Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

"Morning, sleepyhead," Ashlock said to Stella as she sluggishly got off the bench and wandered over while yawning and rubbing her eyes.

Her hair was disheveled, and it seemed a few fallen fruits had smacked her on the head in her slumber, judging from the variety of colors staining her blonde hair.

"Okay, enough nonsense, you two. We were discussing the beast tide and potential countermeasures. Care to join us, Stella?"

"I appreciate your blind trust in me, but this is definitely something we need to plan and discuss. If you don't want to join in, what are you going to do today?"

Ashlock could tell Stella was in a bad mood just by how she spoke and acted. She was likely still exhausted from yesterday and was now annoyed because their shouting interrupted her sleep, and water was thrown in her face.

"Sorry to ask this of you, but could you grab a heavenly contract from Kaida and deliver it to the Silverspires while on the way to pick up your Disciple? That's the only task that needed completing today. Oh, and you can return here via a root near Nox."

"Sure, I promise," Ashlock said as Stella vanished from where she stood and reappeared at the entrance to the ink Bastion, where Kaida resided.

Now that she was gone, Ashlock glanced back at the illusionary map cast over the stone pulsing red. The beast tide was most certainly a threat, but with two years to go, that gave him dozens of Mystic Realm visits to power up, and he already had ssolutions at his disposal to help him survive.

"What other choice do I have?" Ashlock laughed, "Worst case, I can teleport all of you to another leyline and face the tide alone."

That was true. Sthings couldn't be rushed, even with Ashlock's powers and the system. Examples included making Bastions and Ents as he needed to farm the credits and find the necessary corpses. The cultivators of the Ashfallen Sect would also need tto cultivate up to Nascent Soul Realm.

Ashlock had no intention of sharing anything to do with the system with anyone except Stella and maybe Diana, but he could still give Elaine sclues.

"My strengths? Let's see... I have a massive pool of Qi and can quickly regenerate my reserves by pulling on all my offspring."

"I am linked via my roots to every demonic tree you see, whether on this mountain range or out in the wilderness. I can pull from their Qi reserves to substitute my own. Each may have a small amount of Qi to spare, but it becomes a significant amount when there are thousands of them."

Stolen ; please report.

"For a typical spirit tree, cultivation may be slow. But these are my offspring. Not only do they cultivate and grow faster than normal, but during the night, I take them to a dreamscape where their cultivation speed can increase upwards of ten-fold depending on the moon's position."

"Mhm..." Ashlock ignored his production skills and summons as he didn't consider them his personal strength since they gave him indirect strength through others. But on that topic, he did have something. "I could technically create an army of Ents and Bastions to fight back against the beast tide."

"Other than upkeep, they costnothing to make. I just need a mostly intact corpse. As for how many I can control, it should be unlimited."

"Well, the main cost foris that I gain power from eating corpses, so those I turn into Ents would becexternal power rather than personal power."

Ashlock chuckled, "I suppose so."

Ashlock thought for a while. Since this would basically be a war, gathering information and holding down locations would be important. "I can see and project my influence to anywhere within the reach of my roots and unleash my full power through any of my offspring."

"That is correct, and if I had to guess, my roots currently go around a thousand miles or so in every direction," Ashlock replied, "I am also burrowing deeper as we speak to seek out the leyline."

Ashlock thought awhile, "I can kill things with my roots and void tendrils. I can also turn small areas into bubbles of a certain affinity by overlapping a pocket realm. I think that's about it other than the strength of the Ashfallen Sect."

The scratching sound of Elaine's quill was deafening as she noted everything down. Ashlock felt like he was taking a test and being graded for his worthiness. It didn't help that Elaine kept pulling different faces between disbelief and resignation. She finally laid the quill to rest and pushed up her glasses.

Elaine clicked her fingers, and the illusion rose from the ground, becoming a three-dimensional map. Zooming in by spreading her hands, Ashlock could see a vague reconstruction of Red Vine Peak with a projection of him at the top of the mountain. Purple glowing lines that he assumed represented his roots began to sprawl through the mountain. Sspread outward in all cardinal directions, while others continued into the depths.

It was nowhere near as big of an area as he expected. In fact, his roots barely touched the edges of the thick leyline upon which he was growing.

"No wonder I never saw these mortal cities nestled between the leylines, as I haven't even left the area of my own. However, I am getting close to the leyline along which the Tainted Cloud Sect is built." Ashlock's gaze drifted to the South, "Meanwhile, the Celestial Empire might as well be on another continent. It's so far away."

When shown his presence on the world stage, Ashlock didn't know how to feel. With Larry's evolution, the Ashfallen Sect was undoubtedly a powerhouse of the region, but there was still so much out there.

"Really?"

"If I had to guess, I can grow a few miles daily. So yes, I could reach there in a year."

The purple roots on the map spread up the leyline and intersected the spiritual spring to the North.

"No, I can see what she is thinking. Very clever." Ashlock sighed at how blind and defensive his thinking had been. "I blit on being a tree. While you humans instinctively flee danger, I only considered facing it head-on. Launching an assault on the beast tide before it began never occurred to me."

"Slowly, the beast tide would becunder my control..."

It was a great plan. One with minimal risk and maximum gain. Ashlock had been ready to hunker down and fight the beast tide on his own terms, but if he could carve out an area of the spiritual spring, grow a forest of demonic trees, and wreak havoc there. It might even be too easy.

"That's true. I need a mostly intact corpse," Ashlock replied.

"No, over my roots, the best I can do is make portals, lock monsters in place with Spatial Lock, and attack them with spatial Qi. Even if I am in the Nascent Soul Realm, I doubt I could defeat such a monster with these methods alone in the spiritual spring, which will be overflowing with other Qi types."