Sebastian Silverspire saw Red Vine Peak in the distance through the pouring rain. Due to the weather and dense cloud coverage overhead, Red Vine Peak was naturally obscured in the darkness of the raging storm. However, the mountain peak was shrouded in mystery, even on a day of sunshine and endless blue skies.

Surrounding the perimeter of the peak was a sparse wall of demonic trees with only their canopies visible. Everything else, including their black trunks, was concealed within a constant swirling Qi-dense mist.

As he got closer, passing over the many groves that littered the mountain range, he saw the giant demonic tree looming in the distance. The mist only managed to hide around half of the tree's gargantuan size as it lorded over the surroundings. Regardless, Sebastian knew what he saw wasn't the truth. A strange dome of spatial Qi encompassed the mountain peak, concealing everything occurring around the tree from spiritual sight.

Flying closer, he slowed his speed and approached cautiously. Even though he had been invited here by the leader of the Ashfallen Trading Company, he was still apprehensive. They might have signed a contract of cooperation, but such a contract would be easily voided if they were both to die here.

Of course, our maids would figure out our demise by the day's end and report it back to the family. But I'm unsure if the Silverspire family could win against the Ashfallen Trading Company with the Grand Elder in closed-door cultivation. Sebastian tightened his grip on the pommel of his sword. I hope we haven't angered them, and I won't need to lay down my life on this miserably grey day for Ryker to escape.

Having slowed to a crawl to show no disrespect, Sebastian passed over the vast mist wall surrounding the mountain peak, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw something shifting through the trees below. Trying to feel out what was watching him with spiritual sight returned nothing, not even the faintest trace of Qi, which could only mean one thing. Someone with void affinity was watching him.

"Is this where the big sisters live?" Ryker asked from behind, and Sebastian almost jumped in his own skin. I need to get a grip. I'm far too nervous for a seasoned bodyguard of the young master.

"Yes, Ryker. We were invited to come talk to their leader today." Sebastian ran a hand through his soaked hair. It was far from ideal weather for their first meeting. He could have mobilized his metal Qi to form a dome around them, but that might have been seen as an attack, so it was best to suck it up. Hell, if they showed up looking like drowned rats, maybe the mighty Ashfallen Trading Company would take pity on them.

Having passed over the mist wall and having entered the dome of spatial Qi, Sebastian could finally get a good look at Red Vine Peak with his own eyes without everything being distorted from afar. The place was... bare, to say the least. There was nothing here besides the demonic trees and a giant hole toward the western side of the mountain peak. No palace, servant quarters, libraries, airship docks, workers. Basically, anything he expected to be found on the grounds of a powerful pill-producing sect.

There was an alchemy cavern, so maybe the rest is down there? Sebastian spread his spiritual sense just a little into the hole and was confused by what he felt. First, the hole seemed to go down endlessly through the mountain, and second, he felt the presence of many monsters. What in the nine realms is happening down there? Is that a monster farm?

Reeling in his spiritual sight before he went too far and got caught snooping around, he felt the presence of cultivators. Glancing to the side, he saw two women standing under the canopy of the giant demonic tree.

"Big sisters!" Ryker called out while pointing down at the two.

"Yes, it seems they have come to guide us," Sebastian replied, directing his sword into a calm descent. Not too fast to seem threatening and not too slow to seem like he was wasting their time. It was all about decorum with these people.

Finally touching down beside the two, he retracted his sword, and Ryker hopped off.

"We have come as requested," Sebastian Silverspire said as clearly as he could, then bowed his head. He also put his hand on the back of Ryker's head and made him bow alongside him. "To meet with the immortal leader of the Ashfallen Trading Company."

Sebastian was unsure how to properly refer to their leader, but he had often heard the Redclaws throwing around the term 'immortal,' so he went with that. Studying the two women's surprisingly unobscured faces, they didn't seem to react much to his words.

"Big sister Stella isn't wearing a mask!" Ryker said, making Sebastian curse inwardly. The young master wasn't yet old enough to have had the proper way of speaking to adults drilled into his head.

Stella gave Ryker a thin smile, "We are working together, and you have been a big help to us. There's no reason to hide as much anymore."

Ryker nodded his little head and then looked to the other woman present, "Excuse me, miss, you seem familiar yet different. Are you also a big sister?"

"Who taught you to speak so politely?" The beautiful black-haired woman crouched to his height and grinned, showing two fangs, "My name is Diana. We have met before. Do you not remember me?"

A flash of realization appeared on Ryker's face, and he nodded furiously, "Of course I remember big sister Diana. But why do you look so different?"

That was a question Sebastian had, too. Not only had her appearance changed, but her cultivation had also skyrocketed. She appeared friendly, but Sebastian felt on edge. There was something off about this woman, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Wait fangs? Why does she have fangs?

"That's because a demoness never shows her true side," Diana laughed and ruffled Ryker's hair.

"You're a demoness?" Ryker tilted his head in confusion, "I thought demons were scary with horns and wings? At least that's what mother told me. I have never seen one myself."

"What about these?" Diana asked as giant raven wings manifested from her back and expanded out. Encompassing them all within their vast wingspan. "Do these wings scare you?"

Sebastian hid his surprise as best he could. Demons were a rare type of cultivator capable of cultivating demonic Qi found in beast cores. They often had non-human features due to the demonic Qi mutating their bodies, which made them stand out. But Diana had managed to hide in plain sight and come off as normal at a casual glance. It wasn't until he got close that something felt off about her, and then her smile had exposed those fangs.

Ryker reached out and touched the wings' feathers with a look of apprehension. When nothing terrible happened upon touching them, he seemed in awe. "They are so soft."

"I'm glad you like them," Diana retracted the giant wings and stood back up, "See, not all demons are scaryalthough you should probably avoid most of us. Now, let's get you two cleaned up." She opened her palm, and Sebastian felt a pulling force on him.

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What the... oh.

Sebastian felt all the water drenching his white robes and silver hair being pulled away in a mist and then condensing into a swirling ball above Diana's palm.

"We can't have our guests that braved the rain be drenched and miserable," Diana said as she let the water ball fall to the floor.

Stella coughed to draw their attention, "Ahem, let us discuss more away from the freezing rain, shall we?" The well-regarded 'princess' of the Ashfallen Sect turned to leave toward a group of stone thrones and a bench that looked comically small compared to the vast demonic tree that soared up into the sky and cast a looming shadow with its sprawling canopy.

Sebastian and Ryker exchanged a glance.

"Please follow me," Stella called out, and Sebastian didn't hesitate for a moment longer.

As he fell in a step behind the two women, he couldn't help but look up. Hundreds, if not thousands, of different colored fruits, grew in clusters from the many branches of the demonic tree. He would need to jump up quite far to grab any of them, even from the lowest hanging branches.

Is that the spirit beast? Sebastian wondered as he saw a large shadow crawling between the branches. His attention was diverted from the nightmare crawling overhead to the stone thrones. The ground was rumbling as two more rose from the ground, one smaller than the other.

"You will need this." Stella placed a porcelain pill bottle in his hand.

"This is?" Sebastian raised a brow.

"It's a Mind Fortress pill. Most need to eat one to handle the immortal's words." Stella tried to explain, but it only made Sebastian even more confused. Why would he need such a pill to handle someone's voice?

Stella studied his expression briefly and smiled, "It's fine if you don't understand. You can always take the pill after experiencing his words first. Anyway, come take a seat. I was just trying to pick an artifact from these options. Perhaps you can help me?"

"I'm not a professionally trained artifact appraiser, but I could make some solid guesses as to their functions and if they will benefit you," Sebastian replied smoothly as he pocketed the pill bottle in his robes. But then his eyes widened as he stood beside the stone throne raised for him and saw the piles of items haphazardly laid out on the floor.

"Woooah so much stuff!" Ryker had stars in his eyes, "Where did you get so many things?"

"Some foolish bounty hunters came after me, so we slaughtered them and looted their corpses," Stella replied casually as she took her seat on the bench and crossed her legs. "This is the result of stealing the wealth of three peak Star Core cultivators."

Sebastian felt his mind slow to a halt. There was just so much to unpack from a statement said so casually. But he ignored it for his sanity and decided to take the seat offered to him beside a large man wearing a beige suit and a crude stone crown encrusted with gems on his head.

Stella flicked her finger, and a dozen items that he soon realized were the artifacts she had been speaking of earlier began to orbit around him.

"Which of these would suit me as a mid-stage Star Core spatial cultivator?"

Since when was she a mid-stage? Sebastian didn't dare question her words, but the last time he saw her fight, she was near the bottom of the Star Core stages regarding Qi output.

"Let me see..." Sebastian inspected each artifact one by one. He was no expert, so there was a lot of guesswork involved.

I just need to find something made from high-quality materials with a practical purpose. Sebastian picked out a pair of gloves but found they were inlaid with a material best suited for ice cultivators. A few more artifacts were inspected, but Sebastian could still not find anything, as the rest of the items were of poor quality and would be useless in Star Core level combat.

"What about this?" Ryker was standing on the stone throne beside him and had grabbed what looked like a mirror.

Sebastian had overlooked that one, but now that Ryker held it up, he could see an intricate runic array on its back. Could this be a technique reflection artifact? Or one that can zoom in on pimples? There's no way to know...

The mirror floated away from Ryker's grasp and toward Stella. Grabbing it, she inspected the back of it for a while, then grinned, "Oh, this is perfect. Great choice, Ryker."

Sebastian felt like he had failed an assessment somehow. With a sigh of defeat, he diverted his gaze past the artifacts orbiting him to the piles of spirit stones and mortal currency. His curiosity got the better of him.

"What are you planning to do with all this stuff? I know some good appraisers that can sell the artifacts for you."

The moment those words left his mouth, he felt an immense pressure on his consciousness. He tried to resist, but it was futile. Was he under attack? Had he misspoke?

"We will be giving you some as compensation." A thousand voices echoed within his mind simultaneously, seemingly coming from all directions. Sebastian felt his breath quicken, and his ears began to ring. A white fog that hadn't been there before started to close in, and within this approaching fog, he could see shadows lurking.

Sebastian took a step back and despised how his hands were shaking. "W-what is happening?"

"From your reaction, I assume you hear the immortal's voice." Stella smiled lightly as she slouched on the bench, her head propped up with her arm.

Nobody else seemed to be reacting to the white fog or thousand voices. So, was it all happening inside his head? A sudden black tree began to take root and bloom within his consciousness, and then the voices spoke again.

"There is no shame in taking the pill. Those with untempered minds will struggle to listen to my words."

Sebastian gritted his teeth as he reached into his robe's folds and retrieved the pill bottle he had pocketed only a moment earlier. Popping the cork with one finger, he extracted three pills and ate them all at once. To hell with his pride. Every word from this immortal shook his consciousness to its very core and twisted his reality.

The moment the pills dissolved, he felt a calming breeze pass through his mind that pushed back the white fog to the farthest reaches of his consciousness, and the black tree stopped growing and began to wither away until it finally turned to dust.

"It would appear my puny mind is not conditioned enough to receive your words," Sebastian was about to bow but then realized he didn't know where the immortal was. "May I know where the immortal is speaking to me from?"

"I cultivate within the mountain and leave this demonic tree to guard my daughter Stella and use it as a proxy for my powers and to speak with you. Therefore, you can consider this tree as an extension of myself."

Sebastian nodded toward the giant tree, "I see. Thank you for allowing Ryker and me to come here."

"Why are you talking to the tree, Sebastian?" Ryker asked, and Sebastian realized how weird the situation must look to everyone, with him standing and speaking one-sidedly to a tree.

Sebastian looked down at Ryker with a strained smile tugging at the edge of his lips and resisted the urge to ruffle the kid's hair as he knew the young master hated it. "The immortal of the Ashfallen Sect is using the tree to speak to me in my mind."

"Oh, I see," Ryker nodded, "What did the immortal want us for?"

"I asked you to come here so we could compensate you from our earnings as these cultivators died due to a long string of events you were involved in. And I wanted to ask about the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion."

Sebastian relaid the answer to Ryker and then replied to the immortal.

"The compensation is greatly appreciated for Ryker's sake. His brothers and sisters have been rather successful in their cities, so we are playing catchup, and we never know when the Grand Elder might step out of closed-door cultivation and declare the end of the competition. That aside, what did you wish to know about the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion?"

"Apparently, the Silverspire family still has ties to the bounty hunters. Is this true?"

Sebastian looked between everyone present. They trusted him enough to show their faces, and they seemed to already know about the Silverspire's relationship with the banished pavilion, so he hesitantly nodded, "It's true."

"We were thinking of letting one of our own join the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion to use it as a place to sell our pills. Would the Grand Elder consider Yinxi Coins as wealth for the Silver Core competition?"

Sebastian nodded again, "Yinxi Coins are the most valuable currency in the wilderness. It's only here in the Blood Lotus Sect where they hold less weight due to the actions of the Patriarch many years ago."

Why doesn't the immortal know this? Is he not from this realm? Sebastian wondered. The Eternal Pursuit Pavilion was widespread throughout the wilderness, and anyone who had lived a long life would have encountered them.

"Perfect. Would you happen to know a way we could join? If possible, we don't want to travel all the way to the Tainted Cloud Sect for registration."

"That can be arranged. We have a direct contact." Sebastian sighed, "It's a bit risky as Ryker doesn't know this contact, and this might be me overstepping my bounds as his guard, but if we don't do something, Ryker is going to lose."

"Then we have a deal. Diana will be joining the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion."