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Dante Voidmind sat a few tables away, and despite Jasper's constant attempts at starting a conversation with the scion, Dante's solid black eyes were set on Elaine's every move. Ashlock could also see ripples of Qi emanating from him as if he were a stone dropped into a calm lake.

Ashlock waited patiently for Elaine to write out three pretend attempts at an array. Clearly, she had zero knowledge about arrays, but Ashlock's {Language of the World} skill effortlessly translated the ancient runic language in his head.

"At the end of the tournament, there will be a Voidmind invasion led by my brother." Ashlock read, filling in the gaps where he deemed necessary. The message wasn't that shocking, as the reason for the scion's participation was dubious at best.

In a world where power was gained through closed-door meditation, why would a scion dare stray from the safety of their cave and waste time at some small-time alchemy tournament hosted in a backwater city by a small cultivation family?

For this very reason, they even advertised the tournament as having meager rewards and being open to rogue cultivators. Ashlock expected a few families to show up with maybe an aspiring alchemist or someone they were training just to show some face to the Redclaw family but to send a scion? An heir to the entire family? That was just nonsense.

It was another reason Ashlock had been so eager to rescue Elaine from that suspicious mansion. Not just for her own safety, as he had no idea what problems her improved looks and spirit roots could cause, but also because he wanted information. What was the real reason Dante Voidmind was here? He hadn't expected her to get such juicy details so quickly...

"An invasion, huh." Ashlock mused as he eavesdropped on the meeting for a while longer. An hour passed, and the only other thing Elaine felt the need to write out in ancient runes translated to her being fine with watching over her brother as she also wanted access to something called the void chamber.

Ashlock wasn't sure what this void chamber was exactly, but he could make an educated guess. It was well known that cultivators needed to meditate in areas with Qi of their affinity floating around if they wished to advance. So this void chamber was likely a place of concentrated void Qi.

"Come to think of it, Elaine has been basically unable to cultivate the entire time she's been at Red Vine Peak as there's no void Qi around, and I didn't let her enter the Mystic Realm this time." Ashlock felt bad about this revelation. And it made him feel even worse, knowing that she was willing to stay with her brother just to have the opportunity to surround herself with some void Qi for once.

"Maybe I can build her a cultivation room." Ashlock sighed, "I still need to get Douglas to build that staircase and hollow out the mountain with rooms for everyone."

It had been so busy recently that none of them had found the time.

"After the alchemy tournament and defeating this Voidmind invasion, I will take a week off and get all hands on deck to turn this mountain into the greatest cultivation abode this realm has ever seen! I just need to find a way to somehow survive many Voidmind cultivators coming here hellbent on taking over my beloved shithole of a city."

Which was going to be no easy feat. Killing the Voidmind Elder had been a mixture of luck and Maple coming to the rescue. Neither of those were very reliable solutions or ones that could be utilized at scale against a full-on invasion. Maple—for all the power shoved in such a tiny body—got exhausted after just a few attacks.

"I do have {Consuming Abyss} this time round which will let me fight void with void. But if the Voidmind Grand Elder makes an entrance, then we might run into problems." Ashlock hummed to himself as he thought of scenarios... none of them looked too good.

"Why do they even want to invade? Would there be a way to call it off? Reach a peace deal, perhaps?" If all they wanted was a chunk of Darklight City or access to the mines, Ashlock didn't mind letting them have some control for a while if it bought him enough time to get strong enough to steamroll them.

"Ah, whatever. Why can't they let us have our little tournament in peace." Ashlock let out another long sigh in his mind. Alas, his wandering thoughts were interrupted by the sound of multiple chairs being pushed back on the dining room's tiled floor.

Stella, Douglas, and Elder Margret stood up from the table.

"Since the tournament is so soon, we must meet regularly." Elder Margret said as per the script he had told her earlier in the day. "The dining room is too noisy, so let's meet in your study next time."

Ashlock would raise his concerns and ask if peace was an option away from Dante's prying eyes at this next meeting.

"That's a great idea, Elder Margret," Elaine gave her a sweet smile, "I will look forward to it."

Elder Margret nodded, looked over to Dante's table to see his irritated expression, and then back to Elaine, "Just because your brother is here doesn't mean you can skip out on attending the lectures you promised the Academy to teach due to your Uncles absence. It will be a good experience for you."

Elaine bobbed her head in agreement, "You're right—with Uncle gone for the last few weeks, I am sure the students have suffered greatly and fallen behind in their studies."

"Will you be fine teaching them?" Douglas asked.

"Sure," Elaine was obviously refraining from showing Douglas any affection in front of Dante, "I used to sit in on his lectures occasionally, and he left his lecture notes in my study so I could stand in as a substitute for a while without problems."

"Perfect! Well, we must be on our way." Elder Margret bid farewell and led Douglas and Stella out of the dining room. Ashlock's gaze lingered in the room as he saw Dante stand up and then sit on Elaine's table.

Elaine only seemed slightly bothered and uncomfortable in her brother's presence as they exchanged words while eating.

"Since when did you learn about runes?" Dante questioned, and Elaine effortlessly answered, "Dante do you think I was idle these last few years? You would be surprised how much time I have to study random topics such as runes when I don't get to spend any of it cultivating."

Dante opened his mouth to say something but then shut it. Elaine had seemingly answered numerous of his other questions with that one statement. A few minutes later, they concluded their meal, and the three Voidminds stood and exited the dining hall while drawing many stares and whispers.

Ashlock watched them walk back to their house, and once he saw they were all safely inside without incident, he sighed in relief. He had half expected Dante to kill someone for looking at him funny the entire way home.

With the sun beginning to set, signifying the coming of dusk, Ashlock returned his sights to Red Vine Peak. People were waiting for him.

Stella had brought the group back to the peak via a portal, and they were idly chatting while waiting for his presence. The moment he deactivated his skill and used his spiritual sight to look at the group, Stella seemed to somehow notice his attention.

"Alright, the immortal is present. We can begin the real meeting." Stella clapped her hands and drew everyone's attention. "With only a little over a week to go until the tournament, and while we have you here, Elder Margret, can you give us a summary of the tournament preparations?"

"Certainly," Elder Margret said as she summoned a parchment to her hand, "Other than the Voidmind family that has already arrived, the Starweaver, Terraforge, Skyrend, and Azurecrest families are still planning attendance and will arrive shortly."

Switching out the parchment for another, she continued, "Along with them, over a hundred rogue cultivators have sent in applications, so we will have a preliminary round where we will filter them out with a quick test."

"A single testing round?" Douglas asked, "Seems rather harsh."

"Well, that leads to my next point..." Elder Margret said, "Cultivation resources used in alchemy are expensive. However, in this rare case, funding isn't the issue but rather the sourcing. We aren't sure if one of our political rivals caught wind of the tournament or if one of the other Silverspire scions wants to screw over their little brother, but there's simply no market out there for the amount of resources we need for the tournament."

That didn't sound good. How did the Redclaws plan to run an alchemy tournament without any ingredients to perform alchemy with?

"That is why we have a single testing round where we mainly test people's knowledge and give them a single low-grade herb to refine in front of a few judges to see their practical skills." Elder Margret sighed as she tapped the parchment in her hands, "But even with this odd formatting, we still might not have enough resources for a single round due to the hundreds of rogue alchemists attending."

Ashlock had many dragon coins and various artifacts and things he could sell if money was the problem. But according to Elder Margret, money wasn't the issue. Instead, it was a scarcity of resources—likely caused by a rival that wanted to see the tournament fail—that was the problem.

"Hold on. I have an idea..." Ashlock mused as he wrote on his trunk in lilac flames, 'Do you have a complete set of ingredients on hand?'

Stella translated the words.

Elder Margret nodded, and her ring flashed with golden light. A wooden box filled with porcelain bottles appeared between them.

"Everything an alchemist could need to make a low-grade Body Strengthing Pill is within this box."

"Why low grade?" Stella inquired as she crouched down and inspected the bottles.

"Cheap ingredients," Elder Margret replied, "Either they were grown in imperfect conditions leading to impurities, or they are easier to find alternatives of the ingredients required to make a high-grade pill."

Ashlock was glad they had one complete set of ingredients, as that was all he needed. He planned to create an alchemy empire with his system-granted production skills.

So a shortage of ingredients was no issue for him. He just needed to add the ingredients to his systems database to grow them with his {Blooming Root Flower Production} skill or even create mushrooms and fruit that mimic or replace the ingredients.

Blanketing the area with his Qi, he began to use telekinesis to lift up the porcelain bottles and extract the ingredients from them. This was so he could analyze them for his system.

'Explain each one, Elder Margret.' Ashlock wrote, and she raised a brow, likely confused about his ignorance, but she obeyed anyway.

"The Body Strengthing Pill is an easy-to-make pill that has a few key ingredients. First is the Qi Flowing Grass." She pointed to some plain-looking grass with yellow tips, "This grass is known for its properties to facilitate the flow of Qi through the body's spirit roots, so it's an essential ingredient for most pills."

Ashlock had brought up his {Blooming Root Flower Production} menu and saw the Qi Flowing Grass added to his list of analyzed flowers. It did surprise him to learn that grass counted as flowers, but he wouldn't complain.

"Then we have the starlight lotus," Elder Margret pointed at a beautiful light blue flower that looked like it had twinkling stars growing on its petals, "Despite how beautiful they look, they aren't too rare. They can be easily grown in lakes exposed to the night sky. This is important as they only bloom under starlight and absorb cosmic energy. Once plucked, they begin to degrade within days."

"What is the effect of the starlight lotus?" Stella asked in awe. It was clear that Stella was interested in the flowers as she greedily absorbed all of the information. Was it due to that book about alchemy he had given her previously from the Voidmind Elder's stash?

"It's known to enhance the potency of pills by unblocking muscle tissue." Elder Margret said, "This makes the starlight lotus vital for the Body Strengthing Pill as it will primarily target the muscle tissue."

"I see." Stella crossed her arms as she contemplated. "How do you know so much about Alchemy, Elder Margret?"

A look of nostalgia overcame the stern-faced woman, "Back when the beast tides were less frequent and weaker, and war between the demonic sects raged, we were at our peak. Our versatility in providing firepower on the front lines while also being alchemists and smiths made us invaluable to the Blood Lotus Sect. Very few other affinities could do all that at once, so we thrived in the war era. But once the beast tides became more frequent and stronger with every wave, we had to start moving. Not every location the Blood Lotus Sect moved to had good access to abundant fire Qi, and the demonic sects saw less need to wage war over territory as that land would have to be conceded to the beast tides anyway."

Ashlock felt his mind freeze. It had been mentioned in the past about how this was the strongest beast tide yet. But now that Elder Margret laid it out, he became concerned. Senior Lee had told him the world was dying. And during those flashbacks of previous world trees, he distinctly remembered the feeling of the realms around his roots turning into hellscapes overflowing with demonic Qi. By a dying world, is this what Senior Lee meant?

"Oh, look at me rambling away about the past..." Elder Margret sighed as she looked up at Ashlock's canopy that blocked the setting sun, "To answer your question, we have a long history in the art of Alchemy. But training up new alchemists is expensive, so as we faded into obscurity in this post-war era, we had to let go of alchemy and smithing to focus on keeping our firepower high just to survive out here."

Ashlock had pushed his concerns about the world to the back of his mind and listened to the old woman's tale. He felt sorry for them. In peaceful times like now, those families specializing in something like the Silverspires with their spatial rings will thrive. It's only in times of war when resources and manpower are limited that the all-rounders are preferred.

"Most of our knowledge has been lost or sold throughout the many times we have moved." Elder Margret said as she tapped her head with her finger, "But I still remember a lot of it—which I try to pass down to those who will listen to me."

Stella grinned, "Well, tell me all you know!"

Elder Margret lightly chuckled, "Alright, let's see... the main component of the pill is the Dragon Marrow."

She pointed to a bottle with white jelly streaming out of it, "Despite its grand-sounding name, it can be found in most mammal-type monsters in the Soul Fire Realm or above. However, the problem lies in the fact it can only be harvested from monsters that are days away from ascending to the next stage in their cultivation. Otherwise, the bone marrow won't have enough Qi to be considered Dragon Marrow."

Stella nodded her head, "That makes a lot of sense. We draw all the Qi lying around in our bodies into our cores to push them over the edge to reach the next stage."

"Indeed, it's a hassle, and with the increasing strength of the monsters out in the wilderness due to the incoming beast tide. With the cultivators having to travel in larger groups and be better equipped, it's driving up the cost."

Ashlock looked at the bone marrow and mentally frowned. That was definitely an ingredient he could not grow, as it had to come straight from a monster.

"But I can drag many monsters through portals without sending out a group of cultivators, so it shouldn't be too hard to source enough of the stuff." Ashlock was starting to realize just how much of a cheat his existence was. He may not be able to move, but that was a small price to pay for the skills of the system.

"And that's it." Elder Margret sighed again, "These are the three most basic ingredients needed for the Body Strengthing Pill, which was the pill we planned to get the contestants to concoct for the final round. The Qi Flowing Grass is the ingredient we have in abundant supply. It's the Starlight Lotus and Dragon Marrow that's the problem."

Ashlock wrote, 'Elder Margret, please return tomorrow with two aspiring alchemists from your family. I have a solution to this problem,' on his trunk after confirming he had added the Qi Flowing Grass and Starlight Lotus to his production menu.

It was time to expand the farm in the cavern, as producing thousands of these resources was a simple affair for Ashlock.

And after listening to Elder Margret's tale, he decided there was no need to wait for the tournament's conclusion to start production. Even after unlocking the cauldron fruit, he had refrained from using the Redclaws as he hadn't trusted them.

But times had changed, and the Redclaws were now an irreplaceable part of the Ashfallen Sect. He no longer had any qualms about going all out to improve and level them up.

It was about time he returned the Redclaws to their former glory, one flower, fruit, and mushroom at a time.