Ashlock didn't pride himself on being the most imaginative tree out there when naming things, but he felt Ashfallen was fitting. A few potential sect names had drifted through his mind, such as Haunted Willow or Black Root.

But the name Ashfallen had actual meaning behind it besides being tree themed.

Firstly, it was a fusion between Ashlock and Stella's surname Crestfallen. Secondly, Larry utilized the Dao of ash. Also, Yggdrasil, a world tree from Norse mythology back on Earth, had been an ash tree.

Ashlock waited in anticipation as Stella spent a good while translating his text. Unfortunately, it appeared the name was giving her some problems, likely because it didn't have a direct translation.

In the future, he will make sure to use simple words to avoid confusion.

To his relief, Stella translated his message exactly after around an hour.

"I did it! I finally translated it." Stella jumped up, sending her notes flying.

"To found a sect named Ashfallen. That is what it says..."

Diana whisted, and Stella instantly calmed down. She looked happy but also worried.

Had he made a big mistake?

Was founding a sect really such a big deal?

To Ashlock, the Blood Lotus sect was nothing more than a few families surrounding Darklight city on mountain peaks.

Sure, the city was huge, and he had seen the power exhibited by the grand elders of the various families, but it wasn't like he needed Stella and Diana to publically renounce their allegiance to the Blood Lotus sect to join his.

Also, from his understanding, all of this will be abandoned when the beast tide comes. So what's the problem with him getting ahead of the game and forming his sect early?

Ashlock reflected on the novels he had read that were based on similar worlds he found himself in. "Oh! Is this a world where they take swearing allegiance super seriously? Like a master-disciple relationship?"

It was a possibility.

Cultivators loved to be arrogant, but they also valued their pride and traditions.

Often to join a sect, a fledgling disciple would have to undergo trials, and once passed, they would be sworn into the sect, either as an outer court disciple or, if they were lucky, picked by an elder to train directly under them.

Once again, Ashlock was reminded of how clueless he truly was about this world despite spending almost a decade in it.

But now he had the opportunity to ask and learn. Knowledge is power, and he needed all the strength he could get.

"Ash, do you want Diana to be part of your sect?"

Ashlock saw Stella standing below his trunk, and Diana was standing back near the wall.

Was there some discourse between the two he was unaware of, other than the whole family drama from before? The honest answer to Stella's question was yes. It was hard to come by people and having a sect of only two sounded counterproductive.

Also, the more, the merrier.

"And if Diana acts up, I can get Larry to deal with her." Ashlock was confident that Larry was stronger than Diana by now. "If only he would hurry up and upgrade."

With that in mind, Ashlock flashed his Qi to signal yes.

Stella clapped her hands, "If Ash trusts you, then so do I. Do you want to join?"

Diana had a thin smile. "I was the one who suggested the idea of a sect in the first place... so, of course, I will join."

She then turned to Ashlock, "However, joining a sect run by a tree comes with a big risk. We cannot run. When the beast tides come, we have no choice but to stay behind. So Ashlock, do you have a way to keep future sect members and us safe?"

A thin black root took control of another corpse. It walked to the wall and wrote an answer.

Which was quick and easy for Stella to decipher after kicking the flaming corpse to the side.

"Ashlock says he needs more information about the beast tides."

Ashlock was actually surprised Stella managed to translate his words. Were beast tides present when the ancient runic language was still in use?

Diana decided to take on the burden of answering.

She awkwardly walked up to Ashlock as if he would struggle to hear her and didn't know exactly where to look.

To be fair, it was like talking to a wall.

Ashlock had no eyes or mouth for the other person to focus on, just a black trunk that was a few meters wide.

Awkwardly clearing her throat, Diana began her explanation. "The beast tide is simply a byproduct of the world's leylines."

Diana pointed to the ground, "Running under this sect is a pathway for the worlds Qi. It is why the spirit stones form here deep underground."

Ashlock had heard of leylines before in fiction. They were basically the veins of the planet and where the Qi was concentrated.

Cultivators often fought to build their sects along or on top of these leylines, where the most Qi was released for cultivation.

"Could I get my roots to go down and latch onto the leyline directly..." Ashlock's nonexistent eyes practically lit up.

The small deposits of spirit stones had given him a good boost in his cultivation, so what would plugging himself directly into the worlds Qi supply do? Could he even handle it?

"Anyway, the leylines sometimes converge and pass over one another. These areas are highly sought after for the beasts that wish to endlessly cultivate and evolve. In fact, the Qi is said to be so strong in the area it forms a spiritual spring of Qi."

So these beasts like to converge as a group around these spiritual springs, which appear where the leylines cross. But that doesn't explain why there are beast tides...

"However, if too many beasts go to one spiritual spring, it depletes and then takes between forty and a hundred years to replenish." Diana pointed into the distance. "Let's say there's a spiritual spring in the far north. Millions of beasts went there, fought each other, and became stronger. The weaker beasts then have no choice but to leave, so they all race to the next spiritual spring as it replenishes, which might be south of here."

Still doesn't explain why they all come as a massive hoard in a wave. Wouldn't the monsters leave in smaller groups?

"The distance between the spiritual springs is usually massive, and the spirit beasts cultivate and survive off Qi, so they prefer to run along leylines." Diana gestured to Darklight city, "The only problem with that is us cultivators decided to build along these leylines, so the beasts with some level of intelligence choose to travel all at once instead of being picked off one by one."

Okay, now it was starting to make sense.

To recap, the beast tide is a collection of intelligent beasts wanting to move from one good cultivating location to another.

And they had the intelligence to realize there's strength in numbers when crossing the cultivator-infested wilderness. To the beasts, they had to fight not only each other but also random groups of cultivators, so traveling the wilderness would be even more dangerous for a beast than a merchant group.

"The good news is these beast tides are easy to see years in advance and almost always follow predefined paths. They can be fought off, which is something the celestial empire does, but for smaller demonic sects like the Blood Lotus sect, moving out of the way makes financial sense."

Ashlock now saw the problem. Unlike every other demonic sect out here in the wilderness, he couldn't move. Nor did he have the strength to resist a beast tide that only a superpower like the celestial empire could face.

As he saw it, there were three options from this information.

First, the Ashfallen sect got strong enough to face off any beast tide. This was the ideal end game, but with their meager Soul Fire realm strength, he doubted they could face the wave of monsters.

Second, everyone runs away and returns once the beast tide has passed.

From how Diana described it, he didn't think the beasts would stop to spend time destroying Red Vine peak and eliminating his trunk and roots just to kill a random tree. "I must ensure I have no fruit growing to attract their attention when they pass by."

The final option lay in the tunnels under the mountain. Ashlock wasn't sure why everyone didn't just hide underground. Luckily, he could now have his questions answered.

He took control of a corpse once more and wrote his question on the wall.

"Why don't people hide underground." Stella helpfully translated, and Diana rubbed her chin.

"That... is a tricky question to answer. The simple answer is they do, and a lot survive the beast tide passing. It's what comes after that usually kills them. All the fields will be ruined, and no cultivators will stay behind to protect the survivors from the stray beasts not heading to the spiritual spring."

Diana looked up at Ashlock's scarlet leaves, "With nobody to protect them, the helpless mortals die to starvation or beasts. If they are lucky, they might be enslaved by the other demonic cultivators who choose this land as their new sect location."

So hiding underground was an option. It came with logistic issues, such as creating a space ample enough for people, keeping it safe from the beasts, and providing food. But possible.

He could produce edible fruit and mushrooms with his skills, although obtaining water was still an issue. But those rats had to be getting water from somewhere. "If there is a large cave with a stream running through it, we could use that for water after eliminating all the rats... wait, are the rats edible?"

Ashlock used one of the last corpses in the bag to write his plan and then had the corpse frantically go over to one of his exposed roots and start shoveling at the soil with its hands.

Stella quickly translated the message, "Ashlock says for us to go underground."

"Underground?" Diana raised a brow, "How? We are thousands of meters above ground..."

Her gaze landed on the corpse, frantically digging while its skin melted from lilac flames. "Does Ashlock expect us to dig through the mountain?"

Diana kicked the corpse away, and it exploded in mid-air, sending a wave of Qi that was resisted by both of them, blocking with their own soul flames.

With the corpse out of the way, Ashlock watched as Diana looked down into his hollowed-out root. He had drained this root's sap as it led all the way down through the mountain to the mineshaft below.

Obviously, he still had a few roots filled with sap bringing up bits of rat that he had then been consuming with {Devour} over the last week. But in anticipation of wanting to get Stella's help, he had widened and drained this particular root.

It was like an eight thousand meters long slide through the mountain.

"Are we supposed to go down there?" Stella asked with a hint of nerves.

Ashlock had to admit it didn't exactly look inviting. It was a sticky tunnel, barely a person wide, that was pitch black, leading somewhere unknown. But there was no other choice. He hadn't found the entrance to the mine.

"Diana could carve through an avalanche with ease, so I'm sure she could blast a tunnel through the side of the mountain, but then how do we plug the hole back up?"

Ashlock felt a bit bad for asking them to get to the mineshaft this way.

Maybe now would be the best time to sign in on the off chance it gave him something useful? He had been holding off for ages.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3472

Daily Credit: 268

Sacrifice Credit: 103

[Sign in?]

"Yes."

[Sign in successful, 371 credits consumed]

[Unlocked a B-grade evolution: Demonic Eye]

"Evolution?" Ashlock couldn't believe there was a new option. So he could evolve as well? Could typical spirit trees evolve?

And what the hell was a demonic eye?

Ashlock soon got his answer. He felt terrible pain, as if someone was pulling him apart from within. His Qi became chaotic, and his trunk groaned as the bark splintered.

[Evolution in progress... 10%]

"Ashlock is doing something weird again!" Diana shouted as she lept back.