Chapter 340: Tartarus

Chapter 340: Tartarus

Ashlock noticed the void lightning was not simply being shrugged off by the mysterious figure wearing his cult's garments—it was coiling around their body, meaning one thing... they had seized control of his void lightning.

A feat only possible by someone who knew void Qi law and had a higher cultivation level than him. Considering nobody on this layer of creation with void affinity should be able to ascend to Nascent Soul Realm, let alone Monarch Realm where most learned how to wield their affinities laws, that left only one person it could be.

"Is that your attention I feel prickling down the back of my neck?" the figure said as they pulled back their hood to reveal silky black hair, eyes blacker than an abyss, and flawless skin. She was a woman who was as beautiful as she was dangerous. A person who had been there since the start and seen it all: the origin of the void.

"Morrigan, what are you doing here," Ashlock said as he stopped his {Voidstorm Aegis [S]} from targeting her. It didn't cost 10% of his Qi per lightning strike like in the past when he had been in the Star Core Realm, but it was still a costly technique. Each strike taking around 1% of his Qi reserves.

"Am I not allowed to be here?" Morrigan asked, tilting her head.

"Was the barrage of void lightning not clear enough?" Ashlock retorted.

"Oh, this?" Morrigan opened her palm and made the void lightning harmlessly gather in a stack of silently crackling rings, "I thought you were giving me a welcome gift."

"Did you really?" Ashlock said as sarcastically as possible. His clear distaste for her presence dripped from every word. He did not want her here at all.Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com

Morrigan snorted and absorbed the void Qi, "No. But since we are friends, I decided to delude myself—"

"We are not friends," Ashlock corrected the origin.

Morrigan ignored him, "—after all, you wouldn't strike me down for simply coming to say hi, right? Especially after I just did you a tremendous favor."

Ashlock remembered the sudden influx of divine energy arriving moments before Morrigan appeared. Just what had she done while wearing his cults clothes?

"What was the favor?"

Morrigan went to sit on the bench, "Well, you see—"

"Don't sit there. That's Stella's bench," Ashlock said.

Morrigan paused mid-motion as she was about to take a seat. Frowning, she straightened up and crossed her arms while glaring up Ashlock, who loomed over her. "I left you in the shadow realm to go and assist your sect members, as I know they are important to you. I planned to save a few of them from certain death to prove we can work together."

"Uh-huh, and how did that go?"

"Terrible," Morrigan threw up her hands, "Finding your sect members in the endless sea of pocket realms was a nightmare. I did find a few of those monsters you have living in your mountain—I believe they were called Mudcloaks? Anyway, I don't know what demonic god created those terrors, but I have never seen such one-sided Conquest over pocket realms before. Those poor turtles didn't stand a chance."

Ashlock had questions... many questions. He mostly let the Mudcloaks do their own thing. Outfitting Geb as a walking military base with weapons was one thing, but outright conquering pocket realms in a planned manner that even scared the origin of the void that had seen all history has to offer? Now, that was suspicious.

"Maybe I should make the Mudcloaks wear cult uniforms. At least that way, I will receive divine energy while they commit war crimes."Ashlock muttered to himself. His brand as a deity was already questionable at best, so he was willing to lend his name to various ventures if it resulted in divine energy.

Morrigan let out a long sigh, "I tried and failed to find any of your sect members that needed my help. I was about to give up and admit I couldn't find a way to earn your trust when I returned home and encountered a problem that gave me a great idea."

Ashlock wasn't sure if Morrigan should be quite this open about her failed schemes. Though, to be fair, it did make her feel a little more trustworthy but incompetent at the same time. Or was that all part of her plan? This is why he hated hard-to-read people like Morrigan the most.

"What was your great idea?" Ashlock asked. He was terribly curious about the devious scheme an origin devised that resulted in this immense influx of divine energy.

Morrigan slowly walked around the bench, trailing her finger along its backrest worn down by the elements, "You tasked me with defending Slymere, keeping the death of the Voidmind Grand Elder and Elders a secret from those that are left of my family, and to fend off the Skyrend family."

Ashlock didn't like where this was going. Just what problem did she encounter that gave her an idea?

"When I returned, I discovered those Skyrend dogs had sneakily brought in reinforcements from other families, wiped out most of my remaining family, and were heading toward Slymere. So, I finally figured out how to be helpful. I would restore balance to the battlefield!"

Alarm bells started going off in Ashlock's head. If he had learned anything from the Worldwalkers, it was that old monsters, especially those attuned to the void, only had one answer to problems. Violence.

Morrigan's finger paused, and she looked up with a slight smirk hanging on her lips. "A simple task, but someone had to do it. Otherwise, Slymere would have fallen while you were distracted. To level the battlefield and give the dregs of my family a chance to hold off a little longer, all I had to do was kill their Grand Elder Demetrios Skyrend and most of their Elders. Plus, I always found that heaven-loving bastard an eyesore, so it was like killing two birds with one stone!"

Ashlock felt his world freeze as the implications of what she just said set in. The Blood Lotus Sect was in a careful state of balance, which Ashlock had been trying to maintain for as long as possible. Killing Demetrios Skyrend—head of one of the most influential and powerful families in the sect—would be a perfect way to throw everything into chaos.

"Tell me you are joking. Killing the Elders is one thing, but Grand Elder Demetrios Skyrend? Did you really kill him?"

Morrigan stuck her nose in the air as if she were enjoying his disbelief, "Yes, that heaven-loving bastard is dead! I Void Stepped to the battlefield, killed Demetrios Skyrend and a dozen of his Elders, and then left. All within a minute. It was Qi intensive, but now the battle should continue for a little longer. Helpful, right?"

Ashlock was confused. Nothing about that was helpful—on the contrary, it was outright detrimental to his plans. In fact, the only positive to take from this was the divine energy he had gained, but she hadn't mentioned anything about it during her reasoning.

"Hold on, Morrigan doesn't know anything about my plans or the runnings of the sect or cult." Ashlock realized. It wasn't her fault that she had a skewed view of what was helpful. He had kept her in the dark to try and avoid problems, but holding back information seemed to have been a bad idea when involving an origin that would naturally have a very different view from him on how to solve issues. Now that he thought about it more, why she was wearing his cult's clothes was even more confusing as he never remembered her showing interest in joining.

"Where did you get that cloak?"

"Not quite the reaction I expected, considering who I killed." Morrigan frowned as she looked down at the cloak and pulled at its fabric, "This thing? Just some cloak I got for free from a very enthusiastic woman in Ashfallen City while I was wandering around. She said it was free so long as I spread the name of their clothing brand, the All-Seeing Eye or something. I wasn't really listening."

Ashlock couldn't believe what he was hearing. She hadn't intended to join his cult at all. Did that mean the surge in divine energy was simply dumb luck from a misunderstanding involving a powerhouse?

"So you accepted the cloak and decided to wear it while killing Demetrios Skyrend? Why?"

"I wanted to hide my identity when I interfered with the war and killed the Skyrend Grand Elder. Which is a problem, mind you, because my wardrobe is quite iconic, dare I say." Morrigan snapped her fingers, and her outfit changed in a flash of silver light to a rather daring midnight black dress that flowed down to her heels. She also wore knee-high tights, and Ashlock could now see why she said her outfit was iconic. It would definitely draw some eyes.

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[Time until sundown 0:52]

Ashlock's vision blurred as he returned to the Shadow Veil Sanctum. He didn't have time to check on his Inner World to see if the flesh trees had finished multiplying, so he brought up his system menu.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3631

Daily Credit: 65

Sacrifice Credit: 16680

[Sign in?]

It was a ridiculous number of credits. As always, the temptation to say fuck it and do a gacha draw festered at the back of his mind, but Ashlock resisted.

He had a Dark Throne to claim, a shadow Qi law to inherit, and a shadow realm to own.

[Merge the artifact {Dark Throne} created by the Shadow Sovereigns to the Bastion {Nox} for 9000 credits?]

"Yes," Ashlock said and watched the number drop in an instant from 16680 to a comparatively small 7680. Tendrils of shadow spread out like fingers, and the Bastion began to melt into the titanic obsidian throne that dominated the eye of the abyssal storm.

[Assimilation of shadow Qi law commencing...]

Nox's avatar collapsed to her knees, clutching her head, and her tree body erupted with shadow soul fire.

[Siezing control of the pocket realm {Shadow Veil Sanctum} created by the Elder Thalion of the Shadow Sovereigns...]

A while passed, and Ashlock nervously watched the timer tick down to the last minute before sundown.

[Dark Throne assimilated. Please choose a new name for the pocket realm]

"Finally! Wait, a name?"

Ashlock had expected to seize a level of control over the pocket realm, but outright stealing it to the point he got to rename it? This was beyond his wildest expectations.

Now that he knew names held power, the question was... what should he name it?

"I choose Tartarus. It was the name given to the abyss used to imprison the gods." Ashlock decreed, "That will be this place's name."

[Acknowledged. You are now in possession of {Tartarus}]

[Tartarus:

Description: A forbidden enclave once used by the Shadow Sovereigns as their hidden training ground and fortress. Now under the control of the Demonic Demi-Divine Tree Ashlock.

Qi Level: Nascent Soul 1st Stage

Environment: Hostile

Monsters: True

Current Occupants: 2]

[Edit Tartarus?]

"Not now," Ashlock dismissed the notifications and spread out his spiritual sight through the Bastion that was now fused with the throne. Compared to the disabling darkness from before, he was now able to see everything. Reaching into the abyss, he pulled Hades out. The Ent was in a sorry state. With its Qi drained, it had been reduced to its crystal state, and it seemed the Bastion hadn't been the only target of the Shadow Leviathans, as Hades was missing many of his tentacles.

Nothing Ashlock couldn't fix by plugging the Ent in with a black root, but it would take a while for his most powerful Ent to fully recover.

"Would have been Qi intensive too, if not for all this," Ashlock mentally grinned at the surrounding shadow Qi law that had been a horrifying prison and was now a source of power under his control.

Ashlock wanted to explore his new powers some more, but life had other plans.

[Time until sundown 0:00]

His soul fragment was once again forcefully pulled and remerged with his Inner World. Thankfully, there was no life-threatening amount of Qi this time, so he could relax.

Ashlock watched the tip of the sun vanish below the horizon, and despite it being the end of the day, he was far too excited to sleep. He had over 7000 credits to spend, and in the morning, the Mystic Realm would end, and his sect members would return.

"I can't wait to see how everyone has grown," Ashlock stared at the celestial fog on the mountain peak. A mere week had passed, yet so much had happened.

Whether he liked it or not, things were about to get a whole lot more interesting.

"But first... time to upgrade some skills."