Ashlock enjoyed the afternoon sun as he idly watched Jasmine complete her laps. Judging by her cursing at the skies, she seemed to think she was alone up here, but that was not the case.
"Don't you think over a hundred laps is a bit too far, Stella?" Ashlock asked his adopted daughter, who was hiding away from her Disciple in his canopy.
Her eyes were closed as she rested her head against his trunk and listened to his rustling leaves. It had gotten colder as winter approached, but the cold didn't bother cultivators. Stella wore her usual white clothes, which looked more like pajamas, and no shoes—a getup that would cause a mortal to shiver in this cold, but Stella was unfazed.
"It was her choice. She should live with the consequences," Stella murmured without fully waking up. "Do you not agree with my methods, Tree?"
"I wouldn't have gone along with your plan of devouring the man as you granted him 'freedom' if I disagreed with the lesson you were trying to teach Jasmine, but she is still an eight-year-old mortal girl. Running a hundred laps in this cold is too much."
Stella stirred awake with a frown. "She isn't a mortal anymore."
"I suppose that's true," Ashlock hesitantly replied. "But she is only in the fourth stage of the Qi Realm, right? Isn't that a level of cultivation mortals could naturally reach by the end of their lifetime if they live in a Qi-rich area?"
Stella stretched her back with a yawn, "The fourth stage sounds a little high for a mortal to naturally reach, but that's not important. She's not a normal cultivator either."
"How so?"
"There are diminishing returns, but I have fed Jasmine a Spirit Root Improvement and Heart Demon Expelling truffle every single day to give her a flawless foundation." Stella pushed Ashlock's leaves aside and peered through his canopy at Jasmine in the distance. "Foundation aside, she is also keen to learn and listens to me most of the time, which is rare for someone so young."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"She does seem like the perfect student for you," Ashlock agreed. "Do you think she is on track to be able to compete in the Darklight City tournament in a few week's time?"
"I don't see why not," Stella said, returning to sitting against his trunk and hiding from her Disciple. "Her cultivation speed is coming along nicely, and she shows promise in combat after fighting my illusions. I would even go so far as to call her rather talented at cultivation, but she has a fatal flaw. No matter her cultivation level and capabilities in a fight, it's all useless if she's unable to go for a killing blow when it matters."
"Jasmine is too naive." Ashlock sighed. "Kindness to a foe could lead to the death of a friend."
Stella nodded. "A lesson I would prefer she learned without having to cradle the corpse of a loved one in her arms. She may call me a heartless demon of a Master or be cursing me right now as she runs those laps, but one day, she will thank me."
"You know, I will admit I had low expectations, but I am starting to think you are not so bad as a Master."
Stella smiled, "Thanks Tree."
"I still won't admit you are the best Master until you win the bet, though!"Ashlock laughed, "Remember, Jasmine has to beat Amber Redclaw in a duel for me to admit that."
"Yeah, yeah." Stella waved him off, "I will train her well, and in the end, even she will have to admit I am a great Master—"
"Master... is a... demon!" Jasmine shouted to the sky from across the peak between deep breaths, "I'm going... to... die..."
"Are you sure about that?" Ashlock asked, and Stella's eye twitched.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})***
Eventually, Jasmine passed out after sixty laps, and Stella took her to sleep back at home before heading over to the Duskwalker residence with Diana to prepare for the killing of Albis Lunarshade later tonight.
Meanwhile, Ashlock looked down at the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion from above with {Eye of the Tree God}. Stella had told him a demonic tree was growing in the Crimson Tracker area, and he fully intended to see if he could link his root up with it.
For the last few hours, he had been pouring Qi into an ethereal root, and so far, it had easily penetrated every layer of defensive formations as it rose through the center of the mountain. Sometimes, he had to narrowly direct it around a room built inside the mountain to avoid drawing attention to himself. If a tree could sweat sap, he would be drenched right now.
"This sure is risky," Ashlock mumbled, "But there is no sign of them noticing my root yet, and I should be drawing close."
The defensive formations couldn't stop his ethereal root. However, they suppressed his spiritual sense, so he had to eyeball where the Crimson Tracker area was from outside by the vague colors he could see through the formations. It was far from ideal, and if anyone caught on and alerted the Celestial Warden, he would have to abort the mission as fast as a tree could, which was a speed comparable to a slightly alarmed turtle.
"Just a few more meters..." Ashlock took his time as the afternoon turned to evening. Just when he thought Stella might have been mistaken, his ethereal root made contact with another tree's roots, and judging by the acid it secreted into the soil, it was definitely a demonic tree.
Intertwining his roots, Ashlock knew it would take at least a day before their roots fully fused and this demonic tree joined his offspring. But he still wanted to look around, so using the demonic tree as cover, he poked his ethereal root out of the soil within a gap under one of the tree's exposed roots.
Expanding out his spiritual senses, he was surprised that the suppression was less up here than when traveling through the Iron Seeker area. "Everything is so blurry, though," Ashlock grumbled as he glanced around. He could only see a few dozen meters in every direction, and what he assumed was the Crimson Tracker pavilion was completely unpenetrable.
A few figures wearing black robes and red jade masks strode past, neither paying the silent demonic tree in the middle of the square a second glance. "This reminds me of when I first came to this world. Blurry vision, distorted voices, and unable to do much."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Luckily, he didn't have to rely on only spiritual sight. Casting {Eye of the Tree God}, his view shifted to the sky above the demonic tree. With a clear view of the Crimson Tracker area, he could now appreciate how big the demonic tree he was hiding under was.
"Strange, a tree this big should have developed into a spirit tree of at least the Qi Realm by now," Ashlock wondered and then remembered how the defensive formations on this mountain were like a black hole in how they sucked in all the surrounding Qi. "This poor tree has been starved of Qi its whole life. No wonder it's so far behind on its path to becoming a spirit tree."
That aside, Ashlock was happy. He now had peace of mind as he could watch over his sect members as they caused havoc here in the Eternal Pursuit Pavillion. "I will also be able to help them once I fuse my roots with this demonic tree and can use my full power through it via {Progeny Dominion}. Oh, actually, I have an idea..."
Ashlock began to hollow out the ethereal root. "This will give Stella and Diana a way to quickly escape here if needed. I will keep the top of it closed for now as I don't want some random bounty hunter falling through, but I can open it when needed."
Now that he had secured his adopted daughter an escape route, it was time to scout out her workplace to ensure everything was safe. Humming to himself, he checked out each building in the square. If he had to guess based on the signs, these were trading halls, such as the alchemy hall, with a pill bottle carved into its sign.
Unfortunately, he couldn't venture into any of the buildings and was stuck looking down at them from above. Although {Eye of the Tree God} may allow him to ignore the defensive formation suppression, he could not look through walls with it.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Ashlock sighed, "If only my spiritual sight wasn't so suppressed, I would be able to freely look inside the buildings. Whatever, let's check out the rest of this place."
Besides the trading halls, he found an arena behind the Crimson Tracker pavilion. "This looks far more impressive than the Iron Seeker arena that Diana described, which sounded more like a sand pit." Ashlock was grateful they had gone for an open roof so he could look inside. The easiest way to describe what he saw was an arena befitting of hell with black and red everywhere.
There was still a sand pit, but it was blood-red sand this time. Meanwhile, the stands seemed to be made of a rock similar to obsidian and covered in veins of silvery spirit stones that interconnected to create a vast formation. "I bet that protects the spectators from the battle."
From his understanding, Crimson Trackers were often in the Star Core Realm, so such precautions made sense. Qi Realm cultivators could only empower their bodies with Qi, and Soul Fire Realm cultivators could imbue their Qi into weapons like swords or long-range attacks. Child's play in comparison to Star Core Realm fights where combat was taken to the skies on flying swords, and their exerted presence alone was enough to make weaker cultivators kneel.
"It makes me wonder what a fight between Nascent Soul or even Monarch Realm cultivators would look like," Ashlock mused as he moved on to another area. "It's a level of power that is hard to fathom despite being on the cusp of ascending to that realm myself."
Beyond the square, all Ashlock found were other smaller shops and houses.
"People live up here?" Ashlock wondered. "Oh yeah, they did mention that the Lotus Informant that shouted out their names lived on the mountain peak, so they couldn't easily get revenge on her. I suppose it makes sense. Those Lotus Informants know too much information to be allowed to walk around freely."
In the residential area, everyone walked around wearing the same black cloak and mask, so it was hard to differentiate who was a Lotus Informant and who was a cultivator. There were also guards patrolling the area, who stood out as their black cloaks had giant red phoenixes embroidered on their backs and were openly carrying weapons.
Ashlock looked around some more. Besides restaurants and more shops, he didn't find anything of interest. Since the evening drew near, he decided to check on Stella at the Duskwalker residence.
***
Having searched the entire residence and coming up empty, Ashlock eventually found Stella in a rather peculiar situation in the basement. She was standing beside Larry, and the two were putting on a show for dozens of cultivators from the Mystshroud family. Stella was using her spatial Qi to make the air ripple and bend to her will, while Larry's body, made from silver ash, was shimmering and shifting, making him look like a divine deity as they stood on a podium.
"Stella, what the hell are you doing?" Ashlock asked in confusion, "I leave you two alone for a few hours and come back to this nonsense..."
"Oh, Tree. Great timing," Stella replied mentally, "I got bored talking to the other Elders, so I came to see what Larry was up to, and it seemed fun."
"Right... what is he doing exactly?"
Stella shrugged, "Dunno. These idiots seem to think he is some divine being, but none of them can understand the ancient runic language, so he has done nothing but wave his legs at them, which seems enough to earn their awe."
"I see," Ashlock muttered as he looked over the crowd. They all had distinctive silver hair and deep violet eyes. However, one girl stood out from the rest as she was right at the front and seemed far more into it than anyone else as she slammed her head repeatedly into the floor. "Who's that crazy girl at the front?"
Stella glanced down, "Ah, that's Elysia, the one corrupted by Maple's sibling."
"Mhm, having such devotion from someone capable of summoning a Worldwalker would be useful," Ashlock mused. He hadn't put a lot of thought into this whole cult thing as it felt disingenuous as he wasn't really an evil god, but if the people were happy to trick themselves into believing he was, how could he turn down such a beneficial relationship?
"Heavenly loyalty contracts are great to prevent betrayal, but they don't force the person to devote their whole being to me like a cult member would. Maybe I should lean more into this. What did those mortals in the mine call me? The All-seeing eye?"
Ashlock continued watching the zealous devotion and realized he could reward devotion with pills. "Actually, no evil cult is complete without a secret language. Since Larry can only speak the ancient runic language, I should have them all become fluent with Language Comprehension fruits. Oh! I also want to be able to speak to them directly, so I should have them eat Mind Fortress fruits. Their minds are already broken from mystic Qi, so without the help of the fruit, they might even die."
Since mystic Qi let them create things from their imagination, he would give them an experience they would never forget.
"Hey, Stella."
"Yeah?"
"Let's start a cult."
***
Elysia Mystshroud wiped the blood off her forehead. The cold stone beneath her knees was cracked and pounded into the shape of her face as she had continuously bowed as deeply as she could since last night.
Her plan was simple. If she pounded the glory of this divine monster into her consciousness, perhaps it would recognize her, and its teaching would become clearer. The spider, made from a cloud of shimmering divine ash, had uttered incomprehensible words of wisdom thus far and shown them how to pray to it by waving its legs.
If only I could comprehend a speck of its divinity, I'm sure I would be able to peer further into the beyond! Elysia got giddy just thinking about it, so with all her strength, she bowed once again, smashing her face into the rock.
"Rejoice!" A woman's voice carried by Qi filled the room, silencing everyone.
Who dares? Elysia straightened her back and was surprised to see the words had come from the cloaked woman beside the divine spider.
"Your devotion has been acknowledged by the Herald of the Divine Ash, his highness King Larry of the nine realms!" The woman continued as she raised a black dagger and pointed it to the ceiling. "As such, you have earned the right to be gazed upon by the immortal who summoned him, the All-Seeing Eye!"
Elysia's entire body trembled in anticipation as she slowly rose to her feet. Yes, yes, yes, yes, this is it! The divine spider finally accepted my faith! My self-torture was not in vain!
A sudden pressure descended on the room, making everyone buckle slightly. Elysia grunted as she strained the muscles in her neck. She refused to miss the arrival of this all-seeing eye.
"Suffer under the gaze of the all-seeing eye! Those worthy should step forward under its scrutiny to receive his profound words."
The air above the woman holding the dagger cracked and rippled before a rift like no other, reaching all the way to the ceiling, slowly opened. Peering through it was an eye that would dwarf a human and contained an indescribable gaze.
This is... Elysia's mouth opened and closed as she tried to find the words to describe what she saw. The eye of man contains desire, lust, and pain, while the eye of a beast is shrouded in rage, insanity, and hunger. Elysia felt all the hairs on her neck stand at attention, and an ice-cold shiver ran down her spine like no other. This gaze is different. It belongs to a being beyond such trivial emotions and seems capable of peering straight into my soul and judging it. Something alien and incomprehensible to my puny mind!
Elysia cycled mystic Qi and opened her mind to a full mental assault. The edges of her consciousness shuddered and cracked as if something was trying to claw its way in from the other side. Even as she coughed up blood, she let it continue.
The more broken my mind, the greater my power! Elysia grinned with blood-stained teeth. It was the truth her summon had whispered to her at night as it showed her horrifying visions. The less she resisted the terror, the easier it became, and the stronger her summon also grew.
Laughing manically, she strode forward toward the eye and the portal, along with a few others trailing behind.
The dagger-holding woman and the divine spider stood aside and revealed a second, smaller portal that seemed to lead to a forest enshrouded in fog. Without fear, Elysia stepped through and felt her ears pop, and a cold wind blew past.
Is this demonic Qi mist? Elysia wondered as she glanced around. She could still feel the eyes gaze on her, so looking up, she saw the moon in the sky, which had been eclipsed by the eye peering at her through another portal. It really is the all-seeing eye. Not only can it glimpse into my soul, but it's always watching wherever I go.
A while passed, and a small group of cultivators from her family had been deemed worthy and managed to step though the portal. Some were coughing blood while others were tearing out their hair, but overall, they seemed as sane as usual.
Elysia had since calmed down and almost felt comforted by the gaze that replaced the moon.
"Okay, now that you are all here," The woman announced and pulled off her hood and mask, revealing her short blonde hair and crazed pink eyes. "My name is Stella, and I will be guiding this service today for the cult of the All-Seeing Eye. If you want to reach the next level of acceptance and to receive his divine word, you must first eat these fruits to shield your mind from breaking beyond repair and another to understand the teachings."
What fruit? Elysia wondered but was soon answered when two fruits fell through the portal in the sky and floated before her. Reaching out, she devoured both without another thought. One tasted sweet, the other sour. She felt a calming wave pass through her consciousness and also heightened attention to those speaking around her.
"Everyone done? I hope so. Otherwise, you may never be sane again." Stella laughed as the tree behind her suddenly extruded a presence similar to the one from before and burst into purple flames that reached the skies. "Now gather close. You don't want to be left out."
Elysia obeyed the words of the cult leader and huddled with the others below the burning tree. A bubble suddenly spread out, engulfing them in another dimension filled with mystic Qi.
Stella was gone, leaving them alone with the tree.
"I have deemed you worthy of joining the cult of the All-Seeing Eye." A thousand voices echoed in Elysia's mind, and the surrounding mystic Qi seemed to mirror the being's thoughts as it transitioned from an aimless purple mist to a dense forest of towering demonic trees casting a looming shadow.
Everyone else was gone; it was just her kneeling before the all-seeing eye.
Despite her surroundings, Elysia could feel the encroaching darkness barely held off by the fruit she had eaten and a million eyes on her.
The floating eye shifted and looked at her more closely, "I can feel great potential in you, Elysia Mystshroud. More than the others as you have seen things others have not."
Elysia planted her head on the ground, "I am honored by your praise." The eyes and thousand voices sent visions through her mind as if existence bent to its desires. Am I going through enlightenment?
"I appoint you as the new cult vice leader under Stella." The voice declared, "Serve me well."
Elysia looked up and met the eye's gaze. "It would be an honor."
