Reborn as a Demonic Tree

It looks like I successfully fooled him. Vincent hid a sigh of relief as he didn't have to do another demonstration and lowered his hand. While he had made it look impressive, a lot of work had gone into killing that Nascent Soul Realm shadow titan, and it started way before he drained the blood from one of his Elders. In fact, the draining of the Elder was more for show than anything else. A classic misdirection to draw attention away from the truth.

Since the moment this Ashfallen Sect showed up and summoned those two Nascent Soul Realm shadow monsters, I knew I had to take the opportunity to get rid of one of them. I'm just glad the illusion I conjured of Elder Morrigan Voidmind being tortured managed to obscure my powering up of the grand blood-gathering array below the city.

Vincent's spiritual senses were spread across the city, and he had detected the presence of the strange silver cloud ages ago. Noting its divine nature and cultivation level, he allowed the vaguely spider-shaped cloud to devour some of his family members to gauge its strength and to see if it would be a better target for the grand array.

I can't stop this one. Vincent concluded as he eyed the divine monster cautiously. The shadow titan had been an easy target due to its size, and as a shadow affinity monster out during the daytime, its defenses were considerably weaker for its cultivation level. Meanwhile, this spider seemed impossible to stop. All Vincent could do was burn his gravity Qi to lock it in place for a while, but that wasn't a permanent solution.

I have no idea who this Ashfallen Sect is, but they are too dangerous to fight head-on for now. I need to reach Monarch Realm, and then nothing in this layer of creation can stop me, not even this divine spider. Vincent's eyes flickered to the horizon. All I need is to absorb the Crestfallen bloodline. With access to their ancestral knowledge, I can comprehend the laws of all three of my affinities, form my Inner World, and become unstoppable.

Devouring Stella Crestfallen's bloodline was all he cared about now. He had been unsure if she had awakened the truly ancient variant of her bloodline that gave her access to the knowledge of the Crestfallen family until he provoked her enough earlier while posing as Demetrios Skyrend. Once Stella declared her full name, the overwhelming presence of her bloodline had almost broken his blood clone apart.

That was when he knew without a doubt that she possessed the absolute pinnacle of bloodlines. The one that rules over all others. Descendants of the Crestfallen family were already rare enough, but unless they awakened the ancient variant, their bloodline provided nothing but the ability to focus and learn quickly. While useful, it was nothing compared to the version Stella had.

Vincent had tried to replace the demoness standing beside Stella with a clone to capture her, but while he had been setting his trap, Stella had unexpectedly turned and stabbed him.

I still don't know how she noticed. Maybe the leader of the Ashfallen Sect informed her with telepathy? Vincent squinted at the remaining Nascent Soul Realm shadow Ent, which the Ashfallen Sect's leader was now using as a proxy. Right now, he would lose a fight to it as his capabilities were considerably reduced when fighting through a blood clone, and the array under the city would need days to recharge.