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Chapter 354: Thrill Of The Hunt

Day: 3640

Daily Credit: 74

Sacrifice Credit: 1008

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"Huh, my credits grew in my sleep." Ashlock slurred as his body fought off the winter cold, and his mind kicked into gear. While his biology had many advantages, waking up quickly in the mornings wasn\'t one of them. "Did something happen to earn me divine energy?"

The only reason he could think of was the tournament that was supposed to start today. Looking out at Red Vine Peak, it was desolate, and the storm had gotten even worse. The heavy rain had transitioned into hail that relentlessly pelted his canopy. While he had his senses beyond his trunk muted to save his sanity, there was no way to entirely ignore the sensations his main body was experiencing. So he would have to accept being pummeled by hail.

"No, this is getting ridiculous," Ashlock pulled on his soul, and a spatial barrier manifested around his entire body. He pushed the falling hail away from him by constantly pulsing the space like a vibrating speaker. While not very Qi-efficient, it gave him respite from the storm. "I don\'t remember previous winter storms being this long or intense. Has something affected the weather in this realm? Maybe instead of climate change, they have Qi change here?"

Whatever was causing it, he hoped it would stop some time soon. The lack of sunlight made him more sluggish than usual, and he felt bad for the mortals who had to stay inside their huts.

"Hopefully, the tournament will cheer some of them up. Who doesn\'t like a good bit of fighting to let out some anger." Dismissing his system message, he cast {Eye of the Tree God}, and his viewpoint became detached like a floating eye. "I\'ll open a portal in the Ashfallen Trading Company first and then a few throughout Darklight City. With this intense storm, I don\'t want to force people to travel to a single location."

His vision blurred slightly as he moved quickly through the hail over the demonic tree-covered mountain range. White Stone Peak was deathly quiet, with nobody outside cultivating under his new offspring. He went down the side of the mountain, passing over where Nox had once resided before she set up home in Tartarus.

"I need to decide what to do about that, as Nox was Ashfallen City\'s defender. I could find or raise a replacement or figure out a way to have Nox in both locations simultaneously." Ashlock mused as he left that area and headed for the Ashfallen Trading Company\'s building at the city\'s heart. Following the main road and surveying the storm\'s effect on the buildings, he paused as something odd caught his eye.

Having helped place every single tree and knowing the city\'s layout intrinsically through his root network, a random demonic tree sprouting in the road looked really out of place.

"Did I place this here?" Ashlock thought back and didn\'t remember having a reason to grow another tree here. Its positioning was terrible as it cut into the road, making it narrower, and it partially blocked the entrance of a hut. "Maybe it spawned from one of my freshly grown dao fruits?"

Fusing his ethereal roots with the tree, he took a closer look at it. "This tree has a warped soul and no evidence of developing an affinity," Ashlock mused, "So it isn\'t likely to have grown from my dao fruit, and judging by how much it has grown already, it had a food source to start with. A corpse, perhaps?"

There were no monsters in Ashfallen City, so it had to be from a human corpse.

"The warped soul also suggests it was a human and likely in the Qi Realm as it has no affinity."

He tried to ask it questions, but as expected, like with the Redclaws turning to trees, the soul was far too warped to form anything more than simple waves of emotions. He felt pride, satisfaction, and anger from the tree. A strange combo.

"So a mortal of Ashfallen City somehow ingested my cursed sap and turned into a tree overnight." Ashlock hummed in thought. Something didn\'t add up here. His cursed sap wasn\'t freely available on the market to buy, so the only way to acquire it would be to chop at his roots and harvest it, just like what is happening to the World Tree. "But my roots are quite tough. Someone in the Qi Realm would lack the strength to even leave a dent."

Ashlock looked around the \'crime scene,\' but the intense storm had washed away any evidence. If someone had managed to cut into one of the roots spiraling up the demonic trees, it had healed by now, as he couldn\'t see any damage to them. For a split moment, he opened his senses to the few demonic trees surrounding the out-of-place tree, and, as expected, he was assaulted by a confusing mess of emotions from his offspring.

"All of you be quiet for a minute. Shhh, yes, I know the storm is cold." Ashlock tried to soothe his children like a good father. Once the few offspring he focused on calmed down, he asked them, "Which of you got hurt?"

Rage surged from the tree to the left.

"Okay, so it was you." The tree showed no injury, and nothing else looked out of place. "Let\'s see. Get more angry if a cultivator damaged my root wrapped around your trunk."

As expected, his offspring got angrier, which confirmed his hypothesis. A mortal man had been killed and somehow fed his cursed sap, which was harvested by a cultivator from this tree. He referred to the victim as a mortal man, as those in the Qi Realm would never possess the strength to damage his roots. The culprit was likely around the Star Core Realm.

"Was it a man or a woman that did it?" Ashlock asked in hopes of more clues to narrow down the suspects but simply received confusion from the tree. "Ah, you can\'t tell the gender of humans apart?"

More confusion. "It seems my Soul Fire Realm offspring are rather clueless—no, don\'t get sad. Dad still loves you. It\'s okay. You were very helpful, thank you." Ashlock cut off his attention to those offspring and returned to his Inner World in search of Stella. If a cultivator participated in the tournament with some of his cursed sap, things could quickly go wrong. His offspring didn\'t serve as great witnesses, so he needed someone to go undercover and investigate.

Ashlock found Stella outside her house, training with Jasmine and the Redclaws. He caught Stella up on the situation.

"Don\'t they know that touching the trees leads to a death sentence?!" Stella scowled, "Open a portal." She demanded, pointing at the space before her, "Let me see the situation."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but calm down," Ashlock said, "This is an ideal opportunity for training. An assassin first needs to locate their target before they can kill. The clues are few, but if you put your mind to it, I\'m sure you can find them."

Stella crossed her arms and nodded thoughtfully, "And if I find them?"

"Kill them." Ashlock said simply, "As you said, harming my offspring is a death sentence."

"Great," Stella smirked, "The hunt is on then."

***

Ashlock watched Stella, wearing her cult clothes and a jade Eternal Pursuit Pavilion mask, knock on the door of a hut thrice. She had her hood up to cover her ears and hair. The door opened slightly as someone from inside peeked through the crack with understandable wariness of such a suspicious-looking figure.

"Who is it?"

"An investigator from the cult of the All-Seeing Eye," Stella said simply. She was widely known throughout Ashfallen City, and the mere mention of her name would have anyone groveling at her feet and spilling everything they knew. But that wasn\'t the way an assassin did things. She had to act discretely and learn to get things from people without brute force or flexing her status.

"What is it you wish to know, investigator?" The man opened the door wider. While still cautious, he didn\'t seem overly guarded as he leaned on the doorframe.

"When did this tree appear?" Stella asked, gesturing to the still-growing demonic tree behind her.

The man\'s eyes widened as he looked at the tree in disbelief, "What in the nine realms? I know this sounds ridiculous, investigator, but that wasn\'t there yesterday."

"I see," Stella nodded, "Has someone you know gone missing recently?"

"No—wait," the man rubbed his chin in thought, "Old Bill said he felt the presence of a cultivator outside and went to investigate. Now that I think about it, he never returned." The man suddenly became worried, "Did something happen to Old Bill?"

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"That\'s what I\'m trying to find out. Did you hear anything when Old Bill went to investigate the cultivator? Some shouting or sounds of battle?"

The man shook his head, "Old Bill was never one to get easily angry. While a passionate and upstanding person, he would rarely resort to violence. I didn\'t hear anything, and I doubt he would fight with a cultivator over nothing."

"I see," Stella said thoughtfully as she looked at the tree before glancing back at the man. "If Old Bill returns or you remember any more information, please leave it with the workers in the Ashfallen Trading Company. You will be rewarded."

"Thank you, I\'ll be sure to stop by if I learn of anything." the man said with a small bow. "Though I have to say, I\'m surprised Ashfallen cares enough about us mortals to send someone to check on us, and I\'m sorry those cultivators made you brave the storm in search of answers only to end up questioning a useless person like me." The man shook his head. "Don\'t those cultivators understand the cold isn\'t easy on us mortals?"

"I\'m not—ahem," Stella caught herself from refuting the man thinking she was a mortal. "Yes, the cold is less than ideal. I\'ll be heading off now as I have more duties to attend to. Thank you for the information."

As Stella turned to leave, the man called out. "If you don\'t mind me asking, how did you know Old Bill had gone missing? Even I hadn\'t noticed his disappearance until you pointed it out."

Stella chuckled as she disappeared into the storm, "The trees have eyes."

"The trees have eyes? Old Bill used to say that too..." The man stood there for a moment contemplating what Stella had said, but having lost sight of her through the hail, he shrugged and closed his door. Meanwhile, Stella rounded the corner across the street, and Ashlock opened a portal for her to walk through.

Appearing in her living room, Stella took off her mask with a frown as the portal snapped closed behind her.

"Did you figure out who hurt Ashlock\'s offspring?" Jasmine asked from the couch. She looked totally exhausted, and Stella\'s reappearance seemed to have stirred her awake from a quick nap. Those in the Soul Fire Realm still needed to sleep and eat, though far less than mortals.

"No," Stella flashed her white soul fire to quickly dry her drenched cloak. "But that only makes it all the more intriguing," her frown faded, and she smiled.

"It does?" Jasmine tilted her head, "Why? It sounds more of a hassle than anything, and I thought you found killing a chore."

"You\'re right, I do, my dear Disciple. Killing weaklings in the tournament realm left a sour taste in my mouth, so I had wanted to focus on research, but this... the thrill of the hunt." Stella\'s eyes gleamed, "I know you might not understand yet, but let me tell you. It adds a whole new meaning to the kill. Rather than a simple conquest of strength, it\'s also a battle of wits. They cover their tracks and lurk in the shadows while I analyze the hints and draw ever closer to revealing their identity. The one who wins this hunt is superior in all aspects."

"That does sound more fun, I guess..." Jasmine chuckled nervously.

"Indeed," Stella nodded and began pacing around the room, "So far, I know it\'s a cultivator of at least the Soul Fire Realm, but more likely to be in the Star Core Realm if they managed to cut Ashlock\'s roots. Logically, such cultivators are rare around here. Anyone that strong is either under us, part of Mister Choi\'s group, or in Darklight City. The only reason someone of that strength would have to come to Ashfallen City is to visit the Ashfallen Trading Company to buy pills or join the tournament." Stella slowly put the mask back on. "Now I know where to investigate next."

Ashlock agreed with Stella\'s deduction, so his vision blurred until he reached the Ashfallen Trading Company\'s building.

"What the hell?" He muttered as he looked at the sheer number of people crammed inside. He had expected the fierce storm to affect turnout, and he hadn\'t widely advertised that the Ashfallen Sect was opening its doors besides having it mentioned in Darklight City\'s academy and here at the Trading Company\'s building. Despite the hail outside, the line to join the tournament extended outside, with people huddling under the canopies of the demonic trees lining the road.

Curious, he switched his view to Darklight City\'s colosseum, which was next to the academy, as that is where he had agreed to open the portal, and was even more surprised. The place was utterly full. Every seat was taken by a colorful sea of reds, browns, blues, and more as cultivators flexed their soul fires to ward off the storm, and the sandy arena was packed.

"Shit... this is way more than I expected." Ashlock rushed to call on his sect Elders and anyone else he could. This was going to need far more organizing than he had initially planned.

***

Serena Blacktide broke eye contact with the twerp and turned around to face the mustache man. "Along with these two boxes, I\'ll buy a bottle and box of every pill you have." With the portal open, the tournament was about to begin. If this sect really could awaken latent talent, she wanted to put on the best show for them.

"Excellent," the man rubbed his hands together gleefully like a demon and quickly counted up her order, "With your discount, your total comes to four hundred high-grade spirit stones. Trust me, this is a far better price than we sell them to the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion—"

Serena\'s spatial ring flashed, and a pile of silver stones appeared on the table.

"—pleasure doing business with you," the man waved his hands, and the pile disappeared. Having completed their transaction, Serena took the pills.

Looking back into the crowd, she locked eyes with that darn kid again. All I did was knock some sense into him. Does he think he\'s a big shot now that he\'s broken into the Soul Fire Realm?

Serena debated walking over and knocking some more sense into the kid.

"Excuse me." Serena turned to the voice and was about to reply when she realized the woman wasn\'t talking to her—she was speaking with the mustache man behind her. Serena stepped aside to give way.

"Yes, how can I help you miss?"

"I\'m an investigator for the All-Seeing Eye," the woman said, "I\'m looking into two likely connected incidents. One of the trees on the main street was harmed, followed by the murder of a mortal. His name was Old Bill, and he was a devoted believer in the All-Seeing Eye. We believe he was murdered by a cultivator of at least the Soul Fire Realm."

"That\'s terrible!" The mustache man\'s eyes widened, "Who would be foolish enough to do such a thing? Everyone knows harming the trees is the fastest way to earn the Princess\'s wrath."

"You wouldn\'t happen to know anything?" The investigator asked, "Have you seen anyone suspicious or perhaps sold any pills to cultivators you have never seen before?"

Serena\'s blood ran cold. That was most likely referring to what she had done last night. What in the nine realms? Why would they care to investigate the death of a random person... no it\'s not the mortal\'s death they care about. It\'s the harming of that darn tree. Serena stepped away as casually as she could and faded into the crowd. While keeping within earshot, she put on the cult cloak given to her so she wouldn\'t stand out, as over half the people were also part of the All-Seeing Eye.

"Suspicious? Not really..." the man twirled his mustache in thought, "Though I have sold many pills to quite a few cultivators I\'ve never seen before. The tournament has drawn quite the crowd, as you can see."

"That it has," the investigator replied. "Any of these new patrons catch your interest."

"Mhm, there was this one woman that was here just a moment ago, actually," the mustache man\'s gaze swept across the crowd, and Serena barely put her hood up in time to hide. "I\'ve lost sight of her now, but she had many spatial rings and..."

Serena could not hear the rest as the mustache man leaned in closer, and something around the investigator seemed to disrupt her spiritual sense, which she had been using to eavesdrop.

Cursing to herself, Serena shuffled through the crowd toward the portal nobody had dared to enter yet as a few employees of the Trading Company stood before it, telling people to wait.

Shit, what is wrong with this place. How was I supposed to know the rules surrounding the trees? Serena thought as she took off her spatial rings and hid them inside her fur coat under the cloak, as it seemed having so many would be a way for the investigator to identify her.

I should figure out what that investigator looks like to avoid them. Serena glanced back, but the woman was gone like a ghost. Spreading out her spiritual sense, she tried to locate the woman when something dawned on her. The investigator had the presence of a mortal, making it harder to find her. However, it gave her an easy solution.

There\'s a short list of people that are currently risks to me. If I kill the investigator, the mustache man, and the twerp, I can start my life here in Ashfallen with a clean slate.

A domineering pressure suddenly washed over the room.

Serena looked toward the portal and saw a man wearing dark red robes that matched his striking red hair step through. She had only ever felt this level of spiritual pressure when the Patriarch of the Abyssal Tide sect made a rare appearance.

That must be the Patriarch of the Ashfallen Sect. Serena mused. The man certainly had the aura of a ruler and the level of cultivation to match.

The portal then rippled as another person stepped through. The newcomer was a taller-than-average woman. Lustrous black hair with a blue tint ran all the way down her back, but her most striking features were her in-human ones. She had cute fangs and elongated nails that were like claws, but the most striking feature was the giant raven-style wings sprouting from her back.

A demon? And a strong one at that. Easily as strong as the red-haired man here. What\'s going on?

The woman was as beautiful as she seemed dangerous, and Serena felt the hairs on the back of her neck spike as she looked into the woman\'s chilling grey eyes.

As if the appearance of two such powerful cultivators in this backwater city wasn\'t enough, a third person stepped through the portal and took up the other side of the red-haired cultivator.

This third cultivator was a muscular man in a well-tailored beige suit with a strange stone crown encrusted with gems adorning his head. While he had a lesser presence than the other two, he was still in the Star Core Realm.

"Greetings, everyone. My name is Grand Elder Redclaw. To my right is Grand Elder Diana, and to my left is Grand Elder Douglas."

At the red-haired man\'s introduction, the demon gave a fang-filled smile, and the man called Douglas gave a firm nod.

Serena could feel the excited tension from those around her. To these mortals, these three people were like living gods. Even to Serena, they were an almost untouchable existence that could make her kneel with their mere presence, and there were three of them!

"We will oversee the tournament alongside many other Grand Elders of the Ashfallen Sect to ensure those with talent don\'t go unnoticed."

There are more of them?! Serena thought in disbelief. Also, how powerful is the Patriarch of this place? Don\'t tell me they are in the Nascent Soul Realm...

"While the tournament realm is built to accommodate you all, this is the first time we have done this. Despite the storm, there\'s an unexpectedly large turnout, and we are a bit stretched for personnel. So we will let those bearing the cloak of the All-Seeing Eye in first, and then the nonbelievers in second." Grand Elder Redclaw gestured to the counter, "Sign-ups are always welcome."

Another devious marketing tactic!

"Does anyone have any questions?" Grand Elder Redclaw asked.

A hand shot up, and he nodded toward it.

"Uhm, will the Princess also be making an appearance?" a young girl with a sword strapped to her back and holding what looked to be a blonde-haired doll with pink eyes tightly in her arms asked. "S-she\'s my hero."

Diana seemed to look strangely at the doll as the Redclaw Grand Elder nodded. "Yes, the Princess will be making an appearance. The immortal of Ashfallen will also be watching. So everyone, do your best!"

He then flicked his robe gracefully and returned through the portal with the other two Grand Elders in tow. The Trading Companies\' employees stepped aside and let those wearing the All-Seeing Eye cloaks through while many disgruntled people headed over to the counter to sign up.

Serena gulped as she followed the excited crowd through the portal while trying to keep her head down. It seems I need to keep an eye out, especially for this wrathful Princess known to hunt down those who harm the trees.