[Tree] Chapter 321: Sacrificial Credits (Patreon)

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 9)]

[Nascent Soul Realm: 1st Stage]

[Soul Type: Nine Moons(Spatial)]

It had been over a week since Ashlock ascended to the Nascent Soul Realm. As the system had warned him, it had taken around a week to fully stabilize his new cultivation and imbue his attacks with the weight of his Inner World. Along with all the changes, it now said on his status screen that his soul type was of the 'Nine Moons.'

"Hey, system..."

[You know, asking me pointless questions costs divine energy, right? I talk through the Divine Flesh Tree, so that's divine energy not going toward growing your sacrificial credits]

Over the last week, it seemed the system had gotten rather tired of his questions, most of which it refused to answer. Either because knowing the answer would bring the end of the world or because it simply didn't know.

"I know that; you have reminded me like twenty times, but I still want to ask a question."

[Go on...]

"It says my Soul Type is of the Nine Moons. Can you confirm my theory that each moon represents a potential affinity I can unlock by gathering divine fragments?"

[Yes, that theory is correct]

"Thought so." Ashlock mused as he looked up at the nine moons dominating the sky over his Inner World. They were quite strange as they didn't seem to be physical objects. He had confirmed with Stella that their position in the sky never changed regardless of where she stood in the Inner World, so they seemed more spiritual in nature.

"System, will I be able to pick which affinities I want?"

[You will have a degree of control over which affinities are picked]

"That's rather cryptic," Ashlock sighed, "Though it's reassuring to know I won't get stuck with a random affinity that I have no say in."

Any new affinity would boost his capabilities, but some would help far more than others. He was currently quite interested in acquiring some higher tier affinities like Lunar as they had a lot more capabilities than lower tier ones, at the cost of being difficult to cultivate. A drawback that hardly applied to him as a spirit tree with access to endless pocket realms and who could terraform the environment to suit his needs.

However, worrying about a second affinity was pointless until he reached the Monarch Realm and initiated the era of ascension to the next layer of creation. For now, his focus was entirely on divine energy.

"I better check on the divine stock market. I wonder if it's gone up today," Ashlock chuckled as he satisfied his latest addiction. He must have been glancing at it twenty times a day, but it was too satisfying.

The Divine Flesh Tree dominated the center of a vast forest of flesh trees. Divine energy from across the realm flowed into the tree, and then his system distributed the gathered energy to the forest of flesh trees via streams of ethereal gold. From a quick glance, he could see tiny flesh trees on the outskirts being fed the divine energy and blooming.

"Oh! The latest campaign advertising the ceremony tonight seems to be working. I'm already seeing returns." Ashlock mused. He had around six hundred credits a week ago, but it had already increased due to the cult's efforts in Ashfallen City and his general notoriety being spread across the realm.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3625

Daily Credit: 59

Sacrifice Credit: 845

[Sign in?]

"After tonight, it might even double if we put on an impressive enough display."

It would be an infinite money hack if doing so wasn't such an expensive affair. To entice people, he gifted free pills made from his truffles that could have been sold through the pavilion. He had to hire many salespeople to convince people, and creating thousands of high-quality cloaks with their logo on the back was a whole industry by itself.

The cost of constructing many temples floating over the flesh trees and orbiting the Divine Flesh Tree was also high. Although labor was technically free, the materials had to be bought from Darklight City, and some unique decals were made by artists now living in Ashfallen City.

"In just a week, we have blown through two-thirds of all the wealth we acquired from defeating the Lunarshade family. The piles had seemed so high, so I didn't pay much attention to how much we were throwing at problems," Ashlock sighed, "Maybe I should have been more vigilant."

All of that preparation aside, there was another issue. Most attendees would be mortals, so he had to be careful not to break their minds too much, as broken people wouldn't give him continuous divine energy and spread the word of his greatness. They would be too busy rocking in their chairs and muttering about the horrors they had seen.

"Kane Azurecrest and the other alchemists under the White Stone Palace have been working day and night to produce thousands of potent Mind Fortress pills and other things to prepare for tonight." Ashlock occasionally checked on them, but his attention was more focused on discovering the intricacies of his new system upgrades.

The first thing he tested was the number of sacrificial credits needed to upgrade each tier of skill and mutation. To his surprise, it wasn't a fixed amount for each skill, and mutations seemed to require more credits to upgrade than skills.

[Directly upgrading the skill {Consuming Abyss [B]} will consume 1276 credits]

[Directly upgrading the mutation {Demonic Eye [B]} will consume 1589 credits]

These were two upgrades he had been eyeing up to purchase soon, as well as his mutation {Blood Sap [C]}, which would cost 470 credits. For fun, he had seen what upgrading his highest grade skill would cost...

[Directly upgrading the skill {Skyborne Bastion [SSS]} will consume 13846 credits]

"More credits than it took to form my Inner World," Ashlock dismissed the notification. Over the past week, he had compiled a vague list detailing how many credits it would cost to reach each grade via an upgrade.

SSS - 10000+

SS - 8000+

S - 5000+

A - 800+

B - 300+

C -  200+

D - 100+

E - 20+

F - 2+

Of course, obtaining each grade would cost half of that if he used the gacha. However, that upside came with a problem, as the gacha pull would consume all of his stored sacrificial credits, which seemed contradictory to the benefits of the divine stock market he had unlocked.

Finding it ridiculous, Ashlock pestered his system to see if he could spend a specific number of credits to do a gacha pull. But it shrugged him off, never really giving him a straight answer.

However, after much observation, he noticed a ring of divine energy around the forest that expanded the more flesh trees he grew. Taking over the Divine Flesh Tree as it was his second soul, he could forcefully pull this ring in to only encompass a fraction of the trees for a brief moment.

"To think this system would have exploits..." Ashlock laughed as his sign-in system showed a different number.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3625

Daily Credit: 59

Sacrifice Credit: 324

[Sign in?]

Weirdly, the daily credits would never change. Ashlock had asked the system about this, but it refused to disclose the nature behind the daily credits and how they differed from sacrificial credits. Like, where did they even come from? What was so significant about a day passing?

Ashlock released his hold on the divine energy, letting it flood back to the trees. The more divine energy he had, the harder it was to pull back, so the lowest gacha draw he could manage right now would be something in the B grade.

"Hey, Stella! Are you here? Do you know if Ashlock is around?!"

Ashlock was hyper-aware of anything happening in his soul, so he followed the voice and focused on what he liked to call the light side of his Inner World. It was nothing but endless green pastures, winding rivers, and horizons dominated by towering mountains. There were no flesh trees, eldritch abominations, or spires of darkness like on the other side. It was just seemingly endless, untouched nature.

Well, except for the sizeable ornate-style single-story pavilion built on a riverfront. Douglas and a team of Mudcloaks had built it for Stella on the first day here as although she wasn't so fussed about having a place to live, Jasmine was staying with her, and as a cultivator that had barely surpassed a mortal, Jasmine still had to eat and sleep somewhere.

The door swung open, and Stella wandered out with a towel wrapped around her body and head, munching on a fruit. "Watchu want?"

Diana looked her up and down, "Did you have a bath in the river again?"

"Yeah, so?" Stella asked while she tried to dry her short blonde hair with the towel.

Diana raised her finger, and a small stream of water flowed from Stella's hair, which gathered in a tiny swirling ball above her finger. "Why do you waste time like this? You could use your soul fire to burn the water away instead of relying on towels."

Stella pouted, "It's part of the experience, Diana. I don't even need to bathe in the river. But Jasmine took one after every training session, and it looked fun, so I joined in."

"I wonder how people would react if they knew the Princess of Ashfallen, the slaughterer of rogues and head of the fastest growing cult, did nonsense like this." Diana jokingly shook her head as if it were a real tragedy, "If only they knew you were such a child. Speaking of, how is Jasmine doing? Ready for the tournament?"

"Of course, she will win for sure. Her training is going fantastic, and her talent for hand-to-hand combat is impressive, so we have been focusing on body tempering. She has also been entertaining the idea of picking up poison affinity as her second affinity—wait." Stella narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean I am such a child? I can do whatever the hell I want—actually, why are you even here? I thought you went to cultivate outside."

Diana snorted at Stella's sudden change in attitude, "Well, I stood beside Ashlock and shouted for a while but couldn't get his attention, so I came in via the ethereal root to see if you could call him for me."

Stella glanced at the sky, "He has been focused on the Inner World or sleeping for most of the week. But I can feel his attention on us right now."

Ashlock manifested his soul avatar nearby, and both girls glanced at the tree.

"Sorry, Diana. I have been rather stuck in my own head these last few days," Ashlock apologized, "What can I help you with?"

"Two things actually, first a bit of a slip-up. We were having a meeting in the Alchemy cavern with Mister Choi and were explaining the Mystic Realm to him when Morrigan showed up unannounced and was curious about it."

Ashlock's soul avatar mirrored his distress as he began pacing around with his roots: "Mhm, that is quite a problem. I have some thoughts about Morrigan that make me apprehensive about sharing too much with her." Ashlock paused and asked Diana, "What are your thoughts about her?"

"Terrifying and strange—which is how I would describe most ancient cultivators. Their immense, unknown power and aloof personalities make them notoriously difficult to deal with." Diana sighed, "And she has to be one of the worst I've ever met. It's impossible to tell if she is a friend or foe or what her motives are."

"I agree, which is why I have tried to keep her at arm's length. My pills and truffles are one thing, but her learning about the Mystic Realm may awaken an ancient greed in her that will be hard to quell," Ashlock sighed. This was a headache that he didn't need right now. There was the first major service for the All-Seeing Eye cult tonight, and then tomorrow morning, the Mystic Realm would open. He planned for everyone under an oath of loyalty or secrecy to go inside as he needed to uplift the cultivation level of the entire sect.

"I will find a way to deal with her," Ashlock decided to face that problem when it arose. In the worst case, he could send Larry to fight her off, as he's immune to the void. "What was the second issue?"

Diana seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Phew, that's good. As for the second issue, Morrigan actually raised it with me."

"That doesn't sound good. What could such an ancient cultivator need help with—"

Diana nodded, "That's exactly what I thought, too!"

"So? What is it?"

"Apparently, Morrigan founded the Slymere Academy. Some nonsense reason about seeking a man with artistic talent. That aside, she remarked that the nobles attending the academy have noticed a lack of maids and complained about it."

"That's the issue?" Stella snorted, "Oh, poor cultivators! However will they survive without being tended to by the mortals they deem so lesser! This is such a tragedy..."

"Are you done?" Diana asked while crossing her arms.

Stella dropped her arm and clicked her tongue, "Yes. I'm finished."

"I assume the lack of maids is due to us displacing Slymere's mortals?" Ashlock mused, "But I can't see how this is a big issue."

Diana grinned, "Turns out the egotistical cultivators attending the best academy in the Blood Lotus Sect deem themselves so great that not a single one has stepped outside the academy grounds since the incident and actually noticed what has happened. I bet they don't even know the Voidmind family are at war."

Ashlock's avatar froze in place as he processed Diana's words. "There's no way," he said as he slowly turned to look at her, "you're telling me that every noble cultivator in Slymere has had no idea this whole time, and a lack of maids tending to them is what will reveal us."

Diana shrugged, "It's actually not that surprising. Some will attend the academy for a century without ever stepping out. Not everyone cultivates and comprehends the dao as fast as you and Stella do. It's only been a few months since you started, which isn't even a single closed-door cultivation session for most."

"That is true... I have progressed shockingly quick." Ashlock realized he had started the year at the start of the Star Core Realm and was now in the Nascent Soul Realm. Such a massive leap in cultivation was likely unheard of. "So they just need maids, and they will stop raising a fuss and stay inside their walls?"

Diana nodded.

"Mhm, well, I do have two solutions." Ashlock said, "One, give them the maids that we rescued from the Lunarshade family, as I haven't found any use for them yet."

"What's the second option?" Diana asked curiously.

"Kill them all."

"YES!" Stella cheered.

"No." Diana shot the option down. "We don't know which noble families are working with the Silverspires to revolt against the Nightrose family. Until then, no slaughters."

"Lame," Stella said and wandered back into her house.

Diana rolled her eyes.

"Good point. We will go with option one, then. Could you deal with it for me?"

"Sure," Diana agreed.

"Great. One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Could you head to the Duskwalker residence and call over the Mystshroud family? Oh, and tell Evelyn that Nox wants to meet her now that she has a more human-looking form capable of speech."

Diana nodded and left, leaving Ashlock to continue messing with his system and ensuring everything was set up for tonight.

[Author Note]

Welcome to a new month! The patreon grew by a crazy amount last month, so thank you all so much for the support. Wild to think the story is still growing after 16 months rather than fading into obscurity. I'm hoping to get more consistent with uploads this month, but we will see.