Ashlock could use Progeny Dominion multiple times a week as he could offset the incurred soul damage by recovering under the nine moons' healing energies. But that didn't mean he wanted to. Soul damage was scary, and as fun as exploring the pocket realms alongside his sect members could be, it was sometimes frustrating.
Morrigan had left him with more questions than answers before she vanished to 'prove her trustworthiness' to him. His concerns about being an origin aside, she had strongly suggested he venture deeper into the Shadow Veil Sanctum in search of this 'Dark Throne,' which sounded like an inheritance. So, they continued onwards despite Nox and himself completing their objective of saving Evelyn from a Nascent Soul pocket realm that contained monsters far above her capabilities.
"I swear we have gone through this shadow rift before," Ashlock said as they warped through a crack in the darkness and floated down a giant corridor that looked suspiciously familiar.
"No, the flow of darkness is different in here," Nox reassured him, "I'm now more sure than ever that the Shadow Sovereigns designed this place to only be navigatable by those with high aptitude for shadow Qi and are at least in the Nascent Soul Realm." She closed her eyes and pointed in a seemingly random direction, "If we trust my instincts and follow the flow, we should eventually locate the Dark Throne."
Ashlock had been very excited about what an inheritance from one of the most powerful factions fighting for dominance on the upper layers would entail. But the excitement had been slowly drained from him as he spent two whole days lost in an endlessly dark building going in and out of these shadow rifts, which were the only way to move between rooms in the castle as there were no doorways.
Due to the time dilation, he had around a day left until it would be nighttime in the real world, and his connection to Nox would be cut. Ideally, he wanted to find and secure the inheritance alongside Nox before then, as he didn't want to incur soul damage to continue exploring this darn castle anymore.
However, being stuck in one realm was making him feel anxious. He had checked Stella's realm a few times out of habit to ensure nothing seemed out of the ordinary, as she had a history of causing trouble.
[Tournament Realm:
Description: A once-empty pocket realm devoid of Qi repurposed into a tournament realm. It's owned by the Jade Emperor's Consortium and rented out to sects and clans for a fee.
Qi Level: Star Core Realm
Environment: Peaceful
Monsters: None
Current Occupants: 2]
Thankfully, she seemed to have ended up in a peaceful-sounding realm that wasn't owned by the Azure Clan for once. So long as she kept to herself and found a quiet corner to cultivate in, everything would be fine.
"It's not like she has any incentive to mess with a tournament..." Ashlock tried to convince himself but eventually sighed. "Who am I kidding? She will find one way or another to cause me trouble."
The only things stopping Ashlock from rushing over to check on her was the incentive of the Dark Throne, his system not mentioning the Azure Clan in the pocket realm's description, and Maple was with Stella. That little squirrel had a soft spot for Stella and would do his best to protect her, and few things could threaten a Worldwalker who wanted to go all out, even with heaven's carefully woven reality heavily restricting his powers.
So here he was, stuck in this castle of darkness and trusting Nox to lead the way. They had encountered absolutely nothing since the Eclipse Behemoth guarding the entrance. However, the Qi here was very dense, so Nox and Evelyn were busy cultivating. While shadow Qi was mostly useless to him, when his soul shard returned to his main body, he would get a share of the Qi Nox had cultivated during their journey.
"I really hope this next shadow rift results in something," Ashlock grumbled. He was tempted to use a portal of his own to close the gap, but the shadow Qi in here was so dense that it was a total waste. He could barely cover much distance at all.
"For a tree, you're terribly impatient, you know." Nox telepathically replied to him so Evelyn couldn't hear. "These things take time and patience."
"I..." Ashlock swallowed his response. He had been rather useless thus far in traversing the darkness as his spatial capabilities were hindered in here, so all he had to occupy himself over the last two days was complaining, worrying about Stella and the other sect members, and wondering about life. Environmental advantages were sometimes ridiculous. He wouldn't be able to traverse this place even if he was in the Monarch Realm.
Feeling bored as the Bastion moved forward at a snail's pace, he opened his system.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System
Day: 3626
Daily Credit: 60
Sacrifice Credit: 2143
[Sign in?]
It was a decent number with plenty of options. Ashlock had considered upgrading his mutations earlier but was now debating a different option.
[Directly upgrading the skill {Mystic Realm [S]} will consume 5729 credits]
He was unsure what the upgrade would entail, and the cost was terribly high. But the value in the Mystic Realm for his sect's development was irrefutable.
"I'll have to see how many credits I can amass by the end of this round in the Mystic Realm first," Ashlock mused, "But if there are Nascent Soul pocket realms filled with monsters like this one should be, then reaching five thousand credits is doable."
He could also gacha pull with that many credits and guarantee a new random SSS grade draw. The options were endless, which is what made it so much harder to decide how to spend them.
"Let's focus on amassing as many as possible first and letting it grow in the divine stock market. Spending can come later," Ashlock dismissed his system and focused back on his surroundings. The almost impossible-to-make-out rift in the darkness was right up ahead.
"I think this is the one we have been looking for," Nox said.
"Really? Why?"
"The shadow Qi pouring out of this rift is immense," Nox spread out her hands, and Ashlock felt a tug on the Bastion Core as the shields took on a darker shade as they powered up. "Whatever is on the other side of this shadow rift is unlikely to welcome our visit."
"If that's the case, let's get all the Bastions capabilities powered up to the maximum." Ashlock pulled deeply on the Bastion Core. The stone along the ship's edge cracked as black flowers a person high sprouted and all swiveled to aim ahead.
[Shadow Artillery: ACTIVE]
Shadow Qi poured out of the ship and began to shroud the Bastion, pushing back against the surrounding darkness. They were now surrounded by a storm of shadows under their absolute control.
[Shadow Storm: ACTIVE]
"Okay, ready. Push us through." Ashlock commanded.
Nox nodded. The ship lurched forward and was swallowed by the darkness.
[Now entering the Spectral Tombs]
His system informed him of the room with golden words hanging in his vision the moment he set his spiritual gaze on what lay beyond the rift. In the expansive room were enormous statues of obsidian carved in the shape of dignified-looking cultivators. They were so towering that Ashlock estimated Nox's Bastion to be the size of one of their fingers.
"What the hell is this," Ashlock muttered. He had never felt so small in his life. Just who were these Shadow Sovereigns that dominated the upper layers? Did they mine out entire worlds to construct this place? Ashlock hated to admit it, but it made the statues in Willow's library look cute in comparison.
"Whoa—" Evelyn yelled, shocked out of her cultivation by the entire Bastion jerking to the side. The shadow shield rippled and reformed—something powerful had struck them out of nowhere.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"Nox, what just hit us?!" Ashlock said as the lilac flames around Nox flared up, and he boosted his spiritual perception to its maximum to try to penetrate the darkness and find the culprit.
"I have no idea," Nox admitted as her avatar rushed to the left side of the Bastion and pointed into the endless darkness ahead of them, "The attack came from over there, and considering it punched a hole in our shield, the enemy is at least in the middle stages of the Nascent Soul Realm."
"Shit, this is bad." Ashlock looked behind them, and the shadow rift they had passed through had long closed. They were trapped here with an unknown enemy far more powerful than anything he had encountered before—and worst of all, they had the environmental advantage.
Thinking of what to do, he recalled the fight with the Lunarshade Grand Elder. "I have an idea," Ashlock said, moving the Bastion forward.
"What are you... oh."
"Shields at full power, we are going to rush them," Ashlock funneled Qi into the Bastion Core from his body back into the real world and felt the immense power flow through the entire Bastion, and the shields pulsed with power. There was just one problem—they weren't traveling over his roots, so the Bastion was terribly slow.
Since he was paying attention this time, Ashlock barely saw the bolt of shadow before it impacted the shield and took out a solid chunk of it.
"Khaos, guard Evelyn. The remaining void reapers will stand at the front and prepare for imminent combat." Ashlock instructed, and his loyal Ents moved to fulfill his commands. Khaos stood before Evelyn and wreathed her four claws in void Qi. The other void Ents followed suit by standing on the Bastion's bow and looking ready to tear apart the first thing they saw.
The Bastion's shadow shield rapidly regenerated but wasn't fast enough. Another shadow bolt hit the same spot a mere moment after the first. Thankfully, one of the void reapers reacted quickly and swatted it out of existence with void Qi.
However, Ashlock could tell that it had taken almost all of that Ent's Qi as it could barely stand afterward.
"Retreat and I will recharge you with Qi," Ashlock told the void reaper while preparing a black root. If there was one thing he had an excess of right now, it was Qi. The Ent complied, and after staggering across the Bastion, he hooked it up with the black root and began refilling its Star Core with Qi.
"I have eyes on the enemy!" Nox informed him.
"Oh? What is it?"
"A person... I think?" Nox hesitated, "There's something wrong with them."
Ashlock found out what she was talking about a moment later when a colossal statue that towered over the rest came partially into view. In its upturned open palm, a humanoid wreathed in a cloak of shadows stood there with their finger pointed at them. Shadow Qi coiled around the humanoid's wrist and seemed to be regathering to form another attack.
"What the hell is that?" Ashlock said to himself as he tried to understand what he was seeing.
[That is a Shadow Lich. They are undead monsters artificially created by the Shadow Sovereigns out of the bodies of their disciples to guard their tombs]
"Their disciples?" Ashlock asked, horrified. Had this abomination of bone once been the disciple of whoever this statue was depicting?
[In the upper realms, it's usual practice for masters to require disciples to agree to death contracts should the master die. It's a way to prevent betrayals from the disciples and ensure the highest level of loyalty]
"That's diabolical," Ashlock paused, "But also a really good idea... wait, that's beside the point." Now was not the time to appreciate the practices of the Shadow Sovereigns. Before him was a Nascent Soul Realm monster created from the bones of this statue's disciple.
"Let's blast it to death."
Nox agreed.
All of the plants on the ship simultaneously aimed toward the lich. Spikes of shadow Qi grew on their petals, and then, on Ashlock's command, they fired out all at once.
The Shadow Lich weirdly moved like a human as it crouched down and opened both its palms to summon a consuming abyss of shadows that devoured the incoming attacks and seemingly added to its own reserves.
"Shadow attacks are wasted on a foe like this," Nox said, stating the obvious. She turned to her tree, which was aflame with lilac soul fire. "Defeating it is up to you."
"Leave it to me."
The lilac soul flames flared as he smashed the lich with the full weight of his presence. Yet, even with the addition of his Inner World, the Shadow Lich seemed capable of resisting it. What the lich didn't manage to resist was Spatial Lock, as with the addition of the Inner World, Ashlock could lock down anyone not in the Monarch Realm by abusing his soul's more significant capabilities.
With his foe unable to run, he just had to find a way to defeat it. Deciding to hit it all at once, he first activated {Abyssal Devourer [A]}, his newly upgraded attack skill. It was perfect for defeating more powerful foes, assuming he could get close enough, as after the upgrade, his thorn-covered vines had a corrosive aura that devoured the Qi of anyone nearby and fed it back to him to replenish his Qi reserves.
Also, targets impaled by Ashlock's void tendrils would experience a draining effect, where their life force and Qi were slowly consumed, healing him and restoring his Qi reserves. Now, he wasn't sure if this undead even had any life force to take, but if it did, he would make sure to drain the life out of it until it stayed dead.
The void lake spread out from Nox alongside innumerable tendrils of void and thorn-covered vines. Moving the Bastion closer, Ashlock began an assault of spatial attacks to keep the lich busy.
Reality split as if a demon from another realm had slashed with his claw as Ashlock unleashed his arsenal of spatial techniques. The attack was imbued with wind dao from his Inner World to make it faster and more chaotic in an effort to reduce the chance of the lich reacting in time.
Portals also opened, and he directed his soul flame-wreathed swords through them with telekinesis to skewer the lich and shatter its bones.
The lich answered the slashes in reality by simply waving his hand and effortlessly blocking them with a wall of shadow Qi. Meanwhile, the swords made an impact but bounced off the constantly shifting cloak of shadows that protected the lich's body. Despite how small the lich seemed compared to the Bastion, it was far from weak. In fact, it was stronger than Ashlock and Nox, but the immense pressure coming from the lich was reduced by the Shadow Storm surrounding the Bastion.
"Luckily, those were just distractions." Ashlock had never expected his spatial attacks to have an effect on enemies in this shadow pocket realm, even with his Inner World empowering them with other daos.
The void lake, alongside the tendrils and vines, rushed over the Bastion's side onto the statue's open palm that could hold a town. The lich answered the incoming tide by walking backward, spreading his arms, and twisting the surrounding shadows into an army of darkness. Fiends and other monstrosities manifested and charged fearlessly at the incoming surge of void tendrils and vines.
Ashlock didn't hold back on expending sacrificial credits as the void tendrils annihilated the twisted darkness. Any fiends they missed had vines coiling around them. The corrosive aura made the shadow constructs melt in real time as the Qi was drained from their bodies and fed directly to Ashlock's Bastion Core.
"Go, go, go!" Nox cheered him on as she watched the attack unfold off the side of the Bastion.
"It's nowhere near won yet." Ashlock assisted his tendrils and vines by tearing through the constantly forming army with more Spatial Blades. Reality kept tearing open and cutting the forming shadows in half before the lich could finish summoning them.
"Hold on—the lich is preparing something big," Nox suddenly warned him; her excitement had faded, and she seemed genuinely concerned by her tone. "These summoned shadows are distractions. An unbelievable amount of shadow Qi is gathering toward the lich's soul."
Ashlock had been so focused on wiping out the army that he hadn't noticed the change in flow. Sure enough, the lich was like a vortex and shadow Qi poured into it but didn't seem to be going toward the army. It was being gathered for something else.
"What should we do?"
"Run... but we can't." Nox grimaced, "The Bastion is too slow to avoid whatever is coming, and the amount of Qi that lich has gathered eclipses the realm of attack my shield can defend against. We either need to kill it now or escape this pocket realm."
Ashlock refused to leave now when they were so darn close. Before him was a Nascent Soul Realm monster that he could devour for credits or turn into an Ent to fight Vincent and the upcoming beast tide with. That alone would make this whole trip worth it, but there was apparently even more to discover.
"No, we won't run." Ashlock said, "Void reapers and Khaos, go kill the lich."
All four operational void Ents gave him a slight bow before they Void Stepped toward their target. The void affinity was powerful, but there was an entire realm gap between the Ents and the lich. He had hoped to defeat the lich without risking them, but the lich was forcing his hand.
He had to go all out.
The Ents emerged from the void nearby and rushed the Shadow Lich. The lich noticed the void reapers' arrival and immediately stopped focusing on creating an army of darkness. The three void Ents made from the Voidmind Elders with heads took the lead and dug their void-wreathed claws into the lich.
"What is the void affinity doing here?" the lich spoke in a grating voice that was hard to listen to as its two eye sockets ignited with soul flames.
"It can speak?!" Ashlock was taken aback.
Despite being impaled by void claws, the lich seemed unfazed as he put both hands on the shoulder of one of the Ents and forcefully channeled an unbelievable amount of shadow Qi through his skeletal fingers. The Ent tried to resist the assault with its void Qi but had its entire supply of void Qi annihilated in mere seconds.
The Ent looked up at the sky as spikes of shadow erupted from inside. Ashlock felt his connection cut as the Ent's head rolled to the side.
"Shit!" Ashlock shouted as the dead Ent withered to dust between the lich's fingers. He had known there would be a gap, but that was far too one-sided.
However, before the lich could disintegrate his next target, Khaos rushed forward and thrust all four claws into the lich's face. The lich's shadow armor prevented him from dying, but he did lose his balance and fall backward. Before the lich knew what had happened, Khaos stood on top of him, relentlessly tearing into his shadow armor alongside the other void Ents.
A moment later, Ashlock's {Abyssal Devourer} finished getting through the lich's hastily conjured army and joined the Ents in devouring the lich's shadow armor that was barely keeping up with the onslaught.
"How much Qi does this skelly have? What the hell?" Ashlock wondered as he felt the immense amount of Qi flowing through his roots back to the Bastion.
"Master..." the lich uttered, his body barely visible under the withering mass of void tendrils and vines. "I have guarded you for eons and have failed you. I leave the protection of your legacy and the Dark Throne to you..."
"The lich is doing something again!" Nox cried out and ran back from the edge of the Bastion.
"Wha—" Ashlock didn't have time to react as an explosion of shadow Qi left the lich's body. However, to his surprise, the blast wasn't aimed at him. It went down into the statue's hand.
[The Shadow Lich's Qi signature is gone]
Ashlock confirmed the system's message by moving his tendrils and vines aside. The lich's shadow armor was gone, as were the soul flames in its eye sockets. It was dead—for real this time. He pulled his vines and tendrils away and used telekinesis to bring the body to the Bastion, as he wasn't sure if he wanted to turn the lich into credits or an Ent just yet.
"I wonder why it gave up like that—" The statue's hand began to tremble. "Huh? What's happening? I thought the lich was dead?" Ashlock asked in confusion and looked around. Had the lich's attack intended to destroy the statue so they couldn't defile it?
While looking around, Ashlock saw Nox standing there wordlessly, staring up at something. Ashlock followed her gaze and felt his soul freeze.
The colossal statue was looking down at them with eyes of blazing soul fire so black that it felt like he was staring into the abyss.
"That thing can move?!" Ashlock didn't hesitate. He cast his SS grade skill {Necroflora Sovereign} to turn the Shadow Lich into an Ent. If he needed to defeat the master, he wanted their disciple on his side.