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An oath...

Elaine reached up and touched her chest, feeling the cold phantom chains around her Soul Core constantly reminding her of the lifelong commitment she had so foolishly accepted.

I knew I should have rejected them and asked to remain a prisoner in the cavern. How couldn't I have seen the immortal was fake and they were all crazy people worshiping a talking tree?

She clenched her fist and asked Douglas, "The oath of loyalty, how does it feel?"

"Feel? Hmmm... If I have thoughts of betrayal, the cold chains around my soul tighten." Douglas said, "And I know if I were to act on one of these thoughts, the chain would burn holes in my soul, allowing the heart demons to overwhelm me."

"Do you regret it?" Elaine asked. It sounded awful to her. Would she experience the same if she tried to contact her family and tell them about the Ashfallen Sect?

Douglas shook his head with a faint smile, "I would do it a hundred times over if I could. After being kicked out of the Terraforge family due to a lack of talent, I became a wandering rogue cultivator of Darklight City, struggling under a crushing amount of debt with nowhere to go. Yet despite all that, they took me in, paid off my debts without another thought, and have treated me well ever since. Kindness is hard to come by out here in the wilderness, so it should be cherished when given."

"They didn't seem very kind to me," Elaine mumbled.

Douglas laughed, "They get very defensive when something threatens the tree, but they are great people once you get to know them. From what I've heard, your uncle caused quite the commotion and almost killed them, so it's no wonder they are apprehensive about you."

"Why am I being punished for what my Elder did, though." Elaine sighed as she leaned back and looked at the cavern ceiling. Her prison.

"I would say you are fortunate, and this is one of the greatest opportunities you will ever encounter," Douglas said confidently. "To call this a punishment means you lack perspective."

Elaine snorted, "What about this is fortunate?"

"Say, Elaine," Douglas said seriously, his joking tone gone, making her look up and meet his eyes. "You were a rather sheltered child, weren't you? Perhaps a scion of your house? I remember you shouting about being the daughter of the Grand Elder when we first met."

Elaine didn't answer. Why is he asking me such a question?

He let off a short laugh and walked over, crouching before her. "You are too naive. You could have been turned into a pill furnace where alchemy is performed in your stomach, and they use your own fucking soul and flesh as part of the pill-making process. Or how about feeding you to a caged monster so it could further its cultivation? My point is, there are a million ways to treat a prisoner, and you weren't treated like that."

Douglas leaned over and tapped the truffle in her hand, "You think your family care that fucking much about you? What cultivation resources have they dedicated to you, a supposed daughter of the Grand Elder? Even I have a better spirit root and cultivation stage than you, and I was kicked out of my family due to a lack of talent. It's pathetic."

Elaine was taken aback by Douglas's shift in tone, "They do care about me..." she whispered, trying to retreat up against the rock.

"Let me guess, they discovered you lacked talent in cultivation and told you some bullshit about it being too expensive?" Douglas snorted, "But then they discovered you weren't totally useless and sent you to live out your near-mortal life while being a glorified slave to your now-dead uncle. Right?"

Elaine felt her heart sink in her chest. She didn't want to believe his words, but she started seeing through her family's lies when he framed it like that.

Douglas let out a long sigh, "Sorry, Elaine. But to hear you badmouth the Ashfallen Sect after you took an oath nauseates me, and that's straight from my fucking heart, not the oath talking. They are a bit insane but otherwise generous people and have offered you an opportunity many like me would kill for. The fact you put your family, that would have abandoned you over them is crazy to me. You simply lack perspective, eat that truffle, and then we can talk."

Without another word, Douglas stood up and strode off to somewhere within the alchemy lab, and a while later, she heard the familiar rumbling of rock as Douglas got to work, likely on that staircase he was talking about.

Elaine looked down at the black thing they called a truffle. At first, she had been against eating it, but Douglas's passionate speech had filled her with curiosity. Did she really lack perspective?

I cultivated at home with my family, and once they discovered I had no talent, they sent me to study under my uncle. I suppose you could consider me sheltered. Am I really missing something here?

Elaine rotated the truffle in her hand one last time, feeling the rough surface between her fingers. She'd always wanted to be a cultivator over a researcher.

The first time I met Stella, she mentioned they have cultivation resources that could improve spirit roots, remove heart demons and even improve a person's skin. So if this truffle makes my skin look as good as theirs, then there may be a chance for me to pursue the long journey of cultivation here with the one that improves my spirit root.

"Lacking perspective, huh..." Elaine sighed before opening her mouth and chucking the truffle in. It had an earthy, almost nutty taste, and she chewed for a while and eventually swallowed.

Almost immediately, she felt ecstasy flow through her body, her skin became warm, and she suddenly felt refreshed. The experience was so overwhelming she barely managed to force herself into a lotus position and begin to cultivate, trying to cycle the truffle's power that felt like liquid honey throughout her body.

***

Elaine's eyes fluttered open, and she let out a pleasurable groan. Her body felt ten years younger as the stiffness in her lower back was gone. Looking around the sunlit cavern, she realized she still needed her glasses which was a shame.

Her nose then scrunched up when a foul stench overwhelmed her. She looked down at her body and saw her clothes drenched with yellow and black sludge.

"Is this gunk impurities expelled from my body?" Elaine gagged as tears filled her eyes. The smell was truly vile. She went to rip off her clothes but paused. Searching around, she couldn't see Douglas anywhere, but the distant rumbling of earth suggested he was still hard at work.

Peeking around one of the large earthen bowls that housed an alchemy fruit, Elaine noted that sunlight poured down the enormous hole in the side of the cavern.

It was late afternoon when I ate the truffle, but the sunlight's intensity suggests it's midday now. Did a day pass since I went into meditation?

Elaine glanced back at the rock she had been leaning against and saw a white towel, a black cloak, and a spatial ring in a neat, folded pile.

Who left this here for me? Was it Douglas?

While trying to hold her breath to resist the vile stench, she rubbed the gunk from her hands on her clothes and then slid on the spatial ring, eagerly searching through its contents.

This is my spatial ring. Almost everything is still in here... except the communication jades.

Unable to bear the smell, Elaine waved her hand while her ring flashed with power, and the towel and cloak disappeared into the spatial ring. She then made a beeline for the sound of rushing water.

Within minutes she had made it to the entrance of the tunnel that led outside, blocked off by that slime door. Next to the tunnel was a hollow black root poking out of the wall with crystal-clear water gushing out.

Doing one last check to see if anyone was around, she ripped off her clothes and tossed them to the river bank as if they were cursed.

"Ugh, this is so disgusting." Elaine cursed as her arms were glued to her sides from the gunk. Without wasting any more time, she dashed into the freezing cold water and tried to wash the gunk off.

The sunlight was dim, and the glowing mushrooms overhead didn't offer the best lighting. However, Elaine's eyes still went wide as the gunk was washed away, revealing skin so smooth and unfamiliar that she felt like she was inhabiting someone else's body.

"How is this even possible?" She muttered as her hands moved faster, eager to see the results. By the end of her cleaning session, she was shivering from the freezing water, but a smile bloomed.

Exiting the water and walking barefoot on the rough stone, she summoned the towel from her spatial ring. Quickly dried herself and then wrapped the towel around her waist. "I should have a mirror somewhere in here."

Digging through the heap of unchecked belongings in her spatial ring, she soon discovered a mirror that had not been used in a long time. Ever since her path in cultivation stalled, she hated how her face clearly aged faster than her peers, so she had ignored it.

"Gosh, I don't look twenty-five at all," Elaine murmured as she stared at the beauty looking back at her in the mirror. The bags that had always been under her eyes due to forgoing sleep in favor of meditation or research were long gone.

Wait... I haven't looked at my reflection in a long time, but did my bone structure change?

Elaine squinted as she traced her jawline and general facial structure. She wasn't certain, but had the truffle also altered her bones? If so, this wasn't the work of a mere cultivation treasure but a gift from the heavens themselves.

This is freaky. It's like I am a different person.

Elaine reached up and felt the strands of her rose gold hair between her fingertips. It was silky smooth, and the ends weren't frayed anymore.

"You done checking yourself out?"

Elaine almost dropped the mirror as she yelped at the sudden voice. Spinning round, she crossed her chest with her arms, but they failed to obscure her bust from the newcomer.

There was a blonde-haired girl she was familiar with standing there.

Stella appraised her for a moment and then pouted, "I see you took the truffle the Patriarch gave you."

"Y-yes?" Elaine replied, unsure of what to make of this situation.

Why is she here?

"I almost couldn't recognize you for a second. It didn't have this profound of an effect on me." Stella stopped, appraising her body, and laughed awkwardly, "Sorry, I am staring a bit too much. I came here to hand you this. I think someone from your family is trying to contact you."

Stella opened her palm, revealing a communication jade with a subtle green glow.

"I can take the call?" Elaine felt puzzled. Why would they return her spatial ring without the communication jade and then allow her to take a call anyway?

"Sure." Stella replied, "Although I will stay here to listen in."

"Can I get dressed first..." Elaine said hushedly as she felt the breeze against her bare skin. Stella nodded, turning her back and looking in the other direction. Which for a cultivator was basically pointless with spiritual sight.

Deciding she didn't have time to fully dress, she summoned the cloak that had been left alongside the towel, hung it over her shoulders, and secured it around her chest. Since it was rather tight-fitting, she kept the towel around her waist as a skirt substitute.

"Alright, give it to me," Elaine said, and Stella turned around and handed her the glowing jade. Inserting a sliver of her Qi, the connection was made.

"Sister? What took you so long to answer?" A voice she hadn't heard in years echoed out of the jade.

"Forgive me. I was preoccupied, brother." Elaine answered while shooting glances at Stella, who had her arms crossed, "Why are you calling me?"

"What's with that tone, sister? I took time out of my cultivation to talk to you, yet you have the nerve to leave me waiting?" There was a haunted laughter, "Were you too busy following uncle around like a lost dog? Or lost in research about nonsense?"

"No, brother..."

"Anyway, sister, I will arrive in Darklight City in two weeks. You will show me around that backwater city and accompany me. Do I make myself clear?"

Since when did he speak to me like this? Actually, when was the last time we spoke? Before I was kicked out of the family to this city... ah, I see.

"I'm not sure, brother." Elaine replied while looking at Stella, "I might be preoccupied when you plan to visit."

There was a long pause before the voice coldly asked, "Doing what? Cultivating? Don't make me laugh. Where are you right now?"

Elaine was about to tell her brother she was in a cavern, but she felt the phantom chains coldly wrap around her Soul Core.

So Heaven sees that as leaking information about the Ashfallen Sect to my family, which triggered my oath... I see.

Without being able to disclose anything to her brother about her whereabouts, she couldn't see a viable way of continuing the conversation.

"I'm very busy, brother. Please call back another time. Goodbye." Elaine ruthlessly cut off her sibling, and before he could reply, she cut the call.

Elaine returned the communication jade to Stella, "That was rather embarrassing. I didn't expect him to talk to me like that."

Stella took the jade back and shrugged, "My human family is all dead, Diana's were also eradicated, and Douglas's family kicked him out to the streets. Compared to that, it seems you have it easy."

"Human family?"

"Yeah," Stella nodded, "Tree and I have been together since I was a child, and he was nothing but a sapling. So I consider him my family now."

"I'm sorry..."

Stella tilted her head in confusion, "About what?"

"I don't know... everything." Elaine sighed, "Douglas said earlier that I lacked perspective, and it's true. I have eaten a few cultivation resources in the past, and they were just some Qi-enhanced grass and leaves mashed together in a disgusting pill that did nothing substantial. I looked down on the truffle your tree provided me as a token of friendship because I was skeptical, but it's hard to deny the results... your tree is amazing."

"You should call him Patriarch." Stella quipped back but grinned, "Although I do agree that Tree is amazing."

"Would it be alright if I apologized to the Patriarch? Or should I remain down here in the cavern?"

Stella glanced at her hardly put-together outfit and laughed, "Well, two days have passed since you recited the oath, so the Redclaws should be arriving soon. So you might want to put on some real clothes."

"Oh yeah..." Elaine noted with a smile. "Thank you, Stella, I genuinely mean it. If my uncle really did the things you claim, I apologize on his part and hope you don't hold it too much against me."

Stella shrugged, "Tree clearly seems to see some value in you, so you better not let him down and get to cultivating."

"Cultivating..." The word felt so foreign to her. Would she really be allowed to cultivate to her heart's content here?

"If you think that truffle you ate was impressive." Stella smugly grinned, "Just wait until you experience the spirit-improving one or get hurled into the Mystic Realm. Then you will be in for a real treat."