Reborn as a Demonic Tree - Chapter 477

Ashlock was absorbed in supervising the refitting of Moros.

The flagship was suspended above Red Vine Peak, encased in a web of stone scaffolding. Star Core Realm Mudcloaks in metallic spacesuits buzzed around the flagship, issuing orders in unintelligible chatter and using tools to aid in Moros's refitting. All hands were on deck to get this upgrade done as soon as possible. The clang of metal against metal reverberated through the air alongside the whirring of mechanical limbs and blasts of pressurized steam.

"It's been a few days now," Stella said absentmindedly from the bench far below his canopy. "Is the Celestial Warden going to be okay?"

Ashlock glanced down from Moros at his daughter. "I'm sure he will be fine," he replied, not totally sure of his own words.

"Are you sure?" Stella asked, picking up on his tone. She glanced in his general direction with concern-filled eyes. "I've never seen a man cry or rage like that, especially one as strong as him. I thought we were all going to die for a moment."

"It's a good thing Larry was there to contain him—though I can hardly blame him for the outburst. The woman he loved and chased for so long got turned into a tree, and her personality is totally different now. I think anyone would break after that."

Stella slowly nodded. "Is Tartarus still evacuated and closed off?"

"Yeah, and it will remain so until Tiberius emerges or Nox tells me it's been sorted."

The damage had been... extensive.

"I wonder what they are doing in there," Stella mused, resting her chin on her palm.

Ashlock could feel the intense fluctuations of Qi coming from Tartarus—Nox's home. Either they were still fighting, or they were... well, that was better left unsaid.

"I think we should give them space right now," Ashlock replied. "Actually, on that topic, where is Nymeria?"

"Probably with Kaida somewhere," Stella said, rolling her eyes.

"Mhm," Ashlock hummed in understanding. Until now, his ability to see everything within his domain had been nothing but a blessing. But with recent developments, he was now worried he might stumble upon something he'd rather not see.

"Have you got your eye on anyone, Stella?" he randomly asked. Signs of romance were starting to bloom in the sect, and she seemed especially annoyed regarding Nymeria.

"Right now?" she asked, seemingly confused. "I guess I'm keeping my eyes on the Mudcloaks? Do you need me to check on someone?"

Ashlock laughed. "No... forget it. Oh, here comes Douglas."

The broad-shouldered man with a crude gemstone-encrusted crown sitting upon his short brown hair descended toward them on a flying sword. Despite his role as a builder for Ashfallen, he was usually the best dressed. He was rarely seen without a form-fitting suit and his cane.

"Afternoon, Stella," he said, setting down before her, his flying sword vanishing from under him in a flash of silver light. "Have you got the Boss's attention?"

Stella lazily pointed to the sky, "Yep. He's listening."

"Great," Douglas said, looking to the sky. "Boss, I have a status report for you."

"Let's hear it."

Douglas cleared his throat. "Ahem, we are nearing completion of Moros's modifications, and I wanted to ask if you desired any last-minute changes while I've got all the Mudcloaks here. Otherwise, I'll send them back to Desolark City to deal with the many issues cropping up over there."

"Wait, there are issues in Desolark City? Why was I not made aware of this?" Ashlock asked. That was the first he had heard anything about that. Though, to be fair, he hadn't paid the city any attention since moving all the mortals of Nightshade City over there and getting paid.

"Because they are nothing too serious," Douglas said, waving him off. "Just some requests to build a wall or two."

"Walls?" Ashlock asked skeptically. Earth had seen its fair share of walls, and they never meant anything good.

"Just to contain some riff-raff and stop minor disagreements," Douglas assured him.

"Right," Ashlock said, not convinced. "Let me know if it gets serious, and I'll take a look."

Douglas bowed. "Naturally."

Ashlock focused back on Moros. He would definitely take a look at Desolark City when he had a spare moment, whether Douglas informed him or not. But that would have to wait a few days. The first wave of the beast tide had already impacted the now mostly evacuated Nightshade City, and he still hadn't managed to make contact with a Primal Overlord yet.

Time was not on his side at all. Forget a slight unrest in Desolark City; at this rate, the beast tide would be rushing up Red Vine Peak and terrorizing the endless fields needed to feed the millions of people in Darklight and Ashfallen City by the week's end.

In fact, from his spot here on Red Vine Peak, if he looked to the distant horizon, he could see the flashes of lightning from the Star Core Realm ascensions of his offspring.

The beast tide was that close to his borders. If not for his offspring and the desolation Qi he was pumping into the border, it would already be here.

"Give me a rundown of the changes that have been made to Moros," Ashlock asked Douglas with a hint of urgency in his tone. If everything sounded good enough, he would approve its voyage back into the beast tide right away.

"Sure, one moment," Douglas said, bringing out a parchment. "The most significant change we made to avoid repeating the dragon star beam incident is that we implemented a formation throughout Moros linked to all of the aether trees and Akasha's Bastion Core. This formation will allow Moros to instantly fade in and out of the aether, enabling it to avoid attacks the shields are unable to defend."

"You really managed to get that working?" Ashlock asked, genuinely quite surprised. Due to the sheer size of the flagship, Akasha was unable to bring Moros in and out of the aether easily during combat while also maintaining the shields.

"Yeah, you can thank Kaida and Stella for that. They worked together on designing the formation for it over a whole night," Douglas said, smiling at Stella. She returned the smile.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Great work, that will definitely enhance Moros's capabilities massively," Ashlock said. "Did you manage to find a solution to Moros's Qi consumption?"

Douglas looked down at the parchment and frowned. "Kind of? With the new aether formation, Moros's Qi consumption will likely have increased by... a lot. However, we have created rooms within Moros with high-quality Qi absorption formations, allowing cultivators to utilize their own Qi supplies to replenish and power Moros. We also added laser cannons—"

"What."

Douglas glanced up, "We added rooms—"

"No, not that."

"Um," Douglas looked back at his parchment. "The laser cannons?"

"Yeah? What the hell do you mean laser cannons?"

"Do you not want laser cannons?"

"How do you know what a laser cannon is?!" Ashlock said, baffled.

Douglas shrugged. "I'd never heard of them, but the Mudcloaks explained to me that it was a type of weapon that would deliver a concentrated beam of Qi. Oh! It's quite like the beam of desolation Qi you shot through the sky at the beast tide a few days ago."

"I know what a laser cannon is," Ashlock sighed and glanced at the Mudcloaks zooming around in literal spacesuits. Somehow, they raised more questions about their origins every day. Were they some space-faring race... wait, are there space cultivators out there?

Questions for another day.

"Tell me more about the laser cannons."

"Ah yes," Douglas's eyes danced across the parchment. "Each of those cultivator rooms I mentioned earlier is outfitted with one, alongside a reinforced window so they can see what they are shooting. The laser cannon can draw on the Qi stored inside either of the Bastion's Cores, but it's best used with the cultivator's own Qi. This was done to boost the diversity of Moros's Qi attacks, as currently, it's too heavily invested in just aether and void."

"That sounds good—do these laser cannons scale with the cultivator's strength?"

"Errr, that I'm not too sure about, sorry Boss. I'll ask." Douglas glanced over his shoulder and shouted, "Timmy, get down here."

One of the metal spacesuits that was busy welding something, likely one of the laser cannons, flew down toward them. Flipping up the helmet's visor, the Mudcloak named Timmy looked up at Douglas with his round blue eyes that were like headlights.

"This one's name is Timmy?" Ashlock asked. Honesty, he looked the exact same as any other Mudcloak.

"None of them have names, as they are technically all the same entity, but that was making things difficult, so I picked out the one with the highest cultivation level and named him... Timmy. I know it's a silly-sounding name, but it was the first one that came to mind," Douglas explained, patting the Mudcloak on the head. "He also speaks the clearest, so that helps. Timmy, explain to the Boss about the laser cannons."

"Oooo!" Timmy explained excitedly, "Big cannon, go zap and kill." He made an explosion sound effect for emphasis while gesturing with his hands.

"Um... right," Ashlock said and was surprised at how the Mudcloak didn't even flinch at his use of Abyssal Whispers. "I was more interested in learning what cultivation stage the laser cannon can support than the sound it makes."

"Oh," Timmy said, his excitement deflating like a balloon. "Not high, bad materials."

Bad materials? They had spent millions of Yinxi Coins on buying the most expensive materials available, and he had overseen some of the Mudcloak's negotiation tactics—they had been brutal. Not only had they outright threatened and stolen from some merchants, but Ashlock was pretty sure it was the Mudcloaks who made a profit from buying the materials rather than the other way around.

That's why he had to confirm. "How high is not high?"

"Monarch Realm, maybe?" Timmy grumbled. "Far too weak."

Ashlock was speechless. "Monarch Realm is weak?"

He couldn't tell if the Mudcloak was arrogant or if it really saw Monarch beings as weaklings. To him, a Monarch Realm felt almost within reach, but any being with that level of strength was still a significant threat.

"If a Monarch Realm being is weak, what level would you consider strong?"

Timmy blinked. "Strong? The old gods or the origins."

Ashlock naturally knew of the origins, but the old gods? Who were they?

"Who are the old gods?"

"Gods that are old," Timmy answered flatly.

Ashlock wanted to smack Timmy already. In fact, every time he interacted with Mudcloaks, he regretted it and walked away with a headache.

"Why do you fear the origins?" he asked. It didn't really make sense... yeah, origins could endlessly reincarnate and never truly die, but they were just as killable as anyone else. If anything, they were hunted so much that few managed to become very strong.

Timmy stared forward for a moment and seemed to tremble. "They are the only beings that I can't devour forever," Timmy said, slowly turning to look at Stella. "They always come back. Always. With a vengeance."

Stella glanced up at Ashlock.

He knew why.

She had apparently figured out what origin he was, but he had refused to let her tell him. Since he hadn't inherited any memories, nor did he have a vengeance, he was pretty sure the origin was the system rather than him. The last thing he wanted was for the system to turn on him because he had discovered its true agenda.

Ashlock looked hard at Timmy. His words "devour forever" raised alarm bells. He had seen the Mudcloaks devour people during the night of slaughter orchestrated by Vincent Nightrose. However, those people's souls had appeared in the cycle of reincarnation.

"Timmy, are you an origin?" Ashlock asked.

The Mudcloak fell dead silent, and the tension rose.

"Who cares if the Mudcloaks are origins or not," Stella said, her words cutting through the tension like a knife. "They are working with us, and we have a common enemy. No need to complicate things. Say, Timmy, are there any other features you guys have added to Moros?"

The Mudcloak nodded. "Ent cannon."

Stella blinked. "Ent... cannon?"

Douglas stepped forward to explain. "There is a hangar on the lowest level of Moros to store Ents. They can either fly out or be launched into battle from a cannon."

"That sure is inventive," Ashlock said. "Oh, I should put a spirit tree down there so I can turn corpses into Ents and launch them straight into battle."

"Already done," Douglas said, grinning.

Ashlock was satisfied. Moros seemed fit to take another trip into the beast tide.

"Okay, I'm satisfied. Tell the Mudcloaks to take down the scaffolding and flee the area."

Douglas nodded. His crown glowed with power as he gave a mental order to the Mudcloaks. The stone supports softened and began to retreat into the ground like a mass of giant earthworms. Meanwhile, the Mudcloaks jumped to the ground and waited in an excited group off to the side.

Ashlock opened a portal leading to Desolark City, as that's apparently where they were needed next. "I'll see you guys later," Douglas said. He paused before stepping through the portal as the Mudcloaks rushed around him. His gaze lingered for a moment on Stella. "Be careful, and good luck," he looked up to the sky where Ashlock was watching. "Our lives are all in your capable hands."

Stella snorted, "Don't be ridiculous, Douglas; Ash doesn't even have hands."

Douglas rolled his eyes and left through the portal without another word.

Stella pouted. "That was a good joke."

"It really wasn't."

"Whatever," Stella stood up and stretched her back, "Is Moros going to be heading back into the beast tide today since you approved all the modifications?"

"Not quite yet. There's one last boost I need to make to Moros's overall power."

Stella raised a brow, "What's that?"

"Akasha and Erebus are at the 9th stage of the Star Core Realm. I'm going to try pushing them to the Nascent Soul Realm, starting with Akasha."

Stella's eyes widened. "The sect's first Nascent Soul Realm Bastion?"

"Indeed, but I'm not going to be doing it here."

"Where are you..." Stella trailed off as she glanced to the north. "Are you serious?"

"Star Core Realm ascensions have been quite effective in slowing down the beast tide and killing a few monsters. Can you imagine what two Nascent Soul Realm ascensions would cause? I also think it will act as the perfect beacon to draw a Primal Overlord."

Ashlock looked at his Inner World, where there was a mountain of spirit stones that he had been saving. Using telekinesis, he picked up the spirit stones and moved them through a portal—dumping them onto Moros's surface.

"System," he called out.

[How may I assist?]

"Will this be enough to forcefully ascend Akasha and Erebus to the Nascent Soul Realm?"

[Analyzing...]

Ashlock waited for a moment.

[This is a sufficient number of spirit stones]

"Wait... really? I thought Erebus couldn't be ascended to Nascent Soul Realm as a void tree?"

[Correct, but the Bastion Core can artificially be used as an infant soul, allowing for pseudo-progression. Should Erebus be removed from the Bastion, his cultivation capabilities will be limited to the Star Core Realm]

"A Nascent Soul Realm void tree... hah, take that Morrigan. It can be done!" Ashlock said to himself. "Alright, system, let's move the Bastion out into the wilderness and get this started."