[Tree] Chapter 293: Drums of War

The plan had worked. Ashlock realized that to have a chance of contending with the Lunarshade Grand Elder, he would need to fight the man with his full power through his S rank skill {Progeny Dominion}. So, using it on Willow's Bastion back at Red Vine Peak, the next issue was getting the Bastion close enough to the Grand Elder without it being destroyed.

Since Bastions weren't that fast, even over his roots, Ashlock needed to give the Grand Elder as little time as possible to react to its arrival. The solution he devised was to have Larry obscure its arrival through the rift by dominating the sky with his body and drawing the man's focus.

Willow was ablaze with spatial flames as Ashlock channeled every last drop of Qi he could muster into the Bastion's Core. The shield surrounding the ship was so thick it looked like a bubble of lilac liquid, and three times more artillery flowers were blooming from the cracks than usual. They were also notably larger as they all swiveled to aim at the pinned Grand Elder.

Having activated {Consuming Abyss} ahead of time, the surface of the Bastion was already covered in a void lake and a squirming mass of tendrils and thorn-covered vines dripping with digestive fluid. 

Ashlock had no delusions that a lump of rock with some Star Core level capabilities would be enough to hold the Grand Elder down for a long time, so to buy a few more seconds, he cast {Abyssal Whispers} first. 

"His mental defenses couldn't resist my entry?" Ashlock had expected to bounce off the Grand Elder's consciousness due to the vast gap in cultivation, but for whatever reason, he could weasel his way inside. Trying to fight for control in a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator's own consciousness proved a somewhat fruitless endeavor, as expected, but he did manage to say a few sentences before being forced out.

Happy that the seed had been planted in the Grand Elder's mind and could be called upon later in the fight, Ashlock proceeded to the next part of his plan: Devour the Grand Elder alive. With Larry overhead reforming his body and once again blocking out most of the moonlight, the Grand Elder pinned under the Bastion was weakened slightly.

Ashlock's Star Core fragment within Willow then began to pulse out with intentional frequency as he used the Spatial Lock technique they had stolen from the Azurecrest family to block the Grand Elder from using teleportation to escape his carefully laid trap.

"Trying to keep me here?" The Grand Elder sneered as he caught onto Ashlock's plan. He maneuvered his infant soul avatar's remaining hand and hammered away at the spatial shield surrounding the Bastion. Ripples spread across the dense shield as Ashlock felt an immense pull on his Qi reserves to keep the shield intact under such an assault.

Thankfully, if there was one thing Ashlock had to spare, it was Qi.

"This is going to be a battle of attrition," Ashlock mused as he sent forth hundreds of void tendrils and vines through the Bastion's shield to coil down the avatar's arm like snakes, "The one who runs out of Qi first loses, and if we were to compare the size of our Qi pools yours is a vast lake of moonlight while mine is an ocean of spatial chaos. I'm sorry, Grand Elder, but your loss is only a matter of time."

Unaware of his musing, the Grand Elder screamed in pain as the void devoured his avatar. Khaos hadn't made much of a dent into the Grand Elder's defenses earlier, but that was an illusion of sorts. 

"Every attack Khaos inflicted stripped away a layer of the Grand Elder's defenses, but the Qi surrounding his body was so dense it gave the illusion that he was untouchable." Ashlock muttered as he enjoyed the Grand Elder's screams, "He acted unfazed but actually had his guard up the entire time and was hiding his strength. What a sly bastard." 

Ashlock's void tendrils were also of the 9th stage rather than the 4th, and instead of a few void-coated claws, he had hundreds of tendrils that he was expending sacrificial credits to empower. But the hefty cost was fine because the Grand Elder's 6th stage Nascent Soul tasted divine.

[+100 SC]

[+130 SC]

[+ 122 SC]

System notifications flashed through his mind as he devoured the Grand Elder's avatar.

"His avatar also seems weaker than his main body, likely due to its inflated size, making it weaker to defense piercing attacks like void tendrils..." Ashlock's thoughts paused when he noticed his sacrificial credits in the corner of his eye start rapidly depleting faster than before despite the inflow from devouring the Grand Elder's infant soul. "Shit, what is he doing?"

There was so much Qi flying around, and the Grand Elder was constantly moving his avatar about, trying to tear away from the vines and tendrils wrapped around his arm, so it was hard to find why his sacrificial credits were suddenly depleting.

Looking closer, Ashlock noticed the digestive fluids coating his vines, which were tightly coiling around the avatar's arms, beginning to freeze. His vines were also moving slower as they became stuck together by the ice. While his vines only needed nutrients and Qi to operate, the void tendrils eating away at the ice to try to continue devouring the lunar Qi that made up the avatar required him to expend sacrificial credits every minute.

Void Qi worked on the law of mutual destruction, similar to anti-matter. One 'atom' of void Qi would destroy one atom of any other Qi type, consuming itself in the process. When fighting stronger enemies or trying to pierce the defenses of an earth cultivator for example, it was worth the high cost. Yet void Qi would be quickly overwhelmed when faced with an easy-to-cultivate affinity with a high volume like water. 

Unwilling to be drained of all his hard-earned sacrificial credits, Ashlock needed someone else to help him quickly break through the avatar of lunar Qi to reach the Grand Elder's main body.

"Larry!" Ashlock called on his most powerful summon's help. 

The floating spider-shaped storm of silver ash that was blocking out the moon and staring down at the fight with eight orbs of red light serving as eyes and suppressing the Grand Elder with his rapidly spinning halo of ash turned his head toward Willow.

"What do you command, my Master?" Larry asked, his voice thundering through the city. "Should I turn him to dust?"

"Yes."

Larry condensed into a smaller form and dove down at the Grand Elder. His maw opened, and a sea of ash spiders poured out. Larry then used his silver ash to decay the thick ice encasing the vines and tendrils while the spiders poured in through the gaps into the lunar Qi. Most perished instantly, but their corpses floated around in the lunar Qi avatar, corrupting it with ash.

Ashlock was surprised by how furious Larry had sounded and acted. Only then did he realize it wasn't just Larry who was angry. The root network was overwhelmed with the rage of every demonic tree across the land.

He usually tuned out the emotions of his offspring, as the feelings of entire forests flowing into his mind were a quick path to madness. But since his mental blocks had loosened due to his hyper-focus on the situation in Nightshade City, he hadn't realized how much the emotions of his offspring had been feeding back into him.

"I need to calm down," Ashlock knew such strong emotions would cloud his judgement, and having every demonic tree ablaze with rage was bound to cause issues and attract unwanted attention. On that thought, something dawned on him.

"Wait, didn't I link up with a demonic tree inside the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion?"

Quickly switching his view through his roots, he emerged near the demonic tree in the central square of the Crimson Tracker area. Sure enough, the veins of its leaves were glowing with colorless untamed Qi and had attracted quite a crowd of confused Crimson Trackers. The doors to the pavilion off to the side opened, and a Lotus Informant strode out with a jade tablet in her hand and a concerned look.

"Everyone, stand back." The Lotus Informant demanded, and the black-robed bounty hunters stepped aside to let her pass. "This tree is now under investigation, so please leave this to us."

"Does this have anything to do with the fight occurring outside?" A cloaked bounty hunter asked.

"I cannot disclose such information without a payment in Yinxi Coins." 

"I'll pay. Just put it on my tab." A tall black-robed bounty hunter stepped forward and handed the Lotus Informant their pendant from the folds of their cloak. 

The clearly annoyed Lotus Informant took the pendant, but seeing something on it made her eyes widen. Handing it back to the person with a newfound respect, she gave a small bow. "Yes, we suspect the tree has a role in the battle occurring beyond the pavilion's defensive formations."

"Do you know who is fighting?" another asked. The Lotus Informant glanced at the tall person as if asking if they really wanted to throw thousands of Yinxi Coins away for a Q&A session. 

After receiving a casual nod from the person, she answered, "Yes, we believe it's an outside powerhouse known as the Ashfallen Sect. They are fighting the Lunarshade family in an all-out war."

That information caused the crowd to grow restless as they began discussing among themselves. A few smaller groups of the crowd broke off and rushed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Ashlock was starting to realize just how big of a deal fighting the Lunarshade family was. "I knew fighting a war on the doorstep of a realm-spanning information guild was a bad idea, but the fact they have gathered so much intel so fast is concerning. It's not like I am listening to an emergency meeting between the top brass. This is a random Lotus Informant in the Crimson Tracker area selling live information to a crowd of bounty hunters..."

"Has the Celestial Warden said anything yet?" The tall person inquired.

The Lotus Informant's eyes narrowed, "Even you don't have the funds to pry into the Celestial Warden's affairs."

"Bullshit," the person laughed. "That's as good as admitting he has placed a hush order on this whole affair, as I have bought trivial information regarding the Celestial Warden before. But his intentions are easy to read now that I have confirmed this fact." the person turned to face the crowd, "I found it strange that no bounties were placed on the attackers when they started causing destruction to Nightshade City. Damage to the roads and death of mortals is bad for business, you know?"

The Lotus Informant frowned but remained tight-lipped.

"The Celestial Warden wants to sit back and watch the Lunarshade family be wiped out, doesn't he?"

That caused an explosion of discussion between the bounty hunters. They didn't even use Qi to hide their voices as they asked one another about the Ashfallen Sect and what would happen if the Lunarshades, who had remained dominant in the region for a long time, fell. 

"Now I dislike the Lunarshades just as much as all of you," the tall person began to walk toward the pavilion, "But having the Tainted Cloud Sect's strength reduced with a Beast Tide on the way by an outsider leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

During the conversation, Ashlock split his focus between the fight and learning more about the situation within the pavilion. Neither looked too good. The ice was proving an issue to get through as much like the void, Larry's silver ash that caused decay was a bad match against such an easy-to-repair defense. Meanwhile, this discussion in the pavilion was deeply concerning.

"What are they planning to do?" Ashlock wondered as he saw the rich person vanish into the pavilion but was soon answered when everyone brought out their pendants. Looking over someone's shoulder, Ashlock read what appeared in golden letters on its back.

[Mission: Protect the Lunarshade Grand Elder from the Ashfallen Sect until sunrise]

Mission's estimated threat level: Nascent Soul [Unverified]

Bounty: 5,000 Yinxi Coins per participant with a meaningful contribution upon completing the mission.

The mission is commissioned by the Golden Dragon Alchemy Guild and will take place in Nightshade City. For more information, consult a Lotus Informant.

Ashlock read the mission's description intently as an equal amount of fear and dread overcame him. 

"Clearly, this very wealthy alchemy guild throwing around Yinxi Coins like they are free is displeased at the idea of their largest client being wiped out," Ashlock concluded. "But isn't this good news? The Celestial Warden, who is the only person I feel threatened by, seems uninterested in making a move against me until the Lunarshade Grand Elder is killed. To the point that an outside entity felt the need to use their own funds to get the bounty hunters to spring into action."

As he finished his thoughts, the bounty hunters had also finished reading the new mission, and from their mad dash toward the exit, the 5,000 Yinxi Coins were too good to give up. 

Which was a bit of a problem.

Ashlock's spatial shield around the Bastion was already maxed out defending against the Grand Elder's attacks, and Larry couldn't get distracted having to hold off a hoard of greedy bounty hunters, so Ashlock quickly created a portal beside Willow that led to Red Vine Peak and another to the Duskwalker residence.

"You aren't the only fuckers that can call on an army, you know." Ashlock had the Grand Elder pinned down, and the two were in a stalemate, so he was less worried about the Grand Elder striking down his allies with a stray moonbeam compared to earlier. 

Switching to Red Vine Peak, he found Stella panicking under his aflame trunk. He had to admit he was a rather scary sight as a pillar of unrestrained power that burned into the night sky. His canopy was particularly imposing as it burned with his rage.

"Stella, I need—"

"Tree! I already know!" Stella waved the pavilion's pendant in her hand, "Some bastard dared to put a bounty on us! I mean, we were planning to do it ourselves, but that's beside the point. This calls for a slaughter, don't you agree?"

"Right..." Ashlock had forgotten she was a bounty hunter and received the same mission notification as every other bounty hunter across the entire realm. "Gather everyone. We are going to war."

Stella nodded and then vanished as she rapidly used Spatial Step across the mountain toward White Stone Peak to gather the Redclaws. On the way, she told Diana, Elaine, and Douglas about the situation. She even quickly stopped under Nox to reassure Jasmine that everything would be fine.

Meanwhile, Ashlock's vision blurred toward Geb. His people would need a suitable base of operations, and what better choice than a walking fortress?