Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Serena sprinted down the main street of Ashfallen City, uncaring of the mud she was kicking up as the ferocious storm roared in her ears and bombarded her with rain that felt like hail. If not for the fire Qi flowers growing on the demonic trees lining the road, letting off a subtle warm glow that pierced the mist, she would have no idea where she was going through the darkness.

Are they still following me?

She kept casting frantic glances over her shoulder at the Ashfallen Trading Company's building. It was impossible to miss even in the storm and darkness of night. It stood as a monolith of power that pierced the stormy sky with its sharp silhouette outlined by the ghostly glow of the hidden moon. Compared to the dull stone single-story huts all around her, the grandiose structure was a constant reminder of who ruled these lands.

The people she was currently desperately fleeing from—The Ashfallen Sect.

She had barely avoided capture by running out the backdoor when she heard a distant voice and headed down a back road to reach the portal without being found. She had vanished into the storm without even stopping to look at the man behind the counter of the Ashfallen Trading Company to whom she had given the abyssal egg that was no doubt close to hatching after absorbing the spirit stones in his ring.

Her only goal was to run nonstop from here to Darklight City and then lose her pursuers among the sprawling city and millions of people. Then, when the airships began operations again, she would take one as far away from here as possible.

With the twerp dead and the distraction that's about to happen from the abyssal creature's birth, I should have bought myself enough time to escape to Darklight City. I should be able to vanish there as I eliminated the people who knew anything about me. Well, everyone except that investigator, but I couldn't find them no matter where I looked.

The streets were thankfully empty this late at night, and the storm did a great job of covering her tracks further. The Redclaws who were chasing her used fire Qi, so the dense mist brought on by the downpour acted as a natural shroud for her escape.

I might have actually gotten away with it! Serena cheered as she kept running down the road and didn't encounter any troubles. Making it halfway to the gate that gave way to a dirt road between here and Darklight City, she noticed a tree that stuck out like a sore thumb into the road. It was shorter and thinner than all those surrounding it, but its presence was far more than an inconvenience in her way. Even in the storm's chaos and her desperation to escape, she found herself slowing down to glare at it. This tree... it had sprouted from that mortal she killed.

Coming to a stop before it, a certain phrase replayed in her mind.

The trees have eyes.

Her eyes darted around—everywhere she looked, there were demonic trees along the roads and between the houses. Recalling her journey here, she hadn't paid it as much attention at the time, but there was a literal forest of demonic trees between Ashfallen and Darklight City. If that wasn't bad enough, she now remembered there were even more trees growing throughout Darklight City like an infestation. They had just been less aggressive about leaving the trees alone there, so she hadn't paid it as much thought.

No matter where she ran, there were demonic trees for miles in all directions. If they truly did have eyes, it was only a matter of time before she was found—

"Terrible weather for a late-night jog, isn't it?"

Serena felt her heart leap out of her chest as she stumbled back. "T-They can talk?!"

"They do sometimes," A figure stepped out from behind the tree—the source of the voice, "But not this one, at least not yet."

Serena would recognize that jade mask, distorted voice, and non-existent presence anywhere. It was the investigator that had haunted her like a ghost. She quickly spread her spiritual sense through the mist, expecting to find a dozen Redclaws or other investigators of Ashfallen closing in on their location, but there was nothing. Not even a group of mortals was sent to slow her down.

"While it contains the soul of a mortal, it will take time for Old Bill here to recover, having his soul twisted to fit the vessel of a tree." the investigator continued as they patted the smaller tree beside them. "Now tell me, Daisy, how did you kill Old Bill?"

"How did you…"

"Know?" The investigator shrugged, "A matter of deduction and your questionable attempts to cover your tracks."

What do they mean by that? Serena wondered. Her escape plan had seemed perfect; where could she have possibly messed up? Her eyes narrowed as she caught onto the investigator's scheme. They were mortal and were the only person standing in her way of making a flawless escape. Of course, they would bluff to buy time for the Redclaws to catch up.

"You're alone," Serena stated.

"Yes, there are no other cultivators here," the investigator replied all too calmly, "Just you and I."

This must be my lucky day. Serena smirked as she drew her sword. I had regrets about leaving the investigator alive, but to think they would come and present themselves alone to me like this? It seems fate is finally smiling at me.

"What are you planning to do with that?" The investigator asked as they tilted their head at her drawn sword.

Serena snorted, "What a strange question." She raised the sword and pointed it at the person who had been a thorn in her side, "To kill you, of course."

There was an awkwardly long-drawn-out silence before the investigator began to giggle, which turned into full-out cackling laughter that sounded harrowing as it was distorted by the jade mask. The laughter was made all the more ominous by the roar of thunder and flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the investigator's featureless mask.

Is this mortal insane? Serena had suffered disrespect before but had never been outright laughed at by a mere mortal. Flaring her soul pressure at the mortal to silence them, she immediately felt something was off. When her pressure typically made a mortal kneel, it felt like it had impacted an impassable wall. Raising a brow, she put more effort into it, but the results were the same. No matter how much her soul hummed in her chest and pulsed with power, the investigator continued giggling, utterly unfazed by her attempts to make them kneel.

Serena stood there speechless, her expression grim. She was at the peak of the Soul Fire Realm—a level of power only achieved by those with access to immense amounts of resources and some talent for cultivation. She had yet to step into the Star Core Realm, as that was a level reserved for sect elders and even Patriarchs. Few survived the Star Core tribulation, which is why Serena was searching for her sect's precious stone. She planned to use it to guarantee her ascension. So, it was suffice to say she was no weakling—quite the contrary, she should have been one of the strongest in this backwater city.

"Phew, sorry. That was just too funny," the investigator leaned against the tree and got their breathing under control, "You just said it with such a serious and arrogant expression that I couldn't hold myself together."

Serena bit her lip and felt her face heat up with embarrassment. "What right does a mortal have to laugh in the face of a cultivator? Who the hell are you?" she snapped, unable to handle this anymore. Whatever artifact this mortal was using to resist her pressure didn't give the mortal the right to laugh in her face, and she couldn't wait to see how they fared against her blade.

"Me? I'm…" The investigator trailed off as they seemed to fall into thought. Serena didn't need to take advantage of a mortal being distracted to defeat them, but she also didn't want to wait around to be captured by the extremely powerful Ashfallen Sect, so she charged forward. As with the twerp, she refrained from using any of her abyssal tide Qi in the attack to keep her tracks clean. A simple sword slash was all she would need to butcher this weird mortal.

Or so she had thought.

Despite still looking lost in thought, the investigator managed to barely sidestep her sword swing within a hair width. What lucky timing! Serena couldn't believe it as she went for a kick—that was also barely dodged. Bringing her sword back for a horizontal slash, the mortal jumped over the blade that harmlessly cleaved through the rain. Dodging in such a way once, maybe twice, she could understand. But three times? Either this mortal was blessed by the dao of luck, or this person was highly trained.

"Mhm, do assassins need names?" The investigator mused as they effortlessly landed and were even so brazen as to turn their back to her as they looked up at the tree canopy. Serena shook away her wandering thoughts and decided to end this. Infusing her sword with abyssal tide Qi, viscous dark blue flames wreathed the blade, illuminating the investigators back in a blue light, and she went for an overhead slash aimed at the darn mortal's head—this time, they didn't dodge and accepted their death.

"Do you mind? I'm thinking here."

Serena blinked in confusion. Rather than the mortal's head going flying like she had envisioned, her sword seemed stuck on an invisible barrier. A high-grade defensive artifact found from the rifts, perhaps? "How many artifacts do you have—" Serena didn't finish her sentence as a soul pressure smashed into her chest, sending her flying a few meters backward and impacting the mud—hard. Her sword followed her, spiraling through the air before planting tip first into the mud a mere inch from her face.

What the hell was that?!

Groaning, Serena sat up. Her clothes were drenched in freezing mud, and her white hair clung to her mask and cheeks. Gritting her teeth, she curled her hand around the hilt of her sword while eying the investigator suspiciously.

The investigator turned and met her gaze. "What do you think? Do assassins need names?" The investigator asked her as they stood there under the canopy of Old Bill—the mortal she somehow turned into a tree. "I mean, on the one hand, having a name could be cool, but doesn't that defeat the whole point of going undercover?"

Serena ignored the strange mortal's ramblings and pulled her sword out of the mud. She had no time to humor jokes; this situation was a matter of life or death. The commotion caused by the abyssal monster's birth would only last so long—after all, it wouldn't be able to grow that large from the few spirit stones she had given the man. Perhaps the size of a person at most.

While she wanted to kill the investigator, it seemed the Ashfallen Sect had mobilized their immense wealth to outfit this person with the most ridiculous defensive artifacts she had ever seen. The only solution to an immovable mountain is to go around. So, while keeping an eye on the investigator, she attempted to walk past them down the road.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm leaving," Serena replied without looking back.

"Why? Weren't we having so much fun?"

Serena turned to look at the mortal weirdly, "Fun? What about this is fun?"

"True… this isn't as fun as I envisioned." The mortal crossed their arms, "It's not my fault though, you know? Hunting you down was entertaining, but now that I have found you, you are far too weak to be worth a fight."

Serena felt a vein bulge on her forehead in anger. "If you're so strong, why don't you just kill me already?"

"I have some unanswered questions that would be troublesome to extract from your corpse."

Serena sneered, "And why the hell would I humor a mere mortal?"

The investigator ignored her, "First question, what is this monster?"

"What monster?" Serena asked, but the large shifting darkness behind the investigator made the words die in her throat. A familiar clicking noise as the nightmare incarnate lowered its head under the canopy, and the dull orange hue from the flowers bathed its dark, oily carapace in a warm light; Serena felt a shiver run down her spine. What is a Darktide Devourer doing here?

"This is Guppy, my new pet."

Pet?! Serena screamed in her mind. You cannot tame a devourer. You can only beg as it reaps your life!

The investigator patted the monster on its head, and instead of biting their head off, it let out a small, helpless cry. As it opened its mouth, globs of viscous black sludge fell from between its jagged teeth onto the soil below, causing the ground to hiss as the sludge ate through the mud down to the tips of the tree's roots.

Serena gulped. While the Darktide Devourer was a tough monster due to its keen senses, speed, and hard body, making it resistant to most weapons—that corrosive saliva was the true terror. Able to melt through solid stone, if an island became invaded by the Darktide Devourers, by morning, there might be nothing left but a sad crater-filled rock that promptly became flooded with seawater and was then uninhabitable unless an earth cultivator miraculously existed on the island. The monster's saliva could also melt through weapons, clothes, and skin…

Noticing the problem, the investigator promptly smacked Guppy's mouth shut. "Slobbering everywhere is bad manners, and if you hurt any trees, I will kill you. Understand?"

Guppy cried again, closed its mouth, and lowered its head.

Serena felt her worldview cracking even more than it already had, and she regretted ever setting foot on Ashfallen Sect's soil. If she died, she swore she would haunt this place and deter anyone from entering ever again.

"Now, I was told by the man behind the counter that you gave him a strange pebble that was supposedly blessed by the All-Seeing Eye. Utter nonsense, but I have to wonder, how does that pebble relate to Guppy here?"

Serena turned tail and ran. There was no way she would stick around when that nightmare was here—which turned out to be a terrible idea.

***

Guppy was faster than Stella had been expecting. The serpentine horror slithered through the mud and caught up to the fleeing rat in no time—pinning the girl to the ground. The woman had been right. If not for the unanswered questions, Stella would have put a stop to this farce and ordered Guppy to kill this woman already. Stella had far better things to be doing than tormenting a random Soul Fire Realm cultivator in the middle of the night and with such terrible weather. Also, after having witnessed her sloppy swordsmanship and laughable attempt at covering her tracks to escape, the thrill of the hunt was gone. But Stella did face a new problem. How was she supposed to get information out of this woman before she died?

That's where Guppy came in. That nightmarish creature that was half insect, half snake seemed to instill a fear like no other into the woman as words began to frantically pour out of her mouth as she desperately struggled in the mud and parried the limbs ending in sharp bone spikes that grew out of Guppy's segmented back like deformed spider legs.

"It's a Darktide Devourer! The pebble I gave the man at the counter was an egg. If exposed to enough Qi it will hatch into one of these!"

"I see," Stella mused, "Are they usually this big and strong upon hatching?"

It was around the peak of the Soul Fire Realm, just like the woman. Yet it was seemingly overpowering her with ease.

"NO!" The woman shrieked as the clang of her sword on bone reverberated through the storm, "With how many spiritual stones I gave the man, it should have been born the size of a person at best and been in the Qi Realm. Just enough to kill that mortal and cause a scene!"

Stella looked at Guppy. Her new pet was quite large, being around four meters tall when it had its back straight. Though, its total length was even longer than that. And it was supposed to be in the Qi Realm? Then why did it match this cultivator in strength upon birth? Is Guppy a very promising and talented Darktide Devourer or something?

"Why is it so big then?"

"Is this Darktide Devourer truly the one that birthed from that egg I provided the man?!"

Stella nodded, "Yeah, I saw it hatch with my own eyes."

"Just how many… spirit stones… were in… that ring?" The woman said between grunts as she fought for her life. Though Stella had told Guppy to not go for any lethal attacks and to avoid the throat. She needed the woman to be able to spill her secrets, after all.

Stella paused, "Erm, quite a lot? That spatial ring linked to the Ashfallen Trading Company's vault."

The woman scoffed, "Well, there you go then! Darktide Devourers are difficult to deal with because they absorb Qi from spirit stones to grow in power. You can say goodbye to all those spirit stones you had; this glutton likely siphoned all the Qi from them, already reducing them to dull stones."

Stella knew monsters gradually grew in strength by absorbing Qi, but she had never heard of one growing this strong and quickly from directly eating spirit stones.

"It's why these monsters are the biggest threat to us island dwellers of the Abyssal Tide Sect. They invade our shores in search of spirit stones, and they will melt entire islands into the sea to get what they want."

So, this woman is from an island in the vast monster-infested sea? No wonder she seems foreign. Abyssal Tide Sect, though. Interesting name. I'll remember that.

As if angered by the slander, Guppy put more of his weight onto the woman, and she yelped.

"Oi Guppy, don't squash her for telling the truth," Stella berated her pet, and the monster reluctantly reeled back. She then looked at her fingers, which had many spatial rings, and tried to remember which one accessed the Ashfallen Trading Company's vault. It should be this one. Inserting some Qi, she delved inside, and sure enough, a mountain of a hundred thousand dull stones greeted her.

While this vault didn't contain all of Ashfallen's wealth, it contained a lot of their profits made from pills. Stella looked at Guppy and let some of her genuine anger and bloodlust leak, "Who said you could devour all of our profits?"

Guppy trembled, and the nightmarish creature turned to her with what she assumed was a pleading look, but it was hard to tell even for her by how malformed it was.

Taking advantage of Guppy's negligence, the woman scrambled from under it. Stella got ready to command Guppy to finish the job when she tried to run again, but to her surprise, the woman staggered toward her for a few steps before she dropped to one knee.

"My name is Serena Blacktide of the Abyssal Sect. Investigator—I confess. I killed Old Bill, plucked a Fire Serpent Rose, and tried to cut the root growing around one of the demonic trees with this axe." Her spatial ring flashed and an axe with some of Ashlock's cursed sap dried on its blade edge appeared in the mud between them. "I was an arrogant fool who thought I would be the strongest in this backwater city and could, therefore, act accordingly… please, find it in your heart to forgive me and let me go this time. It was a series of honest mistakes, and the Princess will murder me if she finds me."

Stella slowly stepped through the mud under Serena Blacktide's expectant gaze and crouched before her. Reaching up, she removed her mask and smiled at the woman's look of absolute horror.