Ashlock surged his power through the mountain to create a portal before Stella.
She had been focusing on axing the shadowy humanoid floating before Nox's tree, so the sudden portal's appearance caught her off guard, and she let out a yelp as she tumbled through face first and ate the dirt nearby.
"Ugh," Stella groaned as the axe she had got from god knows where went flying. Such a dramatic redirect had not been his intention, and if Stella had been focusing, she could have easily avoided such a dramatic fall.
Ashlock was unsure of the situation despite Nox's insistence that it was a misunderstanding. Deciding it was better safe than sorry, Ashlock used {Progeny Dominion} on Nox. Since she was morphed into a tree from his curse and fused with his roots, she was now one of his many offspring and, therefore, under his control.
[Progeny selected: Initiating soul transfer...]
Ashlock felt a piece of his soul break off and travel through his roots. As it descended, the mountain glowed and trembled with power due to his presence. The spectacle of a mere fragment of his soul moving outside his body had grown more extreme as his power increased.
[Soul fragmented: Damage to soul mitigated]
A feature of the system he appreciated as anything to do with the soul was a scary process, even with the knowledge that he could heal. Moments later, his soul fragment had journeyed across two mountain peaks and forced its way inside Nox's soul within the tree.
[Connection complete: Time till sundown 5:10]
Ashlock dismissed the notification as something felt off compared to normal. The strange feeling could be chalked up to the fact that Nox was different from his other offspring, but something else was definitely bothering him.
Looking inward, his soul fragment was floating within Nox's soul, and his system skill {Progeny Dominion} gave him an iron-like control over it. Yet something felt like it had escaped his control...
"Please forgive me, oh great tree." Ashlock heard a distant-sounding voice in his head. Following its direction, he saw the humanoid shadow floating beyond the tree's bark with her hands raised. "This really is a misunderstanding. I didn't want to scare the mortals, but I couldn't think of another way to communicate with them, so I tried to make a shadow in a humanoid shape—"
"Is it made from your Qi?" Ashlock interrupted. If it was made from her Qi, why did it feel outside of his control?
This situation reminded Ashlock of how he used to control corpses with {Root Puppet} to write in blood on the walls in an attempt to communicate. It seemed that as an ex-Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, Nox could skip many of the steps he had struggled through as a tree on the quest for communication.
"What? No... well, sort of." Nox became flustered at his question.
"For a tree, I have rather thin patience and expect obedience from my offspring," Ashlock tightened his hold on Nox's soul to prove his point, "May I remind you why you still live? I would have devoured your infant soul for dessert if not for my benevolence. So just tell me what it is. How did you make it if not from Qi?"
He hadn't been watching Nox over the last few days as he had been recovering from the terrible damage she caused to his trunk, so he didn't know if she was still the murderous merchant or had turned over a new leaf. Once he figured out how different she was now as a tree, he could treat her accordingly, but withholding information was not a good start.
"I'm sorry... your presence makes thinking hard; a thousand voices are ringing in my head, and I can't breathe under this pressure." Nox gasped, and Ashlock saw the human shadow flickering like a dying flame, "I am not trying to defy you, so please..."
Ashlock relaxed his presence as he realized he might have been too heavy-handed. Not only had Nox suffered, but the entirely black tree was now wreathed in lilac spatial flames, and everyone had stepped back to avoid being crushed by his pressure.
"Thank you," Nox's shadow regained shape, and her voice became clearer, "To answer your question, my family has a secret shadow technique called Shadow Soul. It's a rare soul technique that lets us split a piece of our soul off and have it inhabit our shadow. Though it has many other uses, I used it to pre-prepare my infant soul for my Nascent Soul ascension and now to make this."
Ashlock realized why it was outside his control since it was technically a second person, and only those fused with his roots and connected to his network were controllable with {Progeny Dominion}.
"So you used this technique to create a dryad out of shadows?" Ashlock remembered how he had devoured Nox's Shadow Soul before and gained many credits. "What are some of its disadvantages?"
Since Nox didn't have the system to handle the process and prevent soul damage, he felt such a powerful and secret technique would come with some downsides.
"Same as all soul-based techniques. It takes trial and error to learn new techniques, and when the penalty for failure is soul death, few have the guts to try, and of those that do, most die on their first try. For this technique specifically, the main downside is that if the Shadow Soul dies, you lose that part of yourself forever. Which can cause a sharp change in personality and warped view of the world."
"Did that happen to you when I devoured your Shadow Soul when you were escaping?" Ashlock asked.
Nox's shadow shrugged, "That's the worst part, I have no idea. Soul damage is far more sinister than losing an arm, as you don't know what is missing."
That was something Ashlock knew all too well. Thankfully, the system kept him from changing too much when he used {Progeny Dominion}, but he did feel like a part of him returned once the skill ended at nightfall.
"So Nox was able to make this human form due to a secret shadow affinity technique," Ashlock mused, "I wonder if spatial Qi would let me do something similar? Not that I am too fussed about having a humanoid body anymore, as I am far more comfortable in my bark and can do anything I want."
More importantly, he could not fully restrain this Shadow Soul of Nox's, which was a concern. Not that he would tell her that.
"Best I keep siphoning most of her Qi to keep her from growing too strong before I turn her into a bastion." Ashlock's {Skyborne Bastion} skill meant he would gain more control over Nox as the Bastion Core she would draw power from would be directly linked to him through his {Ethereal Roots}. The only issue is he needed 1000 credits to use the skill, and he was saving toward the 10,000 credits he needed to ascend to form his Inner World.
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"Why did you do that, Ash," Stella grumbled as she finally got to her feet after eating the dirt and patted herself down. "Nox was clearly hurting those mortals I went through so much effort to save, yet you are protecting her!"
"Mistress Stella, if I may..." Julian, who had recovered, gave her a bow.
Stella crossed her arms and looked down at Julian despite the specs of dirt still on her face, "What is it, Julian?"
"We also thought the shadow spirit was trying to attack us, but we misunderstood its intentions. It simply hid behind the trunk, watching us cultivate, and when we discovered its existence, it made no effort to attack us." Julain clenched his fists at his side, "I ended up nearly passing out by expending all my Qi on defending my family. Yet the shadow spirit gave me some of its Qi to stabilize my condition despite my family's attempts to ward it off."
Stella raised a brow, "So you're an idiot."
Julain froze under Stella's glare.
"The word you're looking for is 'inexperienced,' Stella. Not idiot." Diana shook her head as she went to pick up the discarded axe. "They only became cultivators recently, so it's natural that they didn't know about Qi deprivation. Give them a break."
"I didn't need anyone to tell me that using Qi until you pass out is a bad idea—"
"Did you forget you have a bloodline library in your head?" Ashlock pointed out.
Stella paused mid-sentence and frowned, "That's true." She stopped looking at Julian and focused back on the shadow floating before the tree, "So it was a misunderstanding. Nox was not attacking but trying to help instead?"
"Yes, that is why I stopped you." Ashlock said, "And as you can see, a fragment of Nox's soul may inhabit this tree, but she is now one of my many offspring. So chopping her down with an axe hurts me too."
Stella's lips rounded into an 'O', and panic appeared in her eyes, "I would never hurt you! Never ever—"
"I know Stella, I don't blame you," Ashlock reassured her, "The situation looked bad when we arrived, and I am sorry for making you eat the ground when you were just trying to save them."
Stella scratched the back of her head awkwardly, "Looks like I jumped to conclusions. So what is that shadow thing? Is it Nox? Can it speak?"
The shadow shook her head, "I only formed this Shadow Soul moments ago. Perhaps I could figure out a way to speak with my Qi in time, but I can only shout in my mind for now."
Ashlock relayed Nox's words to Stella.
"Is this the same Nox we know?" Stella questioned as she walked around the floating shadow woman with a frown.
"Well? Are you?" Ashlock asked Nox.
"I couldn't be further from the Nox you knew if I tried; not only was the majority of my soul taken from me, but I am forced to reflect on my past actions through fragmented memories at night under the nine moons."
"You are also taken to that dreamscape and have your soul healed during the night?"
"Yes, alongside the rest of the forest." Nox replied, "Should I not?"
"To enter there means you really have become one of my offspring. What do you think of the place? Any idea's what the moons could mean?"
"My time under the moons is spent reflecting on my past, so I never thought too deeply about the moons themselves," Nox hummed in thought, "I can take a closer look and think more about it for you tonight?"
"That would be helpful. I hope you understand my hesitation to trust you, but if you help me, I will help you in return."
"I understand my position. I am to watch over Ashfallen City and repay my debts to you with Qi."
Ashlock felt it almost suspicious how reasonable Nox was being compared to his image of her in his mind, but as she mentioned, she is basically a new person under his domain now. Messing with the soul did that to a person.
"I am glad we have reached an understanding. Was there anything you wished to do that I could help you with?" Ashlock asked.
Having lived as a tree, he knew how lonely and frustrating the early years could be. The fact Nox was already adjusting so well was likely due to missing so much of her soul from when she had been human. Did she even remember what it was like to be human?
"Would it be fine if I teach these mortals how to cultivate?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah, sorry if that is stepping out of line," Nox said, "I just wanted to help. Their techniques are too crude, and nobody seems to guide them."
That was sort of on purpose. Ashlock had wanted to see how these mortals turned cultivators via his truffles would develop independently. If he had the Redclaws teach them, and all three ended up as fire cultivators, that would be a waste in his eyes.
"Wait... since I am stuck at my bottleneck and only have to gather the sacrificial credits and required Star Cores to form my Inner World, I can spend as much Qi as I want. So I can grow as many truffles, fruit, and flowers as I wish since my Qi regeneration nowadays is absurd due to {Nocturnal Genesis} and all the forests I am connected to."
If that were the case, Ashlock could grow truffles and have as many mortals turned into cultivators as he wanted. Weak cultivators, even without oaths, did not threaten him as they lacked the resources and techniques to rise in power. But with purer spirit roots to cycle Qi in their bodies, they become more productive and resistant to disease and the cold.
"Though I still need to give all the Redclaws a spirit root improvement truffle first, and even with maximum output, I will only be able to produce enough truffles to turn a few hundred mortals into cultivators." Ashlock grew excited but then soured on the idea when he realized he would need to distribute the truffles somehow. Should he sell them? If so, to whom? And how would the truffles get from Red Vine Peak to the mortals? What a headache...
His gaze drifted beyond the trunk, realizing he had forgotten the biggest advantage of running a sect. He could simply push the work onto someone else! He had the heavenly ink oath-bound Julian right here, who had been appointed as Head of Logistics' for the mortal branch of the Ashfallen Trading company that was going to be used to sell pills to the mortals in the near future. The perfect man for the job!
"That just leaves distribution from Red Vine Peak," Ashlock pondered if he should send them via his {Ethereal Roots}, "Yeah, that could work."
"Is helping just these three really too much? I promise I won't go overboard..." Nox said with a sad sigh, and Ashlock realized he had been silent for a while, lost in his own thoughts.
"No, I was simply lost in thought as you gave me an interesting idea. You wanted to help teach people how to cultivate, right? That is fine by me... actually, I have a way you could help them and others even more."
"Really?"
"Yes, you still have the power of at least a peak Star Core, right?"
"I do, in theory," Nox said, "But I have limited Qi to work with, and my control over my Qi is far more fickle than when I was human."
"That's good enough," Ashlock had never grown truffles anywhere except below his roots, as they were too dangerous to grow elsewhere without constant protection. However, Nox was almost on par with him in power, making her the perfect guardian tree for his idea.
"Nox, I will bless you with various truffles and fruits with profound effects. You experienced some of them during the negotiations with Stella through weakened pills. I will handle the initial Qi cost."
"I don't understand..." Nox muttered.
"Just watch."
Ashlock opened his production menus. He selected one of each truffle type: Spirit Root Improvement, Heart Demon Expelling, and Skin Improvement. Qi was drained from his body through the root network, and they began to grow in the rock and dirt below Nox.
He also manifested a bundle of each fruit from her branches that he had planned to sell to mortals: Florist's Touch, Enlightenment, Neural Root, and Deep Meditation.
"What is all this!" Nox seemed baffled, "How are these growing before my eyes?"
"In your past life, you were selfish and only knew how to take from others," Ashlock said, "Now, as a tree, you have an opportunity to learn the joy of giving. These truffles and fruits are a gift you can offer to anyone you wish, but you will have to handle the Qi cost of growing them back, so be frugal."
Nox's shadow stared up at the branches that had been bare and now had stalks and the beginnings of fruits growing from them in awe. Yet Ashlock wasn't done.
"Do you have a favorite flower?"
"Not really. I never was one for gardening," Nox muttered absentmindedly.
"Okay then, what is the first flower that comes to mind?"
The shadow stopped gazing up and glanced at the little girl standing beside her parents and watching in amazement.
"Jasmine," Nox replied, "A beautiful and delicate white flower."
"Good choice," Ashlock summoned his {Blooming Root Flower Production} menu and decided to select the whole area around Nox. Qi filled the area, and the system fulfilled his order of a mountainside of jasmine.
Small white flowers bloomed from between the cracks in the rock, turning the dreary grey rock and dirt into a sea of white-like fresh snow. And in the middle of this field was Nox, the shadow tree who lorded over it all.
