[Heavy edits have been made, and the new chapters will be released sometime soon, so the text below is no longer an accurate representation]
Hey everyone! Over the last year, behind the scenes, I have started and dropped dozens of projects, with most of them never making it past the first chapter. However, over the Christmas break, I wrote around 7k words for a...
2024-01-06 18:00:54 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock was neither delusional nor naive. He understood that Ashfallen City would be a glorified refugee camp of mud huts, likely riddled with crime and misery. The time crunch to build a city within a day was also not helping matters.
"Sadly, there is not much I can do about the time limit." Ashlock had flown over the White Stone Pavilion's square with {Eye of the Tree God} and seen the ...
2024-01-05 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock stirred awake at the first light and felt revitalized from a night under the nine vertical moons.
They remained a mystery to him—the lowest moon that kissed the horizon still shimmered with a purple hue and bathed him in spatial Qi-filled moonlight, while the other eight moons remained as dull as the day he had first seen them.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System 2024-01-04 20:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
The Voidmind Grand Elder gnashed his teeth as he consumed more painstakingly gathered Qi to defend the Voidmind residence from the Skyrend family's assault.
He had never been so enraged in all his life, and he also couldn't remember the last time he had felt this pressured. The defensive array that protected the Voidmind residence had ceased operations a few hours ago because it had burne...
2024-01-02 20:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock had seen many powerful cultivators as a tree during his decade of life, so he had started picking up the telltale signs of a powerful cultivator. It was not their arrogance, clothes, weapons, or status that gave them away from the other cultivators, but rather their gaze. As they say, the eyes are the window to the soul, and in this world where cultivators empower and refine their souls...
2024-01-01 20:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock watched Stella hand the little girl one of his precious Spirit Root Improvement truffles. Although he now had far more Qi and could grow dozens in a fraction of a time compared to the past, they were still valuable. He had given Stella a couple so she could give them out as she saw fit. So he wasn't exactly mad at her for offering such a precious resource to a mortal, but it was still q...
2023-12-22 22:55:53 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock had lived in this crazy new world for almost a decade—yet he had witnessed little of it as he could not travel or explore due to being a tree.
However, he could picture the world beyond his root's borders through Stella and Diana's stories. Because of them, he learned that there were nine cities of various sizes under the rule of the Blood Lotus Sect's noble families, with Slyme...
2023-12-21 20:18:31 +0000 UTC View PostThe Voidmind residence had descended into a sudden chaos.
Dante paused his hurried steps and glanced out the floor-to-ceiling window that gave him a good view of Slymere, which spawled down the mountain and into the valley below.
A sudden flash dazed him, followed by roaring thunder that shook the entire Voidmind residence.
She must have begun her ascension already. D...
2023-12-19 20:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post"Another day has passed already?" Ashlock stifled a yawn as his body slowly woke up.
Perhaps it was due to the long winter nights that he spent slumbering under the nine vertical moons, but he felt like time was flowing faster than usual. If not for his system notifying him of each passing day, he would blink, and a week would pass.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System
... 2023-12-18 20:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostNox sat in the reception room of the Voidmind residence that lorded over Slymere from the peak. Sunlight streaked through the large eastern-facing windows, which was unusual. Nox had done business with the Voidmind family and had visited Slymere a dozen times, yet this was the first time she had seen the distant land from this room.
"I wonder what is going on?" Nox murmured as she took a ...
2023-12-15 23:04:48 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock enjoyed how peaceful the cavern within the ink Bastion had become since everyone except Kaida and Elaine had left.
Kaida lay beside the bookshelf built into the rock wall and flipped through a book. Ashlock had asked him why he didn't always input his Qi into the words to gain heavenly insight, and the Lindwyrm's response had been a simple one.
Apparently, It gave him a mass...
2023-12-14 22:04:38 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock felt the prank was in good taste but still felt bad.
"What was that for?" Stella complained to the ablaze tree in the center of the ink lake that Ashlock was inhabiting while shaking her fist.
"I apologize. I was testing Quill's ability to use ink Qi, and we just so happened to conclude our test as you walked in," Ashlock said through {Abyssal Whisp...
2023-12-13 20:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock had been so focused on keeping his offspring alive through the tribulation that he had mostly ignored the system's messages in favor of keeping the {Lightning Qi Barrier} active and directing Zeus to catch some of the stray lightning bolts.
"Of course, you can have a name. Just give me a second." Ashlock went into a slight panic as no names came to mind. He had named Willow in the...
2023-12-12 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostBefore Ashlock could create his second-ever Bastion, he needed Kaida to stop freaking out.
"It's me," Ashlock said in as soft a voice as he could muster, "Calm down."
But it was already too late. Kaida had already inserted his Qi into one of his scales near his neck. The ancient runic words he had carved into the ink scale glowed with a heavenly light, and before Ashlock got a chanc...
2023-12-11 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock was once again in the dreamscape below the nine vertical moons. Eight were dull, cold rocks that were barely visible despite their gargantuan sizes. Their silhouettes were only clear by creating dead zones in the sea of stars that dominated the sky.
Only one moon illuminated the sky with a vibrant purple light. The lowest of the moons that Ashlock had dubbed as the spatial moon du...
2023-12-08 20:00:48 +0000 UTC View PostNox marveled at her freshly healed hand, twisting, turning, and flexing it under the room's dim lighting. The phantom pain of a missing hand that had haunted her for the last week was finally gone. Now, all she missed was the cold feeling of silver on her fingers—they looked and felt naked without her many spatial rings.
"Is your new hand functioning as intended? Try and run some Qi thr...
2023-12-07 20:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSebastian Silverspire saw Red Vine Peak in the distance through the pouring rain. Due to the weather and dense cloud coverage overhead, Red Vine Peak was naturally obscured in the darkness of the raging storm. However, the mountain peak was shrouded in mystery, even on a day of sunshine and endless blue skies.
Surrounding the perimeter of the peak was a sparse wall of demonic trees with o...
2023-12-05 21:59:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Shows Diana after her transformation (long hair etc... was originally going to have the raven wings and stuff but it got in the way). Wrapped around Diana is what Kaida looked a few chapters ago, this covers has been in the works for 2 months so Kaida hadn't transformed yet during the initial sketch haha.
In the middle is of course Ashlock in all his glory seen through the doorway (which ...
2023-12-05 17:30:49 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock easily broke the seals on the many rings looted from the two slain bounty hunters, confirming his suspicion that both men had been a stage or two below Nox. Once again, he let the contents from the ring rain down and form a separate pile beside Nox's belongings.
Oddly, all that went through Ashlock's mind as he saw the piles of shiny coins nestled among bundles of clothes was that...
2023-12-04 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Ashlock activated his new S-grade skill {Nocturnal Genesis}, his world changed. He was still stuck on a mountain peak as a tree, but that is where the similarities between his previous reality and this dreamscape he found himself in ended.
The sparse cloud cover was gone and replaced with a sky full of stars that seemed to stretch on until infinity. However, this breathtaking sight w...
2023-12-03 20:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAfter directing the Bastion back to Red Vine Peak through the portal, Ashlock parked the floating fortress on the eastern side of the mountain peak to once again obscure it from Darklight City that lay to the west.
Since the Bastion was now stationary, as a Star Core tree, Willow could power the illusion array himself, but it would slow down his cultivation, so it wasn't worth it. Red Vin...
2023-12-01 20:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAs Ashlock canceled the {Dimensional Overlap} and the light Qi bubble collapsed, he realized he might have gone overboard.
He had chosen from the long list of options in the {Dimensional Overlap} menu a pocket realm with near Nascent Soul level light Qi and had set it to encompass the entire Bastion. Which at the time had seemed reasonable. However, he had failed to foresee how badly it w...
2023-11-30 20:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock had not foreseen this turn of events as the two jade-masked bounty hunters stepped foot on the Bastion, but he wasn't exactly complaining. He wasn't often handed walking meat bags of sacrificial credits on a silver platter like this.
"Devouring these two will have made this costly battle worth it." Ashlock reigned in his hunger and wandering thoughts and focused. The two were stil...
2023-11-29 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDespite Stella's confident words about taking Nox's head, she made no move to do so for one simple reason. She would likely die.
Her overconfidence had been an act from the start.
The initial thrust through Nox's lung? A complete stroke of luck. Stella appeared behind Nox with Spatial Step right as the towering woman was distracted while eating pills. In a panic to strike before Nox...
2023-11-28 02:38:04 +0000 UTC View PostAshlock let out a sigh as he gazed upon the horizon. The skies were beginning to darken, meaning dusk would soon be upon the land.
Which was bad news for Ashlock. Nox would get a massive power-up once the sun vanished, assuming she had any Qi to fight. But more concerning was that Ashlock's connection to Willow and the Bastion would be cut once the sun went down, significantly reducing hi...
2023-11-26 22:47:04 +0000 UTC View Post"Who the fuck have I messed with?" Nox cussed as she used Shadow Clone to switch her position again to avoid being blown to pieces.
The world around her blurred, and she briefly stumbled on a tree root after instantaneously switching positions with her clone about a mile away.
Shadow Clone was a Qi-intensive technique that allowed her to swap places instantly with a humanoid shadow ...
2023-11-24 19:59:40 +0000 UTC View PostA trap? How?
Ashlock quickly cast his sights to the ground below and saw a thin black line beside the tree surrounded by piles of dulled beast cores. Khaos emerged from the tear in the void, and the apex predator wasted no time trying to slaughter its target upon Ashlock's orders by silently raising its void-coated claws and ruthlessly slashing down.
The Ent's claws effortlessly tor...
2023-11-23 02:36:59 +0000 UTC View PostLife had been busy over the last few days on Red Vine Peak for Ashlock and his sect. Douglas had spent three days tirelessly working on Kaida's Bastion. At first, the Lindwyrm hadn't seemed so sure about what he wanted as he still lacked imagination, having only evolved from a small grass snake within the last few months.
So Ashlock had guided Kaida with a few ideas, which he all loved, a...
2023-11-21 22:55:41 +0000 UTC View PostNox awoke to the chirping of birds and the feeling of sunlight on her arm.
"Ugh," she spat out leaves and soil that had strangely invaded her mouth and groaned as she pushed herself up. Even with her vision being blurred and her entire body wracked with pain, she managed to sluggishly remove the twigs that had intertwined with her hair and threw them into the human-shaped ditch she had li...
2023-11-20 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostLater that afternoon, with the sun already nearing the end of its lazy arc across the sky, Ashlock gathered everyone on the mountain's eastern side, including Douglas, who had been busy with the Mudcloaks all day, so he only had to explain this once.
"To answer your question from hours ago, Diana, this is a Skyborne Bastion," Ashlock said through {Abyssal Whispers}.