Ashlock had seen Stella distraught, scared, and angry in recent years, but she had almost only ever cried when she feared his demise. She was usually quite a strong girl when it came to her own problems, so something drastic must have occurred for her to go from battle maniac to crying within seconds.

"I wonder what happened?" Ashlock used the tip of his ethereal root to wipe away the tears streaking down Stella's sleeping face. She had passed out and fallen into a deep sleep within a second, so it was likely backlash for whatever she had done at the end of the duel.

"For a moment, I felt the pressure of a being on the same level as Senior Lee coming from Stella," Ashlock mused as he continued patting her head as she peacefully slept, "She then looked to the sky and collapsed, coughing blood a moment later."

It was all bizarre, and all he could hope was that Stella would fully recover and fill him in on the details. He may have dulled emotions as a tree, but he knew when to put his curiosity aside and give her some space to recover before firing off questions.

"See, I can be a caring Dad sometimes," Ashlock chuckled as he enjoyed this unintended feature of his new {Ethereal Roots} skill. It effectively turned his roots into limbs he could move freely so he could finally give a sort of hug. "Even if you are a rascal. I told you so many times to stop the duel because Diana was out of control, but you stubbornly pressed forward, so I can only hope whatever you saw in the sky was worth it."

"I can give her sweet dreams if you will allow it."

Ashlock looked down with his demonic eye at Elaine, who was still sitting on the bench with a deep look of concern on her face.

"With your illusions?" Ashlock asked.

Elaine nodded, "She looks very distressed, so it might help her sleep peacefully."

Ashlock glanced back at Stella. Her hands that had been gripping the root patting her head had fallen to her sides, and she had a look of unease on her sleeping face. Maple was curled up in her lap and looking up at her.

"If you are sure it will work, that would be nice."

"Sure, it's a simple illusion shaped by the happy thoughts in her mind, no matter how dormant they are," Elaine stood up and effortlessly jumped to Ashlock's lowest branch. Sometimes, he forgot that cultivators were superhuman, but seeing Elaine, who looked like a nerdy researcher, easily jumping three meters at a time up to where Stella was situated, reminded him that looks could be deceiving.

Elaine gently tapped her finger on Stella's head, and within seconds, Stella's face transitioned from one of unsettled terror to a light smile. Her breathing also became less erratic and more relaxed.

"Thank you," Ashlock said.

"No worries, it's the least I could do," Elaine moved Stella's hair from her nose and put it behind her ear with a sigh. "Almost hard to remember how scary she can be when I see her sleeping like this."

Ashlock still vividly remembered the debate where Stella ordered Elaine's death; now, here Elaine was, wishing her sweet dreams.

"She has been getting better," Ashlock said, "As she gains more life experience and interacts with a wide variety of people, her dark view of the world has slowly shifted. Or at least I like to think so."

"I can only imagine what she has been through," Elaine stepped back with a frown, "I have been told things here and there, but they paint a very vague picture."

"Yeah... it's been complicated, to say the least."

Diana appeared in a blur next to Elaine, making her almost lose her balance on the branch.

"Ah! You scared me," Elaine readjusted her glasses, "Are you..."

"Sane? Yes, I am." Diana said as her eyes, which were black like ink, transitioned to her usual dull grey. They flickered between Elaine, Stella, and Ashlock's demonic eye. "So? How is she?"

"We don't know," Ashlock admitted, "But Elaine used her illusion Qi to help her sleep peacefully, so I suppose we will see when she wakes up. What about you?"

"Oh, me?" Diana blinked, surprised by the question, "Not great, honestly. I fed my bloodline too much power and lost myself to its rage when Stella managed to land those hits on me. I'm sorry..."

If not for Stella constantly telling him to stay out of it, Ashlock would have stopped the duel then and there.

"No need to be sorry. I take responsibility for whatever happens next," Ashlock reassured her, "Stella told me to stay out of it, so I did. I trust her, but in hindsight, maybe listening to her was a bad idea. We will have to see if I made the wrong decision when she wakes up."

Diana nodded as she massaged her temples, "Yeah, that sounds like something she would do. Crazy... if not for that sudden pressure that shocked me out of my berserk state, I really would have taken her head off. I need to go rest. The backlash is killing my head."

"Go for it, I need to rest too." Ashlock sighed. What a fucking insane morning it had been. The sun had hardly risen, but he already wanted not just today to be over but this entire week. He had reached the bottleneck for Nascent Soul, upgraded one of his abilities with void Qi, turned Nox into a tree, and watched Diana and Stella almost kill each other in a duel that went way too far. All the while, he was still heavily injured with a large cut in his trunk that was leaking Qi.

Diana spread her majestic feathered wings but paused, "Before I go, I wanted to give you this."

"Oh? A present?"

"It's a bundle of demonic mist Qi flowers I managed to bring back from the Mystic Realm," Diana placed the bundle of black and blue flowers on the branch, "Not sure if you can do anything with them, though a grove of them would be nice. Only if you want to, of course..."

"Diana, you are like family to me," Ashlock picked up the flowers with telekinesis and brought them before his eye for inspection, "Forget just a grove. I will give you a bastion of demonic mist Qi someday. Just give me some time, though. I must divert my resources to reach the Nascent Soul Realm for now."

"Thank you, Ashlock, that means a lot." Diana gave a fang-filled smile as she turned to leave, "Call me when Stella wakes up."

"I suppose I will head out as well then and cultivate at the illusion Qi grove," Elaine jumped down, "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

"Sure thing, see you both soon," Ashlock told them.

Diana glided into the distance while Elaine walked through the mist wall and vanished from sight as she headed toward the mountain ridge of groves.

Now, it was just him and a sleeping Stella. Making sure she was secured in place with his root so she wouldn't fall during her sleep, he focused on the new flower Diana had just given him. He twirled it around for a while with telekinesis before his eye until a system prompt appeared.

[Sinister Fog Bellflower analyzed]

Opening his {Blooming Root Flower Production} skill menu, sure enough, this flower had joined his list of possible flowers he could grow.

"Might as well get a grove for Diana going before I sleep," Ashlock said, searching for a nice area with {Eye of the Tree God}. Since he also wanted some of his offspring to take on the demonic mist affinity, he decided to head to the east to the demonic tree forest.

He selected a large area among the newly growing trees and spawned hundreds of Sinister Fog Bellflowers. Qi flowed from his Star Core through his roots, and a field of black and blue flowers bloomed into existence, and a demonic mist soon started forming.

Ashlock let out a long yawn as he returned to Red Vine Peak. He was beyond exhausted.

Since it was still daytime, he retreated into his mind and fell into a state similar to daydreaming, focusing all his nutrients and Qi into repairing himself. He had earned a long rest...

***

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3598

Daily Credit: 35

Sacrifice Credit: 2565

[Sign in?]

 

"Huh?" Ashlock stirred awake and wondered if he was miscounting. "I swear I had 33 daily credits last time I checked..."

Had two days really passed? Swiftly leaving his mind with more energy than usual, he glanced around. The sun was once again peeking over the mountains in the distance as if he had gone back in time by an hour. Stella was still peacefully asleep in his roots, and there was no sign of the others.

"Did I really sleep for two days?" Ashlock wondered if there was a quick way to check. Looking around, he eventually looked down at himself and saw that the large cut in his side made by Nox was half healed, and the cracks that had spread throughout his body were gone.

[Damage calculated at 17%]

[Repair body with credits? Yes/No]

"No way," Ashlock dismissed the prompt. With how high his cultivation was now, the cost of such an instant repair would be steep, and he needed to save every credit he could to form his Inner World and reach Nascent Soul Realm.

That aside, this amount of healing should be impossible in a single day, so maybe two days really had passed. Which made the fact Stella was still asleep so concerning. Had using her bloodline or whatever she saw in the sky inflicted such a backlash?

Larry was also still in his cocoon of silver ash, so it was quiet...

"I wonder how Nox is readjusting to her life as a tree?" Ashlock would grin if he could. He hadn't heard anything from the Redclaws regarding her yet, so it should be going well.

"Morning Tree," A sheepish voice drew his attention to Stella, rubbing her eyes and yawning, "I had the most pleasant dream. All the terrible things I'd been told went away like a spring breeze."

"You can thank Elaine for that," Ashlock said as softly as he could as he loosened his hold on her waist now that she was awake, "She used illusions to help you sleep because you seemed deeply troubled."

"Oh, that was nice of her," Stella said absentmindedly as she stared into the distance through a gap in his canopy. A long silence followed as the morning breeze rustled Ashlock's leaves and played with Stella's hair.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ashlock eventually said. Talk about what, he wasn't exactly sure. Stella had mentioned something about being told terrible things?

"I... don't know," Stella muttered as she tore her eyes away from the horizon and looked down at Maple in her lap. "There's just so much to unpack, that I don't even know where or how to start."

"Diana asked me to get her when you woke up. Should I? Maybe she can help you work through it."

Stella slowly nodded, "Okay, some of it will be interesting to her, I suppose."

Ashlock went and got Diana, who had been resting under the water Qi trees at the edge of the mountain peak.

"Stella, you slept a long time," Diana said as she landed on the branch and gave her a warm smile, "It's been a few days since our duel. Are you fine?"

"Physically? Sure I am," Stella cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders, "I feel quite well rested, actually. Or at least as well as I could after what happened."

Diana's smile faltered, "Look if I caused whatever that was, I am sorry—"

Stella waved her off, "No. If anything, you helped me reach the 'ultimate' state of my bloodline. I should be thanking you."

"Ultimate state? You learned more about bloodlines?" Ashlock asked, unable to hold back his curiosity anymore.

"Yes, I did, alongside some... other things," Stella said mysteriously. It seemed like a lot was going on in her mind as her gaze kept growing distant, and she kept opening her lips as if about to say something but then holding back.

"Was this ultimate version you speak of the source of that presence I felt?" Diana asked as she sat on Ashlock's branch and let her legs and wings hang off the sides.

"Sort of?" Stella looked at Diana, "Though I was suffering under it just as much as you were, if not more."

"That explains why you coughed up blood and fainted for two days," Diana shook her head in disbelief, "That pressure from a few meters away was enough to scare my bloodline to where it came from. What was it that has such a presence?"

Stella breathed out a long sigh, "That's the thing, I don't know. It never gave me its name. Just called me arrogant because of my ancient bloodline."

"Ancient bloodline?" Ashlock was growing more confused.

"Let me start from the top; otherwise, even I will get confused." Stella spent a minute organizing her thoughts before continuing. "Let's start with the topic that caused this mess. Bloodlines, to my understanding, have three stages. Let's call them passive, active, and ultimate. Now, I don't know if all bloodlines have all three, nor do I know if everyone has a bloodline or only a certain few. All I know is I have an ancient bloodline, and I was able to tap into all three states."

"Larry did say there was something ancient smelling about you and Diana," Ashlock chimed in, "I suppose it was this ancient bloodline he smelled."

Stella glanced up at the silver ash cocoon overhead, "Yeah, looks like he was right."

"So, what is up with these three states of bloodlines?" Diana asked.

"Passive is the easiest one to explain, but bear in mind that I am working off many assumptions here, so this could all be wrong. However, I believe everyone with a bloodline will have some degree of this passive effect." Stella explained, "In my case, the passive effect of my bloodline was the ability to learn things faster than usual from a young age. Learning was never hard; it always felt like warming up an old muscle rather than training up a new one, if that makes sense. You could almost call it my talent, if you will."

Ashlock found that made a lot of sense, "You always were quick on the uptake. So, it was your bloodline that helped you progress so quickly in so many different areas?"

"Yeah," Stella nodded, "Though it didn't hand those achievements to me on a silver platter. For example, as Diana knows well, I still had to spend every waking hour for a year straight to learn the ancient runic language to speak to you. A level of effort was still required on my part; it just came easier to me than it would to others."

Diana nodded, "She worked so hard it was amazing to watch."

"Calling in a talent sounds about right then," Ashlock agreed, "You are one of the hardest-working people I know, so I didn't say that to diminish your achievements. But it does help explain how you reached such mastery in many fields."

"Yeah, and that brings me onto the second stage of a bloodline, the active one." Stella continued, "Diana's transformation into a demoness is the best example of this. But for me, it was being able to enter the zone and hyper-focus on a task at the cost of a nasty headache for a bit afterward. This active part of my bloodline helped me win the alchemy tournament, and also, in many fights, it helped me manage the flow of battle. Yet the conditions to activate it are still rather vague compared to Diana, who simply feeds her bloodline power to manifest it."

"Are you getting jealous again?" Diana teased, "Even after seeing what happens when I let it run amock?"

Stella shrugged, "I see now that you have a more straightforward way of using the active part of your bloodline because the cost to use it is higher. My bloodline often activates when I need it, and the cost is nothing but a headache and exhaustion, whereas you trade your sanity for power. It took a lot for me to realize that. I focused far more on the result than the cost, which led to my... jealousy."

"At least you can see that now," Diana sighed and leaned back, looking up into Ashlock's canopy, "So, what's this about an ultimate state you mentioned?"

Once again, Stella became hesitant. She tried and failed to speak for a long time, with only the rustling leaves, chirps of birds, and streaks of sunlight accompanying the awkwardness.

"I surrendered to my instincts," Stella eventually muttered, "I got the idea after seeing you embrace your demon form. In doing so, the whispers grew louder and louder, and then the sky was gone."

Ashlock's demonic eye swiveled to gaze up at the vast blue sky. It looked the same as always, with clouds lazily floating by. Streams of various Qi types went by, as always. Nothing seemed amiss.

"In its place, a vast celestial library appeared carved from the inside of a golden tree that spread up to infinity." Stella raised her arms as if trying to paint a picture, "I didn't realize until it appeared, but it had always been there, feeding me knowledge. And upon witnessing this library of knowledge, I thought I had gathered it all from past lives until it told me otherwise."

At the mention of a golden tree, Ashlock's thoughts instantly drifted to his many dreams and visions of the past World Trees that he sometimes saw after unlocking S-grade skills. This felt like too much of a coincidence. He dreamed of world trees, while Stella had access to a library made within one?

"Crazy celestial libraries appearing out of nowhere aside," Diana crocked a brow, "Past lives?"

Ashlock wanted to pause on the whole library made from a world tree, but clearly, there were even more things Stella had to share, considering she passed over it so quickly.

Stella nodded, "I felt a faint connection to all the information contained in that library that loomed overhead. Almost like a fragmented memory of a distant past, but in the moment, I was convinced that it was all knowledge I had collected in past lives."

Ashlock found it interesting that Stella had a concept of past lives. Was the cycle of reincarnation known in this world?

"So what happened next?" Ashlock asked.

"A humanoid cosmos formed within the library and glared down at me with stars for eyes. It was the source of that pressure that made Diana step back and me to cough blood." Stella shuddered, "If I had to guess, it was the ego of the library or perhaps one of my ancestors. It informed me with words that shook my soul that this was all the knowledge my ancestors acquired throughout the eons. That I was 'arrogant as always' and a carrier of an ancient bloodline."

"Arrogant as always; that makes it sound like this cosmos has been watching you or has met you before," Ashlock said, and Diana added, "Or there have been others with your bloodline in the past that were also arrogant."

"Could be either honestly. Its way with words was so confusing, and it didn't help that listening to it hurt so bad."

"So your bloodline's ultimate state is to peel back the veil of reality to expose a library that has always been there and to be shouted at by a cosmos?" Ashlock asked.

Stella shook her head, "Simply focusing on a single stream of knowledge between the books gave me deeper insights into bloodlines. If I could have stayed there longer and explored more, I am sure I would have learned more than everything contained in that Azure Clan library." Stella's face scrunched up in disgust and rage, "But that cosmos ensured that was not the case. It called me a foolish child who didn't understand that knowledge is a curse—that knowledge is power, and without the capabilities to act upon knowledge, it's as useful as giving an ant a sword."

Ashlock actually agreed with those words, but now wasn't the time to voice those thoughts. "So what did you say in response?"

"I called it out on it's bullshit," Stella said bluntly, "Or at least I thought I did. I really believed knowing was better than being kept in the dark..."

Stella trailed off at the end; the edges of her eyes started getting red, and her bottom lip quivered.

"What did it tell you, Stella?" Ashlock asked, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, of course, but I can see you are hurting."

Stella curled up into a ball, and while sniffling, she said something unbelievable.

"My Mother is the World Tree."