Chapter 14: Assassin Tree

[Fruit Production Complete]

Ashlock metaphorically rubbed his hands together in glee as he watched the open skies, eagerly anticipating a victim. The juicy red fruit hanging from his highest branches should be too tantalizing for any bird to resist!

Due to being in the 8th stage of the Qi Realm, Ashlock had little trouble using his {Eye of the Tree God} skill for extended periods of time. So while waiting for his prey, he decided to check on his surroundings.

Ashlock surveyed the entire mountain, searching for something interesting. As he zoomed in on a particularly steep section of the mountain, he watched a pebble go into free fall.

Tumbling down for a thousand meters, it smashed into many pieces upon impact with a lower part of the peak.

Following the path it took, Ashlock located a small hole in the side of the mountain. "Did one of my roots finally reach the edge of the mountain?"It was hard to explain to a human, but as a tree, he could feel everything at once, but his mind could only process so much. His body covered thousands of meters when his roots were included, so keeping track of everything was difficult unless something alerted him to an issue such as pain.

After checking with his roots, Ashlock confirmed that his suspicions were correct and that the sap conveyor belt was indeed fully operational, with pebbles on the move. This was good news, as the widening of his roots to create a hollow tunnel inside required the removal of the surrounding rock.

"I would have hoped the rock could be teleported away or stored in a spatial inventory and then dumped somewhere else."That would be a far more efficient solution, but with Ashlock's current skillset, this was the best he could do. It was slow, but at least it would eventually get the job done.

"You never know when you will need an escape tunnel. I could also get Stella to go down there and mine the Qi minerals."

Ashlock had long grown accustomed to the way trees had to think. Human decision-making is often short-term, but Ashlock's slow biology forced him to plan for days, weeks, and sometimes even months in advance.

For example, if he stumbled upon a secret room with treasure within the mountain in a few months, and he hadn't started the tunneling process now, it would take another few months before he could get Stella or Maple to retrieve the treasure.

"For now, the tunnels are only wide enough for Maple if I drain all the sap from them. So it will take a while until Stella can crawl through..." Ashlock watched as another pebble was pushed out the opening on the mountainside and tumbled to its demise.

Ashlock felt some weight on his branch, so he canceled out his eye-god skill and found himself back in the courtyard surrounded by many rings of stone covered in runic formations. On his top branch was a curious bird. It was an ugly thing, similar to a vulture, with its grey feathers, crooked neck, and rounded beak with a sickly black tongue hanging out. Its beady eyes locked onto the red fruit, and it shuffled closer...

"Yes!" Ashlock's leaves rustled slightly, causing the bird to look around as if watching out for predators. Ashlock immediately calmed down and quietly moved his Qi away from the bird to avoid any issues. The vulture completed its surveillance and then returned its attention to the fruit.

It got closer... then much to Ashlock's dismay, the bird seemed to sniff the fruit and reel back in disgust.

"It can smell the poison! Darn it, didn't think of that."

Ashlock thought back to when the servant tried to assassinate Stella. "Ah, now I see why the poison was dissolved in a tea with a strong aroma rather than a cup of water. The poison must have a distinct smell."

The vulture dropped down a branch and cautiously sniffed a bundle of purple fruits with black splodges. They were incredibly sour but were also packed full of Qi. The bird seemed confident the fruit contained no poison, so it opened its beak and ate the entire bundle in a single bite.

A big mistake. The vulture gagged at the extreme sourness, its face tensed up, and it couldn't see where it was going. Ashlock's bark was smoother than most trees, so the vulture lost its grip and plummeted to the ground ten meters below. On the way down, it smacked its head on the armrest of the oak bench Stella often sat on.

Then everything went silent. Ashlock stared at the unconscious bird in pure wonder. "That was rather unexpected." Ashlock chuckled to himself. He never denied a free meal, so he cast {Devour}, and black vines erupted from the small patch of grass around him that wasn't covered in stone. The vulture was mummified, and by the next day, any evidence of the unlucky bird was long gone.

[+2 SC]

"Two credits? Not too shabby." The bird was rather large and could detect poison, so it was no easy prey for a tree like Ashlock. Luckily his genius had prevailed and the bird was defeated fair and square. Feeling rather smug about his first-ever successful kill with his fruit, Ashlock summoned the daily sign-in.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 2781

Daily Credit: 7

Sacrifice Credit: 2

[Sign in?]

Now Ashlock was no gambling man, but he was feeling lucky. "I can power farm points over the winter, and hopefully, Stella will return with many monster corpses to devour sometime next year." Ashlock only had a measly 9 credits to his name... but he rarely tested what rewards were available at the low end, so now was a great opportunity.

"Sign in."

[Sign in successful, 9 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an E-grade item: 10x Lightning Qi Pills]

Ashlock eagerly peered into his pocket dimension, where he had stored various items. Currently, only ten cultivation pills remained, as the earrings and wooden stick had been taken by Stella.

"Ah, the pills come in a small bottle," Ashlock said as he manipulated the items in his pocket dimension. He unscrewed the cap and took out a pill, feeling the lightning Qi emanating from it. "Can I absorb this pill?" he wondered aloud.

Ashlock wasn't sure what type of Qi he had, but what could go wrong? It was just a single E-grade pill... Ashlock decided to crush the pill inside him, and as soon as he did, a storm of lightning Qi rapidly expanded outward. However, Ashlock was not worried. His own Qi came in like a tsunami, crushing the invading Qi and snuffing out anything that remained. He suspected that this was due to his {Lightning Qi Protection} ability.

"Mhm... so it seems my body does not appreciate lightning Qi, but this experiment does confirm that I can use pills at least." Ashlock was so lost in his thoughts that the day turned to night, and he didn't notice two men approaching the pavilion's door.

A knock rang out, followed by a gruff voice. "Stella Crestfallen, are you inside?" Obviously, there was no reply. Stella had left over a week ago to kill monsters outside the sect.

Ashlock activated his {Eye of the Tree God} skill and observed the visitors. They were dressed from head to toe in black cloth and looked similar to ninjas. Dim blue flames coated their arms as if ready to flare up at the slightest threat. Ashlock still struggled to measure cultivators' strength, but these two had a similar level of presence as Stella. So they should be somewhere in the middle of the Soul Fire realm.

The two looked at each other. The taller one chuckled, stepped back from the door, and lowered his hand. "Seems the Grand Elder was right... The little rascal did leave her peak unattended."

The other nodded and replied in a feminine voice, "Perfect, we want to leave as little evidence behind as possible while we search for the Grand Elders' brother's corpse."

"Yea, yea." The man sneered. "You do your business, and I'll do mine, alright?"

The woman shrugged, and with a burst of blue flames around her feet, she flew over the pavilion walls and gracefully landed in the central courtyard. The man joined her a second later but landed a little awkwardly. The woman supported his arm, but he pulled himself away from her grip. "I'm fine." He grumbled, "Go search inside. I'll look out here."

The woman sighed as she summoned a dagger to her hand. "Keep your wits about you," she said, her voice tense with concern. "Stella Crestfallen could be here somewhere—or the man who killed Darron." With that, she disappeared into the pavilion in a blaze of blue flame, leaving the man behind.

"Tsk," he muttered, stretching his back and looking around. "Just because you're a daughter of the Ravenborne patriarch, you think you can order me around?" Despite the potential danger, the man didn't bother to hide his presence, instead choosing to crank up his soul fire and let the raging blue flames deter anyone who might be lurking nearby.

He rubbed his chin as he walked over the extensive runic formation surrounding a large black tree with scarlet leaves. "Now, if I wanted to hide a body or decapitated head... there's no way I would hide it inside a building." The man sneered as he looked off in the direction the woman had gone. "There's no way she will find anything useful in there. I mean, it must have cost a fortune to build something like this... that Stella brat likely sold everything already."

The man furrowed his brows, his eyes fixed on the tree. "Why would Stella Crestfallen, last scion of Red Vine peak, sell everything she owns to build such an inefficient runic formation around a tree?" he muttered, his eyes narrowed in thought.

As he spoke, Ashlock could feel the presence of the man's flames growing stronger, as if they were beginning to cover his entire body. "I think you might be the key to all this," the man said, his voice filled with suspicion.

Ashlock started to panic. He had to admit being a tree in the center of such a dazzling formation made him a rather suspicious target. "I can't talk to him, nor do I have any abilities to kill him." Unfortunately, Ashlock was no protagonist... otherwise, he could cross cultivation realms and beat the guy even with his meager strength.

Alas, Ashlock was a tree at the mercy of those stronger than him. He felt a sense of helplessness wash over him. "Is this the end?" he wondered as the man approached, his eyes scanning Ashlock's branches and pausing briefly on each of the many fruit clusters. Despite his fear, Ashlock tried to remain calm...

There had to be a way out of this situation, right?