Grand Elder Valandor couldn't believe his ears as he stared at the black-robed cultivator standing outside his door. "Could you repeat that one more time?"

"Yes, Grand Elder," The woman with hair as pale as her sickly white skin gave a slight bow. Her spiritual heart thumped calmly in her chest, and the thick sense of blood tickled his nose, making Valandor uneasy. He never liked being too near members of the Nightrose family.

"The Ancestor was awoken by a Qi disturbance to the east. He believes that the Silverspire Grand Elder is about to complete his ascension"

"Yeah, I got that bit," Valandor waved her off. He was curious how someone's ascension in a distant city could force the Patriarch from his cave, but it seemed trivial compared to the other thing. "What was the second message?"

The Nightrose woman's heart thumped a little louder, mirroring the slight look of annoyance on her face for being interrupted. Pursing her lips, she eventually replied, "Stella Crestfallen's bloodline is ready to harvest. The Ancestor decreed that you should go and capture her when you have some free time."

Valandor offered a slight smile, "Of course, I will ensure the Ancestor's orders are carried out when I have the time."

"Make sure that you do," the woman flicked her hair as she turned and left down his mountain.

Valandor politely closed his door, and the moment the defensive and concealment formations of his pavilion activated, his smile turned to a frown as his hand still rested on the doorknob.

"She should have still had a year," Valandor muttered, stepping away from his door and effortlessly gliding through his pavilion toward his office. After securing his surroundings for a second time by throwing around his aether Qi, he walked over to a bookcase and withdrew a record.

As the head of the Disciplinary Committee, he had to keep detailed records of every order and event inside the Blood Lotus Sect. Since the Patriarch entered closed-door cultivation, everyone could breathe a little more, but he remained diligent.

"Let's see, Stella Crestfallen..." Valandor found her record. It was a single piece of parchment with a fabricated backstory, a list of lies told to the girl, and the red lotus stamp of the Nightrose Patriarch in the top corner showed she was marked for death.

As one of the sect's people deemed likely to awaken a bloodline, Vincent Nightrose had given her a special status known to outsiders as being destined to be his 'pill furnace.' Few would dare harm someone marked as useful to the Patriarch unless they wanted to be hunted down and killed by the Disciplinary Committee, so it was a powerful deterrent to keep the many potential bloodline awakeners alive without wasting manpower.

There were hundreds of people with this mark, and the vast majority didn't ever awaken a bloodline. Vincent usually devoured the failures as snacks between cultivation sessions or used them as pill furnaces. However, the few that were successful in awakening had their blood drained in a ritual, and then Vincent would bathe in it while cultivating to try and acquire an inferior version of their bloodlines.

As the head of the Disciplinary Committee, Valandor's job was to ensure that this darker side of the Blood Lotus Sect operated smoothly. But Stella Crestfallen was an exception. Without a chance meeting with her Father, Valandor would have remained a slave to the Patriarch until his lifespan ran out.

A small vial of sap from the world tree had freed him of Vincent's control.

Ever since breaking free, Valandor had been working with others in the shadows to bring down Vincent Nightrose over the last decade, which is why the Patriarch's awakening ahead of schedule was a big concern.

Valandor clicked his tongue as his eyes scanned the parchment, "I got the Elders to agree that Stella Crestfallen would be given the Grand Elder position of the Crestfallen Family and Red Vine Peak after her 18th birthday. I knew she could not reach the Star Core Realm in a short five years, but she should have had another year."

Setting the parchment down on the table, Valandor ran a hand through his long white hair as he stared down at the drawing of a terrified young girl with short blonde hair and pink eyes. He had promised her Father that he could buy him at least five years after faking his death.

"There's no way Stella has awakened her bloodline already, right?" Valandor leaned on the desk with both hands and hung his head low, "If she has, then we may need to speed up our plans. Vincent will turn a blind eye to many things as he believes himself to be so far above the sect's affairs, but a ripe bloodline will never escape his nose."

Valandor grimaced and drummed his fingers as he ran through scenarios. Decades of work in the shadows were at risk here. Vincent Nightrose was an incredibly careful man who had lived through many eras and accumulated an unknown number of bloodlines alongside his near Monarch Realm-level cultivation. He even kept his own family at arm's length and swiftly squashed anyone who dared step into the Nascent Soul Realm within the sect.

"I suppose the only solution here is to check on Stella and assess the situation," Valandor sighed as he glanced to the side at a towering stack of paperwork, "Right after I finish checking these, though. The trip over to Darklight City will be a long one."

***

Valandor admitted he had a warped sense of how long it took to get around the sect as a wielder of aether Qi, a higher form of spatial Qi. This allowed him to tear through reality easily, making what should've been a week-long trip into one that would take less than an afternoon.

Also, as the head of the Disciplinary Committee, he had nearly unlimited access to the teleportation hubs.

Honestly, if one were to overlook the whole harvesting cultivators for their bloodlines thing and the promise of being killed once I step into the next realm, working for the Nightrose family has a lot of perks. They are beyond rich as they rule this sect with a series of rules that always benefit them the most, and every demonic sect in the region fears them, so it's quite safe here. Valandor idly thought as he watched an overworked cultivator empty multiple spatial rings filled to the brim with high-grade spirit stones into a pit next to a vast array.

"Esteemed Grand Elder, the array is active. Which hub do you wish to visit?"

"Slymere, but let me handle the coordinates," Valandor replied as he floated forward. White flames flickered across his robes, and he barely restrained his peak Star Core pressure.

The cultivator bowed deeply, "As you wish."

Valandor knew the Voidmind family was at war with the Skyrend family as he had been there to officiate the war. So, appearing suddenly inside the Voidmind residence was an excellent way to have a void lance thrown at his face. I'll change it to be next to the mountain peak on which the Redclaws should be based. Then, I can make my way over to Red Vine Peak after checking on them.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Placing his hand on a raised stone pillar in the center of the array and inserting his aether Qi, he gave it a boost to tear open a rift closer to his destination. Red Vine Peak.

With white flames wreathing his form, Valandor gave the cultivator a nod.

"Have a pleasant trip, Grand Elder Valandor," the cultivator bowed again to show respect.

The pile of spirit stones in the nearby pit glowed with silver light as they melted into the array. Reality began to shudder, and Valandor closed his eyes. Entering the Spatial Plane, he double-checked that the array was going where he wanted it to.

Everyone in the Blood Lotus Sect would love to see the fall of the Patriarch, and few knew Valandor was working in the shadows to bring about that dream. Most saw him for his role as Vincent's top dog, who followed his orders. It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to cast him out into the void.

Confirming the coordinates had been entered correctly, he waited for the array to work. He could make it run faster with his Qi or even tear open the portal himself from his office, but why bother? Why waste his precious Qi when he can use his boss's money to solve the issue.

Tapping his foot impatiently as the array slowly tore reality apart, Valandor could only think about his promise to Stella's Father. He had never been one to go against his word, but if Vincent got involved, there would be little he could do.

I promised you five years. But are you even still alive out there? If you don't hurry back, your adopted daughter is going to die.

"Please don't be ripe," Valandor muttered under his breath as he passed through the portal. Appearing on the other side, high in the sky, he was confused to be met with roaring thunder and darkened skies flashing all around him with lightning.

Valandor narrowed his eyes. Due to the intense Qi, fierce storms occurred all the time over Leyline regions, but this was no ordinary storm. The lightning carried heavenly intent, and it was concentrated over this one mountain region, which could only mean one thing.

Someone is ascending to Nascent Soul Realm all the way out here. The question is, who? The Redclaws don't have anyone at such a high cultivation stage, and the Voidmind family is cursed to never ascend.

Valandor used his aether Qi to maintain his perfect appearance. Despite the howling winds and sideways rain, his robes remained pristine, and his hair flowed neatly down his back. He hummed in thought as he stroked his chin and took a moment to contemplate the phenomenon and its implications.

After living centuries, he had seen almost everything a cultivator could, and few things could surprise him anymore. "How curious! I wonder who it could be" he looked down, and the words died in his throat. The scene below him was enough to create cracks in his composure.

"Okay, what in the nine realms is going on?" Valandor blinked a few times in disbelief at what he saw. Below him was a vast city of uniform houses that seemed populated by mortals. Which was rather strange, as the city certainly hadn't been here four years ago when he last visited. However, such a basic-looking city was nothing to bat an eye at. What was confusing were the thousands of demonic trees all blanketed in a thick layer of spatial Qi growing throughout the city and up the mountainside.

"Ashfallen City?" Valandor read off a sign near the main road entrance leading off to Darklight City in the distance. He had never heard of such a city.

Lightning struck down from the storm overhead and was absorbed by this blanket of Qi. Many mortals had also taken cover under the canopies of these trees and were eating mushrooms growing on their barks.

Valandor unleashed his spiritual sense upon the land, and his eyes widened. "There's not only one, but two people ascending at the same time?!?" His eyes flickered to a large tree that seemed shrouded in darkness in a field of white jasmine flowers nestled in the forest of demonic trees on the mountain.

He tried to find the person who was ascending, but his spiritual sense only led him to...

"A tree?" Valandor felt his brain slowly shutting down. Had he messed up the coordinates through the aether so badly that he ended up in an alternate timeline? Spirit trees took thousands of years to develop, not less than a decade. Yet thousands of spirit trees were all around, and there was even one ascending to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Valandor wanted to float closer to investigate, but due to the Patriarch, his cultivation realm was limited to the absolute peak of the Star Core Realm. There was a nonzero chance that the divine lightning overhead could strike him down if he wasn't careful.

He had also detected someone even more powerful in the distance, which somehow overshadowed a darkness affinity spirit tree ascending. An event that had likely never occurred before in the realm's history.

Valandor floated up the mountainside and only briefly marveled at the city of white stone built atop it. It was nice, but he had seen more impressive cities, and creating such a place within four years was perfectly reasonable.

He then looked to the horizon.

"You have got to be kidding me," Valandor felt his composure slip further as he saw a mountain range of demonic trees spreading before him, blanketed in enough spatial Qi to power a thousand spatial arrays. He could even feel a hint of divinity coming from that land. How could a desolate mountain ruled by lackluster families living off mining spirit stones be transformed into a divine spiritual spring in such a short time?

Unless a deity descended from the heavens and died on this land, I fail to see how such a transformation is possible. Valandor thought. This was an insane discovery, and he could only shiver thinking what would happen if a powerhouse in the region discovered this place or, even worse, if Vincent Nightrose had come to get Stella himself.

Oh, right, I came here to check on Stella. Valandor's eyes followed the trail along the mountain peak with a network of pathways that led off to groves emitting various affinities that shouldn't all exist so close to one another and gulped as he saw a wall of spatial Qi rising to the heavens, obscuring the entirety of Red Vine Peak from the outside world.

Manifesting aether Qi to his eyes, he barely managed to pierce the spatial distortion array and almost choked at what he saw. "How the hell did that spirit tree grow so quickly?"

Just four years ago, Stella had shown him a spirit tree barely a few meters tall that grew Qi-dense fruits. To poorer families like the Ravenbornes, such a spirit tree would help offset some pill costs, but it was nothing impressive enough for him to make more than a mental note to check on it later. The only weird thing he had noticed about it was that he felt a gaze coming from the tree.

Now? The tree was a towering behemoth, at a hundred meters tall, dominating the entire mountain peak and shrouding it in its vast canopy, which blazed with the purest soul flames he had ever seen. Also, an aura of divinity radiated off the tree as if it were a divine being, but that wasn't all. Four monstrosities of white twisted wood stood around it like guardians, each one radiating the strength of a noble family Elder.

Valandor floated over the mountain range, dumbstruck. What the hell was he supposed to do in this situation. Could he even get close enough to warn Stella about the Patriarch's interest in her ripe bloodline with such a godly tree watching over her? Did he even need to?

"Was I not diligent enough?" Valandor asked the sky. All of this defied any sense of logic aside. He should have paid more attention to the girl he had promised an old friend to protect for five years. But he had believed that not much would occur in such a short period. Four years was barely a good cultivation session. If he didn't have so much work and was allowed to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm, he would happily spend a decade away from the world to contemplate heaven's whispers. So what the hell was a mere four years in comparison to cause all this?

A ripple through the Spatial Plane caught his attention, and he focused back on Red Vine Peak in the distance. A portal he hadn't noticed before, as it was a tiny speck at the base of the giant tree snapped closed. The girl who had just stepped through it stared back at the now-blank space in confusion.

"Blonde hair, and that figure... is that Stella?" Valandor wondered. The last time he had seen her, she was a 13-year-old girl barely in the Soul Fire Realm. Had she really grown up so much in such a short time?

Stroking his chin, he debated for a while what to do but eventually decided there was only one good option that would show his sincerity. "I should go and pay my respects to the great tree and offer my words of caution. Maybe I can even convince it to help me rid this realm of the vile filth that is the Blood Lotus Patriarch."

Unleashing his aether Qi, he tore open a tunnel beside Stella and stepped through.

"Long time no see, Stella," He said, and the girl spun around on her heel to glare at him. To Valandor's utter surprise, she had not only reached the Star Core Realm a year ahead of the date he had set her, but her cultivation was almost on the same level as his.

"Grand Elder Valandor," Stella narrowed her eyes at him. Pure spatial flames flared to life around her body, and a blade of black metal manifested in her hand in a flash of silver. "What are you doing here?"

Valandor actually felt threatened by the girl. He offered a weary smile and raised his hands in surrender, "Believe it or not, I come in peace. We have a lot to catch up on, wouldn't you agree?"