Stella glanced between Diana and the Nightrose guardian. She noticed the guardian's eyes were swirling with blood Qi as they examined Diana. His frown soon faded and was replaced with that stone-cold facade all old cultivators liked to wear. That it had been broken in the first place showed how Diana's presence deeply unnerved the man for some reason.
"I see you have awakened the Ravena Bloodline." The man's eyes stopped swirling, and his gaze became dull once more as if he were a corpse that had been worked to death. Heaven seemed to become alert at the mention of the bloodline as divine energy streaked through the sky and impacted the blood dome over the city, making it ripple.
Diana crossed her arms and bared her fangs, "What of it?"
"You're going to have to come with me," the Nightrose guardian said, releasing his soul pressure to pin them down. It flooded out of the man like a tide of suffocating bloodlust, painting the world slightly red.
"I wouldn't do that if I was you," Diana hissed through gritted teeth. Since they had both hit the 7th stage of the Star Core Realm, they were able to resist being forced to kneel at the man's feat, but only barely.
Stella grunted as she tensed every Qi-filled muscle in her body. The moment she felt close to succumbing to the pressure, her bloodline activated, and power subtly flowed into her soul, allowing her to maintain her dignity.
The Nightrose guardian ignored Diana's warning and weaved blood chains from his fingers that draped on the floor before stepping forward while holding out a section of the chain as if he were about to wrap it around Diana's body.
Despite the situation, Stella relaxed a little, noticing a familiar presence passing under their feet a second before anyone else. Ash's soul pressure erupted from below, followed by Spatial Qi crackling through the air. The Nightrose guardian's eyes widened. "Who dares?" he growled like an animal as a blood-red mist enveloped him, and his blood chains shifted into two longswords. He seemed to have changed his plan from capture to eliminating Diana as he desperately fought through Ash's soul pressure and raised his sword. "This pressure is commendable, but it's not enough to save you."
While Diana could remain standing by using the strength of her bloodline, she could not raise her arm to block the blood sword. Stella tried to intervene, but the Nightrose guardian's movements were swift—the blood swords weaved around her quickly conjured daggers and went straight for Diana's throat.
Stella wondered for a second if Diana's void shield would be broken and the Spatial Anchor would pull her back to Red Vine Peak. However, as the guardian struck down—Ash made his move. A portal opened before Diana, and a skeletal-looking hand made from twisted white bamboo reached out, easily stopping the blood sword as if it were nothing. Tendrils of shadow carrying an ominous presence that seemed to lock the Nightrose guardian in place flowed out of the crack in reality as the owner of the arm made itself known.
Anubis, a 5th-stage Nascent Soul Realm Ent in service to Ashlock, slowly stepped through the widening portal and loomed over the Nightrose guardian as the lich was over three meters tall. It leaned in slightly, glaring at the man, its eyes blazing with shadow flames.
"You say my pressure wasn't enough to stop you, but that's because I wasn't even trying." As if a god put their finger down, the guardian's head was smashed into the street. "Guardian, you have made a grave mistake by trying to lay your hands on someone I watch over." Ash's voice sounded like a hundred spirits talking at once, thundering in their minds. Yet it seemed to originate from Anubis somehow, as if he were his herald.
The Soul Protection fruits Stella and Diana had eaten to protect their minds from Vincent if he was still alive got to work shielding them from Ash's rage. The Nightrose guardian wasn't so lucky. Despite having near Nascent Soul Realm level cultivation, he paled at Ash's words as he stared at Anubis.
"This is Nightrose City. Monsters aren't allowed within the dome. How did you—" The Nightrose guardian had his breath stolen from him as Anubis gathered a ball of shadow at the tip of his finger and unleashed it into the man. "I care not. Perish." The Nightrose guardian's chest caved in before he was sent flying across the street.
Stella winced at the bloody mess. There was a red carpet of blood between them and the Nightrose guardian, who had been reduced to a smear on the street. The citizens had long fled the area, but many watched on from afar while cowering in shops or peeking through second-floor windows. It was likely the first time any of them had seen a cultivator stand up to a member of the Nightrose family—let alone beat them to death.
"Is he dead?" Stella whispered under her breath. He certainly looked like it to her. I've heard blood cultivators are famed for their amazing regeneration, but what's left to regenerate? Anubis reduced that guardian to a bloodied paste.
"I wouldn't be surprised if that killed him—never mind," Diana swallowed her words as the bloodied pulp twitched before it began to regather into a human shape and heal. First, his arms and legs sprung up from the puddle before a body and head formed. "To think a person could recover from such a state..." Diana muttered.
"It looks like we angered them," Stella said, pointing to the sky. There, she saw a woman standing atop a sword flying toward them from the castle that lorded over the city. Even from so far, the woman's presence crashed down on them.
"This was part of the plan, though earlier than expected." Diana clicked her tongue. "To think they would stop us and cause problems before we arrived at the summit."
"I know, right? They are so unwelcoming." Stella grumbled.
Ash had sent them to the summit with multiple objectives. The first was to determine whether Vincent was still alive. They planned to do this during the summit by declaring the Ashfallen Sect's existence and demanding everyone join or die. If Vincent was still alive, he would surely appear to stop his sect from switching sides. The second was to see what the Nightrose family's combat strength was, with the final objective of establishing the Ashfallen Sect as the new powerhouse in the region and taking over all the cities, including Nightrose City.
To complete these objectives, Ash was willing to go all out and had told them to as well.
Ash is done playing around with the fast-approaching beast tide. He doesn't want to have to fight a battle on two fronts. The time for action is now, and since we have the firepower to threaten the Nightrose family, it's best to show off our strength with the other families present rather than having to prove ourselves to each one individually.
That led to the current situation of a second cultivator appearing. She hovered overhead, taking in the scene before she touched down next to the reforming puddle a moment later, leaving a slight crater in the street. Her pounding spiritual heart, snow-white hair, and sickly skin made it obvious that she was a member of the Nightrose family and likely also a guardian.
She stepped forward to put herself before the recovering guardian while eying Anubis. "May I ask who this senior might be?" The Nightrose guardian cupped her hands and bowed, "A possible ancestor of the Ravena Clan?"
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Diana looked at Anubis, who remained mute, and said, "Yeah, something like that."
Stella could see how the Nightrose guardian had reached that conclusion. Anubis looked demonic, with his shadow cape endlessly cascading behind him, and if one dared to look into his ribcage, it was like gazing into the abyss.
"A Nascent Soul Realm guardian beast, then? Or some kind of technique..." The guardian was stone-faced but couldn't hide her trembling hand from trying to resist Anubis's soul pressure.
"Do you still intend to capture me?" Diana asked, stepping forward to stand at Anubis's side.
The woman shook her head. "Forgive his rashness. This matter requires the Ancestor's attention."
Stella raised a brow. Did that mean Vincent Nightrose was still alive, or were they putting on an act? Noble families were well known to claim that their powerful ancestor was simply in closed-door cultivation rather than admitting they were dead. They would continue to hide behind a dead person's name, and rival families wouldn't be willing to waste Qi and lives to poke the hornet's nest and see if an angry ancestor came out to beat them to death.
"What is your name? " the woman asked while retrieving the parchment from the blood puddle and drying it off.
"Diana Ravenborne."
"Mhm, I see. This is a problem; the Ravenborne family is listed as wiped out and, therefore, isn't qualified to join the summit as you have no city, peak, or land that you rule on behalf of the Blood Lotus Sect." The woman's eyes flickered to Anubis, "But with a monster like that on your side, I can make an exception." The Nightrose guardian then stared at Stella for an uncomfortably long time. "You look familiar. What is your name?"
"Stella Crestfallen." Stella felt weird openly admitting her real name. She had spent so long hiding behind fake names and masks, only ever saying her full name when needing to entice her bloodline to act.
"Ah!" the woman's eyes lit up, and how she licked her lips reminded Stella why she kept to fake names. "Please follow me. The Ancestor has been expecting you."
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I said no, I'm not following you." Stella frowned, "I'm going to attend the summit."
"Sorry, that's not possible for you," the Nightrose guardian checked the parchment, "Similar to Diana here, the Crestfallen family is listed as having no cities, peaks, or land. Therefore, you cannot attend the summit."
"Huh? Aren't I listed as the Grand Elder of the Crestfallen family and Red Vine Peak?"
Valandor had visited Stella on Red Vine Peak when she was thirteen and declared as such. Since she was apparently the sole heir to the Crestfallen family, Valandor told her she was appointed as the temporary Grand Elder, which would be made official once she passed some tests.
The Nightrose guardian looked at her with dull eyes as if she were asking pointless questions. "No. Since Grand Elder Crestfallen's disappearance, Red Vine Peak was tentatively returned to the Nightrose family until you passed the Elder exam. Since you haven't passed it, Red Vine Peak was supposed to be awarded to the Ravenborne family, but they were wiped out."
"If Red Vine Peak is supposedly owned by the Nightrose family," Stella felt her anger rising, and it leaked into her tone, "Then how come I've never seen a member from the Nightrose family visit? How can you claim to own a peak without ever stepping foot on it."
"Why would we," the woman snorted, "It's a worthless wasteland on the edge of the sect's territory. There's nothing there worth noting except millions of filthy mortals and a dying mining industry."
Stella blinked in disbelief, unable to form words. Worthless wasteland? Nothing there? How could they possibly be so clueless? There was Ashlock, the city they had built, and so much more. To call it a worthless wasteland was nonsense—Stella felt Diana's hand on her shoulder. Glancing to the side, she saw Diana giving her a knowing grin as if they had gotten away with something.
Oh... that is too funny. Stella shook her head in disbelief. They are so far up their own asses they couldn't even be bothered to check. What a sad fate. The Nightrose family might have lived to see tomorrow morning if they had been bothered to handle matters appropriately.
"She is with me," Diana said, patting Stella on the shoulder, "As is my guardian monster here."
"That's..." the Nightrose guardian said with a strained smile, "I really can't agree. We are all under strict instructions to bring Stella Crestfallen to the Ancestor. Even if she also had a beast—"
Spatial Qi arced upwards high into the sky before peeling back reality like a curtain. Stella didn't turn, but from the sudden shadow looming over them and blocking out the red-tinted sun and the guardian's face of utter disbelief, Ash had decided to play another of his cards.
A sinister aura that lashed out as flickers of shadows froze the guardian in place, followed by a titanic fist of shifting darkness that reached over Stella's head. It paused, looming overhead as the guardian looked up with wide eyes.
"Here's a gift from a worthless land," Ash said through Hades this time as the titanic fist slammed down, pulverizing the Nightrose guardian and the half-reformed puddle behind her. The ground shook violently as cracks sprawled out like a spiderweb. As the fist raised, dripping blood—there were already signs of the Nightrose guardian's beginning to reform.
"That was a hit from a 7th-stage Nascent Soul Realm Ent, and yet they can still regenerate?" Diana said in disbelief, "Are they immortal?"
"Sure seems like it," Stella mused, "I really doubt Vincent died now. He's a whole realm above these guardians, and I didn't see any signs of the blood in the coffin reforming into a body when I stabbed him. Just what did I kill that night?"
Diana hummed in thought, "Was the cursed blood simply that effective against a blood cultivator to totally incapacitate him? If their whole bodies are made from blood, if their blood became cursed, wouldn't that be a death sentence?"
"I suppose we can find out for certain," Stella strolled over to the reforming puddles, and her spatial ring flashed with silver light. A vial of Ash's black sap appeared in her hand. Squatting down, she popped off the cork and dumped it onto the puddle. It was impossible to tell which was the woman and which was the man as they had merged into one bloodied mess.
"You think experimenting on and turning his guardians into trees will get the boss to reveal himself?" Diana asked as she stared at the castle in the distance.
"Maybe?" Stella squinted at the blood puddle and saw the darkness of Ash's cursed blood spread throughout, corrupting it. "If this doesn't anger him, I'm unsure if anything will."
"Yeah, fair." Diana leaned over Stella's back and glanced down at her experiment. "How's it looking. Are they turning into trees yet?"
"It seems to be working, the blood is becoming corrupted... no wait—" Stella pointed at the central area where she had first poured the cursed sap and noticed the color changing back to scarlet as if it had absorbed the cursed blood. "Ash, can you feel the cursed blood in this puddle?"
"Right now? Yes, I can. But its presence is fading." Ash replied. "I suppose it's unsurprising, but blood cultivators can deal with my cursed blood." Ash trailed off as he seemed to realize something. "Wait, doesn't that mean Vincent has a sample of my cursed blood if he's still alive? That doesn't sound good."
"You can extract your cursed blood from someone's soul, right?" Diana asked.
"I can, yeah. But the question is if I get to them fast enough. With how potent my cursed blood is now, if someone is out of Qi, they will turn into a tree within seconds."
"That's scary," Diana frowned.
Stella poked at the blood puddles with a nearby piece of rubble, "So these blood-obsessed bastards are immune to cursed blood? If turning them into trees won't work, what about an Ent?"
"I can only turn dead bodies into Ents. I can make it work if you can find a way to kill them for good while having any of them remain."
Stella and Diana looked at the blood puddle that had regained its vibrant scarlet shade and was starting to reform into two humans again. Even in such a state, the soft pounding of their spiritual hearts could still be heard.
"How?" Diana sighed, "If they have unlimited regeneration, they will never die unless they are reduced to nothing by someone like Larry or void Qi from Morrigan and Maple. But then there's nothing left to turn into an Ent or tree."
"Mhm, killing them won't be a total waste. I can devour them for a lot of Qi and other benefits. If Larry or Maple eats them, their cultivation will grow greatly, too. Actually, I'll eat these two." Another portal ripped into existence above the blood puddle, and black vines slithered down like hungering snakes. The blood puddle was surprisingly viscous, like wet dough, so Ash's vines could pick them up and drag them away to be devoured. "You two go on ahead to the summit. I guess there's nobody to show you in anymore, so let yourselves in."
"What if someone else tries to stop us?" Diana asked.
"Stop you? With Anubis and Hades watching over you?" Ash laughed, "At that point, they are just asking to die. Remember, we are here to make noise and make ourselves known. There's only one way to drag that tyrant out of his hole if he lives or takes over his empty throne, and that's with force."
Stella smirked as she walked down the now empty and destroyed street toward the Nightrose castle. Today was going to be good.