Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 497: New Abode

Due to her new home residing next to the destroyed Anchor Pylon, it wasn't exactly hard to find. There was a reason the land and the houses were sold so cheaply.

As she passed through the noble district in the shadows of the Anchor Pylons that towered into the sky, she could see how they created an almost impervious barrier that protected the Citadel from the chaotic spatial storm overhead. If a few more were to fail, the Citadel would likely be torn to shreds. That's why the gaping hole in the barrier, created by the destroyed Anchor Pylon, was so obvious even from afar. The spatial storm overhead was pouring inside, and if not for the neighboring Anchor Pylons working overtime to contain it, the storm would likely tear the Citadel apart.

While their walk was peaceful, it was impossible to ignore the tenseness of her companion.

"What is it, Kael?" she asked, her words jolting him out of his daze.

"I didn't know Your Highness was of such esteemed status," he stuttered. "I'm... ashamed of my actions until now."

Stella raised a brow. "What are you on about?"

"What you said to Thalos Tessellate, about being a princess from the first layer of creation."

"Oh, that?" Stella chuckled. "You're mistaken. I never said I was from the first layer."

Kael furrowed his brows in confusion. "But—"

"I simply pointed out that not knowing a person's name does not automatically insinuate that they are beneath you. There is the far less likely but more dangerous possibility that they are someone so far above you that their name has never reached the depths you reside in."

Kael massaged his temples. "So you aren't from the first layer?"

Stella found teasing Kael fun, so she simply gave him a mysterious smile without answering. However, Kael had reminded her of the less-than-pleasant interaction with Thalos Tessellate, which dampened her mood during the walk through the noble district.

"Come on, let's head to our new home."

Deciding that walking was far too much effort, Stella reached into the spatial plane. Here, she could see that despite the Anchor Pylons' best efforts, they were unable to entirely block the spatial storm's influence on the Citadel below. It was a chaotic mess, and despite being a rather powerful cultivator, she was unable to create a stable portal without relying on the glyphs that lined the streets.

That's when she switched to the aether plane—a space unaffected by reality, as it lay in the in-between. She was starting to see why her white flames were so respected in this spatial Qi-rich environment.

If a fight were to break out between two spatial cultivators in the Citadel, it would go rather poorly, as neither cultivator would be able to use their abilities to their full potential. The environment was like a Monarch Realm's domain fighting against them. But in the aether plane, she was unaffected by such things. Stella grabbed Kael's hand, shocking him.

"This might be a rough trip, hold on."

Before he could react, she dragged him through the spatial plane while she effortlessly traveled through the aether plane.

As they arrived before her new abode, Kael stumbled forward, pale-faced. While Stella gave him a moment to recover, her attention was drawn to the destroyed Anchor Pylon that was nestled between three houses—the smallest of which she owned, while the other two had been purchased by Lady Solari.

One thing she didn't fully understand about the situation was why the Tessellate family seemed unable to repair or rebuild the Anchor Pylon themselves. She'd reverse-engineered its design and knew how to fix and possibly even build a new one, yet they had decided to sell the land instead. It was baffling, but it worked out perfectly for her.

The house she purchased matched the projection she had seen at the auction. It was nothing too impressive—a three-story manor-style house made of a combination of stone and spatially attuned metal. A vast front lawn of purple grass stood between her and the building. Hidden around the property, she could detect glyphs that were trying and failing to stabilize the intense spatial distortions. As she stepped onto the front lawn, she felt the deed that was tucked away inside her spatial ring react to an extensive array lying beneath the property.

Huh, so the house recognizes me as the owner. That's interesting, Stella thought as she felt a strange connection to the property. Through this connection, she realized just how bad the situation was: the stabilization glyphs were working overtime and would soon burn out. Once that happened, the entire building would likely drift off into the sky and be destroyed by the spatial storm overhead. Of course, Stella had no plans to let that happen.

"This place is going to need a lot of work," she muttered, walking forward.

While it was bigger than her house in Ashlock's Inner World, it felt far less homely and not really a place she wanted to stay too long. I wonder if I should try to call a Mudcloak over here to fix this place up for me. Unfortunately, that would slow down the time dilation of the Eternal Realm, so she dismissed the idea. She would have to handle any interior design personally.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Kael was stunned in place, unable to walk forward. She raised a brow. Were the spatial distortions too strong for him?

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Kael's gaze was locked on the lawn. With a hesitant step, he touched it—and then, like a cat putting its paw in boiling water, he quickly pulled back.

"What's gotten into you?" Stella asked, genuine confusion in her voice.

He looked at her, bewildered. "Can I really step on this?"

"Yeah, of course you can. It's just grass."

Kael didn't seem convinced. "Just grass? I've never seen this stuff before."

It was then that Stella remembered that while grass wasn't that impressive to her, it was an incredibly precious commodity to those of the Citadel. She chuckled and continued walking across it, flattening the grass in her wake without a care.

"Of course you can walk on it. Just follow me," she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

She didn't have time to waste on Kael's antics. She had already wasted three months in this pocket realm, and while the time dilation made that not a long time back on Red Vine Peak, she still wanted to get a move on. Her foundations were as solid as they could possibly be, and her Star Core was overflowing with Qi. At this rate, her ascension would begin on its own, calling down the wrath of the spatial storm overhead in the process.

Reaching the front door of the home, she'd been expecting a door, only to be greeted by a portal. Turning to Kael, who was slowly following behind her with a pained expression for every blade of grass he crushed underfoot, she asked, "Is this normal?"

He glanced up and stared at the portal. "For a noble's house? I think so. I've heard a rumor from a maid who used to live near me that they are far larger inside than outside—almost like a pocket dimension. Of course, the houses in the slums, like mine, still use doors, as there isn't enough ambient Qi down there to support such a ludicrous thing."

"I see."

Since land was at such a premium on this tiny floating rock, it made sense that the nobles would make use of the high ambient spatial Qi to increase the size of their properties.

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Stella returned her focus to the portal, which shimmered like a mirror of liquid glass. It was unlike any portal she had ever seen. Taking a breath, she stepped through. Her world instantly folded inward—space compressing to a pinprick—then unfurled like a blooming flower.

She emerged into a marble foyer vast enough to swallow a city square, its ceiling so high it vanished into a twilight haze. Rows of golden glass chandeliers hung at impossible angles, their light refracted through space, giving it a heavenly glow. The floor beneath her feet was polished so perfectly that it mirrored the vaulted expanse above, making it feel as though she stood between two skies.

The sense of scale was disorienting. Stella could have sworn the entire manor, from the gardens outside to the furthest servant's wing, could fit inside this single hall. Every doorway along the walls was framed with archways carved from pale stone, their distances deceptively far—the more she looked, the more the space seemed to stretch.

Kael appeared behind her a second later, and his amazed, childlike gasp was understandable—even for Stella, who had seen some of the most unbelievable things in the nine realms, this was an impressive sight.

"Well, I think this place will have enough room to set up a spatial array. What do you think?" she asked with a light smirk.

Kael scoffed. "Forget the spatial array—you could fit my whole neighborhood in here and have space left over. How can someone even live in a place this large?"

"For spatial cultivators, distance isn't an issue," Stella said, shrugging. "The fact that the kitchen or bedroom is miles away is a simple spatial rift away, so it's not really a concern. Now, if someone without the ability to traverse the spatial plane came in here, it would be like a prison. But everyone in the Citadel is a spatial cultivator, right?"

"I guess that's true," Kael agreed, "but still, this is just over the top. Wait—" He turned to her with a look of horror. "If this was the smallest house being sold in the auction, just how big are the two properties Lady Solari purchased?"

Stella whistled in agreement. "You're right, and to think she bought two of them."

Kael sighed. "What a waste. It's going to be a shame when this place is eaten up by the spatial storm along with the others."

"Huh?" Stella looked at him oddly. "What are you talking about? There's no way I would purchase a house just to let it be torn away from me."

Kael didn't seem to be following, so she explained. "I'm going to fix the Anchor Pylon. I only blew it up to temporarily lower the house prices."

"You're going to what?" Kael said in disbelief.

"I'm going to fix the Anchor Pylon," she repeated. "But first, I'm going to build the spatial array and ascend."

"Shouldn't you fix the Anchor Pylon first?" Kael asked, gesturing to the left of the hall, where a large hole was caused by the spatial storm devouring the house.

Stella shook her head. "When you told me about the power of the spatial storm and how the spatial Qi on the upper layers of the noble district is stronger, I got an idea. What if I ascended while taking on the full strength of the spatial storm?"

"You would die," Kael said without hesitation.

"But if I didn't die, wouldn't it make for one of the strongest ascensions in history?"

"Yes, but you would die," Kael insisted. "You should definitely fix the Anchor Pylon first, and then ascend."

Stella stared at him blankly. "No, I think I'm going to do it this way. I've spent the last three months strengthening my soul, and I think this will go well."

"You're insane. Absolutely insane," Kael insisted.

Stella shrugged. "I've been told that before. Do you know how to build arrays?"

Kael shook his head. "Of course I don't. That's something only the most well-versed scholars in not only the Citadel but the entirety of reality know how to do."

Stella hummed as she glanced around the expansive hall, trying to think of what Kael could do. "Ah, I've got it," she said. "I want you to take the money I have left and purchase furniture to fill this place."

"You want me to go buy furniture?" Kael asked in disbelief.

"Yes. I want a huge bed, maybe a few, actually, and some other things. I'm not really expecting visitors, but you never know." She then handed him 100,000 flux. "This should be enough, right? I don't know how much these things cost."

He stared at the money in his hands. "Yeah," he said slowly, "this should be enough. More than enough to outfit ten of these houses." Doing an over-the-top bow, he said, "I'll be heading out then, my lady."

"Great. Get going, then," Stella said, kicking him out of the house.

He vanished from where he stood.

Now left alone, Stella let out a long sigh and stretched her back. "That was so fucking stressful," she grumbled, thinking back to the auction and facing down Thalos Tessellate. If that man had seen through her facade for even a second, he could have killed her easily, and she wouldn't have had time to eat the Mystic Realmwarp Fruit to escape. While her soul was technically anchored to Red Vine Peak, they had yet to test if she could survive a full death experience like that.

"Once I ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm and have an infant soul, the risk of dying will deplete greatly." Cracking her knuckles, she grinned. "Enough of that. Let's get to work."

A month passed like a blur. Setting up such a massive array by herself was a laborious task, and if not for her bloodline giving her intense concentration and the knowledge she needed without having to look it up, it might have taken years. Kael had come and gone, dropping off pieces of furniture here and there, but most of it had gone into the other rooms rather than the hall, which was being repurposed into the room for the spatial array.

"There, I think it's done," she said, wiping some sweat from her brow.

Kael was standing behind her, unable to comprehend what he was looking at. The floor was covered in silver lines, forming a tapestry of spirit stones, flux, and more. She'd even had to learn how glyphs worked and how they differed from typical arrays.

Slotting in the final piece of flux she needed to complete the array, with a resounding thunk, the array brightened and hummed to life. Almost immediately, the intense spatial ripples that were tearing through the room and toward the gaping hole in the roof calmed.

Stella and Kael both looked at each other and let off sighs of relief.

"That feels lovely," she said.

Kael nodded in agreement. "It sure does. But are you really sure about this? Ascending without the defense of an Anchor Pylon is suicidal."

Stella smirked. "When I was a child, I defied heaven's lightning. Sure, it almost killed me, but I learned from that experience that you've got to push your limits if you want to grow. If I do a typical ascension, I'll become a typical cultivator. But if I want to defeat the heavens one day and stand at the very top, being typical isn't going to fly. So, a potentially suicidal ascension it'll have to be."

What Stella didn't mention was how potent Ashlock's pills and truffles were, making ascension a breeze. Honestly, she'd be shocked if the spatial storm could really bring her to the edge like Kael was likely suspecting it would.

"Then I wish you the greatest of luck, my lady," Kael said, bowing. "While you are ascending, I will guard the manor."

It was a nice thought, but obviously, any noble who had a problem and showed up would be able to kill them both with a snap of their fingers, not that Kael knew that, as Stella had never revealed her true cultivation realm.

"Thank you. I'll be depending on you for that," Stella said.

Kael bowed once more and laughed, leaving Stella once again alone.

Taking a seat in the center of the array, she looked up at the giant hole in the ceiling and grinned. "Let's see what secrets you are hiding."

Her spatial ring flashed, and she began gorging on the many pills and fruits, supercharging herself beyond what any cultivator would ever experience. Her dao comprehension was now legendary, her spirit roots untainted, and her Star Core was boiling with liquefied aether Qi that was practically overflowing.

If there was any cultivator in the history of reality who could survive the upcoming ascension, it was her, and she was going to make use of that.

There was also one other reason she was going so far.

Ash had mentioned that he would receive a portion of the Qi and also the Dao comprehension that she obtained. Having already taken up so much time in the Eternal Realm, she wanted it to be worth it for him.

"I'll see you soon, Dad," she said, looking up and letting her Star Core leave her mortal vessel and float before her.

It was time for her to ascend.

The heavens, detecting her will, answered in full force. The chaotic spatial storm overhead immediately focused on her like a swarm of fish darting toward food. Golden lightning tore through the storm and struck her soul, illuminating the room, followed by a sonic boom. The array she had built hummed with power as monoliths of stone rose from the ground to form a pentagram around her. The golden lightning, filled with spatial Qi and dao, continued to rain down but was intercepted by these monoliths.

Stella grinned wildly in anticipation as the glyphs covering these monoliths began to brighten. "This is going to hurt," she said. After all, these monoliths weren't there to block the onslaught like Kael had thought.

No, they were there to empower and then redirect the golden lightning at her in a far more condensed beam. As they reached their zenith, the room flashed with golden light as all five of the monoliths unleashed their stored power upon her floating soul.

Stella screamed and threw her head back. Her soul went supernova, unable to contain the Qi being injected. But that's when the formation she had painstakingly spent a month creating activated its next feature. The tapestry of silver lines wasn't there to control spatial distortions—they were a blueprint for her soul. Detecting that her soul was losing its sense of self under the strain, the formation worked to pull her back together just this time, as two separate souls that were spatially intertwined via the aether. As the monoliths finished unloading all their stored Qi, they went back to absorbing the onslaught from the heavens.

Stella stopped screaming and began to laugh wildly as she stared up at her twin souls. It had worked! Her crazy plan had really worked. Months of planning and setup were all for this moment.

To have the most intense ascension to the Nascent Soul Realm of any cultivator in history.

She gestured for the heavens to bring it on. "Come on, is that all you've got?" she sneered. "I'm going to need more Qi than that."

The heavens took her taunting to heart and doubled the onslaught.

"Now that's more like it!" she grinned, standing up. "Bring it on, you sparkly bastard!"