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As the fire faded, Stella stood up from her uncomfortable seating position in the center of the runic formation and stretched the cramps of staying perfectly still for three days.

Purple flames sprung to life in her palm, and she smiled at it, "8th stage of the Soul Fire realm at sixteen years old." She clenched her fist to dismiss the fire and looked up at the clear morning sky. "Not too far from the Star Core realm..."

She shook her head and stepped off the runic formation with a chuckle, "Not like it matters anymore—I have no need to pass that ridiculous Grand Elder exam anymore."

Ashlock watched Stella stroll between the courtyards and enter his abode.

With his trunk growing so thick, he took up much of the central courtyard's space and would eventually outgrow it. But that was a worry for another time. They would need to invite builders into the sect first to move the walls.

Stella reached up, tied her unruly blonde hair into a ponytail, and then leaped onto one of his lower hanging branches before proceeding up his layers of branches, leaving a trail of purple flame in her wake—she paused before Diana, who was still chained and howling—and frowned.

"You know, Tree, I have never seen someone succumb to the side effects of beast cores." She reached forward and lightly touched Diana's cheek, and like a rabid dog, the black-haired girl tried to bite her hand off. "But can you imagine trying to stop a Grand Elder in this state?"

Ashlock didn't even want to imagine such a thing.

Even with Qi-enhanced chains holding her against his robust trunk, keeping her in control was a struggle, and without his {Hibernate} skill, Ashlock feared he wouldn't have gotten a wink of sleep over the last few days.

Yes. Ashlock had resorted to using his {Hibernate} skill to escape Diana's screaming. Otherwise, he would have gone insane. It was better to forcefully feel every minute ticking by than have someone chained to your body howling from dusk till dawn.

In fact, he would still be using the skill had he not set a timer to wake him moments before the truffles were finished growing.

Ashlock had also used the {Hibernate} skill to stop him from giving into his childlike curiosity and using the new S-grade skill he'd recently acquired, as he was still oblivious to its uses.

The vision might have given a hint, but so much had happened during the dream it could have been any number of things. Did the Mystic Realm refer to that weird void filled with fog he had found himself in? Or was it that hellish realm below his roots? That sounded correct, but why would he want to go there?

No matter what the skill did, it would have been stupid to use it right after a war when everyone was recovering. So Ashlock resisted pulling the trigger for now and relaxed as best he could.

So he hibernated for three days.

Awakening to see Stella advance to the next stage had already put him in a good mood as he needed her to cultivate faster, but the progress of his own cultivation had also been substantial during his sleep.

Despite only three days passing, he had been able to use his new cultivation technique during hibernation and had gotten the passive boost {Hibernate} provided. Nowhere near enough to move up even a fraction of a stage in the Star Core realm, but it was noticeable.

His cultivation technique going from C to B grade was likely a significant factor in his increased cultivation rate.

Overall he didn't feel much different while using it, other than his roots brought in a lot more Qi than they had before, which he assumed was due to the technique changing from Transpiration of Heaven and Earth to Heaven and Chaos.

With his old cultivation technique, most of the Qi came from the sun and was gathered via his leaves. The only Qi that came from the roots was from the spirit stone deposits throughout the mountain. But now his roots were gathering large quantities of that slightly off Qi he felt from beast cores.

At first, he'd been concerned about cultivating the weird Qi, especially after seeing Diana thrashing around in a crazed state with corruption overtaking her body for cultivating that Qi. But his body seemed designed for this corrupt Qi from down below, as it had little effect on him.

The demonic Qi was harmlessly processed by his Star Core and expelled into the air via his leaves as pure Qi. This process made him think of the dream—how his roots had been entrenched in hell, fighting off demons. Meanwhile, his leaves in the highest realm were expelling pure Qi.

He decided to call it demonic Qi partly because it came from the beast cores of demonic beasts.

But he also called it demonic because of that dream which had shown him a great war happening in hell, a realm he now believed to be below him—after all, that demonic Qi that empowered the beasts had to come from somewhere.

"Hey, Tree." Stella's voice broke him from his trail of thought, "Are the mushrooms ready? It's been three days, and I can't stand Diana's screaming anymore."

That was a good question. Opening his {Magic Mushroom Production} menu, Ashlock soon had the answer.

They were done.

With no corpses lying around and Maple having gone off somewhere while he was hibernating, Ashlock only had one person to call upon to communicate with Stella.

His new favorite spokesperson, Larry. He had plans to learn Telekinesis soon to write on the wall with chalk or something, but it was hard to focus on learning something new when there was so much other stuff to deal with.

Also, he found watching Larry and Stella try to comprehend each other rather amusing.

"Hey Larry, wake up," Ashlock said through the black tether that connected them. A large bundle of silk hanging from his thickest branch shook briefly and then was slit open—through the gap, many red eyes peered through.

"Master, you called?"

***

Stella whipped her head around and saw that creature crawling from its lair. A shudder ran down her spine as all the giant red eyes looked at her. Then, as the beast fully emerged from its silk abode, it opened its maw and spoke gruffly toward the tree, "Master, where are these mushrooms you speak of?"

She had difficulty decerning precisely what it was saying, but she heard the ancient word for fungi, so she assumed the spider that had called itself Larry was referring to the mushrooms she had heard about previously.

Larry paused as he seemingly listened to the tree and then looked down through the branches.

"Follow me, mistress."Said the behemoth that had luckily shrunk a little in size since its evolution. It skillfully navigated Ash's branches and ventured to the ground.

Stella stood up—the smooth bark of the branch underfoot, and gave one last sad look to Diana. Thankfully, she'd stopped screaming—her head was lopsided and resting on her shoulder, giving Stella a full view of the web-like pattern of blackness that crawled up her neck and onto her face. A low groan escaped her lips, and her eyes were wide open, staring past Stella as if she saw something terrifying.

"I'll be right back."Stella whispered, more for herself than for Diana to hear, "The Patriarch you have put so much faith into won't abandon you."

Stella made such bold claims, but she knew the chance of Diana fully recovering was slim—in fact, she'd never even heard of someone being brought back from the madness. But Tree had impressed her before, and she believed he would do so again.

Her faith might be a little over the top as even Grand Elders succumbed to heart demons when they pushed their cultivation with beast cores too far. But all she needed to do was reach up and caress her earrings that had given her hope in the past and would continue to do so.

The ground began to shake, so Stella got moving, following the path the spider had taken to the ground and landing perfectly at its side. She glanced to the left but couldn't even see the behemoth's face as it was obscured by its large body and legs that cast eerie shadows.

"The Master presents a gift." Larry proclaimed as the ground continued to shake.

Stella carefully ran the sentence through her head and translated the words one by one.

The stone in front of them cracked, and a moment later, it crumbled to the side as a black root arose from below. Along its surface was black tumor-like growths that, at a glance, Stella could tell were some kind of mushroom.

Larry's legs silently moved as he rotated to face her, and the monster's maw that could gobble her whole was just a foot away. She could even feel the breeze of his breaths on her neck, and she held back the urge to scrunch her nose to escape the stench of his mouth.

"Take the truffles—they are a gift from the great tree." Larry declared, pointing one of his many legs that towered over her at the exposed root poking out the cracked stone.

Stella didn't need to be told twice to be given a reason to step away from the spider, so she strode forward and approached the root. It was almost weird to see it swaying in the wind as she always pictured Ash as an immovable presence.

She reached out and felt the root's warmth as it leaned into her palm, which made her smile.

With some hesitance, she brought out a knife from her spatial ring and carefully began to cut off the weird-looking mushrooms. Eventually, she had five black balls that felt very light and gave off an earthy smell.

She couldn't help but feel skeptical as they gave off little Qi, unlike other cultivator drugs that reeked of the stuff.

Larry crawled over and, unfortunately, felt the need to speak, showering her in rancid breath and confusing words, "The largest one is for Diana. It will help her conquer her heart demons."

Stella moved the largest one to her spatial ring for safekeeping and focused on the spider's following words as he walked her through the other mushrooms' powers. It took a while to decipher their meaning, but she couldn't help but be stunned.

"So this... truffle? It improves my skin?" She held one of the smaller ones up, treating it like an immortal treasure.

Larry seemed confused by her question and looked between the truffle she was holding up and the others in her other hand, "Yes, mistress, but the other truffles further your Dao comprehension and improve your spirit root... why would you care for that one?"

Stella wasn't really listening. What was some Dao comprehension or improved spirit roots compared to the perfect skin of an immortal beauty? She hurridly ran past the spider and leaped into the tree's canopy.

Diana's head rolled to the side as she approached and stared at her with dull eyes devoid of vigor or life.

Then suddenly, as Stella got too close, Diana thrashed, pulling on the metal chain, causing it to strain and clatter against Ash's trunk.

Replacing the truffles in her hand with the one she had stored earlier in her ring, Stella approached Diana and placed the large truffle into her mouth. Within a second, Diana went limp and slowly chewed on the food.

Stella stepped away and awaited further down the branch, casting a shadow on Diana as the sun shone on her back. The black veins on Diana's exposed neck receded, and her eyes refilled with life.

But only for a moment. Diana's lips moved as if trying to form words.

Stella waited with patience for her friend to wake up. She held back a tear seeing Diana in such a horrible state and silently begged that Diana would somehow recover from this.

She did not.

A while passed in silence, and Stella could see Diana's condition had stalled. The corruption receded down to her neckline, and her eyes were no longer abysses devoid of emotion, but she was still absent.

Her lips moved again—a weak voice escaped, "I need to fight."

"Fight?" Stella crouched down to meet Diana's eyes. "What do you need to fight?"

Diana raised her head with a savage grin and met Stella's eyes through her messy black hair, "Someone that can take a beating for a long time."

The chain that had been holding Diana back audibly snapped and flew off to the side, rattling as it tumbled down Ash's branches and hit the stone floor far below.

There was a stifling silence as the two stared each other down. Diana was the first to break eye contact and manically giggle, "Not you, silly."

"If not me, then who?" Stella wondered, tilting her head to the side.

Diana's hand reached over and patted her on the shoulder. "You wouldn't even last a day against me... I need someone to fight for a long time to quell this rage."

Stella frowned. What she said wasn't incorrect, but it still stung, especially considering she had just ascended to the 8th stage of the Soul Fire realm and should be well ahead of Diana.

But the demonic corruption did provide one thing—overwhelming power.

With the chain no longer binding her, Diana cracked her neck as she stood up and effortlessly balanced on the branch, "And I know just the opponent for a beating."

Diana then vanished in a burst of mist with manic laughter.

Stella really hoped the crazy girl didn't plan to fight Larry. She shook her head. The thought of anyone trying to contend with that behemoth was ridiculous.

She then paused. There was no way Diana would try to fight Ash... right?