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But now she could grow in a different way, so to sate her hunger, she had run away toward distant souls. As evening fell, there was a feeling of unease and terror in the wilderness beyond Nightrose City as shadow tendrils struck out relentlessly from a withering mass phasing in and out of reality. Nyxalia feasted on anything and everything that had a heartbeat and, more importantly, a soul. They were all so weak, like little fireflies in the night.

Ashlock was like a blazing sun of power in comparison to these insects. Nyxalia glanced toward the east, where the sea of power converged—Red Vine Peak. She was far enough away to barely resist, but even from out here, she could still see his vast presence dominating a large part of the wilderness. Maybe a tiny taste of Ashlock\'s soul would be fine... he wouldn\'t even notice—no, these insects will do. Nyxalia returned to devouring anything she could get her tendrils on. While she referred to these monsters as insects because they might as well have been when compared to her cultivation level, some were tree-sized monsters in the Soul Fire Realm, yet they died all the same.

Hundreds of monsters perished within minutes, and the wilderness, once home to a chorus of howls and sounds of battle, had fallen deathly silent. The only evidence of the one-sided slaughter was a breeze carrying a cloud of soulless dust to sprinkle across the grass in Nyxalias\' wake as she moved further west, deeper into the Blood Lotus Sect\'s territory.

Between each city in the Blood Lotus Sect and other demonic sects were vast, untamed swathes of land known to cultivators as the wilderness. Here, animals were mutated by the ambient Qi into monsters. Cultivators usually had little reason to interact with these monsters. They rarely made it to the Star Core Realm as making it to such a stage required protection from others, something most monsters found hard to come by. Because of this, cultivators could fly over them on guarded airships without wasting their Qi.

I used to be the same. I always dreaded long trips through the wilderness between cities to delve into rifts and sell my wares, as I would have to waste Qi flying on my sword or battling through the endless wilderness. But now... I gain power the more I kill. Yet why am I only getting hungrier the more I devour? Am I losing control over this body?

It was a terrifying thought. After experiencing such a ridiculous way to gather Qi, there was no way she could go back to her old way of gathering Qi as a tree or human. She wanted to continue living as a Netherwood Wraith. So why? Why did she hunger so?

Let\'s think. Ashlock said he gained power through harvesting the souls of others, yet he never slaughtered everything in his vicinity like I have so far. Nyxalia paused near a calm lake and focused intently on the peaceful water illuminated by streaks of sunlight in a vain attempt to relax her ravenous hunger. Unfortunately, all she could see were the tiny white orbs that were souls belonging to fish in the lake\'s depths. Wait, tiny white orbs.

Nyxalia extended a shadowy tendril and watched intently. It passed through the water, and she noticed her hunger worsen slightly. The tendril then made contact with the fish. She pulled on the Netherwood Wraith\'s innate Soul Harvest ability, and her hunger worsened considerably. However, once the little white orb was pulled free and absorbed, her hunger lessened—but only slightly.

Overall, the experience had been a net negative.

Curious, Nyxalia targeted another fish, but this time, she wrapped her shadowy tendril around its body and crushed it. Blood and guts shot out its mouth into the water, terrifying the nearby fish. Pulling the fish out of the water and leaving it on the lake\'s shore, she waited. It took longer than she had hoped, but eventually, the little white orb floated free from the vessel, and Nyxalia noticed it began to phase out of reality to somewhere she couldn\'t even see. Before it could fully go, she reached out and grabbed it. Pulling it into her own soul, she felt a tiny rush of power. It was insignificant, like savoring a single water droplet while dying of thirst. But more importantly, she hadn\'t felt more hungry from the process.

It had been a net positive.

A ray of hope bloomed in Nyxalia\'s mind as she now understood. Ashlock told me Netherworld Wraiths were spiritual beings that feasted on souls and existed on a plane of reality that shouldn\'t exist. I expend no energy when I\'m simply floating through reality without interacting with it. However, when I try to manifest my shadow tendrils in water, I use energy, and I use far more to pull souls out of people\'s bodies while they are alive. I see now why devouring those Nightrose Elders almost made me lose it. While their souls did contain a lot of Qi, I ended up expending more to forcefully pull the souls from their bodies and reduce their vessels to dust. As I killed so many at once, the sudden loss of Qi caused me to almost lose control. So, the key is to expend less energy than I receive from absorbing a soul. No wonder Ashlock doesn\'t bother to kill the mortals in Darklight and Ashfallen City. The effort isn\'t worth the gain.

Nyxalia felt relieved to have discovered the reason and was glad she decided to seclude herself deep in the wilderness. But then, a disturbing thought occurred to her.

Is that why Ashlock is turning mortals into cultivators? Raising them as cattle for slaughter? Nyxalia paused and shrugged. What Ashlock does is none of my business. My job is simply to defend his livestock—er, I mean citizens.

"Now I have two options," Nyxalia said as she floated alongside the lakeshore upon a mass of squirming shadows. Her voice was far different from how it had been as a human. It sounded ethereal as if she were speaking from another place. "I keep hunting these weak monsters in the most Qi-efficient way until my body is stabilized, or I go hunting for cultivators—"

Her eyes snapped to the sky as she saw a Star Core Realm cultivator blitz past, propelled by an intense wind that blew the leaves off the trees they passed over with a boom. No matter how fast they traveled, in Nyxalia\'s spiritual gaze, all she saw was their delicious soul of wind Qi.

"Looks like the heavens have given me an answer," Nyxalia phased through reality after the cultivator.

It was time to hunt.

***

Stratos Azurecrests Star Core hummed in his chest as he burned his air Qi to get as far away from Nightrose City as possible. As the Grand Elder of the Azurecrest family, he had been in attendance for the summit. With the beast tide on the horizon, he had expected to be the center of attention as the one who provided and managed the airships.

Stolen novel; please report.

At the demands of Vincent Nightrose, he had done terrible things. He used demonic techniques such as fusing the souls of his own children to make them into nocturnes just to meet the quota.

So much suffering, so much sacrifice. It had all been for today. At the summit, he was supposed to have reaped the benefits of his loyalty to the Nightrose family. He had dreamed of sitting at the table as the other families paid their respects and begged him for more airships.

Who in the nine realms did Vincent offend?

Stratos Azurecrest screamed in his mind as the world blurred around him. Just who is the Ashfallen Sect?! I\'d have called anyone who claimed there was a new Divine level sect mad. But they had multiple Nascent Soul Realm monsters under their command and... whatever that thing that came down from the sky was.

His mind ached just thinking of it. All he wanted to do now was fly back to his family\'s airship that he had left far from the city. Bringing it to Nightrose City was always a pain when all the families came together as the oversized docking stations were limited, and the noble families turned it into a competition to see who could get a higher one.

I\'ll have to gather the Elders and inform them of what has happened. Stratos Azurecrest frowned. I cannot tell who is loyal to who. The Nightrose family has fallen and the Blood Lotus Sect is no more, that\'s for sure. The Ashfallen Sect made it clear that they were hellbent on destroying the Nightrose family and would be so kind as to incorporate us into their sect so long as we assisted with fending off the beast tide. What a bunch of lunatics. Why would they want to stay and fight the largest beast tide in history? Just get out of the way and return in a few months if the land is so precious. If they think they can use my family as disposable pawns and throw us at the beasts, they are delusional. I\'m done being a slave to tyrants.

Stratos Azurecrest brought out a communication jade from his spatial ring and did something he never thought he would do. Inserting some Qi, he spoke into it. "This is Stratos Azurecrest. As the Grand Elder of the Azurecrest family and president of the airship industry," he paused but decided this was for the best. "I demand a recall of all airships to Azurecrest City. This is an absolute order, and any who disobey... well, you know what will happen."

He cut his Qi and pocketed the communication jade. His message would be relayed between every airship station throughout the Blood Lotus Sect, and by sundown, every airship would be cruising through the sky toward Azurecrest City. While the message had been about airships, his stance was clear to anyone listening. The Azurecrest family was betraying not only the Nightrose but every family in the Blood Lotus Sect. This was a decision that would not be taken lightly by the other Elders.

It has to be done. The Blood Lotus Sect is over. After recalling all the airships, I will evacuate Azurecrest City. The question is to where. Taking a piece of land that\'s still on the leyline but out of the way of the beast tide will be difficult. Any good spots will be highly contested. Stratos rubbed his chin in thought. What if we stayed in the air? If we used our spirit stone reserves, setting up Qi-efficient formations on a few airships to keep them permanently airborne wouldn\'t be impossible. Expensive, sure. But the survival of my bloodline is what is important here.

He would have to leave nearly every mortal behind to perish, even though they had paid for a ticket, and just take maids to tend to his needs, but that was a sacrifice he was more than willing to make. Mortals were only useful for building houses, mining spirit stones, and farming. If he only needed to keep his family alive for a few months while the beast tide passed, he could return to this area, and so long as the Ashfallen Sect hadn\'t fully taken it over, he could get the mortal breeding and have a workforce within a decade.

I can\'t tell if the Ashfallen Sect\'s arrival is a blessing or a curse. I know that old man Starweaver was ranting about the descent of an evil god or something. I wasn\'t really taking him seriously, well, until now. There\'s no doubt the All-Seeing Eye is an evil god, but even a demon can be reasoned with.

The problem was the cost. According to the strange lich-looking monster, they would be welcomed under the All-Seeing Eye in exchange for servitude and taking an oath. Apparently, the rewards would be worth it, but he refused to believe such words.

It\'s fine. We can just run away and decide if it\'s worth it another time. Stratos thought as he saw his airship on the horizon. Perhaps he had gone a little overboard during its construction, but it was his family\'s pride and joy. A true symbol of their dominance over the air. The thing was a floating fortress decked out in a mountain worth of spirit stones. Silver light flickered across its dull metal exterior from the many hidden defensive formations. Even from afar, he could see dozens of hired cultivators with various affinities standing guard, but they were tiny dots compared to the floating behemoth they stood upon.

Since wind Qi lacked combat capabilities compared to many other affinities, he had to use the profits from the airship industry to hire rogue cultivators with more combat-orientated affinities, such as fire, which was still effective in the air.

As he got closer, Stratos sensed something was wrong. He wasn\'t exactly hiding his presence, and usually, the cultivators would notice him coming and prepare to welcome him. Instead, they all had their backs to him and seemed in a panic as Qi flickered across their shoulders.

What is going on? Are they on guard due to my message?

A bell began to ring, signifying the airship was under attack. It thundered across the wilderness, and he saw the entire ship glow brightly as the defensive formations fully powered up. At the level of power being emitted, the defensive formations would burn through the ship\'s spirit stone reserves within an hour. Either the commanding Elders on the ship had gone mad due to his message, or they were being attacked by a threat equal to Vincent Nightrose.

"What? How?" Stratos spread out his spiritual sight but couldn\'t detect the presence of any other airships, cultivators, or monsters. Could it be the All-Seeing Eye? No, that shouldn\'t be possible. He pushed even more Qi into his sword and there was a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier and arrived beside the cultivators a moment later. "Report. What is happening."

Two cultivators turned to face him, and one of their expressions lit up.

"Grand Elder, thank the heavens you are here!" It was one of his brothers. "Right after you sent your message, people began to die."

"What do you mean die? Who and where?" Stratos was growing frustrated as the bell continued to ring, and he could feel the intense pressure coming from the defensive formations. They had been designed to ward off Nascent Soul level attacks but at a significant cost.

"I don\'t know, Grand Elder, the situation is still developing..."

"Useless," Stratos pushed past his brother to get a better overview of the ship. Annoyingly, the defensive formations meant his spiritual gaze could not penetrate the walls to get a better idea of what was happening. The airship was built in a giant ring with crosswalks connecting the whole thing and suspending a command room in the center. Everything seemed in order. Nothing had been blown up or gone missing. There weren\'t even any signs of fighting.

Stratos narrowed his eyes, "Brother, who is commanding the ship right now?"

"Elder Ventus is commanding as usual—" He paused as a body was thrown through the wall of the command center, taking out one of the walkways before splatting on the side. The force of the throw caused the entire airship to briefly tilt. "Never mind, he\'s dead."

"I can see that," Stratos hissed as he conjured his light grey soul flames. But deep down, he knew it was pointless. Anything that could hurl a Star Core Elder through runically enhanced metal would laugh at his attacks. The question is who.

He got his answer as a squirming mass of shadows manifested out of thin air, dragging the splattered body toward the ground and vanishing among the trees.

Only one being he could think of had this kind of power.

"The All-Seeing Eye is here." He cursed, much to the confusion of the cultivators around him. "You people don\'t understand," he turned and jumped back on his sword, "abandon ship or die here."

They exchanged a look of confusion.

"But Grand Elder, this ship is a fortress designed to handle Nascent Soul Realm threats. Even Vincent Nightrose wouldn\'t stand a chance at forcing us to abandon ship—"

"Brother," Stratos narrowed his eyes, his tone deathly serious, "It\'s that kind of arrogance that resulted in the Nightrose family\'s downfall. This ship was designed to hold off beasts and cultivators, not a reality-bending evil god."

"Evil god? Brother, what are you on about?"

Stratos was about to answer, but the words died in his throat as a woman with translucent white eyes and a crown of dark wooden antlers manifested behind his brother. The ghostly woman, who seemed to shimmer in and out of existence, placed a hand on his brother\'s head, only for the hand to pass through him. She continued down until her hand reached the chest area that was known to house the soul.

"Brother..." Stratos grimaced as the woman pulled her hand back, and the life left his brother\'s eyes. Moments later, his brother\'s body disintegrated into dust.