Ashlock watched Stella hand the little girl one of his precious Spirit Root Improvement truffles. Although he now had far more Qi and could grow dozens in a fraction of a time compared to the past, they were still valuable. He had given Stella a couple so she could give them out as she saw fit. So he wasn't exactly mad at her for offering such a precious resource to a mortal, but it was still questionable.
All three swallowed the slice of truffle under Stella's further insistence. After a moment of nothing happening, all three's eyes widened simultaneously as their skin reddened, and their clothes became soaked in foul-smelling sludge, which Ashlock assumed were impurities, leaving their badly clogged-up spirit roots.
"Why did you give these mortals a truffle?" Ashlock asked while the three mortals screamed in pain as their spirit roots opened up and their bodies became overwhelmed by ambient Qi. "Those are precious, you know? And we already have plenty of cultivators in Darklight City that will be living in the White Stone Pavilions under the Redclaws soon. So there's no need to waste so many resources trying to force a mortal into a cultivator."
"Call it a fellow daughter's understanding," Stella laughed but then scrunched her nose at the foul stench. "Ugh, that stinks. Are mortals just walking flesh sacks of impurities?" Stella stepped back while waving the stench away from her nose with her hand. Deciding it was too much, she casually sat on the edge of the giant hole while looking down at the smoking city.
"What do you mean by a fellow daughter's understanding?" Ashlock insisted. He knew she was getting back at him for being vague earlier, but it seemed deeper than that.
Stella sighed and looked over her shoulder at the girl crying in her mother's arms from the pain of transcending her mortal flesh. "I saw a bit of myself in the girl and felt it was only fair to give her a fighting chance to keep her family alive as that's something I wished I could do in the past."
"A fighting chance? You know that all you are giving them is false hope? The world of cultivation is even more brutal than that of a mortal. Even with purified spirit roots, they have no cultivation manuals or techniques to reach the higher realms. So they can only stagnate in the upper stages of the Qi Realm as slightly stronger mortals for a few more decades."
It was a harsh outlook, but he was just being realistic. Everyone seemed to be born in this world with a spirit root and the potential for cultivation. But they were held back by two factors: the purity of those spirit roots, which people in this world called talent, and access to cultivation resources at a young age, which few outside the noble families had. These mortals had neither. Even with the Spirit Root Improvement truffle, they would be elevated from mortals with basically dead spirit roots to untalented cultivators.
Stella snorted, "Tree, you can grow these truffles within days; don't get grumpy with me—they are hardly that rare. Though I do agree with you. It makes no sense to give false hope to mortals by making them weak cultivators, but aren't you forgetting that, unlike another sect, we have near-unlimited cultivation resources? Turning these three mortals into powerful cultivators would be trivial to us."
Ashlock grumbled to himself, "Easy for you to say when you aren't the one spending Qi on growing them."
If he hadn't grown a single truffle until this point, he would easily be in the 9th stage of the Star Core Realm and on his way to forming a Nascent Soul. They weren't candies to be handed out to random people—hell, most of the Redclaws hadn't even been given one yet! What put these mortals ahead of the loyal Redclaw family?
Ashlock sighed and decided what was done was done. No point dwelling on it. "Fine, only these three will serve as a good case study for how my cultivation resources affect mortals, but no more. I have abundant food and land to provide the other mortals, but the cultivation resources are best spent developing the strength of our people first."
Perhaps far in the future, he would have no qualms with helping mortals because his offspring could grow these truffles, or he had so much Qi that it was insignificant.
After all, he had been mortal once and understood what even a few more decades of life would mean to them, but there were simply too many mortals in this world to help, and he had too many enemies to be wasting resources on such a thing.
"I agree. I might have gotten a little ahead of myself," Stella stood up and dusted herself off as the screaming of the three ex-mortals calmed down. "What should we do with them? Do you want me to lead them back home? Or were you serious about saving the other mortals of Slymere?"
Ashlock realized they had gotten a little distracted, but Zeus was currently drawing a good portion of the lightning to himself, so the city's destruction had lessened.
"Wait one moment, I'll handle it." Ashlock's vision blurred until he was in the study of the White Stone Palace, where he found the Redclaw Grand Elder leisurely reading over some reports and munching on a spicy fire fruit. The contrast between the chaos and destruction a mere airship ride away and the peaceful study almost gave Ashlock whiplash.
"Grand Elder, I require your assistance with something," Ashlock said via {Abyssal Whispers} in the man's mind, and the poor guy almost choked on the fruit and fell out of his chair in shock at the sudden voice and hallucinations.
"Ahem. How may I assist the immortal?" The Grand Elder awkwardly shuffled the parchments in his hands and tried to play off the earlier shameful display.
"Slymere is currently undergoing a violent lightning storm that is either the result of an attack by the Skyrend family or an ascension. I haven't verified which one so far, but that's beside the point." Ashlock paused to let that sink in, "What I need your help with is escorting a mortal family that Stella turned into cultivators to a room somewhere here in the palace so I can keep a close eye on them and—"
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"What?!" The Grand Elder shouted but quickly covered his mouth, "My apologies for the interruption."
Ashlock knew the man was usually very composed, so he was curious about what had caused such an intense reaction. "What did I say that got you so surprised?" It could have been any one of the things he said. Was the news of an attack or ascension that shocking?
"You claimed that Stella turned mortals into cultivators?" The Grand Elder said seriously, "That is frankly unprecedented. I've never in all my years heard of that happening before. I thought it was believed that mortals were either born with the talent to cultivate or not. Though, to be fair, even if there was a mystical way to achieve such a feat, I suppose there would be little gain in doing so other than acquiring wealth."
"Wealth?"
The Grand Elder nodded, "Some mortals are surprisingly wealthy despite their short lives. Often by working under the noble families and doing their dirty work like transporting spirit stones or selling them servants."
Ashlock unexpectedly realized an untapped market he had overlooked before and felt foolish. He had assumed only cultivators would want to buy cultivation resources and had gone to great lengths to try and find a distribution channel that wouldn't get him killed, but there had been a city filled with millions of mortals nearby that he could sell to all along.
"Now that I think about it, wouldn't the billionaires back on Earth pay anything to get their hands on the truffle Stella had nonchalantly gifted that family? Even if in the grand schemes of this world, their change is insignificant compared to the powerful cultivations, for a mortal, it would be invaluable."
Ashlock decided he should look into this some more. Perhaps he could have this mortal family help run a branch of the Ashfallen Trading company that focused on selling very watered-down products to mortals since the man called Julian had mentioned working with cultivators before he got stuck by lightning. If so, giving them the truffle wouldn't have been a complete waste.
In fact, it already has yielded some interesting data.
"If I recall correctly when the Redclaws ate the Spirit Root Improvement truffle, their soul flames became purer over time. Meanwhile, the three mortals had impurities expelled from their bodies instead, as they had no soul flame."
Ashlock was curious to see how taking the truffle at the start of one's cultivation journey would affect a cultivator in the long term. If the truffle had a similar effect on the mortal's spirit roots and they continued to improve over time, then perhaps turning mortals into cultivators wasn't as wasteful as it sounded.
"So I guess I will need to wait for one of them to reach the Soul Fire Realm and acquire an affinity to see how pure their soul flames are." Ashlock pondered and was rather glad about his decision to save the mortals and have Stella meet them, as it had opened up a potential new avenue.
"Anyway, I apologize for interrupting you," The Grand Elder said after noticing Ashlock's brief silence. "Please continue with what you were saying."
Ashlock realized he had gotten sidetracked, "I will be opening a portal to Slymere, and I want you to bring the three mortals that have been turned into cultivators back here and look after them. I will also send thousands of Slymere mortals through portals into the large square in the middle of the White Stone Pavilion. A lot of them will likely be very distressed and require assistance. Tell them they can restart their lives in Darklight City or take the first airship back to Slymere once the storm ends."
The Grand Elder quickly stood up, and his chair fell to the ground with a thud, "Why would you do such a thing?"
Ashlock paused—that was a good question. Why was he doing all this? What drove him to save thousands of mortals he cared little for?
Was he doing this as a roundabout way to selfishly preserve his humanity? To tip the balance of karma weighing on his soul for all the times he turned a blind eye when mortals died such as to the giant worm he antagonized? Was it guilt? Did he perhaps have a hero complex he was trying to stroke? Or an ulterior motive, such as using these people as cheap labor?
As it turned out, the answer was far simpler than all that.
"Because I can," Ashlock replied to the Grand Elder.
His branches reached for the stars while his roots spread throughout the land. With a simple thought, he had the power to eradicate the millions of mortals that called Darklight City home, and with an equal amount of effort, he could save the people of Slymere.
What was the point of having cultivated this level of power if he didn't intend to use it for what he felt like doing? He no longer had to cower in the shadows of the mountain and fear being discovered. The cat was out of the bag; the Ashfallen Trading Company's name and location were displayed on the pendants of every bounty hunter throughout the wilderness. People were coming, and he was ready.
"Because you can," The Grand Elder mumbled as he stroked his chin. "How can such a simple phrase hold so much depth? It speaks of your character, your unimaginable power, and your generosity. For someone as mighty as yourself to care for the life of those measly mortals makes me question my own actions. As they say, kindness is a virtue. All good deeds find their way back in unimaginable ways."
Ashlock watched the Grand Elder close his eyes for a moment. Was he undergoing some sort of enlightenment? A while passed, and Ashlock decided that time was running out, so he set the anchor point and created a portal between the study and where he had left Stella.
The Grand Elder's eyes snapped open, and Ashlock could see a deep profoundness in his eyes. They were tranquil and calm as if nothing would faze the man. "The immortal is wise," He said as he drifted across the study toward the portal with his arms behind his back, "It would be my honor to carry out your request."
Passing through the portal, the Grand Elder didn't even react to the stench of smoke mixed with impurities as he exchanged a short nod with Stella, who had patiently waited.
"Apologise for my late arrival, Mistress. Are these the mortals you granted cultivation to?"
"That is correct, Grand Elder," Stella nodded, "Have you come to take them away?"
"Per the immortal's commands, I will bring them back to the White Stone Palace for safety." The Grand Elder stopped before the mother and offered them a smile. "If you can stand, please follow me."
All three had stopped screaming due to the pain and were now collapsed on the floor and breathing heavily. They likely would have passed out if not for the healing light still present in their bodies from earlier.
Catherine was the first to get up, closely followed by Julian, who picked his daughter up and draped her exhausted body over his shoulder. With a nod, the group followed behind the Redclaw Grand Elder to the portal.
"Even if you aren't a goddess, thank you for saving us," The daughter called out sleepily from her father's shoulder.
Stella briefly glanced over her shoulder with her white mask still on and simply returned a nod before returning to surveying the destruction down below.
The portal snapped closed. With them out of the way, Ashlock made one more portal and sent Sol to stand by in the large square where he would send the Slymere mortals. He had no doubt that some of them would require healing.
Ashlock was about to ask Stella if she was ready once that portal closed when he heard someone shouting from above.
"I knew the Skyrend bastards had gone against the rules," a tall, slender man who resembled an older Dante Voidmind stood upon a sword with a lance of void conjuring in his hand. Judging by his presence and appearance, there was a good chance this was the Voidmind Grand Elder and Dante Voidmind's Father.
