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Chapter 271: Beast Tide

"Sorry, Master," Larry crawled away from the corpse he had just been munching on, leaving it near his trunk.

As angry as Ashlock was, he marveled at his first-ever summon to reach S-grade. After all, Maple wasn't his summon. They were simply in a pact to not kill one another.

Larry looked somewhat different after finishing his divine evolution to become a Herald of the Divine Ash. Upon a quick glance, he appeared as a giant spider with silver fur, scarlet eyes, a crown of horns, and a halo of swirling ash. There was also a sense of majesty, as if he were a mythical creature. However, upon looking closer, Ashlock noticed that Larry's body was not made of flesh and bone but a condensed storm of divine ash in the shape of a spider. His horns were also made from dense ash, and his eyes were floating orbs of Qi.

"How kind of you to leave half a corpse for me," Ashlock said sarcastically as a black vine emerged from the ground, "And welcome back, Larry. I missed you."

As his black vine approached the half-eaten corpse, Larry seemed to shrink back as if something terrible was going to happen.

"Mhm?" Ashlock found his summons actions rather strange. The spider only seemed further distressed when he wrapped his vine around the corpse. "Whatever, I am starving"

The corpse disintegrated into a pile of silver ash the moment it was touched.

"..." Ashlock was speechless as he stared at the remnants of his breakfast. He had already forced himself to accept that his food had been stolen and to make do with the little he had left. But to watch his hopes and dreams crumble into a pile of ash was heartbreaking. "Okay, deep breaths... in and out, in and out. It's fine. Everything is going to be fine."

"Ashlock, what's wrong? Are you hurting somewhere?" Diana asked as his entire canopy lit up and dimmed with lilac flames as if it were his lungs and he was hyperventilating.

"I think he is angry about something," Elaine said while glancing up, "I wonder what it could be?"

"Master is angry at Larry," The spider dropped his head, "I ate his food without asking."

"Huh?" Diana squinted at Larry, "You told me he left these corpses for you?"

"Larry lied."

"I didn't even know you could lie," Diana crossed her arms, "And you never used to do anything Ashlock hadn't commanded you to do. So I didn't question it."

Ashlock calmed down as best he could. His breakfast was gone, reduced to a pile of silver ash. There was no point holding a pity party over it, and it was best to move on. Larry had never acted with malice before, and the spider knew how important corpses were to him, so there must have been a good reason.

"Larry, why did you steal my food?" Ashlock spoke to everyone present. Hints of his suppressed rage were carried by his {Abyssal Whispers} skill, so they all flinched as his presence descended on them in a flood.

"When I finished my evolution last night, everyone was asleep."

"Even Stella?" Ashlock asked.

Larry nodded, "She was knocked out on the bench in a deep sleep."

Ashlock glanced at Stella, and despite everything that had happened with fruit having rained down all around, she was still fast asleep. Either someone had cast a sleeping technique on her, or she was so exhausted from teaching Jasmine yesterday it had put her in a coma.

"Knowing her, it's far more likely that too much socializing put her in a coma than for her to lose to a sleeping technique," Ashlock sighed. He had entrusted her to watch over the monster farm, but unlike his Ents, who mindlessly followed his orders until they ran out of Qi, Stella was still human, even as a cultivator. Sometimes, the mind's need for rest could not be ignored.

"Okay, Stella aside, what happened next."

"It's hard to describe, but I was not myself when I left the cocoon. I had become a small swirling ball of divine ash, almost like a storm. I had the vague shape of my past self, but moving felt entirely different. I floated more than walked and was so small that I threatened to blow away in the wind."

"You were small?" Ashlock asked. Larry was definitely a tad smaller than his past self, but he was still massive for a spider at around two meters tall.

Larry nodded, "About the size of Diana's head."

"So, how did you get so big?"

Larry answered by crawling over to the pile of ash formed from the half-eaten monster's corpse. Because he was a storm of ash rather than an actual spider, he crawled as if floating slightly above the ground, which furthered his mythical nature.

Standing over the pile of ash. Like metal attracted to a magnet, the ash flew off the floor and into Larry's body. Becoming part of the ever-swirling ashen storm in the shape of a spider.

"If I will it, anything within my realm of influence will be decayed into ash." Larry said gruffly, "Since I was so small and weak coming out of my cocoon and I saw a pile of corpses nearby, I decayed them all to ash and absorbed the ash to reform my body and regain my strength despite knowing these were for Master."

"So it was for a good reason then. All is forgiven." Ashlock said, and Larry raised his head.

"Really, Master? Are you sure I should not be punished for a thousand years in hell for eating your breakfast?"

"A thousand years in hell? Forget it. There's no need for punishment over something so reasonable. I can always find more corpses for breakfast, but what am I to do if you blow away in the wind, never to be seen again?"

Larry's eyes widened in shock, "That would be terrible. If not for me keeping you and Stella safe, you would surely perish from laziness!"

"What... when did you get so silver-tongued?" Ashlock was baffled. Since when did Larry speak back to him like that? Was it something to do with his evolution?

Curious, Ashlock glanced through his system screens and navigated to the section about his summons.

{Herald of the Divine Ash: Larry [S]}

Having consumed the flesh of a divine being from an upper realm, Larry has unlocked a new path to power. As a Herald of the Divine Ash, he will begin his path to become a deity. Alongside unlimited cultivation potential, Larry now has divine authority over ash and decay. He can decay any matter at will within his realm of influence. Also, as a divine being with governance over an affinity, Larry's body has been reformed entirely from divine ash, allowing him to reincarnate from ash and gain immortality.

"Nothing here says anything about talking back to his summoner," Ashlock grumbled to himself. If it wasn't anything to do with the evolution option he picked, perhaps it was because Larry had reached S grade? He had started being capable of speech at A grade, so maybe it had upgraded?

"Larry, be honest with me," Ashlock said, "How do you view me after your evolution? Are you as loyal as before? What do you feel about being a summon?"

"Since I have outgrown Master in cultivation, I find my mind less restrained than before," Larry said thoughtfully, "But I am still devoted to Master and wouldn't have it any other way even if I was free."

"That's good. I would be sad if you grew to hate me."

"Master, I would never!"

Ashlock gave his past self a big thumbs up for treating his summons well. To think Larry ascending to the equivalent of S grade would cause the system's leash on him to weaken to the point he could make decisions by himself, such as eating a pile of corpses without being given permission.

A sudden feeling of something moving below ground alerted Ashlock to a monster coming through his roots.

"Something's coming..." Sure enough, a wolf-like creature with two curved horns sprouting from its head and rotting skin appeared a moment later with a confused growl.

Nobody even had time to react as Khaos executed the wolf on the spot. Its death had been so swift and silent that it was almost unbelievable that it had died until its headless body slumped forward in a pool of rancid blood.

"This is even better than food delivery back on Earth," Ashlock chuckled as he wrapped his black vine around the meal and moved it far away from Larry so it didn't disintegrate into ash. "I didn't even have to order anything, and I had food appear. It was even free too! This is the ultimate way of life."

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"If you don't mind me asking, where are these monsters coming from?" Diana asked as the corpse was crushed and dissolved.

"I also wanted to ask about that," Elaine pushed up her glasses, "I have never seen something like this."

Diana and Elaine had been there from the start, watching from the sidelines in interest. They had likely been drawn here by the mountain trembling as Titus pulverized monsters like a game of Whac-A-Mole.

"My ethereal roots allow me to connect two places with a tunnel of compressed space, almost like a portal, but you still have to walk a few steps to travel the distance." Ashlock explained, "The monsters are coming from a demonic mist grove far out in the wilderness that I made for you, Diana."

"You already grew it?! And they just crawl down through your roots by their own free will?" Diana seemed baffled.

"Yeah, Stella theorized that it had to do with my roots appearing as leylines to the monsters."

"That does seem to be the case," Elaine said as she crouched down beside one of the holes and squinted into the darkness, "However, you must have an insane amount of Qi running through your roots for that to be the case since we are built upon one of the realms largest leylines."

"We are?"

Elaine nodded, "It's a few hundred miles in width and spans from one end of the realm to the other. It also connects a few of the largest known spiritual springs, so it's a common pathway for beast tides."

Ashlock had forgotten to investigate or ask more questions about the beast tide since becoming a powerhouse of the region. The level of threat he associated with it had vastly reduced since he grew in power and unlocked his {Skyborne Bastion [SSS]} skill. The fact the sect had also grown, and he had more Ents than ever, further reduced the severity of the beast tide in his mind, so he hadn't put much thought into it.

"Forgive my ignorance, but could you explain more about the beast tides, the leylines, and these spiritual springs?" Ashlock asked, "Diana has mentioned a bit about it to me in the past, so I know the basics, but..."

"It's widespread knowledge as it's the greatest threat to all demonic sects." Elaine's eyes widened, "So I am surprised you don't know."

Diana tapped her shoulder, "He may look big and sound wise, but Ashlock isn't even a decade old, you know? He was a tiny sapling back when Stella was a child. So, he had never seen or experienced a beast tide. Which makes sense; most trees don't survive in the path of those beasts."

"Not even a decade old?!" Elaine glanced up at his vast canopy and awkwardly coughed, "Ahem, well, I am always here to answer any questions you have. Let's see... where should I start. I suppose explaining what an actual beast tide consists of would be a good starting place. Simply put, a beast tide is a large gathering of monsters racing along a leyline to the next spiritual spring. It includes monsters of all types and cultivation levels."

"Even flying monsters?"

"Absolutely, they are the biggest nightmare to deal with," Elaine nodded, "There are also ones that travel underground, such as giant worms. It's why remaining if the sect isn't strong enough to fight the beasts off is nonsense, as you cannot simply wait for it to pass by hiding underground."

"How long do beast tides typically last?"

"Depends, some can last a few weeks, while others could take months. They typically come in waves with the weakest at the start and then the strongest at the end."

"Why is that?" Ashlock always wondered.

Elaine grinned as a translucent white flame flickered to life around her hand that shifted between various colors like a rainbow. She tapped the ground beneath her with her hand wreathed in illusion Qi, "Let me show you..."

The ground shimmered and changed color as if it were covered in a thin layer of water with dyes poured into it. Elaine clicked her fingers, and the colors gathered into a sparse web of glowing blue lines. Some were very thick, while others were thin. On occasion, they were intersecting each other, causing crossroads.

"What's this?" Diana asked as she stepped back to avoid stepping on the illusion.

"These are all the leylines I know of. We are based somewhere in the middle on this thick one here for reference. The rest of the Blood Lotus sect is also built upon this leyline, while the Tainted Cloud Sect is actually built on this smaller one that curves below us from the East to the West."

Only upon seeing the map did Ashlock realize something. Nox had said the tainted cloud sect lied to the West, yet she escaped to the East. He had thought she planned to loop back around, but perhaps she was heading to an eastern portion of the Tainted Cloud Sect on this curved leyline.

"Now, do you see where these leylines intersect?" Elaine continued, pointing at the map, "These are called spiritual springs, areas of immense Qi. The largest of these spiritual springs is here to the South, where three giant leylines intersect, and the Celestial Empire is built."

Ashlock suddenly felt very jealous. He was growing along a single leyline here, but the World Tree got three? "The Qi in that area must be obscene! No wonder the Celestial Empire's people do not need to absorb the demonic Qi from beast cores if they are swimming in the stuff."

Elaine used a stick and pointed at one of the places where two thick leylines intersected, "Spiritual springs deplete over time if enough beasts gather to cultivate and fight. Now, what do you think would happen if thousands of monsters gathered in a condensed location like this?"

"They would fight to the death for supremacy?"

"Some would, but monsters in the Soul Fire Realm and above have enough intelligence to know when to flee." Elaine made the spiritual spring glow red on the illusionary map, "I will use red to demonstrate the flow of beasts. For a long time, anywhere between fifty and a hundred years, the monsters will wage a brutal war among themselves around the spiritual spring. This is an era of peace for us cultivators."

The red on the map grew darker and began to pulse.

"However, eventually, the spiritual spring will lose its luster. The stronger beasts begin to fight more fiercely among themselves for the densest spot of Qi, which causes the weaker beasts to leave in fear for their lives and to seek out a better place to cultivate. This is the beginning of a beast tide, the first wave."

The thick leyline that happened to be the one Ashlock's sect was built on slowly turned red as if a river of blood was pouring along it.

"As more monsters flee the spiritual spring, the ones at the front are unable to settle down on the leyline in fear of being devoured by the stronger monsters behind them," Elaine tapped her stick on another intersection up ahead, "And they are also racing to be the first to the next spiritual spring, which has had a century to recover to its former glory. This is why beast tides are easy to predict. We can see the path the beasts are most likely to take decades in advance."

Everything was starting to fall into place.

"Let me guess, the original spiritual spring eventually runs out of Qi, so the strongest beasts have no choice but to move to the next one?"

"Exactly. This is the wave of the beast tide that the demonic sects fear. After weeks or months of battling waves, everyone's Qi is exhausted. That is when the strongest monsters attack and entire sects have been wiped out in the past." Elaine pointed the stick at a nearby smaller leyline that wasn't dyed red, "So the solution demonic sects have used for as long as records have existed is to simply move the sect out of the way. It's usually the better option anyway since all the spirit stones will have been mined in this area, and nowhere has all the Qi types a sect needs. Am I talking too much?"

"No, no, this is all very useful information," Ashlock said as he looked at the map. Having built a city in a day, he could see how easy it was to move a sect. Especially considering fighting waves of monsters involved spending years of gathered Qi for little gain. Sometimes, it was best to simply move on...

"But I don't have that choice unless I turned the entire sect into a Bastion and floated away." Ashlock sighed, "I may do that in the future, but for this time round? I don't have the hundreds of thousands of credits I need. I have no choice but to stay and fight. So, what I need is practical solutions to help fight off this tide."

An obvious one would be digging down deep to hit this leyline. Considering how it was hundreds of miles wide, hitting it was assured so long as he dug deep enough. "Let's secure a link to it first." Qi and nutrients flowed from his trunk as he sent a hundred roots to sprawl downward at the maximum speed.

While that was going on, he looked back at the map.

"What lies between the leylines in those dead areas?"

"Qi-deprived lands," Elaine replied, "There are millions of mortals who live there in vast cities; there are also villages, farmland, animals, and much more."

Ashlock had not been expecting that answer at all. "Really? Why does anyone live on the leylines then if there are beast tides?"

"Because lifeexcuse my languagesucks fucking ass in Qi-deprived areas."

Diana laughed, "It sure does, but to think someone as serious as you would swear. Didn't see that one coming."

Elaine rolled her eyes but smiled, "I was being serious. Qi may give birth to monsters by corrupting and mutating animals, but it also gives way to an easier and longer life. For those in the Qi-deprived lands, famine and illness kill most before they are adults, and of those that survive until adulthood, they would be lucky to live till eighty! But on the leylines, under the protection of cultivator sects, mortals live in comparative abundance without risk of famine or illness for upwards of a hundred years due to the ambient Qi."

Ashlock couldn't believe it. "From the sounds of it, the mortals of the Qi-deprived lands live lives comparable to those in the medieval times on Earth but perhaps even worse."

"Not to mention," Diana said, "You can never find out if you are a cultivator if you live in the Qi-deprived lands. Without Qi in the air, spirit roots will remain forever dormant."

Elaine nodded, "Also, monsters sometimes roam out of the leylines and slaughter entire villages before their beast cores crack and kill them due to Qi deprivation. The poor mortals can do nothing to the Qi-enhanced beasts."

"So monsters can't survive for long outside of areas with Qi."

"That's correct. It's the same for humans, but to a lesser extent. They won't die, but once they have spent all the Qi in their core, it's impossible to absorb anymore to replenish it."

Ashlock looked back on the map. If the leylines were like borders to places of death for ordinary mortals, then in the smaller pockets of land surrounded by leylines, wars for space between these cities and villages were also likely fierce. As Elaine said... life sucked fucking ass for them.

"To think the mortals under the cultivators had it better," Ashlock mused. "Mhm, but since I can pump Qi through my roots, couldn't I make a Qi-rich city within one of these pockets between the leylines? That could be a way to move all the mortals of Ashfallen City out of the way, but that doesn't help me. I am stuck here..."

"Elaine, these beast tides are predictable, right?"

"Most certainly! The next one should come down this leyline from the North toward the Celestial Empire in the South in about two to three years. It should be one of the biggest in recorded history, so the last I heard is the Blood Lotus Sect is planning on moving soon."

"The biggest in recorded history..." Ashlock suddenly didn't feel so confident as he looked down at the map that was pulsing red. It wasn't even here, and they were just talking theoretically, but it was starting to feel far more real and a significant threat. "What would the biggest in recorded history entail exactly, and how would you suggest we could survive it?"

Elaine laughed, "Survive it? We would move, of course. Fighting it would be impossible."

"Move?" Ashlock said slowly, "And how do you suppose I do that?"

"Eh?" Elaine glanced back at his trunk, "You would just... oh. Oh no."

"We have talked about fighting the beast times a few times..." Diana shook her head.

"I didn't think you were serious?! I thought you would fight a few waves at the most and then leave!" Elaine shouted, "That's suicide. Impossible. This tide will contain an entire wave of Nascent Soul monsters. It's accumulated hundreds of years of unchecked monsters since all the last beast tides missed the Celestial Empire."

"Well, shit..." Ashlock looked to the North. He might need to speed up his own and everyone else's progress if such an apocalypse was on the horizon.

Stella yawned loudly and almost fell off the bench, "What is everyone shouting about so early in the morning?"