Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 443: Blessed Lands

”Elysia?” Ashlock shouted into her mind as he watched the tree continue to grow out of her body. ”Are you okay?”

A voice answered, but it wasnʼt Elysiaʼs.

”Father.” The tree that had bloomed from her chest swiveled its golden eye to look at him. ”My name is Mytherion, and itʼs an honor to finally meet you.”

”What have you done to Elysia?”

Mytherion looked down at the body he was growing from. ”Elysia does not have divinity, so she is a poor conduit for divine energy—” His voice then changed as if the two were overlapping. ”I had to break free to fulfill your will.”

”Who am I talking to?”

Elysiaʼs head slowly swiveled to also look his way.

”Both of us, as we are now one.”

”Right...” Ashlock felt slightly creeped out, but when did he not feel this way when Elysia was involved? He found the best way to deal with her was to just accept the madness and not question it too much. However, his curiosity did get the better of him. Mytherion seemed to possess almost human-like intelligence, something he hadnʼt seen in another spirit tree thus far.

”Mytherion, what are you?”

”Your offspring and your vessel.”

”Vessel?”

”My purpose is should your soul need a new body, Iʼm here to accept you.”

”Then what would happen to your soul?”

”My soul is intertwined with Elysiaʼs. So long as she lives, I will have a vessel to call home.”

Ashlock sighed, ”I see. But how have you grown up so fast? My other offspring that have been around for far longer than you canʼt speak as clearly as this.”

Mytherionʼs trunk split, and inside, Aslock used his Evil Eye to peer inside. Within, he saw a purple soul pulsating with life. Thin roots, almost like hair, were coiled around and even burrowing into the soul, and he could see an exchange of Qi occurring between the two.

”I share thoughts, memories, and knowledge with Elysia,” Mytherion explained, ”That is how Iʼm able to communicate like a human and know that you are the supreme existence.”

Ashlock got hung up on that last bit that came out of Mytherionsʼ mouth, but if the only source of information the tree had was Elysiaʼs soul, such a strange worldview was inevitable.

Mytherionsʼ trunk resealed, and mystic Qi began to leak out and swirl around him like a mist. It glowed and radiated immense power, and Ashlock knew whatever was about to come next, it was going to be quite the spectacle.

”Father, do you give us permission to defy the heavens and bring back the dead?”

Ashlock couldnʼt believe they even needed to ask.

”Fuck the heavens.”

Elysia wildly grinned as she continued to stare up at the sky. Her third eye bulged out, further splitting her forehead down the middle.

”Blightbane family, heed my call.” She said, her voice distorted as if she were treading the line of sanity. With a simple gesture, pillars of golden mystic Qi rose into the sky from below. Atop each one was a black-cloaked cultivator with the aura of death hanging around them.

Ashlock didnʼt interact much with the death affinity family from the Tainted Cloud Sect, but he recognized the man on the nearest pillar as their Grand Elder.

The man didnʼt have his hood up. He respectfully clasped his hands toward Elysia. His eyes were like fading embers, and he had dark maroon hair that looked like strands of rotting wood. The chill of death radiated from him as if he were the Grim Reaper himself.

”Vice Cult Leader Elysia, how may we be of service?” Grand Elder Blightbane asked.

”The surrounding lands reek of death. For the souls to come home and for everyone to move on, I need you to expel the lingering death so life can regrow anew.”

Grand Elder Blightbaneʼs eyes widened ever so slightly, ”You cannot do that—should you remove death dao, the consequences will be dire. Balance has to be maintained between life and death, or the cycle will crumble, and souls will have to wander the great expanse forever.”

”Is that what the heavenʼs whispers told you?” Elysia laughed, ”Donʼt worry, old man, thereʼs a new god in town. Should hell fall, he will raise a new one in its wake.”

Grand Elder Blightbane gripped his gnarled wooden staff and looked up at the sky, ”Is that really possible? To tear down the cycle of reincarnation?”

”Anything is possible,” Elysia replied, ”You just have to believe it.”

The manʼs eyes flickered with resolve, ”For far too long, I have watched souls enter the cycle of reincarnation, unable to save them. I can still hear their screams, even in my sleep.” His grip tightened. ”There is something all death affinity cultivators share—a deep fear of dying. After seeing the horrors of death, none of us wish to pass through the gate to the afterlife.”

”Help us bring them back,” Elysia insisted, ”No soul deserves such a fate.”

Grand Elder Blightbane dropped to one knee, ”Such a task is one I cannot comprehend or complete on my own, but I offer my soul, body, and most importantly, my faith to you, Elysia. Bring those souls home. Disrupt the cycle and tear down the gates of hell.”

”With your help, I can make it possible,” Elysia replied, ”You no longer need to fear death.”

A branch that acted more like a coiled viper shot out of Mytherion and impaled Grand Elder Blightbane through the heart, causing the old man to hurl up blood. He remained kneeling, and his gaze showed his unwavering resolve. Along the branch, the once-red leaves of Mytherion turned a sickly black.

”Thank you for your sacrifice, Grand Elder Blightbane,” Elysia said with sincerity that Ashlock didnʼt know she was capable of.

”I no longer fear death,” Grand Elder Blightbane whispered with a bloodied grin, ”Itʼs more freeing than you realize.”

Elysia nodded. ”We will take it from here and ensure your death is not painful or the end. But to succeed, Iʼm going to need more sacrifices.”

The rest of the Blightbane family exchanged a glance before uniformly nodding. Despite seeing what happened to their Grand Elder, one by one, they kneeled and recited their resolve to surrender their body and soul before being impaled through the heart.

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Ashlock watched on in horror as Elysia effectively slaughtered an entire family that served under him. ”What is she trying to do?!” He couldnʼt make sense of it.

Mytherion pulsed with power and began to grow upward and in size. The sound of cracking wood filled the air, humming with power until an ethereal version of Mytherion loomed over even Ashlock, with his ghostly canopy overlapping with the desolation Qi in the skies above.

The golden pillars supporting the sacrificed members of the Blightbane family followed Mytherionʼs ascension. Only Elysia remained floating near the ground with her cut-open chest, from which Mytherion bloomed, facing toward the sky, and a concerned but fascinated Stella stood at her side.

Ashlock moved his viewpoint, and from above, Mytherionʼs branches impaling the Blightbane family members atop pillars of blinding gold vaguely resembled an array shaped like a pentagram.

”Father,” Mytherion called out, ”Lend us your strength to complete the ritual. Only with your power can we tear down the gates of hell.”

Ashlock sighed. It had already come this far, so there was no backing out. Under the mental guidance of Mytherion, he knew what he had to do.

The mountain trembled as he unleashed his will upon the world. Pulling down the sky, the branches of desolation he had manifested to devour the storm condensed into rifts that tore through reality between the gaps of the branches that were using the bodies of the Blightbane family as nodes. Once complete, it became clear what this grand array made from dying people would be used for.

”Sheʼs not just tearing down heavenʼs gate to hell, but creating her own.”

”Ah,” Elysia shook with ecstasy as her third eye transitioned from purple to black. Her back exploded as wings reminiscent of a fallen angel made from entangled black roots unfurled and rapidly fanned out until they seemed to blanket the entire land below. The roots then split and plunged into the earth as if honing in on every death flower that marked a grave.

Her skin began to turn gray as if the life was leaving her body. ”So this is what it feels like to stand on the edge of no return. But now I can finally see beyond this mortal realm with absolute clarity.” She reached up, trying to grasp something immaterial, ”Now I can call them home.”

Elysia pulled down, and reality shuddered.

Ashlock and likely everyone else watched in awe as souls that appeared as small blinding balls of light full of personality, memories, and life floated down through the desolation rifts.

They had successfully stolen the souls back from the cycle of reincarnation.

However, Ashlockʼs feeling of triumph was short-lived as a notification from his system appeared in his mind.

[WARNING: The heavens have become aware of your actions and will respond in kind]

Ashlock felt it a moment later, the unrestrained wrath of the heavens radiating through the desolation rifts. Thatʼs when he realized the heavens usually had limited influence down here, but he had made a rift directly to them, allowing them to wield far more power than usual.

They needed to close the rifts!

Ashlockʼs Inner World pulsed, and he commanded the rifts to close.

They did not. An invisible force pried them open and caused the array to shake.

Elysia, who was holding the entire formation together, hurled blood as the pressure slammed down on her. Her three eyes then widened in disbelief, and she gasped out in a small voice, ”Help—”

Ashlock didnʼt get a chance to lend assistance as a second invisible wave of wrath from the heavens echoed out of the rift and impacted her, tearing her body from Mytherion and sending her smashing down into the ground below as a bloodied mess.

He was in shock seeing the usually insane girl who could take on everything no matter how extreme, being almost dead.

”Elysia!” Stella moved without hesitation and stepped through the aether to the Vice Cult Leaderʼs side. She quickly picked the barely alive girl up and glared toward Red Vine Peak.

”Ash, finish the ritual! Donʼt let the heavens bully us.”

”How?” Ashlock answered, ”Elysia was the one controlling the formation, and she was knocked out. It would be best if we withdrew—”

”No! Youʼre a god, arenʼt you?!” Stella yelled back in frustration, ”You can make it work.”

Ashlock wanted to shout back that he was nothing but a fraud. He was no god, just a tree with a lot of power. But then he looked past Stella holding the bloodied Elysia at the sea of mortals. They had not run in the face of heavenʼs wrath. Instead, they were all praying.

Praying to him.

Begging for their loved ones to return and for him to succeed.

They did not pray to the heavens despite the obvious difference in power.

No, they placed their trust in him.

He might be unable to do it alone, but he never had. Every step of his journey, from sapling to godhood, had been with the help of others.

”Mytherion, my son.” He reached out to the giant ethereal tree that was still at the center of it all, ”You still have access to Elysiaʼs infant soul, right? Can you keep control of the formation?”

”No, Iʼm struggling, Father,” Mytherion replied.

”Then let me help you.” Ashlock activated {Progeny Dominion [S]}. A fragment of his soul traveled through his ethereal roots, making the world tremble as it moved and was implanted in Mytherion, giving his offspring access to his Qi pool.

While they quickly managed to regain control over the array and stop heaven from tearing it apart, it was clear that the heavens had noticed what it needed to eliminate next.

The souls floating down around them like snowfall from the desolation rifts slowed as heavenʼs all-encompassing power reached down and gathered around them.

Ashlockʼs Inner World began to spin within his soul faster and faster. His mid-stage Nascent Soul pressure radiated out with the weight of his Inner World backing it up, and he tried to continue pulling the souls down to stop the heavens from gaining dominion over them and taking them back to the cycle.

But the heavens were having none of it. The pull on the souls increased, but instead of trying to pull them back to the hellish cycle of reincarnation, they became attracted to one another like the worldʼs strongest magnets.

”Whatʼs it doing now?!” Ashlock yelled out, but there was nobody to answer him.

It wasnʼt until the souls took on the vague shape of a giant hand that he understood heavenʼs next move—they were going on the offensive against Mytherion. The mountain-sized hand made entirely of souls opened and curled its fingers around Mytherionʼs trunk.

”Father,” Mytherion said, deep concern evident in his voice as the soul hand tightened its grip, causing his enlarged trunk to crack. ”We need to do something.”

”I know.”

The question was, what could he do? This wasnʼt a typical foe with flesh and blood he could devour. No, he was fighting reality itself. He had desolation Qi and could attune it with soul dao to melt the hand. But that would make him no better than the cycle of reincarnation.

A fact he feared the heavens knew.

The souls had been his objective, and the heavens used that against him.

”Fucking bastards,” Ashlock seethed as he glanced through his list of skills, none immediately jumping out to him as a solution, ”System, is there anything I can do?”

[You could designate this as a Blessed Land under your control? But the cost is great]

”Great? What kind of cost are we talking about?”

[Soul death. Blessed Lands are pocket realms anchored to reality and are created from the ambient divine energy of fallen gods, so to make one, you would first have to die]

”I have to die...” Ashlock definitely couldnʼt sacrifice his Inner World or the Divine Flesh Tree, which was his infant soul, as it housed the system. While thinking, he looked at Mytherion and got an idea, ”Does it have to be my entire soul? Or can it be the fragment I currently have in Mytherion?”

[It could be a fragment, but the Blessed Land would be weaker]

”What must I do to make it strong enough to ward off the heavensʼ influence?”

His people had already sacrificed too much for him to back out now. Whatever the cost was, he was willing to pay it.

[At least 5000 sacrificial credits]

Ashlock glanced to the side at his sign-in menu.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3671

Daily Credit: 13

Sacrifice Credit: 3972

[Sign in?]

He didnʼt have 5000 credits.

At least not yet.

Without hesitation, he switched his view—a thousand miles to the north. There, he saw the great battle between his Ents and the monsters pouring out of the storm. His defenses here had diminished since he had been focused so much on the funeral and expending so much Qi. The desolation field was being rapidly devoured by the encroaching storm.

Ashlock, however, just saw a giant buffet of sacrificial credits. No matter if they gave him as little as one credit, he would just have to devour a thousand of them. Holding back the storm was never going to last forever, and it was time to go more on the offensive. His will upon the world echoed out, and reality answered. The desolation field warped and shuddered as the cracked earth fell away, revealing a desolation rift below that looked like a gate to hell.

Though it didnʼt lead to hell. Not that the monsters would be able to tell the difference, as he had it linked to Mytherion.

The airborne monsters simply flew right over and continued fighting with his flying Ents and Bastions, but the land-based monsters, forced forward by stronger and hungrier threats behind, had no choice but to fall down into the abyss alongside his Ents.

He was going to bring the battle to him and devour them all.