"Stop! Don't lower the Bastion any further," Nox shouted with concern while leaning over the Bastion's bow and looking down at the swirling darkness below.

Ashlock stopped the Bastion's descent. "Why? What's wrong."

"There's something wrong about this whirlpool of shadow Qi," Nox pointed at Hades, who was caught up in it along with the Shadow Leviathans. "Hades is unable to escape its pull."

"Really? Hades, come back to me," Ashlock ordered. The titan of darkness glanced up toward the Bastion. He twisted the leviathan in his hands in opposite directions as if trying to wring out a towel. The leviathan desperately tried to resist as a deep tear in its flesh widened; Hades pulled the monster apart, and it exploded with black blood. The whirlpool of darkness sucked out a string of organs and black blood from the two halves before Hades unceremoniously dropped the corpse into the abyss.

Honoring his command to return, Hades tried to float away from the whirlpool, but his body of shadow began to elongate.

"It's like watching something try to escape the event horizon of a black hole," Ashlock muttered as Hades continued to stretch despite not getting any closer.

"Okay, stop," Ashlock said as Hades seemed to reach his breaking point. Anymore and the pull from the whirlpool would tear him apart. "Nox, what is going on?" Ashlock asked. It didn't make any sense. Hades was at the 7th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. How could some swirling shadow Qi have such a strong pull that he couldn't escape?

"I don't know," Nox replied. Her eyes were closed, and Ashlock could feel her prodding the whirlpool with borrowed power from the Bastion Core. "It's definitely shadow Qi, but Hades seems incapable of absorbing it. It's as if something has absolute control over it, which shouldn't be possible except in a Monarch's domain."

"Mhm, I see," Ashlock replied and turned to his system, "Hey, system, what is a Monarch domain?"

Ashlock didn't mind admitting ignorance to shadow Qi-related topics in front of Nox as he wasn't a shadow cultivator. Nevertheless, he couldn't admit to lacking general knowledge if he wanted to preserve whatever image Nox had of him.

[Monarch Realm Cultivators can often overlap their Inner Worlds onto reality. This is known as a Monarch domain as the Monarch Realm cultivator will have absolute control over their affinity while in this domain]

"Wait... can I do that?"

[No, you are at the Nascent Soul Realm. Once you reach the Monarch Realm, you will be capable of expanding your domain]

"What about my {Dimensional Overlap [S]} skill? Isn't that the same thing?"

[Similar concept but different. You can overlap a pocket realm into reality but have no control over the Qi. For example, if you used {Dimensional Overlap} to manifest a spatial Qi realm while fighting a spatial cultivator, they could use the pocket realms spatial Qi to fight you. However, if it were a Monarch Realm's domain, despite being surrounded by spatial Qi, it might as well be water Qi for the spatial cultivator as they would be unable to use it]

"That's terrifying," Ashlock couldn't imagine being surrounded by Qi but unable to use any of it. Just like dying from dehydration while floating adrift on the ocean—surrounded by undrinkable water. "Wait, what affinity is my Inner World?"

[As of now, if you were capable, your domain would have law over the spatial affinity and lesser control over the daos of water, wind, earth, fire, metal, and soul]

"What do you mean by 'law,' and why do I have dao over soul?"

[If Stella spent more time studying, she could have taught you these things]

"I... hold on a darn second," Ashlock spiritually squinted at the words floating in his vision. "I was wondering where you were pulling all this information. Stella said the celestial library of her bloodline was inside a giant golden tree. Are you also using the Crestfallen bloodlines library?"

[Whoever said it was theirs?]

"That's not what I asked, and you know it," Ashlock huffed in frustration, "Just give me a straight answer for once."

[No :)]

"Ugh," Ashlock hated being kept in the dark by his supposed sidekick, who was supposed to be helping him topple the heavens. How was he supposed to trust something that has so many secrets? "Fine, can you tell me about the law and soul dao thing at least?"

[You have soul dao as it's impossible to create a secondary soul and an entire world within your soul without some deep understanding of soul dao. You wouldn't know that because I'm the one who manages anything that could lead to soul damage. It's the main reason cultivators die during realm ascensions, and I have the knowledge to perform soul techniques perfectly every time, so for both of our survival, I handle it]

Ashlock remembered Nox telling him how dangerous her Shadow Soul technique was because soul damage was nearly impossible to reverse and had a high chance of killing the cultivator if done wrong. There are few second chances when using soul techniques, so few cultivators dare to leap to the next realm of power, even if they have enough Qi.

"System, you annoy me sometimes, but I do have to thank you for handling the soul stuff," Ashlock had done a lot of messing around with his soul. Whether merging his soul with his tree body, fracturing his soul to manifest his powers through his offspring, or forming an Inner World. Any one of these could have led to his soul's permanent death if left up to him.

[You're welcome. As for the law over spatial Qi, what are laws to a ruler?]

Ashlock paused. That was a good question.

"Mhm, let me think. Laws allow those in power to instill order and control over the populace? Right?"

[Correct, and laws concerning affinities work much the same way. If you comprehend an affinity's daos, you have a deep understanding of how it works in relation to reality. The heavens reward this understanding by letting you borrow their control over that dao, for example, Stella with lightning. But Stella doesn't have more control over lightning than someone whose affinity is lightning, does she?]

"No... so daos are sort of below affinities. At least in terms of control over that type of Qi?"

[Exactly. Every cultivator has an affinity, such as you with spatial or Nox with shadow. However, what separates you both from Monarch Realm cultivators is your control over your affinities is not absolute. A stronger cultivator with the same affinity can come along and seize control from you as their understanding of the underlying daos is far greater]

After the earlier talk about domains, Ashlock saw where the system was going. If Monarch Realms had absolute control over a Qi type within these domains, it likely had something to do with these laws.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[As you have guessed, Monarch Realm cultivators know the laws of their affinities, giving them absolute control within their domains]

"What do I need to do in order to comprehend the laws of spatial affinity and form a domain?" From what Ashlock had learned, it seemed the only thing separating him from a true Monarch Realm was the capability of manifesting his Inner World as a domain. If he could figure out how to make that leap, he might be able to reach the Monarch Realm in record time.

[There are three ways. The first is cultivating and listening to heaven's whispers until you obtain absolute understanding. This method takes forever. Most die or turn mad before reaching true enlightenment]

"Yeah, that sounds terrible." Ashlock agreed. Even as a slothful spirit tree whose existence seemed perfect for cultivation, he disliked connecting with the heavens and spending days trying to understand their nonsense. "What are the other ways?"

[The second way is if you got your roots on an origin stone or devoured the origin of spatial's body, I could extract the law of spatial and teach it to you]

"The origins, huh?" Ashlock sighed. Why couldn't Morrigan be the origin of spatial? Wait, what was he thinking? He had unleashed his full pressure on her, and she had been utterly unfazed. The likelihood of him managing to kill Morrigan, the origin of the void, was even less likely than reaching enlightenment from meditating. "Wait, origin stone? What's that?"

[When origins die for whatever reason, their souls are stripped of all their accumulated Qi before being reincarnated in a new vessel. This Qi is condensed down into a stone left at the location of their death. If nobody finds the stone, origins often revisit their place of death to see if they can quickly regain their cultivation by reabsorbing their past Qi]

"If I found this stone first, I could learn the laws of spatial from it?"

[Yes, and you would likely go up a few stages in the Nascent Soul Realm]

Ashlock wondered for a moment why the heavens would make these stones out of the origins when they died instead of letting the Qi re-enter the atmosphere when the sinister realization struck him.

"Cultivators hunt origins, don't they. If they drop such amazing loot like the boss of a video game, there's no way they won't get hunted constantly. In turn, keeping them weak."

[The heavens will do anything to keep the origins weak]

"Meditating will take too long, and finding these origins, whether it be their reincarnated vessel or a dropped stone, seems unlikely. They might as well be unicorns. What was the third reason?"

[Inherit the knowledge of the laws from a higher power]

Ashlock looked down at the obsidian throne surrounded by the whirlpool of darkness. The words Morrigan had told him before she left echoed in his mind. The one who controls the Dark Throne will lord over the darkness.

"Nox, don't worry about the whirlpool. We need to get closer to that giant obsidian throne."

"What?" Nox whipped her head around and looked at the tree as if he were crazy, "If you are wrong and get caught in that whirlpool, it will drain every last drop of shadow Qi from my soul until my soul collapses and I die."

"The whirlpool is a manifestation of shadow Qi law. Hades will never be able to escape unless we take control of this place and free him." Ashlock felt it was worth the risk to save his most powerful Ent, whose presence back home would make the Ashfallen Sect the region's ruler.

"Shadow Qi law?" Nox's eyes widened, "I've heard of that before, but I thought it was a myth. Qi law is real?"

"Very real. Monarch Realm cultivators are not only rulers of Inner Worlds, but they also lord over their affinity." Ashlock replied confidently despite only learning about it from his system moments ago.

Nox gulped and looked back at the abyss below. Balling up her fists, she seemed to resolve herself as the Bastion's bow tilted downward, and they descended toward the obsidian throne within the eye of the abyssal storm of darkness.

Even Ashlock felt unnerved as he watched the swirling walls of shadow encircling them spinning around at terrifying speeds. They clung as closely as possible to the titan-sized throne as Nox carefully directed them with her arms spread out—the Bastion tilting along with her movements.

Finally touching down on the throne seat, the Bastion barely fit.

"Phew, we made it." Nox let out a breath.

"I wouldn't be so sure that we are safe..." Ashlock said as streams of shadow were forcefully drawn off the Bastion's shield by the surrounding whirlpool, causing an immense pull on the Bastion's Core. They couldn't survive down here long.

"Okay, system, what now?" Ashlock asked with slight panic in his tone.

[Merge the artifact {Dark Throne} created by the Shadow Sovereigns to the Bastion {Nox}?]

"How much will it cost?"

[Materials for expansion are already available within the Dark Throne. So the only cost is the standard expansion cost of around 30 sacrificial credits per square meter...]

Ashlock looked up at the looming throne of obsidian. He wasn't a mathematician, but even he knew this wouldn't be cheap. He had once entertained the idea of turning the whole of Red Vine Peak into one massive Bastion but quickly realized the cost of expanding the size of a Bastion was no joke.

[...so it will cost 9000 sacrificial credits to fully integrate with the Dark Throne]

"You're joking," Ashlock snorted. That was almost as expensive as his ascension to Nascent Soul Realm. What a joke.

[As cultivators ascend the realms, resources that advance their cultivation become more expensive and even rarer. You are no different, even with my assistance. The other option is to have Nox meditate on the throne until she comprehends the laws of shadow Qi, but the chance of success is nearly zero before the Mystic Realm ends and she is forcefully brought out]

Ashlock was so frustrated reading the system's logical arguments that he overlooked a Shadow Leviathan emerging from the swirling darkness and wrapping its tentacles around the Bastion's shield.

"What in the nine realms!" Nox's confused shout and firing of shadow Qi drew Ashlock's attention to the foe.

"Oh shit," on instinct, Ashlock directed the withering mass of void tendrils and corrosive vines from his {Abyssal Devourer} skill up through the shield. He wrapped them around and pierced the leviathan before it even knew what was happening.

The monster let out an ear-piercing screech as the tendrils dug into its flesh like harpoons and drained it of lifeforce and Qi. Due to the sheer number of tendrils and vines devouring the monster alive, it barely lasted a minute despite its size.

[+768 SC]

Ashlock saw the notification of sacrificial credits along with a rush of Qi.

"That thing was in the Nascent Soul Realm?" Ashlock said in disbelief. It was definitely in the lower stages because it had been easier to kill than Anubis or Hades.

"Ashlock, we should lower the shield!" Nox suggested as another leviathan bigger than the last emerged from the darkness like an eldritch spaceship, "It's attracting the monsters!"

"No, this is what we want," Ashlock shot down that idea as he used the same method as before to devour the unsuspecting Shadow Leviathan attracted by the Bastion like a moth to a flame.

[+870 SC]

"System, how many credits do I have now?"

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3626

Daily Credit: 60

Sacrifice Credit: 3760

[Sign in?]

"Almost four thousand, I could do a lot with these credits. Can you outline what I would gain from merging Nox's Bastion with the Dark Throne for 9000 credits? Surely, it has to be worth that obscene price."

[Nox, and in turn, the Bastion, would gain absolute control over shadow Qi after absorbing the latent shadow Qi law stored within the Dark Throne. Nox would also experience a large boost in cultivation as her comprehension of shadow Qi transcends. This would put her on a direct path to reaching the Monarch Realm. Finally, Nox would become one with this pocket realm, making it hers]

"Wait, the pocket realm will become hers? Does that mean she won't get forcefully removed after the Mystic Realm ends?"

[That is correct]

Ashlock looked around at the shadow pocket realm. Anything Nox gained control of, he also got as she was his Bastion. If she had authority over this pocket realm, so did he.

"With my groves, I can produce good conditions for cultivation, but nothing would compare to a place like this." Ashlock's mind spun with possibilities. It was one thing to be allowed to visit random pocket realms each month for a short time, but it was a whole other thing to own a pocket realm, especially one of this level. Since his ethereal roots were connected to Nox, he wouldn't even need to spend Qi to open portals to send people here. They could simply step through an ethereal root.

"If I could find mortals attuned to shadow affinity and had them cultivate here, their cultivation would increase rapidly. I think I just decided on the main affinity for the cult of the All-Seeing Eye's higher-ups," Ashlock mused as two more Shadow Leviathans floated out of the darkness. The cost of the merger was ridiculous, but so were the rewards.

"But it might just be possible. Because the system is giving me credits based on being at the first stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, as my soul fragment has yet to remerge with my soul, this is a rare opportunity to farm a lot of credits against weaker Nascent Soul Realm monsters. Not to mention, the divine stock market can double or even triple any credits I get in here...."

[+665 SC]

[+743 SC]

Things were starting to get ridiculous, and he was all for it.