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Information about the invasion was lacking, and so were his options for counterattacking such an attack due to the destructive power of void Qi, which made anyone who cultivated it challenging to defeat as it didn\'t really have any counters.

"If it\'s just Dante Voidmind attacking, I could defeat him with {Consuming Abyss} or send Bob to defeat him." Ashlock mused, "I could even tell the Grand Elder to try and wear him out, as once Dante is out of void Qi, he will have no way to replenish the spent Qi."

Ashlock knew he could win in a battle of attrition with his immunity to void Qi and his ability to acquire Qi through devouring monsters and from his vast network of trees. The issue was the location of where the invasion would take place.

"I had some suspicions of why Dante would wait until the finale of the alchemy tournament to attack, and now it\'s so obvious. He doesn\'t want to waste his precious void Qi so he needs a location where many of the Redclaws are grouped together so he can threaten them all at once. He also needs a stage where he can force the Redclaws to surrender the city to him in front of all the other noble families present to make it more official."

Ashlock was at a loss. Should he cancel the tournament to deny Dante the stage he desired for his invasion and risk the Redclaws losing face or angering the other families present?

"If it was just Dante Voidmind and nobody else, and there was no risk of angering his family by killing him, then crushing him wouldn\'t be too much of an issue. However, if he brings multiple Voidmind Elders, Stella\'s safety alongside everyone else at the colosseum will be at risk." Ashlock mused as he absentmindedly watched the mist swirl around the wall of demonic trees encircling him as he tried to think of a way out of this.

But he was broken from his wandering thoughts when he felt a wave of pain through the root network.

He had naturally tuned out most sensations as ever since he became fused with all of his offspring, he had been bombarded with a mixture of emotions and pain.

Sometimes some kid from Darklight City that doesn\'t know any better would hang off a weak branch of one of his offspring, causing it to snap, which obviously made the demonic tree cry out to him in pain. Other times it was a monster or animal that would lean against a tree out in the wilderness, causing it distress. All these were such minor things that Ashlock didn\'t have the time or resources to try and solve all these problems, so he simply ignored them.

But this time, it was different. It was a hot, sharp pain like someone stabbing a knife into his foot, so his vision blurred as he went to investigate. To his surprise, he found Elaine in the garden of the Voidmind mansion, quickly carving runic words with her nail into the exposed root of a demonic tree that had snuck under their wall.

"If only my roots were considered part of my body and were immune to void Qi like my trunk." Ashlock hissed as he tried to ignore the searing pain, "Then this wouldn\'t hurt so much. What is she even doing?"

Curious, Ashlock tried to read the words carved into the fused root between him and his offspring.

Skyrend mansion was destroyed by Void Qi... Dante speaking to Theron. Brother thinks the Elder is back and learned a way to ascend. My family wants Darklight City, so they will be allocated more airships to evacuate the beast tide.

"Wait, what?" Ashlock reread the words to make sure he wasn\'t misreading them. "The Skyrend mansion was destroyed by Void Qi? Unless it was someone from the Voidmind family, Maple is the only one I know who can use void Qi. And what\'s this about airships?"

Ashlock debated using {Progeny Dominion} to take over the tree right next to the wall so he could talk to Elaine directly with {Abyssal Whispers}. Alas, he wanted to save the S grade skill for tomorrow, and Elaine was unlikely to withstand his telepathy without the help of Stella\'s Mind Fortress pills, so that wasn\'t a smart idea.

Before Elaine could write any more ancient runes, she stood up as a guard of the Voidmind family was approaching from behind.

"Mistress, is everything alright?" The guard asked calmly.

Elaine smiled at the robed cultivator while blocking the view of the root with her body, "Of course, I was just wandering the garden and thought I saw something interesting, but it turned out to be nothing worth my curiosity."

"Then forgive my questioning," The man bowed slightly, "Your brother requested you return inside as his talk with Theron Skyrend concluded."

Elaine nodded and followed the guard back inside the mansion that Ashlock had no way to peek inside. However, by casting {Eye of the Tree God} and looking from above, he could see Theron leaving the mansion\'s grounds with a deep frown.

The giant man didn\'t say anything on his walk back to the Skyrend mansion, which was a few roads away. Once he arrived, Ashlock was baffled when he saw a large hole directly in the center of the mansion, as if a god had come down and pulverized it.

Through the hole, he could see most of the main room within the mansion.

"Marble statues... really? They seemed like they had never stayed here, yet there are statues?" Ashlock was a little happy to see a few of them had been damaged alongside the massive gashes on the floor. He didn\'t like them after hearing and seeing how they had treated Stella.

"This definitely looks like the work of Maple," Ashlock sighed, "But what prompted that nightmare squirrel to attack the Skyrend family?"

Ashlock quickly glanced over the city but was unable to locate Stella. Returning his view to Red Vine Peak, he was about to ask Larry to go find them when he noticed Stella was lounging on the bench under his shade and feeding Maple-roasted acorns.

"Stella never buys Maple acorns," Ashlock became very suspicious.

"Tree?" Stella seemed to somehow notice his spiritual gaze, "If your attention is back here, feel free to use telepathy. I have recovered enough to handle it."

Ashlock cast {Abyssal Whispers} and saw Stella wince. She quickly swallowed one of her Mind Fortress pills and then let out a sigh of relief, "Okay, Tree, you can speak now."

"Did you send Maple to attack the Skyrend family?"

Stella\'s hand giving Maple a head rub, paused, "No... I did offer acorns if Maple killed the examiners, though."

"I see... did you know Maple destroyed half the Skyrend family\'s mansion?"

"Oh, how unfortunate.." Stella shook her head and grinned, "Bah, who am I kidding? That is a great outcome. I hate that family with a passion."

Having finished the last acorn and seeing Stella wasn\'t giving any head pats, Maple sprawled out on Stella\'s head and fell asleep.

Seeing Maple\'s exhaustion, Ashlock could only lament that one of his trump cards had been seemingly wasted. "There has to be some way I can use this situation..."

Ashlock thought back to the words Elaine had written on the root. "Dante apparently thinks the Elder has returned... is that because of Maple\'s void Qi? Hmm... I\'ll ask the girls."

"Hey Stella, I got some news from Elaine—"

"Wait," Stella turned to look toward the water Qi demonic trees, "Diana, come over here! Tree has some news from Elaine for us!"

Diana seemed unresponsive as she was deep in meditation, so Stella opened a portal beside the bench and put her arm through to poke Diana.

Ashlock watched in amusement as Diana\'s eyes opened, and she glanced around in confusion while rubbing the spot on her cheek where Stella had poked her.

"What...?" She murmured while still half confused but brightened up a little when she saw Stella waving to her. Getting up and walking over, Diana asked, "Since when did you get back? How did the test go?"

"I passed, but I went for a stroll after the test to clear my head, so I only just got back," Stella sighed, "Can you believe those Skyrend bastards had paid off the examiners to ask me about a pill from the Celestial Empire, and then they gave me an already purified ingredient and told me to purify it?"

Diana snorted, "Did you really expect those egotistical bastards to play fair? It\'s obvious that they would rather die than face humiliation, so I\'m surprised they didn\'t just try to murder you or something."

"They didn\'t go quite that far..." Stella awkwardly laughed, "But I might have."

"You did what?" Diana\'s eyes widened.

"I might have gotten a little angry and asked Maple to kill the examiners." Stella smiled, "But it\'s fine now. I am no longer angry."

Diana let out a sigh of relief, "Phew, I thought you actually went through with it for a second—"

"I did, though?" Stella tilted her head in confusion.

"Eh?" Diana was in disbelief, "Maple actually killed them?"

"Well, obviously," Stella rolled her eyes, "Why would I be in such a good mood otherwise... oh wait, Tree had something to tell us."

"Don\'t try and change the subject!" Diana crossed her arms and glared at Stella and Maple, "You can\'t kill people from the Academy like that. They are sent by the Blood Lotus Sect!"

"Oh..." Stella seemed to realize the gravity of her actions, "That\'s not good."

"No, of course not." Diana grumbled and then turned to look at Ashlock, "What did you need to tell us?"

"Stella, relay this to Diana. Elaine told me that the Skyrend mansion was destroyed by Void Qi and that Dante spoke with Theron. Apparently, Dante Voidmind thinks the Head Librarian is back and has learned a way to ascend. This is a big deal because their bloodline is cursed and doesn\'t allow them past the Nascent Soul Realm. Also, the purpose behind the invasion is because the Voidmind family wants to be allocated more airships for the evacuation. Does Diana have any good plans that make use of this information?"

After repeating his words to Diana, the black-haired girl fell into deep contemplation and began pacing around the courtyard. She even began muttering to herself, which earned her a concerned look from Stella.

"Diana? Are you alright?" Stella asked after Diana completed her third circuit around the hole in the courtyard\'s center.

"Shush, I am so close to a solution." Diana waved her off and continued pacing. She started drawing in the air, and the muttering only worsened.

Eventually, as the sun began to set, Diana finally paused mid-stride, "I got it!" She shouted, but her monotone voice made her sound more exhausted than excited.

Stella was shocked out of her trance where she had been petting Maple and just watching Diana pacing about. "What\'s your idea."

"Okay, it\'s a little far-fetched, but if we do it perfectly, I might have a way out of this," Diana said, and that was all Ashlock needed to hear to feel some hope.

Diana paused to compile her chaotic thoughts and then tried to slowly explain, "As we are right now, we have no chance at defeating House Voidmind or Skyrend. Both are top-tier families for their fighting capabilities and political power within the Blood Lotus Sect. So our best solution here is to fight neither."

Well, obviously—Ashlock didn\'t wish to fight either. Even with his immunity to the void and ability to give lightning Qi resistance fruit to his allies, he still didn\'t want to try and resist the full wrath of one of these families.

If it were up to him, everyone would leave him alone, let him power up to be stronger than the Blood Lotus Patriarch, and then he would either overtake the sect or use his newfound power to fend off the beast tide.

Stella frowned, "Diana, did you forget that Maple kinda obliterated the Skyrend family\'s mansion and killed three examiners?"

Diana raised a finger, "Let me finish, as that event might be our best bet. We need to sow discord between the two families. Have them fight each other rather than us."

"Is that even possible?" Stella sat back and tapped her chin, "I really don\'t understand all of this sect politics stuff."

Diana grinned, "Well, it\'s a good thing I do... now listen here. This is how we can get them to fight each other. And hopefully, if I am not being insane, I won\'t be causing the death of us all."

***

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Day: 3531

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Sacrifice Credit: 52

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Ashlock awoke the next day with a pit in his nonexistent stomach.

Everyone knew their roles to make this insane plan successful, as they had discussed at length until dusk. But so much relied on their acting skills that Ashlock wasn\'t exactly happy to bet their continued existence on it. Alas, despite how insane it was, Ashlock had to admit it was their best bet.

Once his mind had awoken, his vision blurred as he checked up on the cavern. As expected, he saw Stella standing beside a burning cauldron fruit with a line of ingredients on the earthen bowl\'s rim, including Mind Fortress fruit.

Stella had been hard at work throughout the night to improve her alchemy skills for the main event today, as she needed all the practice she could get to humiliate Kassandra in front of a live crowd.

According to Stella, the Skyrend woman had been somewhat competent at alchemy, and since it was almost guaranteed that Kassandra would try and cheat somehow, Stella needed to be on top of her game.

Her alchemy practice also doubled as a chance to make more Mind Fortress pills, as everyone would need one for today\'s plan.

Since Stella was still busy and there were many hours until the afternoon when the main event began, Ashlock returned his sights to the peak. Diana had already left to meet with the Redclaws and the Silverspires on Red Vine Peak, as without their complete cooperation, today could be his last.

Larry arrived in the courtyard as the sun bathed it in golden morning light with a sack of corpses on his back, which relieved Ashlock. He had been searching for monsters to devour for points near his demonic tree wall but hadn\'t found many, so he only had fifty credits stockpiled.

"Did you have a good hunt?"

"Yes, Master. I had a glorious feast befitting of a king, and now I am here to bestow upon you the finest delicacies of my hunt." Larry said in his gruff, almost Scottish accent as he unraveled the silk bag and deposited a small group of monster corpses onto the ground.

Ashlock greedily devoured the corpses with thorn-covered vines.

[+107 SC]

"Only a hundred credits. Is this really the best of what you found?" Ashlock asked Larry, and the spider made a poor attempt at a bow.

"Master, this useless servant must apologize. I was hunting from dusk till dawn and only encountered a few monsters. My speech about a feast earlier was a joke in poor taste. There was almost nothing to eat. These truly are the best of the bunch I found! I would never lie to Master..."

"Okay, okay, this is enough for the plan today," Ashlock couldn\'t imagine needing to use his {Consuming Abyss} skill for longer than two hours.

Larry hissed in excitement, "When do we begin the plan, Master?"

"Patience, my many-legged friend," Ashlock chuckled, "Only a few more hours to go."

Time passed quickly, and soon enough, the sun sat high in the sky, signifying the main event would begin soon.

Right on time, Stella teleported to the peak after changing into her Roselyn persona, "Is Diana here yet?"

Ashlock checked the White Stone Palace courtyard with {Eye of the Tree God} and saw an exhausted Sebastian reluctantly shaking Diana\'s hand beside a grinning Redclaw Grand Elder.

Deciding their talks were likely concluded, Ashlock created a portal and brought Diana over.

"Did they agree to the plan?" Stella asked with excitement, and by Diana\'s mood, the answer was obvious.

"You bet they did! Are you ready to start the greatest civil war in the Blood Lotus Sect\'s history?"

Diana spread her arms and grinned, "Today, Theron and Kassandra Skyrend will die."