Diana jumped backward, but Stella decided to approach Ashlock with trepidation. "Ash, are you okay? Hey!"

She could tell something was terribly wrong. The Qi in the surrounding air trembled. A chaotic vortex formed that rustled Ash's scarlet leaves as if he were the eye of a great storm. Birds for miles took to the skies and cried to the heavens.

Stella winced. She knew whatever was happening would cause unwanted attention from the nearby cultivators.

She looked to the sky, but there was no crack in space with another terrifying monster crawling out from another plane of existence. So what was wrong?

There was a deep groan of wood warping as splinters flew, and a hairline crack appeared on the black trunk. Was something trying to escape from within Ash?

Her heart raced as the tree trunk suddenly split open like an accused maw, revealing a grotesque and eldritch eye that gazed upon her with alien intelligence and curiosity.

Stella felt a chill run down her spine as she gazed into the depths of the eye and beheld a vision beyond human comprehension. Multitudes of eyes, both large and small, were engaged in a cyclical feast of consumption, one devouring the other in a nauseating display. The eyes were superimposed upon one another in a labyrinthine pattern that defied the limits of mortal understanding.

The eye seemed to peer into the very essence of Stella's being as if daring her to look away. But she couldn't move, for she was frozen in terror and awe by the unspeakable horrors that lay within. The eyes seemed to grow and multiply, their pulsing movements drawing her deeper into a maelstrom of fear and madness.

Stella screamed as she threw up, her voice echoing through the courtyard and mountain as she stumbled away from the accursed tree. The eldritch eye followed her every move, its malevolent gaze burning into her soul. She knew that she was in the presence of an entity beyond the grasp of mortals, and that she had gazed upon a truth that was never meant to be seen by human eyes.

As she stumbled back, Stella felt the eldritch eye's grotesque and malevolent presence still upon her. Her body felt deathly weak. Her legs felt like grass stalks in the wind, swaying without her consent.

***

[Mutation Complete]

The pain vanished, and Ashlock blinked. The slit in his trunk slowly closed. It felt effortless as if it had always been a part of him.

Stella fell onto her back, her breath shallow, and she kept her eyes on the sky, refusing to look at him.

What happened? Was seeing a tree with a giant eyeball hidden within truly so terrifying? There had to be weirder things in this vast world... right?

[Demonic Spirit Tree (Age: 9)]

[Soul Fire: 3rd Stage]

[Soul Core: Amethyst (Spatial)]

[Mutation]

{Demonic Eye [B]}

[Summons...]

{Ashen Prince: Larry [B]}

[Skills]

His stat menu popped up unpromoted, which distracted Ashlock briefly.

"Oh! A new section!" Ashlock focused on his new mutation, and the information for its uses entered his mind, making Stella's adverse reaction even more bizarre.

"I can gaze upon people's souls?" Ashlock opened the eyelid and looked at Stella with his demonic eye. She shuddered despite not looking in his direction and keeping her eyes on the sky.

Ashlock's usual spirit sight let him see everything in his range all at once, but this demonic gaze was very narrow and directed. Everything was tinted through a red hue, and he could see the flow of Qi.

But perhaps most bizarre of all was what he could see within Stella. There was a marble around the size of a fist filled with a dark purple storm with lightning flashing occasionally. "Is this Stella's soul core?"

His demonic gaze shifted to Diana, who was busy leaning against the far wall trying to control her breathing. Her face was deathly pale, and her eyes were wide open and unblinking. Had she seen something so horrific?

Floating inside her chest was a marble filled with nothing by dark blue water that swirled around in a vortex.

Seeing that Stella and Diana were struggling under his gaze, he closed his eyelid and returned to his spiritual sight. Both girls perked up a little as if a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders.

"What in the nine realms of hell was that!" Stella blurted to the sky between deep breaths. Her chest rose and fell as she gasped for air.

Diana stumbled from the wall and began to chuckle, which soon devolved into full-on belly-aching laughter. She was practically crying tears as she trudged forward. Stella was in such a state she didn't even comment on Diana's weird behavior.

"Hahaha! I was a little worried that nobody would take Ashlock seriously..." She straightened her back and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, "But if every new sect member saw whatever that was, nobody would question why a tree is a patriarch."

She then let out a deep breath to calm her shaking breathing, "Just whatever you do, don't show us that eye again, okay?"

Ashlock didn't see what the big deal was. To him, it just looked like a giant eye. Its color and details were constantly shifting, but it wasn't that horrifying to look at.

If he could shrug, he would. He honestly didn't see the big deal, but if their reactions were anything to go by, a giant eyeball was enough to scare a Soul Fire cultivator to his extent.

The girls were clearly adverse to him using his new mutation, but he still planned to utilize it in the future. "The demonic eye lets me see a cultivator's element without them revealing their flames. I can also see if they have Dao comprehension, such as Stella's lightning."

There had also been another important detail. The darkness of their flames was similar. "I remember Diana mentioning she was in the 6th stage with a plain blue Soul Core and inferior spirit roots. So they should both have inferior spirit roots."

Ashlock then thought about his own lilac flames. "Stella and I share the same spatial element, but my soul flames are lilac rather than dark purple. Does that mean I have superior spiritual roots?"

On his status sheet, it only said:

[Soul Fire: 3rd Stage]

[Soul Core: Amethyst (Spatial)]

There was no mention of his spirit root's purity.

"If that impossibly perfect wooden stick I summoned was anything to go by, I wouldn't be surprised if I have perfect spirit roots. The system has to show off its superiority somehow." Ashlock rolled his eye, but he wasn't about to complain about the system giving him perfect spirit roots.

***

Stella wiped the vomit from her mouth and chugged some water from a waterskin she retrieved out of her spatial ring. She was still shaking slightly, but she was able to stand up.

After spitting to the side to remove the rancid taste plaguing her mouth, she glared at the trunk with mixed feelings.

It looked the same as always as if what she had seen was an illusion or an accused nightmare. Her hand subconsciously reached up through her blonde hair to her earrings. People had a similar reaction when she used them. Did they see what she had just seen?

Did these earrings contain a piece of Ash and let him impose his presence through her? That thought made her feel a little better. She slapped her cheeks to wake herself up and tried to ignore the curiosity gnawing at the back of her mind. 'It's just world tree stuff... ignore it. Don't ask questions.'

Stella had to admit her perception of Ash as a caring and easygoing tree had shifted just a tad after that experience, but she was sure it would fade. If anything, she was happy Ash now had another way to defend himself.

If even she was utterly powerless against it, she doubted a Star Core or a Narcest Soul cultivator could resist such a devastating mental attack.

'Not even my father had such an intense glare.' Stella was busy, lost in thought, when Diana's hand landed gently on her shoulder.

"You alright?"

Her hand felt clammy but comforting. Stella had to look down slightly to meet the shorter girl's gaze."Fine? Yea... mostly. You okay?"

Diana's grey eyes shifted to the tree, and her grip tightened. "Better than okay. The whole sect idea got a lot more real with something I can respect as the patriarch. Sure, Ashlock was powerful before, and we had theorized he was a baby world tree... but I saw things in that gaze that I will never forget."

Diana then released her grip and walked forward, keeping her eyes on the scarlet canopy above. "You wanted us to head down into the root tunnel, right?"

A second passed, and Diana saw one of the leaves flash with lilac Qi a single time. "That means yes. Right?"

After seeing Stella nod, Diana asked the distraught girl, "Do you want to stay up here or come down with me?"

Stella gave a weak smile and shook her head, "I'll stay up here. I have some books to show Ash, after all. I suspect the portal technique we bought from the merchants back in Slymere will work wonders with his... affectionate gaze."

Diana chuckled at the joke and looked back at Ashlock's canopy. "Will it be fine if only I go?"

There was a long pause, but the leaf eventually flashed once.

"Off I go then." Diana waved without looking back. Her eyes were glued onto the root tunnel. As a sect member, this was her first mission, and she planned to please her new tree tyrant. Blue flames appeared in her palm, slightly illuminating the inside of Ashlock's root.

It was hollowed out, but the sides were coated in sap that stuck to Diana's shoe as she lowered herself inside the tube.

"Not very spacious, I have to admit," Diana muttered as she brought her shoulders in so she could wedge herself in the tight space.

Despite the steep incline, she was stuck, so she cycled her water Qi and coated her skin. Then, using the pressure to push her along, she was shooting down the tunnel in no time. The air rushed passed her nose as the black root walls blurred.

Minutes passed, and her speed only increased as she hurtled through the inside of the mountain. She felt slight influxes of Qi come and go, likely due to her passing spirit stone deposits.

Just as she wondered how much longer the journey could possibly take, she crashed into a hard floor. Her Qi took the brunt of the impact, and her body shrugged off the rest.

Rolling her shoulders as she stepped out of a small crater, she looked around. The walls were grey stone covered in black roots with glowing mushrooms sprouting everywhere, illuminating the dreary tunnel in a soft blue glow.

"A mineshaft?" Diana wondered aloud as she saw the tipped-over minecart and rails poking through the root-coated floor.

Diana froze and hid her Qi as she felt the presence of something approaching. Then, sneaking up to the wall and keeping low, she peered into the darkness beyond the mushroom glow.

'A cave rat?' She wondered as she saw a person-sized grey-furred rodent sniffing a giant mushroom dangling from the ceiling via a black root. Even from here, Diana could smell a sweet fragrance wafting through the stale air.

Before she could do anything, the rat clamped its jaw around the mushroom, and Diana watched as the black root lit up the entire cavern with lilac flames, causing the rat to explode.

"Showing off a lot today, aren't we," Diana grumbled as her water Qi protected her new clothes from the shower of blood and guts that splattered the wall behind her.

"So... where do you want me to go?"

Diana didn't actually expect an answer. But she got one as a single root on the floor lit up with lilac flames, showing her the way down the twisting, root-covered tunnels of the mineshaft.

Shrugging, she summoned a sword to her hand and followed the path while keeping her eyes and ears peeled for any threats. Luckily, it only took a few minutes for Diana to find something interesting.

"Is that a town?"