[Tree] Chapter 303: Looting the Dead (Patreon)

Ashlock now understood why cultivators were so eager to go supernova upon dying. Or at least it made perfect sense for a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator like Grand Elder Lunarshade. 

[+3143 SC]

Despite the juicy notification confirming that he had devoured the Lunarshade Grand Elder's corpse in its entirety before he could go supernova and destroy everything. Ashlock found himself staring down at the Lunarshade Grand Elder who was standing over where his corpse had been, and only tattered bits of blood-stained white robe remained.

His body was ethereal, made entirely out of flickering moonlight, so faint that it looked like a sudden gust of wind would snuff it out. His appearance—a towering, fat, bald man with empty eyes—made it all the more creepy. 

"So this is what an infant soul looks like, I can feel the strength of a Nascent Soul coming from it, but it's so weak that it's barely holding itself together." Ashlock mused as the ghostly man wordlessly floated over to Albis Lunarshade's corpse. "Trying to take over your own son's corpse? I'd expect nothing less from you..."

Ashlock used telekinesis and floated Albis's corpse away. The Lunarshade Grand Elder's fading infant soul desperately went toward it like a cat chasing a laser pointer on a wall.

"No wonder Nascent Soul cultivators can usually live forever. If I hadn't used {Dimensional Overlap} to reduce his infant soul that he was using as spiritual armor to such a pathetic state, I would be facing another Nascent Soul cultivator right now. And that's on top of me being lucky that I can devour his body before going supernova." 

Honestly, if not for his vast array of system abilities that let him do many impossible things, thinking he could defeat the Lunarshade Grand Elder would have been nothing but hubris. 

"If not for Larry and his divine upgrade to become a herald of ash and ruler of decay, the Grand Elder would have never had a reason to use his infant soul as amour in the first place. Even void attacks struggled to penetrate his defenses." 

"Tree, can you kill that creepy thing?" Stella begged as she sat beside Elaine and Diana on the bench under his canopy, looking deeply disturbed at the floating fat man. 

"Sorry, I got lost in thought," Ashlock chuckled as he directed roots to surge up and devour the infant soul. 

[+489 SC]

"Almost five hundred credits for a ghost, not bad." Ashlock brought up his system and checked on his progress in forming his Inner World and reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.

[Requirements to turn Chaos Nebula into an Inner World:

7143 / 10000 Sacrificial Credits

0 / 1 Absorbed Fire Star Cores

0 / 1 Absorbed Water Star Cores

0 / 1 Absorbed Earth Star Cores

1 / 1 Absorbed Wind Star Cores

0 / 1 Absorbed Metal Star Cores]

Ashlock had never seen so many credits. He had to admit there was a faint yearning to say fuck it and sign in for an insane draw, but he knew anything he could get from his system was unlikely to be as valuable as reaching Nascent Soul Realm.

Cultivation level aside, the system rewards were nothing to scoff at. 

[Rewards upon formation of the Inner World:

You will ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm.

The System will be upgraded with new features.

{Transpiration of Heaven and Chaos [B]} will be upgraded.

Your attacks will carry the weight of your Inner World behind them, and your rate of cultivation will increase the more you develop your Inner World]

Ashlock was unsure how the system would upgrade. Still, his cultivation technique upgrading was easy enough to understand, as was the other reward. In the fight against the Grand Elder, he had already gotten a hint at what attacks carrying the weight of his inner world entailed with the wind Qi boosting the effectiveness of his {Abyssal Whispers} skill. 

"That just leaves me sorting through these corpses and deciding what to do with them," Ashlock gazed over the mountain peak with his Demonic Eye. For some reason, seeing the piles of corpses under the moonlight really set in his victory in this war. He had won despite the odds. 

But there had been losses on his side, which was evident in the overall mood on the mountain peak. No cheers or celebrations were occurring. Rather, everyone seemed exhausted as they sat in groups, leaning against his offspring surrounding the peak and having Sol tend to their wounds with whisps of healing light.

The Redclaws looked terrible, especially Amber, who hugged her knees and rocked back and forth. The Star Core prodigy of the Redclaw family was reduced to a terrified mess by the horrors of war. The scent of death on the peak likely wasn't helping either, as her eyes were screwed shut, and sweat glistened on her forehead in the moonlight.

Elder Margret, who didn't look much better, tried to offer the young woman consoling words, but her voice shook too much for them to sound as reassuring as Ashlock assumed they were in her head. 

Magnus Redclaw and Elder Mo sat together in silence on opposite sides of one of Ashlock's fire affinity offspring—their clothes were shredded in places, and the grim air of seasoned war veterans matched their serious expressions as they looked to the stars for comfort.

As none of them had been seriously injured, Ashlock sent the cultivators of Nightshade City back to the Duskwalker residence alongside all the mortal maids he had kidnapped from the Lunarshade residence before slaughtering all the cultivators there. He would let Evelyn decide what to do with them as he was sure a lot of the maids likely despised working for the Lunarshades, so killing them would have been too cruel of a fate.

"To think we actually won," Stella said, drawing Ashlock's attention as he shifted his Demonic Eye to look down at his adopted daughter. She was crouching beside Albis Lunarshade and pulling free his spatial rings. Despite Sol's healing energies, her every movement carried the weight of exhaustion. She huffed and sighed as she went about her work, looting the son of one of the strongest men in the realm.

"Yeah... we won," Ashlock replied, unsure of what else to say. With the battle over and the cold night breeze rustling his leaves, the desire to sleep and face this all tomorrow was hard to resist. 

"Don't sleep yet, Tree. We have a lot to do," Stella wreathed her hand in spatial flames and, with a simple chop, decapitated Albis. Picking up the head, she dumped it into a cloth bag and stowed it away in her spatial ring in a flash of silver. 

"I know! I'm not even sleepy." Ashlock replied, ignoring the effortless brutality Stella had just committed.

"Uh-huh, whatever. It may have gotten a little out of hand, but that's the bounty secured," Stella muttered with a weary smile, "Ten thousand Yinxi Coins and one more step toward becoming a Crimson Tracker."

"You're still planning to cash in that bounty?" Diana asked as she walked over from the bench. Her wings and claws were retracted, so her fangs were the only evidence of her being a demoness. 

Stella shrugged, "I don't have a choice. The Eternal Pursuit Pavilion is the only place to learn more about my Father."

"You don't have to be the one to go. If you give me Albis's head to cash in the bounty, I can ask for you."

"What difference does it make who goes?" Stella said as she held up the spatial ring she had ripped from Albis's cold finger to inspect under the moonlight, "We fought a battle on the pavilion's doorstep, and someone even sent bounty hunters to mess with the battle. Being covert is rather pointless now, don't you agree?"

Diana hummed in agreement, "You do have a point. Whether it be me, the Redclaws, or someone from the Duskwalker residence, it's obvious we are all working together since we took the same side against the Lunarshades."

"Besides," Stella lowered the ring with a frown, "I want to be the one to hear about my Father, and advancing through the ranks in the pavilion is a nice side bonus."

Diana covered her mouth as she suppressed a yawn, "Yeah... that makes sense. Heaven's, I am exhausted. I can't remember the last time I fought until the bitter end like that."

"What about our duel?" Stella raised a brow.

"Nah," Diana shook her head. "Even though I lost myself, I still knew it was a duel in the back of my mind. Today... I was fighting for not only myself but for the Ashfallen Sect as well. There was so much on the line that anything less than my absolute best would not be enough." Diana's shoulders sank, "I used up so much Qi that I fear I will make little progress in the next Mystic Realm."

Stella pattered Diana on the shoulder, "You and me both." She leaned in closer, and her voice dropped to a whisper, "But don't complain too loudly."

"Why not?"

Stella winced, "Did you see what happened to Kaida?"

Diana's eyes closed with a sigh, "Yeah... the poor guy looked like a wet noodle rather than a divine beast after using all his scales."

Ashlock looked to the floor with his Demonic Eye in shame. Kaida was his ultimate trump card, and he didn't want to force his summon to expend all of his Qi in a single attack to help them win. It would take months for Kaida to regrow and inscribe his ink scales, and he doubted the Lindwyrm would be very eager to create heavenly contracts in the meantime. 

Stella glanced around, "Speaking of, where is Larry?"

"I am here, Mistress." A cloud of silver ash descended from Ashlock's canopy and reformed into a spider. He was certainly less dense than before the battle, but the system's promise that he would become an immortal being that could always reform so long as some ash remained turned out to be true. 

Stella patted the giant ash spider on the head. "You did a great job keeping the Grand Elder from killing us all during the battle. Thank you," she said, her small face turning to a frown. "Actually, did we lose anyone?"

"The Grand Elder destroyed Khaos and Zeus, but the Voidmind and Skyrend families are at war on our doorstep, so I can easily replace them. Same deal with the Lunarshade Ents that I raised, which were also wiped out." Ashlock said as his gaze drifted to a large mountain of wood of various colors ranging from red to black on the side of the mountain, "Geb lost his head, and Titus lost his arms, but I should be able to repair them with time. That just leaves..."

Stella followed his gaze, and her eyes widened. She teleported over to Douglas, who had dug a large hole in the stone and tried re-planting the splinters of Willow. Stella collapsed to her knees and placed an ear against Willow's bark as if listening for a heartbeat. 

Despite the immense damage, Willow was still alive. It would take more than being split in half to kill a tree, and Ashlock had sacrificed his soul shard, which had resided in Willow, to take the brunt of the damage to try and keep him alive. 

A potentially shortsighted move as the Bastion was utterly destroyed as the Bastion Core had crumbled to dust under the Lunarshade Grand Elder's foot, and soul damage was not something to take lightly. Still, so long as he slept under the nine moons, he would slowly regain what he lost, and he felt that it was a worthwhile sacrifice to keep one of his favorite trees around.

Yes, he played favorites with his children. Doesn't every parent?

Stella sighed with relief, "Whew, he's still alive but badly hurt." She patted the bark with a serious expression, "Don't worry, Willow. I will try to find a way to help you recover."

"Yes, please do. I can't turn Willow back into a Bastion until he fully recovers." Ashlock had tried targeting Willow with his {Skyborne Bastion} skill, but it didn't recognize him as a qualified target in his current state. He should heal with nutrients and water over time, but there wasn't much else Ashlock could do for the tree besides supply Qi.

Stella stood up and put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the piles of corpses littering the mountain peak. Her usually bright blonde hair had taken on a darker shade as it was mixed with dirt, blood, and sweat. Her casual white clothes she liked to wear had suffered a similar fate, with them barely working to maintain her dignity, much like the others who had returned from the battle.

Everyone needed a night's rest and a chance to freshen up.

"Stella, tell everyone to go and rest. I can deal with things here."

"Really?" Stella held up the silver ring she had looted, "Because I am pretty sure you forgot to secure the spatial rings from the Lunarshade Grand Elder before you devoured him."

"Erm..."

To be fair, the man had been about to go supernova and kill them all, so a shiny ring on his finger hadn't been his top priority. 

"I know you want us all to leave you to this grand feast, but these people have spatial rings, jade masks, and artifact clothing we can take." Stella walked over to a nearby corpse and pulled off their cloak. Giving it a quick sniff and patting it down, she threw it over her shoulders to hide her tattered clothes and grinned, "See? Free clothes!"

Ashlock had to admit the scent of death was making him terribly hungry. He was also itching to reach Nascent Soul Realm and was super excited to see what would happen, but Stella was right. A lot of wealth was wrapping the corpses like pigs in blankets on a Christmas morning. It would be a terrible waste to devour everything.

"Okay, fine. But I want a portion of the loot to go to the Duskwalker, Frostveil, Mystshroud, and Blightbane families, as they contributed greatly to the battle. Especially Elysia and the Blightbane Grand Elder. The Redclaws should also naturally get a share." 

Stella grumbled, "I suppose it's only fair. But I will need some help. I don't want to be doing this alone until sunrise." 

"Don't worry. I can help with that," Douglas grinned as he tapped the stone crown on his head. "A thousand helpers are at your command."

Mudcloaks began to pour out of the Citadel beside them, wielding daggers and cheering.

"Loot!"

"Strip the humans!"

"Mwahaha!"

Ashlock did a double take at the one doing an evil laugh and saw a Mudcloak falling on his back after trying to wear one of the jade masks. 

"Oh..." Stella blinked. "I somehow forgot about these enthusiastic guys. Tell them to take everything and pile it up near Tree. I don't have enough Qi left to try and break open this many spatial rings, so Tree will have to do it."

There was something deeply disturbing about a wave of knife-wielding midgets passing over the mountain and stripping the corpses of dozens of cultivators that had likely been prodigies or Elders of their various families to nothing but their birthday suits. It somehow felt even more disrespectful than killing them, and he was worried some of the corpses would reanimate merely out of terrible shame. 

It didn't help that he had to shift through the piles with telekinesis and look deeply with his Demonic Eye at each corpse to find the ones with Star Cores he needed for his Inner World.

"Nope, nope, still nope—" Ashlock chucked the unneeded corpses into a 'soon to be devoured for credits' pile, most of which were bounty hunters. "—Ah! Here we go." Floating in the air like a rag doll was a silver-haired man. 

[Absorb Metal Star Core for Inner World? If so, you will gain no Sacrificial Credits]

"Yes. I should devour him before Ryker or Sebastian notice," Ashlock thought as vines erupted from the ground and cocooned the corpse. He hadn't seen another corpse with a metal core in the piles and wasn't sure if the strength of the chosen core would affect the strength of his Inner World, so he just went for it.

Stella casually walked past the corpse that was being dissolved, stretching her arms over her head and letting out a loud yawn. "I'm going to go and take a bath and sleep. If you need me for anything, let me know, Tree."

"I should have everything under control up here."

"Okay," Stella sleepily rubbed her eyes, "You coming, Diana?" She asked the demoness after clicking her fingers to manifest a rift to the alchemy lab down below, which had a stream running through it.

Diana ran a hand through her now long black hair, which was tinted blue—despite the battle, she had kept it silky smooth with her demonic mist. "I can if you want? Though I don't really need a bath or anything."

"Oh, right. Well, see you tomorrow then," Stella vanished through the portal, which snapped close with a pop of air. 

Diana shook her head with an amused smirk. "I'll go check on Kaida." Her wings spread out, and she flew over to the library, Ashlock's only remaining Bastion.

Meanwhile, Ashlock saw Douglas lead Elaine away from the terrible sight of the Mudcloaks looting the corpses. They held hands as they wandered down the mountain path off toward the illusion grove. Both were grinning and chatting about something under the moonlight.

"Magnus, you can take your family and return home too," Ashlock told the remaining cultivators.

"Thank you, Patriarch," Magnus gave a deep bow, "And congratulations on defeating a title holder from the War Era. Such a feat will spread throughout the realm and make the Ashfallen Sect a feared name to all who hear it."

"Right..." Ashlock suppressed a groan. He had almost forgotten how they had conducted a war right before the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion and won. There was no way their battle wouldn't become realm-wide knowledge by the morning.

"All the more reason to ascend to Nascent Soul Realm as soon as possible. The quiet days of remaining low-key are long over." Ashlock sighed as he watched the streaks of crimson soar through the sky toward White Stone Peak.

He was now all alone with a thousand Mudcloaks and piles of naked corpses.

"My life is really weird, isn't it?" Ashlock mused as he shifted through the corpses and found the others he needed while trying to avoid accidentally picking up a Mudcloak. Accepting the system prompts, he devoured them all and retreated into his soul to see how they affected his Chaos Nebula.

Metal Qi flowed down his roots and condensed into shards before joining the roaring ball of wind Qi that floated within his soul. Then came the fire, water, and earth Qi, which had been easy enough to gather as there were quite a few cultivators from the bounty hunters of each type. So that nothing went wrong, he picked out the ones with the strongest cultivation just in case the quality of the Qi mattered.

The swirling ball of wind and metal shards glowed red hot as the fire Qi was added, and then steam began to rise as the water flowed in. Finally, large slabs of rock that looked like continents drifted on the surface, kept in place by the steam and moved around by the wind. 

"Wow..." Ashlock could feel the power emanating from this creation in his soul. It wasn't quite coherent like a world was and undoubtedly still deserved the name 'Chaos Nebula,' but he could see the shadows of how his Inner World would look once formed. 

"Now I just need to gather the Sacrificial Credits necessary to complete the system's requirements." Ashlock returned to the mountain peak and spent the rest of the night indulging in a historical feast as he devoured many corpses. Only as the sun crested the horizon a while later did he get the notification he had been waiting for. 

[Requirements to turn Chaos Nebula into an Inner World have been met!]

[10187 / 10000 Sacrificial Credits

1 / 1 Absorbed Fire Star Cores

1 / 1 Absorbed Water Star Cores

1 / 1 Absorbed Earth Star Cores

1 / 1 Absorbed Wind Star Cores

1 / 1 Absorbed Metal Star Cores]

[Do you wish to form your Inner World and begin the ascension process to Nascent Soul Realm?]