Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

"Why would you want to poison the Merchants?" Ashlock asked Stella with a hint of confusion.

He practically got whiplash from her answer. It was so outrageous. Did she have some grudge with them?

The Merchants were imperative for the future of the Ashfallen Sect. Until they gained enough strength and connections to manage their own supply chains, they needed the Merchants.

"So if Stella goes around murdering them, that's a problem." Ashlock sighed. He was willing to put up with a lot of nonsense from Stella, but there was still a vague line in the sand that she shouldn't cross.

"Why would I... Ah." Ashlock realized he hadn't thought that far as he saw the pills they would make as massive downgrades of his own produce, so why would anyone want to find out about the source? But even if his pills weren't special, competitors would pay good money to learn more about new competitors.

This was a world without laws—survival of the fittest. Who's to say a competitor wouldn't send assassins after Stella or even try to enslave him for their own production?

"I'm one of the strongest beings in the Blood Lotus Sect, to my knowledge, which made me careless. I need to remember there are the Grand Elders of the strongest families, like the Silverspires, whose Grand Elder is about to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm. There's also the matter of the Blood Lotus Sect's Patriarch, who could step out of closed-door cultivation any day now, especially with tensions rising and noble families dying. I wouldn't be surprised if someone dragged him out to extinguish the fires of civil war."

Ashlock sighed again. He had been approaching this too much like a business deal on Earth, where there were laws and regulations to be followed through a contract.

"I was naive to think the Merchants were like friendly guys who ran a shipping company and would distribute my pills worldwide for cheap on a shipping container. They are insane people who wander the wilderness, dive into rifts between dimensions, and try to extort money from cultivators. How could I trust people like this?"

With reluctance, Ashlock had to admit his ignorance to Stella.

"I hadn't thought about how we could keep the merchants loyal," Ashlock admitted.

"You met them in Slymere, didn't you?" Ashlock asked.

"Hammond? Who's that?"

"What made him worse than Nox?"

"He said that to you?" Ashlock asked.

He couldn't believe Stella had interacted with such a dangerous person when she was weak.

Now that Stella laid it all out, why were they trusting the Merchants in the first place at all?

"Do we have to work with them?" Ashlock asked Stella, "Can't we have the Silverspires sell the pills on our behalf to the rest of the Blood Lotus Sect?"

"Of course, it always comes down to sect politics," Ashlock grumbled, "But what makes the Merchants a good distributor? Can't we sell the pills ourselves somehow?"

Arriving at the river, Stella knelt on the stone and gasped as she cupped freezing water onto her head. She did this a few times, and then once her long hair was thoroughly drenched, she combed out the dust with her fingers and eventually got frustrated and summoned a comb from her spatial ring.

While she was sitting on the riverbank and drying her hair with a towel, Ashlock asked, "Do you know anything about this Tainted Cloud Sect? Why haven't I heard much about them before?"

"Where did you get all this information?" Ashlock wondered.

Ashlock found that story rather amusing. "So the Merchants are the boogeyman to the children of demonic sects in this cultivation world? Also, thank god for Maple watching over Stella. That was when we were both so weak and could only dream about making it to tomorrow without somehow dying. To think she did something so dangerous..."

It was weird to think how in control of their lives they had become in such a short time. Senior Lee hadn't been wrong—even if someone was stronger out there, reducing the number of threats led to a more peaceful and assured existence.

Regarding control, Ashlock was now more on board with the idea of poisoning the Merchants. Oaths were too hard to enforce as the other party had to agree, but maybe they would be more open to taking one if they were slowly turning into a tree?

"So, your plan was to poison the merchants with my cursed sap and then offer them an antidote that only you could provide?"

Ashlock was just amazed at Stella's insight. Since when had his murder-happy daughter become such a schemer?

"They grow up so fast," Ashlock mentally wiped away fake tears. He felt proud as he watched Stella return to the earthen bowls with a much fresher look after her primitive shower.

"Stella, should I bring Elder Margret over to help?" Ashlock asked after seeing Stella looking over the long line of ingredients with a deep frown again, "She can also help us decide what pills the White Stone Palace alchemists should make for us to sell."

With Stella's agreement, his vision blurred across the vast mountain range and came to a halt in the other cavern.

"Has each alchemist taken a pillar for their own?" Ashlock wondered as he noticed each pillar had a single alchemist on the highest platform. The vault door that led up to the White Stone Palace had been closed and sealed, so there was only a blue hue from the glowing mushrooms and the orange glow from the Blaze Serpent Rose's illuminating the cavern.

Other than the twins harvesting bamboo together on a lower level, the other alchemists were hunched over a cauldron fruit and frantically making pill after pill.

Ashlock noted a few of them were making Body Strengthening Pills, which was the one they made in the tournament, while others were making pills he had never seen before.

"Elder Margret," Ashlock spoke into the woman's mind as she took a break from her own pill-making.

"Oh, Patriarch?" Elder Margret replied as she wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve and popped a Mind Fortress pill, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I came to ask you for some help over in the other cavern," Ashlock replied, "But you look exhausted... You know you and the others don't have to stay trapped down here all day. You can take breaks and go outside."

Elder Margret chuckled as she withdrew her flame from the cauldron and gathered all the ingredients and pills into her spatial ring, "Don't worry, we all know that. We just can't help ourselves as we all share a deep love for alchemy, and getting to practice as much as we want with such pure ingredients is a dream come true."

"Oh, I see," Ashlock replied. He sometimes forgot how precious alchemy ingredients were to ordinary people who couldn't grow them in seconds.

"So, what do you need my help with?" Elder Margret asked.

"Stella will explain," Ashlock said as he conjured a portal for her. Still, to this day, he was so glad he rerolled his affinity to spatial instead of sticking with ice affinity. It just made life so much easier, transporting his sect members around in seconds rather than waiting for them to walk or fly.

Stella then caught Elder Margret up regarding her attempts at making poison from Ashlock's cursed sap.

Elder Margret let out a breath of amazement once Stella finished her half-hour rant about the different combinations and difficulties she had encountered during the process.

Stella nodded.

"Political issues?" Ashlock asked them both. Since they were standing so close, it was easy to cast a wider net and simultaneously force his presence on multiple targets.

"Ah yes, that makes sense," Ashlock replied. That fruit would cause issues as it would directly disrupt the Skyrend family power, so he would need to sell them through discreet channels to any allies he can make for the war or keep it internally.

"If you want my opinion on the matter, could I get a list of the options again?" Elder Margret asked, "Are they the same as the ones you provided us for the Mystic Realm? Or are there other fruits I am unaware of?"

Bringing up his system screen, Ashlock decided to read out all the fruits while trying not to sound like a waiter at a high-class restaurant, "Clairvoyance, Mind Fortress, Florist's Touch, Lightning Qi Barrier, Enlightenment, Neural Root, Language Comprehension, Vampiric Touch, Deep Meditation and Superior Poison Resistance."

"That makes sense," Ashlock agreed, "I'll remove those alongside the politically questionable Lightning Qi Barrier. Anything else?"