Ashlock watched in interest as Stella led Elder Margret deeper into the cavern and toward the cages that contained the feral demonic chickens that tried to lash out as she approached. To his surprise, one of the cages in the middle had a small demonic tree growing up through the bars.

Stella paused before the cage with the tree, and while ignoring the demonic chickens trying to bite her arm, she presented Elder Margret with a half-eaten yellow fruit.

"Wait, isn't that one of those poisonous fruits with a {Demonic Seed} in the middle?" Ashlock mused, "I used them in the past to poison birds mid-air so they would die far away from my trunk and then turn into demonic trees... it was the best way to spread my seed at the time. So why is Stella showing it to Elder Margret, and why is it half-eaten?"

Ashlock suspected the small demonic tree within the cage was the answer.

"This fruit is?" Elder Margret asked as Stella handed her the fruit.

"A poisonous fruit that the Patriarch can grow. It's quite strong, but that's not why I'm showing it to you," Stella said, "It was this fruit that gave me the idea of how to make the pill."

Elder Margret rotated the yellow fruit in her hand but seemed to be drawing a blank, "I don't see how this fruit inspired you..."

"You see how there is a seed in the center of the fruit? The fruit's flesh, laced with poison, surrounds and obscures the seed. The birds are so distracted with their meal that they never notice or care about the seed until it's too late," Stella excitedly explained, "So when I saw this, it gave me an idea... why not obscure the cursed sap in the same way?"

Elder Margret nodded, "I see, so this pill you've made hides the cursed sap with layers of poison?"

"Essentially, yeah," Stella bobbed her head, "If we picture the cursed sap as a single droplet in the center of the pill like the seed in this fruit. I then layered over the droplet like an onion with poison. Each layer of poison takes time to expose itself because I put a thick coating of nothing but Dragon Marrow between each layer. I will market this pill to the merchants as a strong poison and even provide an antidote. They will then survive the first layer with my antidote during the meeting and believe everything is fine, but once they are long gone and stranded in the wilderness, the next layer will be revealed once their bodies have absorbed the Dragon Marrow coating, and they will become poisoned again."

Ashlock was surprised at how cunning Stella was.

The poisoned fruit he'd made to kill the birds in the past had been derived from his F-grade poison resistance skill. Since then, his poison resistance had upgraded to {Superior Poison Resistance [C]}, so the poison Ashlock could add to his fruit nowadays was far more potent than back then. But he hadn't had a use for this potent poison. Anything his C-grade poison could kill, so could his void tendrils or Star Core Ents, so he hadn't bothered with it.

"I'm still not entirely sure what the poison does as it's just a generic poison the system made that scales with my poison resistance grade," Ashlock mused, "I guess I should just be glad the system even allowed me to turn my resistances into a generic attack buff that I can add to my fruit since I had to experience attacks to build the resistance. But I do wonder what {Lightning Qi Barrier [A]} and {Fire Qi Protection [B]}would become if I made the system turn them into generic attack skills too, like I had with my poison resistance?"

Quickly bringing up his Qi Fruit Production menu while Elder Margret was processing Stella's explanation, he confirmed that he could make fruit with attack versions of his other resistance skills. {Lightning Qi Barrier [A]} would paralyze whoever ate the fruit, and {Fire Qi Protection [B]} would make the fruit incredibly... spicy. So much so it would burn the ingestors throat.

"Then what will the Merchants do to counter the next layer of poison?" Elder Margret asked, drawing Ashlock's attention back to the conversation.

Stella grinned, "They can use the antidotes we sell them or any other strong poison-countering pills or techniques. Even their bodies might be strong enough to resist it with just Qi. Ultimately, it doesn't matter; the poison isn't there to kill them. Its job is to wear them down and obscure the cursed sap for as long as possible for them to get very far away from us."

"Interesting," Elder Margret handed the poisonous fruit back to Stella, and her gaze drifted to the demonic tree trying to burst out of the cage, "And what will happen once the demonic sap is exposed?"

"From my experiments and from what the Patriarch told me, the cursed sap takes a while to take root inside the person's soul, and during this time, even a chicken can cycle its Qi to remove it," Stella explained, "But if the person is either out of Qi or asleep and the cursed sap can take root and bloom within their soul, it's almost impossible to remove."

Elder Margret took a sharp breath, "How scary... so all the merchants will turn into trees once the layers of poison have been removed and the cursed sap takes root in their souls?"

Stella shrugged, "I doubt it. They all have very high cultivation levels, so they should be able to suppress it from turning them into a tree, but it will take a significant amount of their Qi and focus on keeping it suppressed. Once again, the entire point of this pill isn't to kill them but to make them return here in search of a cure and hopefully become somewhat loyal. It would be foolish of them to expose us to enemies if we are their only source of a cure."

"So... do you have a cure or antidote for the curse?" Elder Margret asked, "Because you know curses and poisons are a lot different while seeming similar on the surface. It's far harder to rid someone of a curse than a poison, and it usually involves eradicating the person who cast the curse in the first place to become free."

Stella shrugged, "No, I have no idea how to cure it. I will have to hope the Patriarch comes up with a solution or is powerful enough to defend the tree from being annihilated by them."

Ashlock also wasn't sure if he had a way to create a cure for his own sap.

"This is very risky, but it could work." Elder Margret sighed, "If you can't create a pill to sell them to alleviate the symptoms, then the only other choice is for the tree to remain alive so the curse never breaks and they remain weakened by the curse."

"How weakened will they be?" Ashlock asked both Elder Margret and Stella through telepathy.

"Weakened by a few stages for sure," Elder Margret answered, "They will also have to keep stopping to cultivate and might even be unable to advance their cultivation any further as all the Qi they gather is burned to keep the curse at bay."

"If they are peak Star Core Realm and are then weakened by a few stages, I should be able to deal with them," Ashlock said, "We can workshop a way to alleviate the symptoms of the curse and then sell it to the merchants to keep them somewhat loyal."

With his current 4th stage in the Star Core Realm, his {Consuming Abyss} skill, and his small army of Ents, he felt safe taking them on. Especially if he charged up Khaos, as he doubted the Merchants could stand up to the void Ent even at full strength.

"So I did a good job?" Stella's excitement and happiness was contagious.

"Of course, you did a fantastic job, Mistress Stella," Elder Margret chuckled, "Although I must admit I am a bit miffed that you didn't even wait for my help as I was looking forward to working on this problem with you. Alas, I got stuck teaching those alchemists super basic pill recipes for an entire night."

"Stella, you worked on this problem for multiple days," Ashlock said in Stella's mind, "So how could I not be proud? You also found a way to weaponize my sap that has been rather useless until now, as any monster can just vaporize it from their systems with Qi."

Stella smiled at the praise, "Thank you, but there is still one issue left to fix."

"Oh? What is it?" Elder Margret said with light returning to her sour expression.

"When the final layer wears off, and the cursed sap is exposed, I need to find a way to incapacitate the merchants so the cursed sap can take root without issue." Stella explained, "The pill you are holding is laced with sleep-inducing mushrooms, but I want a better solution as there's a good chance they can shrug off the effect and then see the cursed sap in their bodies."

"So you just need a very overwhelming distraction?" Ashlock asked.

"Well, if there's no way to guarantee sleep, then yes, that could work," Stella replied, "What did you have in mind?"

"I can create a fruit that will cause mental anguish. When ingested, it overwhelms the person with visions similar to those you see when I am speaking to you," Ashlock said, "They should already be growing from my branches, so you can go up and pick some. I also have one that could paralyze the person, but I need an hour to grow that one."

"Perfect!" Stella clapped her hands together, "If the Merchants are paralyzed, falling asleep, and suffering from nightmare illusions, all while being weakened from the strong poisons and traveling the wilderness, there's no way they will notice or be able to fight off the cursed sap. Wait here, Elder Margret. I will be right back."

Stella then opened a portal to the mountain peak to go and pick the fruits, leaving Elder Margret looking around the cavern and humming a tune.

***

Diana opened her eyes and yawned. After rubbing her eyes, she ran her tongue along her teeth and was glad her fangs had retracted. Her feathered wings and claws of shadow had also never manifested.

Phew, that was a close call. I almost lost myself when the Patriarch called upon all of my Qi a few days ago and left the careful balance within my body between the water and demonic Qi in disarray.

Diana let out a long sigh as she rested her head against the demonic tree and felt the cool mist swirl around her.

Without the dense water Qi near these trees, I might have gone crazy again in my demon form, which wouldn't have been ideal. Embarrassing even... I don't want to be chained up to Ashlock again.

Shaking her head at the useless thoughts, she pushed herself up from the cold stone and stretched her back with a satisfying groan as the stiffness from sitting for so long subsided.

Glancing around, she noticed the mountain peak was devoid of everyone except the Patriarch standing tall with the freshly risen sun illuminating his black bark and scarlet leaves from behind and casting a long shadow.

How long was I out for? A few days, I assume?

With nothing else to do and bored of cultivating, Diana walked toward the bench under the Patriarch.

Huh, even Larry and Kaida have gone somewhere... is everyone busy while I was cultivating? Only the motionless Ents are still here.

Diana had seen a lot of ridiculous things since joining the Ashfallen Sect, but the creation of those Ents was up there as the most absurd thing she had ever seen. Titus had already amazed her, but then Zeus and Khaos came along and made her numb.

Is Geb with Douglas? I can't see that accursed Ent anywhere.

Walking beside the giant hole that went through the center of the mountain, Diana squinted into the darkness but still couldn't see Douglas or Geb.

"So Douglas is also off somewhere," Diana shrugged and then easily lept across the hundred-meter gap and landed casually on the other side.

However, a portal appeared before her, and Stella walked out, almost knocking her back into the hole.

"Whoa, sorry about that," Stella grabbed her wrist to stop her stumbling and apologized in a way too happy tone, "Finished with your cultivating?"

"Yeah, I did," Diana frowned, "What's got you in such a cheerful mood?"

Stella beamed, "Well, I got an hour to kill before Ash can grow the fruit I need, so I might as well tell you..."

A half-hour conversation followed where Stella explained the last few days without pausing for breath.

"So let me get this straight," Diana said while massaging her temples, "You made a pill you will sell to the merchants as poisonous, but its true purpose is to curse them with Ashlock's sap so they are forced to come back here?"

Stella nodded.

"You're insane," Diana said flatly.

"I know!" Stella giggled, "Anyway, want to come to the meeting with me?"

Diana groaned, "Fine... But only because I can't trust you won't try and kill them like you did with the Skyrends!"

Stella waved her off, "I would never do something so silly..."

Diana just glared at her.

***

"Nox, we need to leave. I can't hold the rift open much longer." A voice thundered out through the distorted space.

"Tsk," Nox clicked her tongue as she withdrew her blade from a grey-skinned monster and burned off the sickening stench with her ghostly black soul flames. Shadow Qi cycled through her body as she shifted through the darkness with impossible speed and emerged next to Hammond.

"How annoying. Can't you keep it open for a day longer?" Nox grumbled as she sheathed her sword and deposited the Beast Core into one of her silver spatial rings, "The loot in this rift ain't half bad, and we spent months tracking it down. To spend only a week in here feels like such a waste..."

Hammond glared at her, "Easy for you to say when you aren't the one wasting days' worth of cultivation every minute to keep that rift from collapsing on us."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Nox waved the man off, "Where's Lucius?"

Hammond gestured with his chin behind her.

Glancing over her shoulder at the fractured realm within the rift, Nox could see a distant blinding light like a miniature star. The light illuminated the many floating islands and debris that had once belonged to a place people likely called home before it ended up stuck between realms due to a cataclysmic event or a very angry spatial immortal. The reason was usually hard to trace, and Nox didn't care either way. She was just here to loot ancient relics and items that could be sold.

"He's busy slaughtering a horde of those strange grey-skinned monsters," Hammond said, "I assume they are protecting some artifact that is emitting a large amount of Qi. Otherwise, they should be scared away by Lucius's light Qi."

"Shame. If only you could keep the rift open for another day. Maybe Lucius would succeed, and we could earn fuck loads of coin," Nox sneered.

"Go and drag that bastard here, or I'm fucking leaving you both here to rot and die," Hammond snapped back, "And don't forget we have a meeting tomorrow with that hot Roselyn chick to discuss making her our new pill provider. We need time to freshen up."

"You just want to fuck her, you perverted bastard," Nox hit his shoulder hard, sending him stumbling a step.

"You bitch," Hammond cursed, but Nox had already sunk into the shadows and swam through the darkness toward the blinding light. As much as she joked with Hammond, the man would really leave them here. He had left his comrades to die over more petty reasons.