With the turbulent storm gone, the gathered cultivators at the mountain's base watched the sun dip below the valley's mountain range and plunge them into darkness.
Only the subtle moonlight shed a hint of light upon the dirt road that led to Darklight City and the new Evergreen mountain.
Elenor Evergreen frowned for the umpteenth time at the empty road and tapped her foot impatiently. It had been hours since she arrived here with the others, but the Grand Elders were yet to show up and direct them.
One of her followers noticed her annoyed gaze and approached her with cautious steps. "Elenor, I am afraid there is still no news from the Grand Elders."
Elenor stayed silent for a moment, rolling her tongue between her teeth. She wanted to say many things, but they were improper to come from such a dignified lady like herself.
But she could only tolerate the cowardice of those old foggies for so long. They had feared approaching the forming Star Core due to the chance of it going supernova, but that hadn't happened.
So now Stella Crestfallen, the girl Elenor had sent that lovestruck Mike to kidnap months ago, was a realm above her. And that was a big problem.
Elenor was still stuck at the 9th stage of the Soul Fire realm. She had once been heralded as a genius throughout the sect for reaching the stage ten years ago. However, she was now in her late twenties and still showed no sign of being able to form a Star Core.
Elenor looked down at the man that had given her the bad news. "Devon, the risk of the Star Core going supernova has passed. So why are the Grand Elders not here yet? It has been hours."
Devon's expression darkened. "There are rumors that Tristan Evergreen—your Star Core realm cousin, participated in the first wave."
"So?" Elenor snapped back. She hated whenever that bastard was mentioned. He had taken the family by storm when he emerged from their formation room as a new Star Core cultivator. His presence had utterly disrupted the already tipping balance between the two families as the Evergreens became the clear dominator in the partnership.
"Well, he has yet to return alongside the twelve other cultivators that went along with him to the peak." Devon said carefully, "We believe he might have perished at the hand of Stella—"
Elenors annoyed tapping ceased, and she stared wide-eyed at Devon. "Perished?" There was a brief moment of ecstasy at the thought of Tristan's corpse, but her calculative mind soon returned.
She shook her head and chuckled, "How could Stella Crestfallen fight off twelve cultivators and kill my cousin all by herself while freshly ascending to the Star Core realm and not well practiced with her new level of power?"
Devon frowned and rubbed his chin momentarily while gazing up the steep mountain to the pavilion at the top shrouded in the moonlight.
Elenor Evergreen couldn't help but sneer. "It simply doesn't make sense. Your logic is flawed."
"No." Devon turned back and appraised her sternly, "Who said Stella was alone?"
Elenor remained silent. She knew from her scouting for a potential soul furnace to conduct a pill to help her breakthrough to the next realm that the Red Vine peak had been long abandoned, and only Stella Crestfallen had lived here for the last decade.
Of course, there was a slight possibility someone else had taken up residence in the decrepit and abandoned peak, but she doubted it. Who would be desperate enough to reside here?
Devon remained watching her facial expression, but her gaze remained emotionless. Nobody in her family knew of her plans, and she wished to keep it that way. "You are right, Devon. I have no way to confirm if Stella Crestfallen is alone up there. So what do you believe happened?"
"Well, it's all speculation, but if you look at the facts, the Crestfallen family used the spatial element, and Stella is rumored to be very talented. So the person ascending to the Star Core was likely her." Devon paused to collect his thoughts, "So... if she was busy ascending when Tristan and the others attacked, someone else had to protect her, and this elusive second person has to be at least in the 1st stage of the Star Core realm."
Elenor hadn't expected a good answer from Devon, but what he said made some sense. Had an ancestor of the Crestfallen family survived and kept a low profile? Raising the girl from the shadows and conserving their strength?
A rumor did come to mind. Stella Crestfallen had been nicknamed demoness because of an artifact or technique she had gotten from somewhere. Had this elder given her that power to protect herself while they were in seclusion?
There were too many questions and not enough answers. "Do we have to wait for the Grand Elders? Can't we just storm up there ourselves and take a look?" Elenor said while grumbling.
Devon laughed, "If you want to die so soon, be my guest. I have no idea what is keeping the Grand Elders from arriving, but if there are two Star Core cultivators up there, we will need all of us and the Grand Elders to stand a chance."
Elenor contemplated Devon's words as her sights returned to the moonlit mountain peak, but something suddenly appeared before her—blocking her view.
She couldn't help but blink in confusion. A rift in space had opened between them and the mountain. It was a slice through reality, slowly opening like a maw to the void beyond.
The Qi of the rift was chaotic, and it was barely stable. It looked like the work of an amateur, but the sheer volume of Qi rushing to tear the space apart was mind-blowing.
"Star core realm," Elenor muttered as she took a hesitant step back and willed her green flames to life.
"Stella must be attacking—" Elenor froze in fear as she saw something within the void. It was distorted, so she couldn't get a clear view, but if she looked closely, she could see an eye glaring at her.
It was like being eyed by a top-ranked monster—an indescribable feeling of inferiority washed over her and made her shudder. No... this wasn't the gaze of a top-rank monster—it was the eye of a godlike being.
Before Elenor could even turn to run, she saw black tentacles covered in spikes wriggle through the rift and latch onto Devon. Before the man could react, he was dragged, kicking and screaming, toward the rift.
Elenor didn't even have time to react, it happened so fast, and she felt rooted with fear from the eye's intense gaze as if amused by her puny attempts to defy it.
Devon was dragged head-first through the rift, screaming. But before his body was completely pulled into the void, Devon managed to surround his fist with flames and punch at the rift.
A terrible idea.
Elenor was thrown backward and smashed into a tree as a wave of spatial Qi accompanied the rift, suddenly collapsing.
Her arms which she had brought up at the last second, were burned, and if not for her Qi protecting her, she might have died. "That bitch." Elenor spat blood to the side and heaved herself from the wrecked tree.
"To sneak attack like that—she is even more of a coward than I thought." Elenor coughed blood and stumbled as she tried to gain her bearings.
Cultivators from the two families rushed toward her, shouting her name, but her ears were ringing and her sight blurry. Then, a moment later, she recovered as her body flooded with Qi. She looked past the group of concerned cultivators and saw the upper half of Devon's torso lying on the ground.
"Elenor Evergreen." A man with snow-white hair and a robe barked from the side, ignoring her condition, "What in the nine realms was that?"
"An attack, obviously." Elenor rolled her eyes as she summoned a healing pill and ate it, "A poorly made portal, but with a tremendous amount of Qi behind it. I suspect it was constructed by Stella Crestfallen."
"What about those vines?" The man replied, ignoring her rude tone.
"Vines?" Elenor questioned. Had there been vines?
"Yes, vines." The man crossed his arms, "There is residual spatial and a hint of nature Dao intent in the air. I believe those black tentacles were vines or roots of some kind."
What the Winterwrath man said made sense. Elenor shook her head and reevaluated the situation.
Was Stella Crestfallen opening the rift and the other Star Core realm sending the vines through? Of course, only a nature-aligned Star Core could control the vines like this.
Then a terrible idea occurred to Elenor. What if Tristan Evergreen had never left the mountain and decided to team up with Stella to betray the family? With two Star Core realms, they could contend with the other families, especially if they worked together like this.
It was a plausible conclusion and one that terrified Elenor to her core. But what was that eye? A mental attack? She had heard of Stella Crestfallen being called a demoness due to her artifact, but she had never personally experienced its effects. Had it gotten stronger after she reached Star Core?
Elenor felt like all the puzzle pieces were slowly coming together—since when had Tristan Evergreen and Stella Crestfallen planned this? How had they maintained contact in secret? In fact, the family still didn't know exactly how Tristan had reached the Star Core realm so quickly.
She was broken from her thoughts when another rift suddenly opened. This time she was ready and immediately closed her eyes, focusing solely on spiritual sight.
Unfortunately, the Winterwrath man seemed less prepared and, just like Devon, found himself entirely immobilized by the vines as they wrapped around his limbs.
He fell to the ground—frailed around—kicked at the soil in a vain attempt to try and break free, but nothing worked. The vines slowly dragged him toward the barely open rift.
His soul fire roared around him, illuminating his terrified face in a white glow, but the vines became coated in a sheen of lilac Qi, just like the forming Star Core from earlier, meaning he was still unable to break free.
Elenor blinked. Was Stella a dual affinity? How could the vines from Tristan be coated in Stella's spatial Qi? These were questions for another time. Elenor didn't particularly care for the man, but she still felt some obligation to at least try and save him.
A sword appeared in her hand, and she closed her eyes, trying to ignore the ominous gaze of the eye that she could still feel, and swung her sword at the vines.
Her sword connected, and she felt the vines she hit give way, but there were still many coiling around the man. So she blindly raised her sword and, using her spiritual sense, struck at the vines between him and the rift, but then she felt her sword being held by something.
Opening her eyes, she came face to face with the distorted godlike creature's eye that looked at her with a wrathful fury that made her want to run away. But she couldn't—vines now coiled around her sword.
Frozen in fear. Elenor's hands felt limp, and with another tug, her sword flew from her hand and went through the rift.
"Ahhhhh!" The Winterwrath man flew past her into the rift alongside a few other cultivators who failed to fight the vines.
Elenor stumbled backward and then managed to break into a sprint. The situation had changed. She needed to contact the Grand Elders immediately. Tristan had switched sides, and Stella Crestfallen was far stronger than anyone anticipated.
A new powerhouse had taken root in the Blood Lotus sect.