"Well, that was quite unexpected." Ashlock's gaze lingered on the spot where Diana had vanished with Neptune. Everything about this space within the mystic realm was plain wrong. There was no floor, yet everyone stood around him as if there was one. The roots of his progeny were still linked up with his main body because otherwise, the skill would cancel, yet he couldn't feel any stone. How did one just vanish into the floor anyway?
"Will Elaine be fine?" Douglas asked Maple, hanging limply in Stella's embrace with a sleepy expression.
Maple just nervously chuckled in response and looked away.
"I'm sure she will be fine," The Redclaw Grand Elder laughed awkwardly and began to walk off across the nothingness with the rest of the Redclaw Elders, "We have been waiting for this opportunity all month and are very eager to improve our strength, so please excuse us."
"See you in a month," Stella shouted after them, "Good luck, and Elder Mo, you better reach Star Core. I want to see these weapons you promised me."
"As you wish, Mistress," Elder Mo gave her a deep bow before leaving with the rest of the Redclaws.
Ashlock spread his spiritual sense and saw all of them enter a pocket realm overflowing with fire Qi a minute or so later. "The Grand Elder must have been agitated knowing such a perfect pocket realm had floated on by."
Douglas coughed into his hand, "I will be off too then. I can't remain one of the weakest in the Ashfallen Sect forever."
Stella gave Douglas a nod, and Maple gave the man an exhausted thumbs up.
Douglas gave Maple an odd look and then shook his head and left.
"Kaida, don't hang around here hoping Stella is going to take you," Ashlock told the snake near his trunk. "You need to be motivated like Douglas—go find a pocket realm containing a sea of ink or something."
Letting out a sad hiss, Kaida slithered off into the celestial fog, which left Ashlock alone with Stella and Maple.
"So, Tree. What's your plan now?" Stella asked while tilting her head, "I haven't seen you manage to enter the Mystic Realm before."
"That's a good question. In truth, I didn't even know if I could enter the Mystic Realm in the first place, so I didn't really plan this far ahead." Ashlock said, "I have around twelve hours in here before I lose control over this tree, but if the time dilation of the Mystic Realm is in effect, I should have closer to fifty hours."
"I see. Well, do you want to come with me?" Stella suggested, "That tree you're using has spatial affinity, after all."
"Sure."
A moment passed between the two, with neither doing or saying anything.
"Tree?"
"What?"
"Aren't you going to send us to a spatial Qi realm?"
"No? I thought you would go find us one."
Stella raised a brow, "But the second I touch one of those shards, you will be left behind."
"Oh right," Ashlock said, "So what should we do?"
"You ask me as if you aren't the one capable of summoning a collection of alternate realms, creating pocket realms around yourself, and even dragging creatures like Larry from other realms. YOU are the expert here, not me."
That was fair. Wracking his brains for a moment, Ashlock remembered the Redclaws had been holding each other's shoulders to make sure they didn't get separated. Could they follow the same thing despite him being a tree?
"In all honesty, I'm not even sure if I can enter a pocket realm even by inhabiting my offspring's body," Ashlock told Stella, "But one idea we can try is if you touch my trunk and then touch a shard that goes by maybe we will both be teleported inside."
Stella shrugged, "Sure, that could work. Let's give it a go."
Walking over, she plopped Maple onto his feet and placed one hand on the demonic tree's trunk. "You coming with me, Maple? Or are you going to visit your siblings?"
"They will be busy talking and stuff," Maple grumbled as he put his hand on Stella's knee, "I will come with you."
Stella smiled, "Alright then, I will just grab the first shard that floats by with spatial Qi."
"Sounds good," Ashlock replied, and a few minutes passed.
Stella suddenly reached out and grasped a shard. Ashlock felt a brief pull on his trunk, but Stella vanished along with Maple, leaving Ashlock alone in the swirling celestial fog.
Ashlock let out a long sigh, "Well, that didn't work. Stella was most certainly holding onto my trunk, and I felt a pull but didn't go with them. Is it because I'm a tree?" He glanced down at his roots that vanished into the nothingness below. Was he still anchored to the 9th layer of creation? The link to his main body remained, so was that stopping him?
Trying to reach out with telekinesis to drag a shard toward him also proved a fruitless affair. Nothing in his knowledge of the {Mystic Realm} skill suggested he could enter one of these shards, but likewise, nothing said he should be excluded.
"Apart from the fact the Mystic Realm refuses to manifest around my main trunk, I suppose." Ashlock had noticed from the last few times he cast Mystic Realm that the celestial fog that appeared on the mountain peak would never float anywhere near his trunk as if it was adverse to it.
"Man, this sucks. I was hyped to go on adventures through the realms," Ashlock sighed, "But I guess I will forever remain rooted in place while all those silly two-legged mammals get to run around and do fun things."
Ashlock was about to resign to his fate when he noticed the minimized menu of the {Dimensional Overlap} skill still in his vision from earlier. Opening it, he saw a slight change to the user interface... now at the top of the list of pocket realms to choose from alongside their price, there was a group of highlighted ones with the word 'Free' next to them with small people icons.
"What the?" Ashlock selected the one at the top that claimed to be a spatial Qi realm with two people icons, and the option expanded.
[Spatial Qi Realm:
Description: Sealed training realm of the Azure Clan
Qi Level: Star Core 7th Stage
Environment: Hostile
Monsters: True
Current Occupants: 2]
"Someone from the Azure Clan created this pocket realm? Isn't that the clan responsible for the book of spatial concepts I've been learning Spatial Lock from?" Ashlock ran down the rest of the information, and it was all a bit concerning. Stella was still in the 1st stage of the Star Core Realm, so to be in a place many stages higher than her level seemed like bad news. Furthermore, this realm had a hostile environment and monsters.
"But it says there are two occupants, so that means Maple is with her," Ashlock sighed in relief. 7th stage may be too much for Stella to handle, but it was nothing to Maple from his understanding of the rascal.
Ashlock mentally hovered over the [Free] purchase button, and a system prompt appeared.
[Due to a Mystic Realm agent being present in the selected pocket realm, the cost of Dimensional Overlap is nulled. However, this only applies so long as you are also in the Mystic Realm]
"Huh?" Ashlock closed the menu and switched to his main body on Red Vine Peak to confirm the system's words.
Ashlock was relieved that the sun had hardly climbed through the sky, suggesting that the 4x time dilation was in effect within the celestial fog. One week out here was a month in there.
"System, open the {Dimensional Overlap} menu."
One look at the user interface confirmed the system's previous words. "Sure enough, there's no free option displayed here, but four options are still highlighted at the top with the small people icons. Wait, only four? That means two are missing... I assume Diana and Elaine?"
A quick click-through confirmed a pocket realm for spatial, ink, fire, and earth. But no void or water Qi ones.
"So Neptune and Mars really did take them somewhere else outside of the Mystic Realm or systems jurisdiction," Ashlock really wanted to know what was happening to the both of them right now. Alas, his curiosity would have to wait, as he could not reach them until the Mystic Realm ended or the Worldwalkers returned them.
"That aside, I came out here to quickly test something..." Selecting the same spatial pocket realm as before that was highlighted. "300 credits link fee and then 20 credits a minute to maintain it. Whereas it's free for my progeny inside the Mystic Realm... interesting."
Returning his focus back to the tree within the Mystic Realm and briefly screaming at the sudden feeling of no ground beneath him, Ashlock quickly checked on the other free options highlighted at the top of his menu.
[Ink Qi Realm:
Description: Hatchery of the Midnight Inkwing
Qi Level: Soul Fire 3rd Stage
Environment: Peaceful
Monsters: None
Current Occupants: 1]
"Glad to see Kaida found a relatively peaceful-looking pocket realm around his cultivation level, but the fact it's a hatchery for a rather deadly-sounding monster doesn't bode well."
[Fire Qi Realm:
Description: Blaze Titan Graveyard
Qi Level: Star Core 2nd Stage
Environment: Treacherous
Monsters: True
Current Occupants: 5]
"Looks like the Redclaws ended up in a dangerous pocket realm much like Stella, but with the Grand Elder there being a few stages above the pocket realms level of Star Core 2nd stage, they should be fine." Ashlock clicked out and then went to the last free option, which was none other than Douglas's.
[Earth Qi Realm:
Description: Dragonite Mines
Qi Level: Soul Fire 8th Stage
Environment: Neutral
Monsters: True
Current Occupants: 1]
"Dragonite Mines? And the place is two stages higher than him..." Ashlock had judged that Douglas had a deep hatred for mines, considering his reaction to the last time there was a misunderstanding between them when Douglas thought Ashlock wanted him to be a miner for the Ashfallen Sect.
As much as Ashlock wanted to offer his aid to Douglas, he couldn't imagine he would be much use underground as a tree, so he went back to the first option, the spatial Qi realm, and hit the [Free] button.
Everything flashed around him in a swirling nebula as space tore open above him, and he felt the sky fall on his head.
[Dimensional Overlap Initiated]
In an instant, he was somewhere else, somewhere new. He could tell by the sudden overwhelming spatial Qi that slammed into his trunk and the mind-bending view. All around him, space was twisted and contorted in bewildering patterns, creating a dizzying landscape of fractured realities, suspended islands, and swirling vortexes that seemed to lead nowhere.
Spreading out his spiritual sense, he soon located Stella, who stood on a nearby cliff, gazing at this strange new world. The spatial winds sent her hair flying in random directions, but she seemed mostly calm, with Maple having reverted to his squirrel form and perched on her shoulder.
Beyond the cliff was a kaleidoscopic expanse that seemed to birth nightmarish creatures whose forms varied as wildly as the pocket realm—there were many beasts with multiple shifting limbs and entities that seemed to phase in and out of existence. These monsters seemed capable of defying logic and reason, such as traveling vast distances in the blink of an eye or contorting their bodies to exploit the realm's mutable geometry. Terrifying, yes, but there was something more lurking below. Soon, colossal heads of serpentine behemoths lurched out to devour these birthed nightmares, only to fade back into whatever reality they had come from once they had secured their meal.
At the center of all this madness was a floating island with a grand temple of blue stone that seemed to be orbiting a dying star. As the only visible man-made structure, Ashlock assumed it belonged to the creators of this pocket realm. The Azure Clan.
"Tree? Is that you?" Stella said as she turned around and looked at him in bewilderment. She strode over but then paused a couple meters away.
"Yes, Stella, it's me," Ashlock replied, "I used the technique from earlier that lets me create a pocket realm around my trunk to get here."
Ashlock looked down and noticed that the area around him was nothingness, just like it had been in the Mystic Realm. Despite being on some mountain, he still couldn't feel any stone around his roots.
Like a kid scared of falling in a pool, Stella poked the nothingness around him with her foot and found herself able to stand on it, much like she had back in the Mystic Realm. After a few more tests, she eventually committed and carefully approached him with Maple having climbed onto her head.
"I was somewhat confused and worried when we left you behind, so I am glad you are here now," Stella sighed in relief and then chuckled nervously, "I seem to have picked quite an interesting pocket realm this time."
"Yes, you certainly did," Ashlock replied. "I have reasons to believe that giant blue stone temple over there belonged to the Azure family."
Stella seemed confused for a second, but then her eyes widened, "That Azure Clan? The one who wrote those books?" Stella asked as she turned to squint at the island in the far distance. "Why do you think that building belongs to them?"
Ashlock chuckled, "Because this pocket realm belongs to the Azure Clan."
Stella's jaw dropped, "You don't think there is some immortal inheritance in that building, do you? Like the one Elder Mo got in the last round?"
Ashlock brought up his system menu once more.
[Spatial Qi Realm:
Description: Sealed training realm of the Azure Clan
Qi Level: Star Core 7th Stage
Environment: Hostile
Monsters: True
Current Occupants: 3]
"It's listed as a sealed training realm for the clan," Ashlock replied, "So maybe? But I doubt it."
"A training ground?" Stella grinned, "Sounds interesting."
"Now, now, be careful. This place is filled with almost Nascent Soul levels of spatial Qi. Those monsters down there are out of both of our leagues."
Stella frowned but then turned to the side and met eyes with Maple, "Say, Maple... you said you were hungry right?"
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