Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 456: It’s not murder if they deserve it

Stella took the lead. With the sword Ashlock had gifted her in her right hand and Rykerʼs tiny hand in her left, Stella walked forth with measured steps across the expansive courtyard of the Silverspire palace. Flanking her path stood the Silverspire family—Rykerʼs kin—distinguished by the metallic hues of their hair: copper, iron, and silver. Among them, only those with silver hair had reached the Star Core Realm, like Ryker.

As far as Stella knew, the Silverspires—and metal cultivators in general—were unique in that their cultivation realm could be identified at a glance. That made Ryker stand out. Scanning the crowd, she noticed that most of those around his age had copper hair, marking them as Qi Realm cultivators. The only ones with silver hair were the family Elders and the Grand Elderʼs wives.

”Silver hair? A Silver Core expert has arrived?”

”Is that Ryker?”

”No way, heʼs only five... how is that possible? Did he partake in a demonic ritual to boost his cultivation realm?”

”Sounds like something a child of that vixen Lyriana would do.”

”Whoʼs that girl beside him? His girlfriend?”

”Donʼt be ridiculous—thatʼs the Princess of Ashfallen, meaning sheʼs the daughter of the person who now rules these lands. What would she see in a 7th son? One of Zenoviaʼs children would be a better fit.”

Stella ignored the ignorant murmurings but felt Rykerʼs hand clench her finger. He seemed to be struggling with the attention and rumors.

”Focus on our objective for coming here,” Stella whispered, obscuring her voice with Qi and gesturing with her chin to the path ahead. In the darkness of the meeting hall before them, there was who she assumed to be Zenovia standing beside a beaten woman chained to a chair.

”Ryker!” The chained woman shouted, her voice hoarse. ”Donʼt come closer! Itʼs a trap!”

Her warning fell on deaf ears as Stella and Ryker continued to stride forward under the scrutiny and discussion of the Silverspire family. Stella would deal with them later; first on the menu was saving Rykerʼs mother, retrieving the sword, and slaughtering the fifty Enforcers lurking in the shadows. Perhaps such a trap would work against any other cultivator, but Stella had the backing of the All-Seeing Eye, and nothing escaped his gaze.

Todayʼs events were all predetermined—she was in total control. This wasnʼt going to be a struggle for once. With Larry backing her up and acting as an extension of herself, she would be able to vent her rage upon these despicable cultivators for abusing her mom without fear of death.

In silence, they made it to the end of the courtyard and came to a stop a few steps away from entering the meeting hall.

”Ryker, it seems you have returned stronger than before,” Zenovia stepped forward and glanced between them, ”and it seems you brought someone back with you.”

”Yes,” Ryker nodded, ”This is my Big Sister Stella.”

”Big sister?” Zenovia raised a brow and looked Stella up and down, ”She doesnʼt look like family.”

Rykerʼs gaze hardened, ”Sheʼs more family to me than you will ever be.”

”How harsh,” Zenovia snorted, ”Luckily, the feeling is mutual. Your branch of the family, led by your mother here, is rotten.” A stream of silver came out of the sleeve of her white robe and condensed into an axe, ”Ryker, youʼre a smart boy. Tell me, what should we do to rotten branches?”

”Youʼre the one whoʼs rotten!” Ryker snapped back. ”Always taunting my mom and making our lives a living hell—itʼs you who should be discarded!” He stepped forward, but Stella pulled him back. He glanced at her with a questioning gaze but had enough trust in her to not question why she was stopping him.

”Anubis,” Stella whispered, ”Stop her.”

Her shadow stirred as Zenovia continued her little act.

It seemed Stella preventing Ryker from stepping forward gave the icy beauty a sense of superiority as she looked on with a hauntry expression. ”What vile words coming from a child. No, Ryker, Iʼm the first wife. Itʼs your mother who dared to weasel her way into the Grand Elderʼs bed and steal his heart. She is like a plague, rotting the family and his heart from within. But donʼt worry, Iʼll put an end to it now with her child as a witness.”

Raising the axe and looming it over Lyriana like an executioner, her target raised her head.

”Ryker,” Lyriana croaked out while looking at deathʼs door, ”Mother loves you. Please, just run from here.”

”Donʼt worry, he will be next,” Zenovia said and grinned. Her Silver Core thumped with power, and she struck down with enough force to shatter a mountain. A hollow thunk reverberated through the room, followed by a wave of force that stirred Stellaʼs hair and made Ryker take a step back.

Lyriana, who was still very much in one piece, glanced up with all the effort she could muster. Her eyes widened at the sight of a bony white hand over her head, stopping the axe an inch from her head.

”What...” Zenoviaʼs confident expression cracked as she tried to wrestle back the axe from the hand but was unsuccessful. ”What is this?”

A deep chuckle echoed through the meeting hall as a being stepped out of the chairʼs shadow. His form towered over everyone at three meters, and two eyes of black flame stared down at a bewildered Zenovia. The shadow lich grinned as he raised his other skeletal hand, swirling with power.

”Shadow bind,” Anubis said, pointing a lazy finger at Zenovia.

Tendrils from Zenoviaʼs shadow lurched up and coiled around her limbs. She desperately tried to struggle against them, but as a Star Core cultivator, she didnʼt stand a chance against Anubis, who was in the middle stages of the Nascent Soul Realm.

”Who are you?!” Zenovia hissed through gritted teeth as she strained to even remain standing.

”A being created by the Ashfallen sect and tasked with guarding the Princess,” Anubis said simply, and his head turned to look at Ryker. ”The kid is someone cherished by the Princess, so by extension, his mother is worthy of my protection.” The shadow lich reached back, and to everyoneʼs surprise, the demonic sword broke out of its spatial prison and flooded the room with its bone-chilling promise of slaughter. In Anubisʼs hand, it still looked oversized as he held it in a strange grip. ”Those that are a threat to Ashfallen must be exterminated.”

”No—wait,” Zenovia begged, ”This is a misunderstanding. The Celestial Empire, they made me do it! I never wanted to harm Lyriana! AGH!”

Anubis thrust forward and wordlessly impaled the sword through Zenovia, pinning her to the ground and using the sword as a stake. The ground below them cracked, and Zenovia hurled up a mouthful of blood.

Stella could feel a commotion breaking out behind them from the Silverspire family, but she knew Diana, alongside Grand Elder Redclaw, Elaine, and the Ents, could hold them back.

Her focus was entirely on supporting Ryker through this moment. The little boy seemed frozen in shock by the sight.

Maybe this is too gruesome for him. He is only five years old. Stella wondered but then decided it was fine. She had seen sights like this when she was young.

Zenovia turned her head ever so slowly and stared at Ryker with wide eyes. Blood trailed from the lips as they opened, and she barely managed to whisper, ”Are you going to stand by while they kill your fami—”

Her head exploded.

Ryker reached up and recalled the bloody silver stream he had just shot through Zenoviaʼs head. ”Sorry,” he whispered, his voice and hands were shaking. ”I just couldnʼt stand her looking at me like that. I didnʼt mean to murder her.”

As if mirroring Rykerʼs ruthlessness, the demonic sword impaling Zenovia pulsed and began to devour the dead body.

Stella shrugged, ”Itʼs not murder if they deserve it.”

Ryker looked up at her, and she ruffled his hair. ”You did a good job.”

He let out a heavy breath, ”Thanks.”

”Anubis, bring her here,” Stella gestured to Lyriana. The shadow lich conjured a squirming mass of shadows that rose up and tore the chair apart. As Lyriana was falling back, it cushioned her fall and helped the near-death woman stand. It wasnʼt until she was safely shepherded out of the meeting hall that Ryker stepped forward and embraced his mother in a tight hug.

”My baby,” Lyriana patted him on the back and ran her fingers through his hair while he burrowed his head in her and didnʼt dare let go. She glanced up and met Stellaʼs eyes. ”Iʼve heard a bit about you from Sebastian. All I can say is thank you—for saving me and looking out for Ryker.”

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Stella nodded, ”Wasnʼt a problem.”

Lyriana studied her eyes through her blood-stained hair for a moment and seemed to come to a conclusion. ”You didnʼt just come here for me.”

”I did not.”

”You carry far too much hatred and rage for your age,” Lyriana glanced back into the room, ”It seems my warnings about the ambush in there were unwarranted. Tell me, should I be worried for you or them.”

Stella smiled ever so slightly, ”What do you think?”

Lyriana paused before stepping aside with Ryker still hugging her, ”If the legends Iʼve heard about you are true,” she turned to look into the hall, ”Itʼs them I should be worried for.”

”Letʼs see if Iʼm a living legend or not then,” Stella glanced over her shoulder, ”Diana, look after these two—Iʼm going in.”

”Alone?” Diana replied. The demoness had her wings out and was busy holding back the enraged Silverspires.

”Yeah,” Stella tightened her grip on her sword, ”This is something I need to do. Keep the Silverspires occupied for me, will you? The meeting hall will be free to hold a hearing soon.”

Despite the claim of going ʼalone,ʼ she wasnʼt so arrogant to think she could single-handedly slaughter fifty Enforcers from the Celestial Empire. They were all at least in the Star Core Realm, if not higher, and decked out in artifacts and techniques she had never seen before.

But she wasnʼt alone—ever. Ash was watching from afar, Larry was attached to her back, and Anubis moved to stand at her side. With two Nascent Soul Realm beings and a Monarch Realm monster on her side, this would be a massacre.

Stella let out a quick breath to calm her nerves before entering the meeting room.

An elderly man in black robes stepped out of the darkness alongside a dozen others. The threatening hum of Star Cores radiated from the group alongside clear killing intent that chilled the air. Swords were drawn, and she could feel the Qi shift around them.

”Well, if it isnʼt Stella Crestfallen, the most wanted woman in all the lands.” The elderly man grinned, ”The Chairman kindly requests your prompt return home to the Celestial Empire.”

”And if I donʼt?” Stella tilted her head as she pulled a vial of Cursebloom Sap from her spatial ring and poured it on her sword.

The elderly manʼs expression darkened, ”We will have to drag you back by force.”

”Oh, is that so,” Stella said, unfazed. ”And what if I kill you all?”

The elderly man snorted, ”Thereʼs no point resisting Stella Crestfallen—the Celestial Empire will never let you go.”

Stella grinned, ”Perfect.”

The man seemed confused, ”Perfect, are you perhaps confused? This is a dire situation for you. Everyone on the council wants to get a hold of you.”

”Thereʼs no confusion here, Enforcer. The more that come...” she raised her sword and pointed the tip at his throat, ”The more of you tree-harvesting fuckers I can slaughter.”

The manʼs expression turned grave. He stepped back and commanded the others. ”Get her.”

”Larry, do it now,” Stella said, and the Monarch Realm monster obeyed. The halo on her head began to spin rapidly and expand out, flooding the room with Monarch Realm soul pressure and causing the battle-ready Enforcers to falter.

”Sheʼs in the Monarch Realm?” One shouted out to the others.

”Impossible... it hasnʼt even been twenty years since the experiment.”

”M-Monster.”

Stella just grinned. She was wearing her Phantom Veil Amulet as usual, which masked her cultivation realm. The pressure they were feeling was coming from Larry, not her. She had no reason to correct them as the fear on their faces was delicious.

”Monarch Realm Domain, The Aspect of Eternal Ash,” Larry said, and the ashen halo continued to expand out and form a dome encapsulating the meeting hall. His legs sprouted out of her back like wings, curled in to clamp around her body, and expanded to form a suit of ash against her skin. Not even her face was exposed, not that she cared. Closing her eyes, her bloodline activated, and she stepped into the aether, leaving the bewildered enforcers behind.

However, she didnʼt plan to hide out in the aether for long. Her blood-boiling rage for what these self-righteous bastards were doing to her mother was too much to contain. ”Letʼs see how you like it,” Stella mused to herself as her spatial rings flashed and dozens of daggers dripping in Ashʼs Cursed Sap appeared around her.

She didnʼt simply plan to kill these people. After seeing how all souls entered reincarnation and after being burned in hellfire their memories and personalities would be taken away, Stella concluded that these people were undeserving of such a clean fate. What she wanted was for these people to suffer for eternity and pay back for what they had done.

Emerging from the aether in a flash of white flames, she slashed to the side, cleanly chopping off a disoriented cultivatorʼs arm. The Cursebloom Sap coating the blade left on the wound burried into the cultivatorʼs body, making them howl in pain and stumble back.

”One,” Stella said before vanishing again and repeating the process. Another howl of pain, she disemboweled another. ”Two.” She spun on her heel and, with a brutal upward chop, horizontally sliced another personʼs chest, ”Three.”

She vanished again before they could retaliate—only to reappear behind the elderly Enforcer from the start like the grim reaper.

”Behind you!” Someone shouted, and the elderly Enforcer showed why he was the leader. He spun around with inhuman speed. He was nothing but a blur as his sword parried her dagger, sending it flying out of her hand as her arm snapped back from the force. A blast of dark fire then erupted from his other hand, blasting away a layer of shifting ash and briefly exposing her face.

Stella took that moment to activate her earrings. Her eyes became a swirling abyss, causing the elderly cultivator to falter for a split moment. A chance Stella used to drive home a floating dagger from his blindspot into his back. The pain shocked him out of his dazed state, but Stella was already gone like a phantom.

”Stella Crestfallen! You bitch!” He howled as he tried to free the dagger. ”Get back here!”

Phew, that was close. Was he in the Nascent Soul Realm? He felt stronger than the others. She wondered as she tried to massage the pain from her shoulder. Cracking her neck, she decided to speed things up. Since she didnʼt have to land the killing blow to inflict the Cursebloom Sap, all she had to do was scratch them and then wait for the curse to significantly weaken them.

Reemerging as a storm of blades, she strained her bloodline to the max to weave through the cultivators. Where she could, she would vanish right before a technique hit her, causing it to hit another Enforcer. Before long, they were harming one another more than her. Any stray attacks that luckily hit her despite her rapid teleportation and bloodline that heightened her awareness to the extreme were simply absorbed by Larry.

What felt like an hour passed, and it was bliss.

”Hahahahaha,” Stella cackled as she slashed, chopped, stabbed, and ran circles around the Enforcers. The darkened hall was also the perfect battleground for Anubis, who was fighting off a few of them and assisting Stella by keeping her targets still with Shadow Bind.

”Leader, thereʼs a problem!” The first person she had chopped a limb off shouted. ”Iʼm... turning into a tree.”

”Same! Itʼs eating away at my Star Core. I canʼt hold it back much longer. This curse is really potent!”

Panic ensued, which delighted Stella even more. They say itʼs bad to play with your food, but thatʼs the entire reason she had come all this way. To kill these people and enjoy doing so on behalf of her mother.

”Leader! What should we do?!” The first one who had noticed the curse shouted. He was staggering around in the corner of the room, clutching his stump that had stopped bleeding as it had turned to wood, and a branch was sprouting in its place. A look of pure terror was on his face.

”Donʼt show any fear—” He paused as Stella appeared beside him.

”I wear your fear like perfume,” She said, kicking him square in the stomach and sending him flying. Compared to the reaction speed he had shown moments earlier, the elderly man was now sluggish. The curse had successfully taken root. She relished in the feeling as she strode up to him, one step at a time. By now, every one of the Enforcers had been hit. Her victory was inevitable.

Stella stood before the kicked man. ”Say ʼleader,ʼ does the Celestial Empire know what they are doing?”

”In regards to what?” He glared at her with hatred from the ground.

Stella put her hands on her hips and returned the glare. ”Donʼt act dumb. They are torturing the World Tree, arenʼt they?”

”So what if they are?” The man laughed in her face. ”Whatʼs a stupid tree going to do about it? If anything, it should be grateful. In return for its delicious sap thatʼs full of divine Qi, we protect and nurture it. In fact, without us, it would be dead.”

”You canʼt seriously think the World Tree values your pathetic little life—” Stellaʼs eyes widened as a shockwave of pure Qi slammed into her back. It had come so fast she hadnʼt even had time to notice it. Almost all of Larry was consumed to protect her as she was thrown across the room like a rag doll by the immense force. Blinking away the stars from her eyes and in utter confusion, Stella swayed on her feet as she noticed the light streaking down from above. The top of Larryʼs domain, along with the roof of the building, had been blown away by that shockwave.

”What was that...” she muttered in confusion.

”Stella, escape to the aether now!” Ash thundered in her mind. She didnʼt think twice and complied just as she felt the pressure of another shockwave explode through the room.

”Ash?! What is happening? Did a powerhouse suddenly arrive or something?”

”No,” Ash replied, ”Instead of being turned into trees, some of them decided to go supernova. I didnʼt notice as the room was full of Qi and chaos. I think they also did it to create an escape route, but Iʼll deal with the ones who try and flee.”

Stella was amazed. That was the power a Star Core Realm cultivator could unleash by exploding their own Star Core? No wonder the heavens wanted to recycle their Qi.

”Itʼs safe now. The battle is over,” Ash said a few moments later.

Stella stepped out of the aether to silence. The room was utterly destroyed, with the roof and most of the walls gone. A few half-blown-up bodies were thrown about and were quickly turning into spirit trees.

”How many went supernova?” Stella asked, amazed at the devastation.

”Around three,” Ash guessed. ”I usually stop them before they can—sorry. I should have been paying more attention.”

Stella shook her head and let out a sigh. ”Itʼs fine, it helped speed up the process.” She dragged her slightly bloodied and bruised body from the explosion over to what appeared to be the only remaining throne in the meeting hall.

Sitting down, she felt the rage vacate her body. ”Who knew a slaughter was such a good stress reliever,” she mused as she got comfortable and leaned back. Evening sunlight warmed her face, and overhead, she could see the demonic sword executing those who tried to escape. Their screams were music to her ears.

”Stella.”

”Mhm?”

”The Silverspire Grand Elder has just left closed-door cultivation and is heading toward you now.”

”Oh...” Stella looked around at the destruction, ”He is not going to be happy about all this.”

”Should I or Diana handle it?”

Stella shook her head. ”No, Iʼll handle it. I think I have a way to make him see us as the good guys from all this. All I have to do is entice him with enough benefits for joining the Ashfallen Sect that he will become blind to what we did here. Just to check, our objective is to extort as many spirit stones as possible and keep the Silverspire family functioning into the future to maintain the production of spatial rings, right?”

”Thatʼs correct. So long as the Silverspires become a large source of spirit stones and spatial rings, their purpose is served.”

”Perfect. I got this.”

I just have to keep them interested in mining and then entice them into spending those spirit stones on our pills. That way, all the money they make flows back to us and strengthens them in the process. Itʼs a win-win.

The ashen dome surrounding the room collapsed a moment later, and Larry reformed at her side. Far smaller than ever. Clearly, blocking those explosions from wiping out the entire mountain had taken a lot out of him.

Stella dusted herself down and prepared.

To meet with the Silverspire Grand Elder.