Seven figures moved stealthily through the shadows of Shamrock Peak, each cloaked in dark robes that merged seamlessly with the night.
Their leader, a tall man with a scar across his cheek, carried a broadsword on his back, its hilt adorned with intricate runes.
Beside him, a lithe woman with silver hair and piercing green eyes held twin daggers, their blades glinting faintly in the moonlight.
The others were equally formidable: a burly man with a war hammer, a slender youth with a bow, an older man clutching a staff, a grim-faced woman with a spear, and a bearded man with a curved sword.
“These Emerald Cove cultivators are soft,” muttered the leader, his voice a low growl. “We’ll slip in, create some chaos, and be out before they even realize what happened.”
“Just remember,” the silver-haired woman said, her voice sharp.
“We’re here to make a statement. Kill a few, leave the rest trembling. We don’t want to confront the island owner Aksai Everwood himself. No matter how young and inexperienced he might be, he is still a Foundation Building Expert– not someone we can mess with.
They say that he is a turtle and doesn’t like to come out of his shell. Some low-level cultivators have already started to call him Lord Turtle because of his recluse nature. As long as we don’t get too close to his palace, we should be safe. Kalingoot would provide us with quite a lot of benefits as long as we are successful in our mission.”
The burly man grinned, hefting his war hammer. “Hehe. Can’t wait to smash a few skulls.”
As they approached the farming fields, the older man raised his staff, muttering an incantation. A veil of shadows enveloped them, masking their presence. The youth with the bow tapped a charm on his wrist, activating an invisibility spell that further concealed their forms.
They moved silently through the fields, their eyes scanning for potential victims. The town at the base of Shamrock Peak was within sight, its residents unaware of the impending danger.
“Look,” whispered the grim-faced woman, pointing to a group of farmers working late. “Easy targets.”
But before they could make a move, the gray fog surrounding Shamrock Peak thickened and expanded, enveloping them in an instant. The air grew dense and suffocating. Panic flickered in their eyes as they struggled to maintain their stealth.
“What’s happening?” the bearded man hissed, his voice barely audible.
Suddenly, thick wood vines erupted from the ground, coiling around their legs and arms like living shackles. They thrashed and struggled, but the vines only tightened, pulling them down into the earth.
“No! This can’t be!” the leader shouted, his voice muffled as iron vines sealed his mouth.
Their vision blurred as the ground swallowed them, and darkness consumed their senses. When the world came back into focus, they found themselves in a dimly lit chamber. The air was thick with the scent of herbs and a faint, metallic tang. They lay on the cold stone floor, their limbs bound by the unyielding vines.
Aksai stood a few meters away, holding a runic scalpel in one hand and a vial of potion in the other. He wore a pleasant smile, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. The demon tree’s roots and vines had delivered the intruders to the heart of Shamrock Sanctuary Palace, to a place no one else could access.
“Mmmff! Mmmff!” The intruders released muffled screams, their eyes wide with terror as they realized their predicament.
Was this man what they call Lord Turtle? Why did he look so menacing and powerful with such a harmless title that was given to him? All seven intruders had questions like these popping in their minds as they met Aksai’s eyes. They couldn’t help feeling a tingling sensation at the back of their neck when they looked at the scalpel Aksai was holding.
Aksai approached, his smile never wavering. “Welcome, my dear guests,” he said, his tone casual and almost cheerful. “I see you’ve come a long way. Kalingoot sent you, right? How delightful. As the island owner of this humble island, I must act like a good host to all of you.”
He examined the scalpel, its blade catching the light.
“I’ve been meaning to test some new theories. You’ll be helping me with that. Don’t worry, it won’t be too painful… I think.”
The seven intruders squirmed, their fear palpable. Aksai’s pleasant demeanor only heightened their horror as he began his work, the chamber echoing with the muted sounds of their struggle and the calm, methodical rhythm of his experiments.
***
A few hours and a lot of screams later.
Aksai finished working on the last intruder.
The runic scalpel in his hand disappeared, and he took a deep breath before wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead with his free hand. He then summoned a mass of water around him that swirled like a mini typhoon.
When the typhoon dispersed into thin air, Aksai was as fresh as ever, as if he had just taken a nice bath. The stains of blood and sweat were nowhere to be found, and he changed into a fresh set of clothes.
In the next moment, wood vines erupted around him and rubbed against his body. It was as if these wood vines were possessed by the spirit of a domestic cat, rubbing themselves against Aksai’s body.
“Hehehe. You can have the bodies of those three. They are about to die,” Aksai chuckled as he looked at the three intruders lying on their respective stone platforms, taking their last breaths.
The wood vines immediately approached the three dead bodies, coiled around them, and penetrated the bodies. The mangled flesh of the bodies started to dry as the wood vines extracted the residual life force from them, turning these bodies into mummies before completely devouring them.
This was the true nature of the demon tree. Even though it had been tamed by Aksai, it had not forgotten its roots. The devouring of the Spirit cultivators also helped Aksai in many ways through the demon tree.
As such, he made sure to offer a portion of the intruders involved in the human experiments to the demon tree, allowing it to grow at a rapid rate and help Aksai in return.
As for the remaining four intruders? They had been turned into Sentient Scarecrows.