soul."
Dante eyed the standing shadow, "That is acceptable, but damage to the soul will be unavoidable. Won't losing so much progress in your cultivation be a major setback?"
Nox waved him off, and he noticed her single golden spatial ring. Just how far had this Merchant fallen?
"Not worth worrying about. I can recover my cultivation within a month. So what do you want as a favor in return?"
That was a good question. Dante despised his family right now, but that was only because they didn't respect him. If he could clear his name by finding his uncle and that void beast and reverse the war, their judgment would become less clouded, and they would be able to see how great he was once more.
"I need help tracking down a void beast to prove my innocence."
"A void beast?" Nox seemed surprised, "That... will be difficult. Void Qi would make it impossible to track down, and facing a feral creature able to wield the void would be far too dangerous and Qi-intensive. I can't guarantee success. Do you have any details about this void beast at least? Like where it was the last seen, and how strong it is?"
"It has been spotted numerous times around this region, but it was last reported to have attacked the Skyrend family and wiped out half of their cultivators in a single night..."
Nox laughed in his face as if he were a fool, "Yeah, there's no way I am going after something that dangerous when I can just wait a few months for one of your Elders to help instead. I will take my leave if that is all you wish to ask of me."
"Wait. Those are fair points." Dante gritted his teeth. He hated it, but he needed this woman's help. "In truth, I have also been apprehensive about tracking the beast down, and the little I have tried has yielded no results. The darn thing is like a ghost. It was improper of me to request such a thing, so I have another proposal. Help me get away from here and set up a new life. Though I must warn you, the servants are watching my actions, and the Elders can track me down if I try to escape, so that complicates matters."
"Oh?" Nox crossed her arms, "Now that's something I can certainly do. Though I am a little short of money at the moment."
"That's going to be an issue," Dante muttered under his breath, "I spent everything I had on these silver augments."
"I have friends in high places in the Tainted Cloud Sect west of here. I could take you there and help you start a new life. Don't fret the small details."
Dante liked the sound of the plan but was suspicious of Nox following through with it once her curse was lifted. Turning to his friend waiting by the door, "Jasper, you have bore witness to this deal, yes? Go to a safe room. If I escape with Nox tonight and don't send you a confirmation message through a communication talisman that I have settled down in the Tainted Cloud Sect within the next month, have Mother ban Nox from setting foot near Slymere and send the Elders to hunt her. Understood?"
Jasper looked between the two and nodded, "You can depend on me, Dante."
With that, he left in a hurry.
Nox clicked her tongue, "A cautious one, aren't you?"
"I find the terms agreeable," Dante said, ignoring her comment. "I will now try and purge this curse from your shadow, and once that is done, we will leave this place together. Right?"
Nox nodded, so Dante got to work.
He placed his hands on the shadow's chest where the vines seemed densest and began inserting void Qi into the infant Nascent Soul. Nox started to scream at the top of her lungs as the void Qi ate away at her infant soul.
"Just bear with it. The roots seem to be originating from one location." Dante said as his void Qi carved deeper into the shadow.
"The... the seed." Nox gasped out, "Kill... the...agh—seed."
Dante wasn't entirely sure what Nox was referring to. But he was sure to find out as his void Qi efficiently eradicated the roots, slowly squirming inside the shadow. Every few seconds that passed cost him a day's worth of stored-up Qi, so Dante pressed forward with little regard.
The roots seemed to lash out aggressively and swarmed around a central point he soon reached within the shadow's chest where the heart should be.
"Oh, I see the seed now." Dante eradicated the last of the roots tightly wrapped around and protecting the seed. Feeling the strain on his own Star Core, he tried to obliterate the seed in one go, but it resisted.
"What?" Dante blurted out as he wrapped the seed in his void Qi, yet it refused to disappear. No matter how much void Qi he surged into the black seed, Nox only screamed louder, and the seed remained unfazed.
It was the first thing he had ever encountered that was void immune. Withdrawing from the shadow, he saw a tiny root sprout from the tip of the seed.
Dante reeled back—horrified. His skin crawled, thinking the seed might have spread to him somehow. "What a nasty curse," he said as Nox finally stopped screaming at the top of her lungs and collapsed to the floor, "It's void immune. I've never seen such a thing."
Nox recovered quickly and managed to suppress the root's growth with her own Qi.
"Shit, the seed is fucking void immune?!?" Nox cursed out, gripped her head in both hands and pulled at her hair. She then began to manically speak to herself. "What can I do? This is all Stella's fault. Kill Stella. How? Too strong. Agh, fuck. How can it be immune to the void?"
Dante stood there bewildered.
Nox turned to Dante in a rage, "How is this possible? Tell me how? The void is supposed to consume all!"
"I... I don't know." Dante suspected that the curse could be of a divine origin, but he didn't wish to disclose that as it wouldn't help his chances. This crazy woman was his ticket out of here, and he had wasted weeks of Qi and failed to purge her curse.
"Why don't you go and ask Stella to remove it?" Dante suggested, "Or at least ask her how to dispel it?"
"Stella... yes. What a great idea." Nox removed her mask and showed her bloodshot eyes, "I'll rip this curse out and shove it through her skull and then watch as her corpse turns into a fucking tree from the inside and see how she likes it."
"Right..."
"And you are going to help me," Nox stood up and grabbed his arm with gorilla strength, "Lead me to a void chamber."
"Why?" Dante dared ask.
"So I can ascend to Nascent Soul away from the heaven's wrath." Nox tightened her grip, "With the condition of my infant soul, it will only take a few days to recover, and then I will start the ascension process."
"But the curse... are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I have no other choice. If the void can't help me, then nobody in this realm except for Stella has a chance of knowing how to remove it, and there's no way she will tell me how without some brute force. And for that, I need to ascend. I am too weak as I am right now." Nox said confidently, as if it were the easiest thing in the world, "I promise once I kill that bitch and rid myself of this curse, I can take you back to the Tainted Cloud Sect and help you escape this place. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Dante slowly nodded. Freedom aside, he also wouldn't mind if Roselyn, who he was convinced played a significant role in his framing, died.
"But what about the Elders who will follow me if I try to escape?" Dante asked, "They will interfere with our fight to rid yourself of the curse."
Nox flashed a crazed grin. "Good. If you throw yourself at an enemy, you will have the Voidmind Elders flock to your rescue. Use them as meatshields. You are far more valuable to them alive rather than dead."
Dante felt it rather fitting for him to command those who turned their backs on him to their deaths. All in all, this seemed like a perfect plan.
