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Chapter 252: Turning over a new leaf

It wasn't until the demonic tree which lorded over this mountain peak opened its trunk and revealed its eye that Nox started to see the bigger picture. One could tell a lot from another's gaze, and from the demonic eye hidden within the tree, Nox learned that it was otherwordly. An unrecorded being with insight into things outside of current cultivator understanding. Just like the curse.

Which is why she concluded that Stella wasn't the source of the curse, but rather it was this demonic tree. Therefore, Nox switched targets. If she could eliminate the source of the curse, then maybe she would be set free. However, to her surprise, the moment the tree was threatened, it called upon its 'daughter,' and the very girl she had been looking for appeared out of thin air and rammed a sword through her chest.

Nox narrowed her eyes at Stella and wondered if the girl was even human. Her face seemed too flawless; she appeared to switch between being a reincarnated sword goddess with a tranquil gaze and perfect movements to a reckless, untrained girl at a moment's notice.

Through Stella's white clothing and around her wrists, Nox could see the outline of tattoos curling down Stella's arms that looked similar to the blackthorn vines that the demonic tree had used to try and kill her.

"You should have never returned to this place after what you did," Stella said calmly, and Nox noticed the maple leaf earrings hanging from her ears.

"It's not like I wanted to return here, but you gave me little choice." Nox walked forward and felt the cold metal blade leave her body. "This tree here cursed me. A curse so vicious nothing can rid me of it. So I ask you, is there a cure?"

Stella discarded her broken and bloodied sword to the ground like trash, and in a flash of silver, she summoned a black sheath embroidered in a golden star pattern. She slowly pulled the blade from its sheath and spoke while meeting her gaze, "There never was a cure. Ever since the day you ate that pill, you have been destined to turn into a tree."

Nox felt her heart sink in her chest.

"However, even if there was a cure," Stella pointed the tip of her sword at her, "I would never give it to you. Such mercy is not fit for someone willing to do anything for their own greed at the cost of everyone else."

"Then you have left me with no choice." Nox pulled on the two Star Cores in her chest that were joined in harmony with the very curse that was eating her from within. If Stella wants to ram a sword through my heart in revenge, and this tree wants nothing more than to eat me alive, then I will rid myself of this curse in the only way I know how: by killing its creator.

Shadow Qi surged through every inch of her body alongside the curse. The immense power generated by two Star Cores working in harmony came at the cost of her skin hardening into wood and painful roots burrowing through her legs. But she didn't care. This would be her final stand.

Either she emerged victorious and retained her humanity, or her corpse would serve as fertilizer for the tree she was supposedly destined to become.

Shadow armor wrapped around every inch of her body as she stared down Stella and refocused the gravity of her presence entirely on her. "Kneel as you helplessly watch your father die for your arrogance."

Stella tried to resist the focused pressure, but eventually, her shaking legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor. Blood trickled from the corners of her mouth as she strained her neck to glare at her, "You bitch," Stella hissed through gritted teeth, "Don't you dare hurt him."

Nox snorted as she turned her back to Stella, "Only those with power get to make demands like that. You may be something else under that skin, but you are still a Star Core weakling. Know your place."

Stepping toward the tree with her sword drawn, Nox ignored the lightning strikes that struck her shadow armor and destroyed the surrounding stone. The void tendrils that lashed out at her could be blasted away with waves of shadow, and the black vines were distracted by shadow fiends. There was nothing that could stop her.

This was what absolute power felt like. If only it hadn't come at the cost of her life coming closer to its end with every passing second.

Nox raised her arms with difficulty due to how stiff they had become and frowned when she saw that the darn tree had closed its eye in fear. It now appeared like any other overgrown tree, but Nox knew its secrets.

If the tree refuses to watch its own demise like its dear daughter, wouldn't it be more fitting if they got to embrace each other in death? Nox mused as she changed the planned trajectory of her swing. If she hit here, the tree would fall forward and crush Stella, who could hardly keep her head up, let alone raise her hands or sword under Nox's focused pressure. Even if I die, I am taking these two with me one way or another. The more brutal, the better.

"No, don't!" Stella shouted from behind, but Nox didn't care. With all her strength, she swung her sword wreathed in shadow at the tree in a horizontal slash. The blade bit deep into the wood in a shower of black splinters, and Nox felt the entire tree shake from the force. The ground around her cracked as the tree tilted slightly to one side, and hundreds of fruits rained down like hail. Loud cracks followed a moment later as broken branches followed the fruits.

My sword only managed to make it around a third of the way through. Nox concluded with some surprise. A sword certainly wasn't the tool used by lumberjacks for good reason, but she felt one fully empowered strike should have been enough.

Curious, she put her hand in the lilac flames and confirmed her assumption. This certainly is one strong tree. Near the Star Core Realm's peak, it's no wonder its bark is so tough. Another hit or two should finally down it.

A scream came from behind, and Nox grinned as she saw how distraught Stella was. The girl was coughing blood as she tried to stand. Purple soul fire raged all around her, but it was useless.

"Are you sure you still wouldn't give me the cure to the curse?" Nox laughed as she shook off the black sap stuck to her blade and prepared for another swing.

"There's no need..." Stella coughed, "...you will be dead...soon. Nobody hurts Tree and lives. He can't die..."

"Oh?" Nox raised a brow, "And who is supposed to stop me?"

Stella strained her neck and glared at her without saying anything.

Nox had to admit that something contained within that gaze had shifted from before. But she still wasn't convinced.

"You keep watching. I wouldn't want you to miss this." Nox grinned as she pulled back her arms to strike again while ignoring the terrible stiffness that had worsened in such a short time.

Taking an awkward swing as her muscles locked up, her blade bit into the wood, but rather than digging deeper, there was a loud clang of metal and a shower of sparks. Gazing down, Nox was surprised at what had stopped her attack. It was Stella.

The girl was crouched down with her sword held overhead to meet her attack. The purple soul fire raging around her was in the 6th stage, which didn't make any sense. When they had first fought, Stella had barely stepped into the realm.

"What the..." Nox muttered in disbelief as Stella glared at her from below. Blood pooled at the corner of her lips, her eyes contained a tranquil fury, and the tips of her blonde hair had turned a snow white.

"I told you," Stella coughed blood, "Don't hurt Tree if you value your life. It might not be me, but someone will stop you."

"Why couldn't you just stay put and accept your death?" Nox kicked Stella square in the chest, sending her flying with an audible crunch. While the girl lay sprawled out in a broken mess on the stone, Nox pulled her sword free from the tree and balanced it on her shoulder.

My body is too seized up to take another two swings. Nox rolled her shoulders to try and alleviate the stiffness, to no avail. Fuck it, I will just kill the bitch first and then get Dante to help me with the tree.

In the distance, she could feel that Dante was busy avoiding being squashed by the black wood titan. He had landed a few good hits on one of its legs, so it was immobilized, but it could still punch through portals.

Nox strode over to Stella while trying to avoid limping and felt the pressure from the demonic tree's Star Core become more focused. The spatial Qi around her began to fluctuate.

How cute. It's trying to fight the inevitable. Nox thought as a portal opened beside her head, and many black vines surged through. She simply grasped them in her hand and tore them apart in a shower of black sap that rained upon her. She didn't think much of it until the curse within her body reacted to it and grew stronger. Wait, this sap, is this the source of the curse?

Nox shook off the cursed sap from her hand and continued her trudge over to Stella. Panic was beginning to set in. Her body wasn't moving like she wanted, and a strange technique prevented her from using movement techniques like Shadow Step to close the gap.

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The slow loss of mobility terrified her. I can't move or feel my fingers anymore. They are fused together around the hilt of my sword.

Nox arrived before Stella and glared down at the broken and bloodied girl who had caused all of this. She awakened her greed by flaunting those powerful artifacts. Showed her powerful pills so she wouldn't question the cursed one and then gave her false hope by mentioning an antidote that didn't even exist.

"You know Stella, it didn't have to end this way," Nox said as she loomed over with her sword raised, "You could have simply let the artifact go. You could have stayed away so I could cut down this overgrown tree. You could have given me a fucking cure. But no, you would rather die in such a pointless way."

"The artifact was a gift from Tree, which protected me when he could not." Stella spat back, "I came back when I felt Tree was in danger, as a life without him is not worth living, and there is no cure to the curse because I couldn't be bothered to make one. Your life isn't one worth saving. Nobody will miss you, and nobody is coming to save you."

Nox paused as she felt her life flash through her mind. Hundreds of years passed in an instant. Friends turned to foes. Family sacrificed for lovers. She searched for someone who could refute Stella's claims, but she was right... there really was no one who would come and save her except one man. A man she hated and had run from in the past.

"Bold words for someone about to be decapitated." Nox sneered as she shook the thoughts away, "You claim nobody will save me, but speak for yourself. Look at your treasured Tree's vain attempts to protect you"

"Tree's strengths lie elsewhere!" Stella shouted, "He nurtures and cares for those around him. Not everything is about personal power."

"You naive child," Nox shook her head in regret that she had been brought to this point by such a fool, "There is nothing in this world you can rely on but your own two hands. Consider this a lesson from me you can take to hell!"

"You threatened the wrong person," A thousand overlapped voices declared within her mind, and the white fog that had hung around the edge of her consciousness flashed a dark red. Fear suffocated Nox's brain, and she faltered in her attack.

The last time the spirit tree had uttered such arrogance, it had struck. Nox spread out her spiritual sense, and sure enough, she felt a large gathering of Qi beyond the area of shadows she had conjured to devour the light.

Oh shit. Nox focused her defenses in her chest as the surrounding darkness was obliterated by a concentrated beam of light. She crossed her arms to resist the beam as she stumbled backward from Stella.

A three-meter-tall creature of grey wood with many arms that supported a floating sun that illuminated the world walked forward. It paused beside Stella and bent down to gently feed her a wisp of light.

"Dante, take this monster out!" Nox yelled as she tried to stop the light from eating through her arms and face. Its intensity reminded her of Lucius... wait.

Did they turn Lucius into a monster? Nox's eyes widened. Everything matched up. The monster may differ in every way, but the way it walked and the care it showed Stella was very reminiscent of how Lucius had been while alive.

Nox didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Here she was turning into some accursed tree, and the person standing in her way from achieving freedom from the curse was her old Merchant partner Lucius, who had suffered a similar fate.

A lance of void from Dante's direction cleaved silently through the air and hit the grey wood monster. It tried to block with a few of its arms to little success. The void tore through it, leaving a gaping hole and causing the monster to fall on its side.

Nox was finally freed from the light beam, but things weren't looking good. Her whole body felt seized up, and she could not exert the same pressure on the surroundings as her Star Cores became overwhelmed by the curse.

The clearest example of her rapidly declining power was Stella, who stood before her, fully healed and resisting the pressure of Nox's Star Cores that had previously crushed her to the floor. The blonde girl didn't waste a second and vanished in a pulse of spatial Qi.

Nox felt the ripple in the world's Qi but could not react to Stella appearing beside her and slashing at her arm with two black wood handle daggers.

Pain shot through Nox's body as her arm dropped to the ground, but she managed to twist her other arm and hit Stella in the back with the hilt of her sword with such force it sent the girl spiraling through the air until she impacted the trunk of the demonic tree headfirst.

"Know your place, insect." Nox hissed as she used Darkness Absorption to begin regrowing her arm. She tried to step toward the girl but almost tripped over her own legs as they locked up. Glancing down in horror, Nox saw that her feet had hardened into black wood, and she could not take another step.

No... I should have had more time. Nox knew the process had begun, but she had been convinced she would find a solution. But with her soul locked in place, preventing movement techniques, and her legs turning to wood, her chances of survival were growing thin.

"Fuck you, Stella," Nox raised both her arms and unleashed everything she could think of without limit. "This is all your fault!"

Fiends of shadow rode a tidal wave of shadow flames that reached twenty meters high toward Stella and the tilting demonic tree. Nox felt her eyes twitch as she saw Stella stand up and calmly face the incoming assault with a sword wreathed with spatial flames and that inhuman, tranquil gaze.

"There is nothing I can't cut," Stella slashed down. Reality tore apart, and the wave of shadows passed Stella and the tree on either side, uselessly hitting the mist wall.

How the fuck...

Nox was about to hurl her sword at Stella while she was mid-attack, but Nox suddenly felt something approach quickly from behind, followed by a searing hot pain in her chest. Looking down, she saw ten claws poking through as she was swept off her feet and pulled up into the sky.

"Despite how I look, I am usually against killing people." Nox heard a woman say over the roaring wind. Looking over her shoulder, she faced a woman with fangs, eyes as black as the void, and long hair that flowed in the wind. Two massive raven wings spread out from her back, and a strange mist surrounded them, which dulled her spiritual senses.

The demon met her gaze, "But you hurt Stella and Ashlock. The two people I care for most in this world. So for that, you will have to die."

Nox struggled against the claws digging into her chest, but it was useless. This woman had terrifying strength despite her low cultivation level.

Is this really how I die? Nox looked to the horizon and saw the rising sun. A thing she had avoided most of her life as she hid in the shadows, but in this moment, she wanted nothing more than to enjoy its warm embrace just a little longer. Life was so beautiful... I don't want to die.

"I..." Nox thought about apologizing as she faced death but felt the words die in her throat. She knew she had been in the wrong, but the Ashfallen Sect had also cursed her with no plans of providing a cure. Neither side was good or bad; it was simply the victor who wrote history, and despite her advantages, she had lost.

They paused briefly in the air before Nox felt the demon woman change their trajectory toward the ground, which would serve as her grave. She couldn't even twist her neck or blink her eyes as her body succumbed to the curse. This was the end.

Might as well go out with a bang. Nox couldn't even grin as she set one of her Star Cores to go supernova. Meanwhile, her infant soul broke free from her mortal vessel.

It was a surreal experience to watch and feel herself being smashed into the ground by a demon as she floated aimlessly overhead. The demon tore her body to shred limb from limb while black Qi poured from her mouth, ears, and eyes as her Star Core went supernova.

Eventually, the demon relented its assault and stood aside as the demonic tree devoured the body with void tendrils. Nox had felt the pain with one soul and watched her own death with her other.

Her anger and rage oddly faded as her body vanished, and she was reduced to nothing but a floating soul. Perhaps it was because half of her existence had been devoured, and the remaining half didn't have the memories or emotions needed to stay angry. It all felt so pointless now.

Nox saw Stella and the demon switch targets from her to Dante, who found himself surrounded by members of the Redclaw family and confronting a rose gold-haired woman who had oddly similar facial features to Dante.

"Where do you think you are going?" Nox heard the tree speak to her soul. "Did you think you could escape while your body blew up to kill me and everyone I love?"

"You misunderstand," Nox sighed, "I have no second body prepared, and this soul will succumb to your curse soon. My death is assured, and I have nowhere to run. I just wanted to... bid myself goodbye and go out with a bang. Stella was right. Nobody came to save me, and nobody will care now that I am gone. I am all alone in my final moment. You can kill me now."

Nox wasn't sure why she felt the need to offload her thoughts to the very being that had just devoured her body and soul. But who else did she have to talk to in her final moments?

"You have regrets?"

Nox was confused by the question. "Yes... many. I was just too blind to see them before."

The voices fell silent, so Nox simply floated there, enjoying the sunlight, possibly for the last time.

"I, too, had regrets when I faced death." The Tree finally declared, "I wondered if I had approached life correctly. My thoughts endlessly spiraled, and I wallowed in despair. I truly thought it was the end and was burdened with many regrets. But that is where you and me differ."

"How so?" Nox asked.

"Rather than going into the cold loneliness of death, I was saved at the last moment by someone I cared deeply about. Stella offered me another chance at life," A thousand voices replied, "That is how we differ. Stella depended on me, so she found a way to bring me back. Meanwhile, you have lived for nobody but yourself. A life of selfishness. So there is nobody to help you back up when you fall."

Nox hated how the tree was right. She really had led such a lonely and pointless life where she did nothing but kill, steal, and cheat her way to the peak of power... for what? She ended up dying all the same. Just alone and with regrets.

"Must have been nice to have someone to care for you at the end," Nox said. "Sadly, I will die alone. This is the fate I deserve."

"I won't let you die." The Tree declared, and Nox felt a force wrap around her.

Nox couldn't understand. They had been mortal enemies. She had done so many terrible things to it and its close ones. "You won't kill me? Why?"

"Don't misunderstand. I don't care for you like Stella did for me. Your body served as nourishment while your soul will serve me for eternity to repay for what you have done."The Tree replied, "As a tree at the Nascent Soul level, you will feed me Qi and serve as the guardian tree of Ashfallen City."

Nox felt the world blur around her as she was pulled over the mountain range at immense speed until she crashed into the side of a mountain surrounded by stone huts.

"Just eat my soul! Let me go!" Nox howled as she felt her soul convulse as roots spread out into the dirt and wood began to form. "I don't want to live as a fucking tree!"

"I believe everyone should have a second chance at life." The Tree replied, "Sometimes it takes facing death to see one's mistakes and grow into a better person. You may not appreciate my mercy today, but with time, you will come to see life in a new light as a tree. Trust me, it's not that bad."

Nox screamed as her soul was stretched and morphed into something else. She rose from the dirt toward the sun as a column of black bark with a desire for the sun. While fading in and out of consciousness. By the end of the day, as the sun dipped below the mountains, she had grown into a ten-meter-tall tree with black bark and leaves.

The wind rustled through her leaves as she overlooked a city of curious mortals. To her surprise and horror, her mind remained mostly intact. She could even wield her techniques from when she had been human as she still had a shadow affinity Star Core.

She could kill all of these filthy mortals, but she didn't want to. Perhaps her emotions had dulled since turning into a tree, but she just wanted to sleep.

"Maybe I will be able to turn over a new leaf..." Nox thought as she drifted into a long sleep.