"Evelyn, you need to leave. Now." Ashlock said as he opened a portal that led back to Red Vine Peak. "Don't worry. You can reenter the Mystic Realm fog and pick another hopefully more suitable pocket realm."

"But—"

"If you stay for a moment longer, you will die," Ashlock said bluntly. Now was not the time to mess around. The seed of death Qi was about to be deposited within the shadow lich, beginning its transformation into an Ent that would obey his every command.

Evelyn glanced between the statue looming over them and Nox. Ashlock knew that she didn't intend to fight, as this battle was way beyond her. However, it was natural for cultivators to want to witness higher-level cultivator battles, as they could glean insight and even enlightenment. It was just like how, back on earth, students would watch and learn a lot from watching masters at their craft. This was especially true for Evelyn right now, considering this was between shadow cultivators, which was her affinity.

Unfortunately, Ashlock had no way to guarantee her safety in the face of the creation of his first-ever Nascent Soul Ent.

Evelyn gave a short bow toward the tree, "Thank you for rescuing me earlier," she then looked at Nox's avatar with softer eyes than usual. Despite forgiving Nox for her past actions, Evelyn usually had a slight wariness when looking at her sister. "Good luck, sister."

Nox waved and smiled, "See you soon, and cultivate hard."

Evelyn nodded, and thankfully, Shadow Stepped to the portal and jumped through it. She barely had time to turn and wave goodbye to Nox through the rift before death Qi radiated out from the Shadow Lich in a surge. The death Qi and spatial Qi of his portal violently reacted, and the rift promptly collapsed. The death Qi continued its destructive chaos as it swirled around Nox's tree and hissed violently as it interacted with the Shadow Shield enshrouding the Bastion.

Ashlock had expected the death Qi to be potent but was somewhat surprised to see Nox's black leaves wither to dust and some of the weaker branches take on a grey shade as they decayed due to the death Qi.

"Nox? Are you alright?" Ashlock asked with concern as he protected the main trunk by wrapping it in as much spatial Qi as he could force through his soul fragment.

"Just about..." Nox replied telepathically.

"Where is your avatar?" Ashlock said as he noticed it missing. Had the death Qi killed the other half of her soul?

"Over here," Nox's shadow avatar waved from beyond the Bastion's shield.

"Whew, I thought something bad happened," Ashlock sighed with relief.

Funnily enough, it was safer out there than inside this death bubble. If Evelyn had stayed a moment longer, she would have died without a doubt.

The death Qi subsided a moment later, and Ashlock focused on the Shadow Lich. With the death Qi preparing the corpse for its transformation, he now had a brief chance to mentally alter his creation.

"Do I want to change anything, or should I let the system decide for me?" Ashlock mused. If he did decide to make changes, it would cost a ridiculous amount of Qi and possibly drain all of his Inner World's Qi reserves. Trying to alter the genetic code of a mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm cultivator that had been turned into an undying monstrosity of bone from a long-distant past sounded like a great way to nullify any progress he had made toward the 2nd stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Keeping his mind blank, he let the system take the reins.

The unmoving white skeleton that had once been the Shadow Lich now looked rather harmless without its cloak of darkness and burning eyes filled with hatred. Its eternal rest was cut short as cracks began to form before it disintegrated and was pulled into the seed.

[Even without altering the body genetics, it will result in something fitting for your first Nascent Soul Ent]

"Thank you," Ashlock replied to his system. He didn't want to give it any suggestions regarding its appearance or capabilities as that may trigger a draining of his Qi. "But maybe hurry the process up a little. We are about to get squashed." Ashlock said that as kindly as he could without sounding panicked. But the fact of the matter was the statue had taken notice of them, and in the darkness, and by its posture, he could tell it was reeling back its titanic fist. Which was not good as they were currently a sitting duck in its palm.

The creation of his first Nascent Soul Realm Ent should have been a glorious affair. He dreamed of it for a while, but sadly, the situation didn't allow him to take a second to enjoy the moment. Death was knocking.

[Don't worry :) The Shadow Lich will rise once more—this time in service to a new master]

A shoot of white bamboo reminiscent of bone shot up from the seed to around three meters tall. It was slightly curved as if blown over by the wind. Tiny branches then sprouted down its length. They rapidly grew outward and twisted into the vague shape of a ribcage. The main bamboo shoot then split down the middle into legs and arms.

The system had created a vaguely hunchbacked undead out of bone-looking bamboo. However, it was not yet done. Strange runes were carved on the surface of the bamboo as the Ent raised its hands to the sky as if welcoming the coming of a god. The runes glowed with a sinister darkness followed by a majestic cape of shifting shadows running down the Ent's back and black flames flaring to life in its once empty eye sockets.

Ashlock tried to look inside the Ent's ribcage from the front, but now all he saw was an endless darkness, like an abyss. It was as if the darkness had been trapped within the Ent like a prison. Snakes of shadow coiled up the Ent's arms, and for the first time in forever, Ashlock felt intimidated by his own creation as the Ent turned to look at him.

The last time had been the Ent he made for Senior Lee to house the Voidmind librarian who tried to kill him.

[Creation of the 5th stage Nascent Soul Realm Shadow Lich Ent is complete]

"Just in time—" Ashlock looked up and saw the statue's fist descending on them like a meteor through the darkness, "—Shadow Lich, stop your old master's attack."

[Shadow Lich honors your command]

A level of power far beyond Ashlock erupted from the lich's hands as an enormous claw of solidified shadow shot upwards like a roaring dragon and met with the incoming fist. Ashlock had been anticipating a few outcomes, but he hadn't foreseen the shadow claw from his new Ent not only stopping the attack dead in its tracks like a brick wall but also the claw fingers curling around and digging into the statue's fist—shattering it.

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Pieces of obsidian rained down around the shadow claw and fell upon the Bastion's shield like iceberg-sized chunks of hail, causing the shield to ripple with every impact.

"Is the statue not as strong as I feared?" Ashlock wondered. He spread out his spiritual senses to analyze the statue more closely. It definitely had the presence of a Nascent Soul Realm, but the pressure from its gaze had decreased considerably in such a short time.

"Ah, I see what's going on," Ashlock said, seeing the flames in its eyes dimmed slightly. "Like my Ents, this statue is running on borrowed Qi. That explains why I didn't notice it before the Shadow Lich sacrificed itself to shove all its Qi into the statue. I would guess the only Qi it has to work with was gifted by its disciple."

Which made sense. If the statue still had Qi to defend its legacy, it wouldn't have needed one of its disciples to stand as an eternal guard.

"So that was a last-ditch suicidal effort by the Shadow Lich," Ashlock mused, "Almost like a final show of loyalty to his long-dead master."

The colossal statue didn't give up despite its fading lease on existence. Its palm trembled and cracked as its fingers, rising like towers, came into view and curled around the Bastion.

Ashlock imbued his Spatial Blades with earth dao from his Inner World to give them more punch and struck the obsidian fingers. The statue didn't even have enough Qi to coat itself in Shadow Armor, so the tears in reality sliced into the fingers, sending showers of obsidian as the fingers fractured. The palm rumbled as the fingers slowly cracked off before Ashlock used telekinesis to push them off into the abyss of darkness below.

"Shadow Lich, defend the Bastion against any further incoming attacks," Ashlock instructed, and the Ent honored his orders by rising up on a pillar of shadow beyond the Bastion's shield. The runes carved into his bamboo bones glowed with power as his Ent pulled the surrounding Qi into himself.

"Holy shit, Nascent Soul Realm Ents can do that?" Ashlock said. He had wondered how the Shadow Lich was fighting when it had been almost devoid of Qi when he turned into an Ent.

That aside, Ashlock had a moment to decide what to do. The statue clearly had a remnant of a soul somewhere inside, meaning he could also turn it into an Ent. The other option was devouring it for credits. However, since the statue relied on borrowing Qi to fight, Ashlock was unlikely to get that many credits from devouring it compared to its seemingly high cultivation level. Not to mention how darn big the thing is, it would take all day to finish eating it.

"If I turn it into an Ent, that would give me two Nascent Soul Realm Ents. One was already a massive boost to my combat power, but with two? That would put the Ashfallen Sects' combat capabilities at five Nascent Soul Realms if we include Larry, making us the undisputed powerhouse in the region."

Ashlock made his decision; the statue would join its disciple in service to him. It was just too good of an opportunity to secure combat power, which he desperately needed to fight off the surrounding demonic sects, the beast tide, and the Celestial Order that had their sights on dragging Stella back to their Empire. He was surrounded by enemies in the realm he had barely dipped the tip of his roots into thus far, and his advantage of having formed an Inner World so early would only help him so much.

Doom and gloom about his situation outside the Mystic Realm aside, he had to first kill the statue to turn it into an Ent. He was left with one solution since he couldn't send his void Ents to destroy it, as he had no idea where the statue's core was.

"Time to make use of {Abyssal Devourer}'s new capabilities once again."

His void tendrils and corrosive vines burrowed into the statue's hand and began forcefully draining it of its Qi and life force. Surprisingly, there were still hints of lifeforce residing in the statue that his vines managed to absorb and feed into Nox. The greyed branches restored their black shade, and the leafless branches began to sprout new life.

With three Nascent Soul cultivators fighting off the dying remnants of a long-dead Shadow Sovereign, the battle was one-sided. The Shadow Lich casually blocked any incoming attacks with walls or claws of shadow. Ashlock went on the offensive with {Abyssal Devourer} and Spatial Blades, while Nox used the Bastion's artillery to gun down an army of Shadow Fiends the statue tried to summon to rush the Bastion.

After an hour, the black flames of rage in the statue's eyes snuffed out as the statue ran out of its borrowed power. It ceased all movement and once again became a dormant monolith of obsidian resembling a once powerful cultivator.

"I will definitely ascend to at least the second stage of the Nascent Soul Realm when my soul fragment remerges with my Inner World." Ashlock couldn't believe how much he had absorbed between the Shadow Lich and the statue. It was like an all-you-can-eat buffet of Qi that was even better than the World Tree as it wasn't untamed Qi carefully taken off the surface of her roots.

Ashlock directed the Bastion to fly up to the statue's open mouth. Landing on its row of carved-out teeth, he marveled at the careful detail in the craftsmanship. Whoever had made this colossal statue was skilled, as the teeth seemed realistic in how they weren't perfectly straight, and he could even see indents in the roof of the mouth.

"This Shadow Sovereign must have had an overbite as such indents would have been made by someone resting their lower teeth behind their upper row," Ashlock noted as he activated {Necroflora Sovereign}. It took a while for the single black root to emerge from Nox, slither past the void Ents that he had called back onto the Bastion after the Shadow Lich was killed, and slowly descend into the abyss of the statue's throat like a climbing rope.

"I wonder what type of Ent can be made from such a thing? Will it be closer to the size of the original guy, or will it transform the entire statue?" Ashlock's mind raced with possibilities. There was also the chance that his skill would fail to find anything usable at all, considering it had only been able to fight with borrowed power, suggesting damage or perhaps death of the soul.

***

"I'm bored," Nox said after an hour—her avatar was sitting on the bow of the Bastion, looking down into the darkness with her legs swinging casually while her chin resting in the palm of her hand.

"What happened to having the patience of a tree?" Ashlock chuckled.

Nox pointed to herself, "This half of me is bored." She then pointed to her tree, which was greedily cultivating the surrounding Qi while they waited. "Meanwhile, she is perfectly happy."

"There's two of you?" Ashlock asked, his amusement fading.

"Well, yeah, in a way." Nox yawned and stretched her back, "I split my soul right down the middle. Together, we are one—apart, we are technically two. Usually, our consciousnesses are linked, but I was curious to see what would happen to the statue after such a display of turning the Shadow Lich into a new monstrosity. So I left my tree body to sleep and cultivate while I waited here for something interesting to happen. If one half of us were to die, the other would survive. We would just have lost memories and a drastic personality change."

"I see."

"Huh, I guess that's similar to myself and the system. Though we are more split..." Ashlock muttered to himself.

[The mummified remains of the Shadow Sovereign have been located deep inside its body. The runic formation around the body prevented the soul from entering the reincarnation cycle, though over time, the formation has degraded, and the soul slowly seeped and decayed into the surrounding statue]

"Finally!" Ashlock mirrored Nox's impatience. He was on the clock here as sundown in the real world was fast approaching, and he had yet to locate the Dark Throne. "Is it possible to make an Ent from it?"

[Yes, but it will be far weaker than the Shadow Sovereign was during their life]

"How strong were they?"

[Impossible for you to currently comprehend. Even the faint whispers of their soul are far beyond the Sovereign of Realities realm, but they will be an upper-stage Nascent Soul at best as an Ent]

Ashlock felt rather silly that he was so disappointed that he hadn't struck gold and found a usable corpse of someone beyond this layer of creation. But to think the pocket realms could contain such unimaginable powers. Even the faint whispers of a dead man's soul were enough for him to dominate the lower layer of creation with another Nascent Soul Ent.

"That's good enough. Deploy the seed."

[Very well. I advise you to move back]

Ashlock heeded his systems warning and floated the Bastion as far away as he could in the short time he was given. Barely clearing the distance of the statue's outstretched palm that was missing its fingers, Ashlock could feel the death coming. It erupted from the statue's mouth like a volcano and blasted the Bastion like a tsunami. Ashlock felt an immense pull on the Bastion Core as the shadow shield resisted the onslaught.

Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. The death Qi dissipated into the shadows and Ashlock was left watching and waiting. What would his new and likely strongest Ent of all time look like?

As it turned out, the answer was that it was fucking massive.