Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

After directing the Bastion back to Red Vine Peak through the portal, Ashlock parked the floating fortress on the eastern side of the mountain peak to once again obscure it from Darklight City that lay to the west.

Since the Bastion was now stationary, as a Star Core tree, Willow could power the illusion array himself, but it would slow down his cultivation, so it wasn't worth it. Red Vine Peak was eight thousand meters up, so Ashlock just had to make sure the floating rock wasn't visible to Darklight City, where cultivators from other families were attending the academy.

The fractured part of his soul returned to his body, accompanied by a surge in Qi. Despite the dark-haired cultivator and many monsters he had devoured today, it barely put him on the brink of ascending to the 8th stage.

"A shame, but I did spend a stupid amount of Qi running the Bastion."

The giant portal snapped closed with a rather loud pop, sending a rush of air that rustled the leaves of every demonic tree on the mountain peak and announced their return to those waiting.

Stella hopped off the Bastion and had the blonde-haired man's body floating beside her with telekinesis. Diana and the Redclaws awoke from meditating under the demonic trees and walked across the peak toward her.

The Redclaw Elders exchanged a concerned look.

"Could Stella become a bounty hunter then and clear her own name?" Ashlock asked through {Abyssal Whispers}. He was somewhat surprised when hardly anyone winced at his words. Only Elder Margret seemed to need to pop a Mind Fortress pill.

"That's a good idea," Ashlock interjected, "After the deal with the merchants fell through, we need somewhere to sell our pills, not just for our sake but also for Ryker Silverspire, who has placed his trust in us. If Diana became a bounty hunter of the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion, she could trade our pills in for these Yinxi Coins, which can be exchanged for anything we need."

"We can come up with a solution to that," Ashlock replied, "Anything else?"

Diana grunted in frustration and rolled her eyes.

"Joking aside, yes, they are threatening," Ashlock said before Diana lost it. He knew Stella was just messing around to bring attention away from the issue herself, as nobody would be able to stop looking over their shoulder knowing such a large bounty was on their head. Her way of dealing with stress was a little unconventional sometimes. "Say, Grand Elder, will they always appear alone or in small groups?"

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"I see, how interesting," Ashlock tried to sound as whimsical as possible while asking relatively simple questions to maintain his immortal persona, "And what about their strengths? Will Nascent Soul bounty hunters appear? One of them mentioned that their leader had just left closed-door cultivation and reached the 6th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm."

"Unverifed? What does that mean?"

"So if we kill every bounty hunter before they can report back, it will remain unverified?"

"So there won't be bounty hunters coming after Stella because she is unverified?" Ashlock asked and managed to suppress his yawn while doing so. The sun had fallen below the distant mountains a moment ago, and he felt ready to sleep.

"Thank you for the surprisingly insightful information, Grand Elder. Where did you learn all of this?"

"I see. Tell Sebastian and Ryker Silverspire to come here tomorrow at noon." Ashlock said, "I want to speak to them about a few things."

"Take these fire Qi fruits with you as well to help recover the Qi you spent today fighting Nox," Ashlock floated over a few spicy fire fruits from his branches.

The Redclaws took the fruit, gave their thanks, and after being dismissed, they took off on their flying swords toward the White Stone Palace.

"You only just reached the Star Core Realm and lack a movement skill capable of keeping up with Nox," Ashlock explained, "Your strength is exceptional, but Nox had no intentions of fighting. She just ran and ran, hoping to stall until nightfall."

"If they keep coming in small groups, it shouldn't be a problem," Ashlock replied, "Unlike facing the Voidmind or Skyrend families that have hundreds of cultivators and will come in waves and would not stop until Red Vine Peak and my total destruction. These bounty hunters will come in smaller groups and only want Stella's head. Because of this tunnel vision on one person due to the bounty, we can exploit it by forcing them to fight near my trees."

"Good question. Just place him on the ground for now."

Opening his sign-in system, Ashlock checked on his current amount of credits.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3563

Daily Credit: 11

Sacrifice Credit: 2480

[Sign in?]

"Should be enough for an S-grade draw," Ashlock mused, "The corpse should provide me around a thousand credits as it's a spatial affinity, and the guy didn't have a chance to fight back before he died. Do I sign in now for a gacha draw and then eat the corpse to have some credits on hand? Or should I eat the corpse to guarantee an S+ grade draw but then have no credits? No, that would be stupid, especially with the threat of the bounty hunters. But having over 3000 credits sitting around feels like a waste."

Mulling over his thoughts for a while longer and yawning, Ashlock eventually decided what to do.

"System sign in."Follow current s on novelenglish.net . Fire(.)nᴇt - novelenglish.net . bin

[Sign in successful, 2491 credits consumed…]

[Upgraded {Hibernate [C]} -> {Nocturnal Genesis [S]}]

Ashlock felt the information flood his mind, and he had never been more excited to sleep in his life, which was saying something, considering he was a very slothful tree.

His new S-grade skill had no cost in either sacrificial credits or Qi to activate or use, which was a breath of fresh air, and even more importantly, it rewarded him for doing his favorite activity: sleeping. The only restriction was that the skill was only available during the night.

"When I activate the skill, I will go into a deep slumber. While asleep, the growth rate of my body, roots, and fruit will be increased up to tenfold depending on the phase of the moon. I will also be able to cultivate the lunar energies, which not only progress my cultivation stage but also nourish and heal my soul." Ashlock thought the soul healing alone warranted this being an S-grade skill, but there was more!

"This skill also extends to all my offspring within my root network, so during the night, all my offspring are also able to cultivate and will grow ten times faster in size." Ashlock thought back to the forest of demonic trees he was growing out in the wilderness. If he managed to link his roots with them and that forest grew ten times faster during the long winter nights, it could flourish within weeks.

"The ink tree for Kaida's Bastion should grow faster as well," Ashlock mused.

The only downside he could see was the deep slumber part. He was already a heavy sleeper, but if Stella raised enough of a ruckus, he would wake up despite his drowsiness.

With the sign-in done, Ashlock quickly devoured the headless corpse.

[+1112 SC]

To his surprise, there was a massive rush of Qi as he felt his Star Core rapidly balloon in size. His trunk and canopy became aflame, and he felt waves of excitement through the root network as the mountain glowed with power. "No way? That corpse was enough to push me over the edge? He brought up his status screen.

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

[Star Core: 8th Stage]

[Soul Type: Amethyst (Spatial)]

He had ascended to the 8th stage of the Star Core Realm—only one more to go until he could start forming his Nascent Soul.

Stella had already jumped up from the bench due to the sudden surge of power and was gazing up at his canopy in awe as a shower of purple motes drifted in the breeze like gentle snowfall, landing in her hair and the surrounding demonic trees. His ablaze canopy and trunk also lit up the night sky with lilac light.

"Stella," Ashlock said once the spectacle had calmed down and his Star Core had settled to its new size.

"I just got a new skill that lets me and my offspring grow ten times as fast while sleeping, but it might put me into a deep slumber. Can you try and wake me up in a minute?"

"Great, thanks," Ashlock replied and activated {Nocturnal Genesis [S]}. "Good night—" Sleep overtook him instantly, like flicking a switch, and he was in dreamland. Wait... since when could he dream?