Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 452: Cheating Tree

”I hate this game.” Ryker cursed.

Sitting across from him was a very smug-looking Stella. Her arms and legs were crossed as she sat upon an exposed tree root. With a slight flick of her finger, a piece moved forward on the chess board, and she grinned.

”Checkmate.”

”What a stupid game!” Ryker abruptly stood up in anger, sending the board and pieces flying.

Stella opened her palm, and the flying pieces and board paused mid-air. Rotating her palm, it was as if she were turning back time as the board alongside the pieces returned to their original state—which only seemed to annoy Ryker more.

”Itʼs not fair,” he pointed an accusing finger at Stella, ”Youʼre using your bloodline to cheat.”

”I am not,” Stella refuted and shrugged, ”Youʼre just a sore loser.”

Ryker crossed his arms and snorted, ”Big sister, youʼre bullying and lying to your junior.”

”Sheʼs not Ryker,” Diana said. She was leaning against the nearby tree, half-watching the game. ”Not that I would consider Stella using her bloodline as cheating in the first place—it is part of her strength. But Iʼve seen her use her bloodline many times, and she didnʼt use it here. You lost fair and square.” Diana also seemed slightly annoyed as her expression twisted, ”Stellaʼs just good at chess, I guess.”

”Ah!” Stella grinned, ”I win the battle of intellect against you muscleheads.”

Diana shrugged and stepped away from the tree, ”You lost the brawl earlier, and chess isnʼt going to help you fight the heavens.”

Stella glared at Diana, ”You teamed up with Ryker! I could defeat you in a duel and Ryker in chess at the same time and with my eyes closed!” Her spatial ring flashed, and a small pile of spirit stones appeared, ”Come on, letʼs bet on it.”

Diana laughed, ”You make that sound so impressive, but you get empowered by your bloodline when your eyes are closed. Ryker is also the worst chess player Iʼve ever seen—even the wind could defeat him! As for the duel, you just hide in the aether and try to poke me with your dagger like some hobo hiding under a bridge.”

Stella was taken aback, ”Hobo? Who are you calling a hobo?”

”Iʼm also not that bad at chess!” Ryker stomped his foot.

Sebastian chuckled and patted his Young Master on the head, ”Ryker, you are incredibly talented at cultivation, but your chess skills.... leave a lot to be desired.”

Ryker twisted his head under Sebastianʼs hand to glare up at him. His hair of silver threads ran down his back, and he wore a little white cloak. Due to the aura around him as a Star Core Realm cultivator and his silver eyes, he would look quite regal, like a child emperor, if not for the childish tantrum that matched his five years of age. ”Are you calling me dumb, Sebastian?” He said, his voice filled with irritation.

”Young Master, donʼt twist my words—”

”He said this was a battle of intellect,” Ryker pointed an accusing finger at an amused Grand Elder Redclaw, who was standing on the sidelines. ”So if you say Iʼm lacking at it, doesnʼt that mean Iʼm dumb?”

”While chess is a measure of intellect, it isnʼt the only one.” Sebastian nervously chuckled as he withdrew his hand, ”This is also your first time playing—nobody is perfect at something on their first try.”

Stella raised her hand, ”Um, actually, this is my first—”

Sebastian glared at her, and Stella took the hint. She closed her mouth and lowered her hand before Ryker could look at her.

Ashlock took this moment to interject, ”Good morning. What did I miss?”

Everyone looked to the sky in unison, but only Stella perfectly pinpointed where his viewpoint was.

”I can answer that,” Grand Elder Redclaw stepped forward, his commanding presence as a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator causing nobody to interject. ”The brawl lasted a few hours, and Stella lost to the combined efforts of Diana and Ryker. Since these younglings still had a lot of energy, I thought it would be fun to teach them a game I bought from a merchant long ago called chess.” He looked off at the rising sun, ”I didnʼt realize it was morning already.”

”Tree, do you know chess?” Stella asked, ”Nobody here is my match, so itʼs been quite dull.”

”I do,” Ashlock replied without thinking. That earned a raised brow from Grand Elder Redclaw and a few others like Elaine. Apparently, it was a lesser-known game, so they were surprised he knew it. Of course, he had dabbled in a little online chess back in his old world.

”Come, come! Letʼs play.” Stella casually reset the board with her aether Qi. Ashlock decided to humor his adopted daughter. While he could play via telekinesis, he summoned the shadow lich to sit across from Stella and had him move the pieces.

”Iʼm a bit rusty, so go easy on me,” Ashlock said. While he had been a rather decent player in his old life, that had been years ago. Muscle memory thankfully kicked in, so he took an early lead with a strong opening position. That was all lost when Stella executed a perfect fork, taking away his rather aggressively placed knight.

Oddly, the move felt very reminiscent of when he had overextended into the Silverspire territory with his demonic sword and had it stolen from him. As Ashlock was still annoyed at losing his knight piece, Stella systematically began to take out his forward pieces. Every move he made seemed to play right into a perfectly laid-out trap.

It was a little shameful, but he opened up his status menu in the middle of the match at one point to check if he had a skill to help him out here—but there were none. He may be a continent-spanning spirit tree with a planet inside his soul and abilities that defy the logic of reality itself—yet he was still limited by his mind.

Ryker had claimed that you couldnʼt defeat the heavens with chess, and he was right. While chess itself couldnʼt defeat the heavens, what it signified certainly could. There was no way to defeat an overwhelming force except with well-placed moves. While Ashlock could crush Stella with his soul and drown her in desolation Qi, he was not omniscient.

Though he could see the future—his slow and inevitable defeat in this chess game. ”System...”

[How may I be of assistance?]

”Do you know how to play chess?”

[I do not]

”Huh, a game that even transcends your knowledge.” Ashlock looked down at the chess board currently serving as the battlefield between himself and his adopted daughter. Everyone was gathered around and watching him lose.

While frustrating, it was quite humbling.

[But I could make a suggestion]

”Whatʼs that?”

[Rely on your offspring more. They are, in a way, an extension of yourself, and with your latest language skill upgrade, they will understand and be able to reply more clearly]

”Ask my offspring for help with chess? Thatʼs an interesting idea... but how can I ask them?”

Ashlock pondered and decided to take a mental picture of the boardʼs layout. He then spent some time developing a few possible moves he thought were good and projected them out to his millions of offspring. Some were brand new, birthed within the last few hours from his Cursebloom Sap. Others hadnʼt had the time or resources to develop sufficient egos for chess.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But he also had ancient, powerful, and smart offspring like Erebus, Nox, Akasha, Willow, Quill, and more. There were also a million spirit trees in the Eternal Grove of Rebirth that housed human souls. It didnʼt matter if none of them had played chess before. He would have them assist him in devising the best move.

Stella tilted her head in confusion as she looked at Anubis, whose hand had paused over the board for a while. Until now, Ashlock had been making each move within a few seconds, but he had suddenly stopped.

”Ash, are you okay?”

He was... not. While the systemʼs idea had been interesting, the result was disastrous. Like before, where he had tuned out his offspring to avoid being flooded with emotions, his consciousness was now a chaotic storm of voices. He was quickly reminded that while his offspring was technically an extension of himself, he was not a hivemind or supercomputer able to process all of this. While his ability to take in information had grown and his memory had improved since becoming a tree, the change from when he was a human hadnʼt been drastic enough to deal with this.

But he also refused to lose to Stella in a game of chess. There had to be a way he could organize the chaotic voices.

”Silence,” he commanded through the root network. To his surprise, the millions of offspring listened. He was granted a moment of peace. ”We are going to vote on the options. If you think the first option is the best, shout out a single word now.”

A pulse of words, emotions, and more surged into his mind, only to retreat like a tide a moment later. Remembering the general vibe of how loud the response had been, he repeated the process for the other five moves he had suggested.

”Mhm, seemed that option four had the loudest response. Really, though?” He stared at the board for a long minute, mentally playing out the move, and was shocked to find that it had indeed been the best out of the options. While it had been a move he had devised and suggested, he likely would have gone for one of the other options as this move was a more defensive one than he would have liked.

Anubis moved his arm back, picked up his remaining knight, and retreated the piece.

Grand Elder Redclaw stroked his chin, ”Good move.”

Stella seemed to agree as she frowned. For the first time, her grin had been wiped away, and she looked serious. Her eyes flickered as she analyzed the board. ”It is a good move,” she muttered, ”but not one he made.”

”What do you mean?” Elaine asked from the side.

”Ashlockʼs style was overly aggressive until now—he was happy to sacrifice pieces as he saw fit to advance his position on the board. But that had been a defensive move.” Stella drummed her fingers on her thigh, ”While he did take forever to think of that move, it just doesnʼt match the profile I had of him—which makes things difficult.”

”Why?” Ryker asked, his previous annoyance having faded while watching the intense match between Stella and Ashlock.

”Because,” Stella said as she raised her bishop in the air and dangled it over the board, ”unpredictability is hard to plan against. Chess is a game of thinking at least three steps ahead, but if I have no idea what he is going to do,” she placed the bishop down with a resounding tap, ”then the future is clouded—forcing me to make uninformed decisions.”

She looked up and stared into Anubisʼs flicking black flame eyes and emotionless face. ”Your move.”

While Ashlock analyzed the board and once again consulted his millions of offspring, Ryker seemed deep in thought. His eyes never left the board, and he stood there calmly.

”I was wrong,” he eventually muttered.

”About what?” Stella asked without taking her eyes off the board.

”Thinking this game was stupid and had nothing to do with cultivation.” His Star Core hummed, and a stream of silver coiled around him, ”Diana and I won against you earlier by teaming up with brute strength, but I think we can both admit we would lose against you alone.” He glanced at Diana, who gave a reluctant nod.

Stella rested her head on her palm and looked at Ryker with a curious glint in her eyes, ”Oh? While Iʼm flattered, I fail to see how that relates to chess.”

Ryker deflated like a balloon, ”Sebastian is right. Iʼm stupid, and I fight stupid. While my cultivation is high, I have no good techniques or understanding of how fights work—I mean, the fight against the heavens was a good example. I became an ashen statue within minutes because I got overly excited and flew too high.” He sighed and gently kicked at the ground, ”I guess Iʼm saying I still have a lot to learn and that Iʼm a dumb kid.”

Stella chuckled, ”Youʼre too young to be speaking like that. Itʼs okay to make mistakes, you know? Especially when youʼre young...” She trailed off as her attention returned to the board. Ashlock had decided what to do, and Anubis had advanced a piece.

”Darn,” Stella scratched her head, ”Now that is such an oddly aggressive move—am I missing something?” Her eyes scanned the board, ”Itʼs an almost suicidal play.” She looked up at him in the sky, ”Be honest, Ash. Are you the one making these moves? Are you cheating to beat me?”

”I did what had to be done to win.” Ashlock said shamelessly, ”You just didnʼt have the stomach to do it first.”

Her eyes narrowed, ”So you are cheating. How?”

”Itʼs not really cheating. Iʼm just consulting my offspring about what they think is the best out of a few potential moves I devised.”

Stella glanced around Moros at the aether affinity spirit trees, Erebus, and the mountain range covered in demonic trees that seemed to stretch into the horizon. She blinked as she took in what he said, ”Youʼre asking millions of spirit trees for help?”

”Advice—and they are technically extensions of me. Besides, you donʼt win by fighting fair. You win by being the last one standing.”

”Oh, youʼre so on,” Stella sat back and closed her eyes. The air above her shuddered. She reopened her eyes, and there was a tranquility to them—she had activated her bloodline.

”The user of an ancient knowledge bloodline against a continent-spanning forest of spirit trees,” Grand Elder Redclaw said as he rubbed his chin. ”I wonder who will win.”

What followed was the most intense game of chess the 9th layer of creation had likely ever seen. During the game, Ashlock streamlined his process of asking his offspringʼs opinion and narrowed his sample size to the more intelligent of his offspring to avoid noise from his less developed offspring, who didnʼt even know what was happening—they just wanted to be involved in the fun.

A process that had taken up to ten minutes per move had been narrowed down to a dozen seconds by the end. Anubisʼs hand hovered over the board, swiftly executing moves that Stella countered by moving her pieces around with her aether Qi while sitting across from Anubis like a transcended existence. Her gaze was unfazed, but the aether Qi flickered across her shoulders, making her hair float and betraying her unease.

Eventually, all that could be heard on Moros was the tapping and shifting sound of pieces being placed and moved around. Almost everyone from the inner circle was in attendance, watching the match between a god and his daughter.

”Itʼs a draw.” Grand Elder Redclaw abruptly declared, putting his hand over the board and ceasing the battle.

Stellaʼs gaze and expression became irritated, ”How? I still have many pieces, and his king is alive.”

”Ashlock sacrificed a piece that caused a stalemate. Because black has no legal moves to play, itʼs a stalemate. It doesnʼt matter if you have him cornered with two pieces if he canʼt legally move; the game is a draw.” The Grand Elder glanced at Ryker, ”If this game was real life, do you think it would be a draw?”

Ryker frowned at the question and looked at the board. Jasmine, standing beside him, nodded, ”Yeah, it would.”

”Oh?” The Grand Elder looked at Jasmine, ”Care to explain why?”

”Erm, assuming the pieces are all higher than Star Core Realm, the black piece could go supernova here, killing the two white pieces.” Jasmine picked up the pieces on the board, simulating an attack by bashing them together, ”Likewise, if the black piece were to defeat one of the white pieces, it could go supernova. Both scenarios result in a draw.”

Ryker stepped forward and pointed out, ”If the white piece is in the Nascent Soul Realm, it could also escape under the protection of the other white piece, resulting in a draw.” He turned to Jasmine and seemed to size her up, ”Do you want to play chess?”

Jasmine smiled, ”Sure, I would love to.”

”I guess Iʼm being kicked off, not that I can complain.” Stella rolled off the tree root while massaging a headache, ”Say, arenʼt we going to the Silverspireʼs today?”

”We are. My roots have infiltrated Argentum, so we can teleport there anytime.” Ashlock informed her through Anubis. ”I was thinking we should head over there in the late afternoon. That gives you and everyone plenty of time to prepare for an arrival befitting the Ashfallen Sect.”

Stella crossed her arms and squinted at Anubis, ”You know, I didnʼt realize this before as Iʼm fluent in the ancient runic language, but you have been speaking to me in the common tongue this whole time. Since when did you learn to speak like that?”

”As of today. I met some monsters deep in the beast tide while testing new techniques.” Ashlock then explained the whole meeting with the Wyvern and how he needed to improve his language skills to converse in the common beast tongue. He also talked about Nymeria and the communication stone he had given. ”So yeah, thatʼs what happened during the night. I also thought of developing a new language so trees can communicate by rustling their leaves.”

”Ooo, I would love to work with you on that.” Elaine clapped her hands together in excitement.

”Great. We have a few hours to kill before we reach the Silverspires, so I would appreciate that,” Ashlock replied.

Stella held out her hand, ”Give me that communication stone.”

Ashlock had Anubis give Stella an inquisitive look. ”Why?”

”This Nymeria girl sounds fun. I want to be the one to take her call.”

”But you donʼt know draconic?”

Stella snorted, ”So? Iʼll just learn draconic. I can become fluent in any language within days by using your language comprehension fruits and my bloodline.”

”I guess thatʼs true.” Ashlock withdrew the communication jade and gave it to Stella. ”There you go—wait, I should have an even more potent language comprehension fruit to give you now.”

Ashlock brought up his Dao Fruit Production menu; sure enough, there was an upgraded Language Comprehension fruit. The name had stayed the same, but the description now said that people who ate this fruit could understand any language instinctively, and their speed at picking up a new language was greatly enhanced. Deciding to grow the new fruit, he reread the description.

Then something dawned on him. Didnʼt his new language skill and this fruit give him and anyone who ate it, for example Stella, the ability to converse with anything—even the World Tree?

”Stella,” he said.

”Mhm?” Stella looked up from the communication stone she had been handed.

”How would you like to try speaking with your mother?”