[Tree] Chapter 649: The Gilded One (Patreon)

Diana soon realized the vault was the fortress.

The foyer where they had confronted Sterling was just a simple facade. Beside it, there were no other rooms. Only a sloped corridor veined with threads of gold, which seemed to go on forever.

Thanatos floated behind Sterling, a scythe resting on the Sin's shoulder and ready to take off his head. Ashlock's presence radiated from deep within the earth, and she could also feel his gaze bearing down on the fortress from above.

He was taking this situation incredibly seriously.

Diana was too. As she followed Sterling into the vault, she commanded her nearby clones to form a perimeter and notify the other Generals to head over. While Sterling claimed to be defenseless, he was still one of the Sins that had caused them so much trouble until now.

The corridor ended at a pair of doors twice Thanatos's height, plated in gold that gleamed as if polished. Sterling laid his palms flat against them and pushed, and the immense doors swung inward without a sound.

"Please, come in," Sterling said, leading the way.

For a vault owned by the sin of Greed, Diana had expected to be blinded by a mountain of glittering coins. Instead, the chamber was a hollow sphere carved into the mountain, and every inch of its curved wall was threaded with gold. Thousands of them. Millions. They converged from every direction toward the center of the floor, where a shallow basin of black stone held a pool of light so dense it hurt to look at. Entire wagons of spirit stones fell down a chute in the ceiling and crashed into the pool, where they dissolved as if dropped into acid, making the pool glow brighter.

Beside the basin, on a plain iron pedestal, sat a book that looked ordinary, but Diana could feel a sense of wrongness from it. Almost as if it were cursed.

"Welcome," Sterling said, standing before the book and raising his arms as if in worship, "to the only ledger in the Celestial Empire!"

"Ashfallen Empire," Diana corrected him as she walked to his side and peered at the book.

Its pages were blank.

Diana was about to ask why when Thanatos pressed the scythe closer to Sterling's throat.

"I can see this is no ordinary book," Ashlock said through Thanatos, his soul-piercing gaze sweeping through the room. "It's subtle, but I can feel it reaching out beyond these walls."

"Yes, as expected of the All-Seeing Eye, nothing escapes your gaze." Sterling hovered his hand above the book. "This book is an artifact, imbued with the dao of greed. It tracks everything in my hoard and how much it's grown." His hand glowed, and words etched in gold appeared on the blank pages. "For example, this is how much of my precious hoard is temporarily in the hands of House Stonecrest."

Diana frowned. House Stonecrest was a mid-sized Empyrean noble house that had done well after the conquest of the Celestial Empire, as Stella had asked that their new Patriarch, Caelan Stonecrest, be looked after. Diana hadn't requested the details, as House Stonecrest had been nothing but helpful, cooperative, and willing to share information about the other noble houses. But from them, she had learned they were also one of the oldest noble families still standing in the Empire, as they predated the last noble purge inflicted by the Chairman.

Sterling pulled his hand back, giving Diana a clear view of House Stonecrest's outstanding debts.

House Stonecrest.

Loaned: 1,000,000 Celestial Coins at 0.7% annual interest.

Time elapsed: 4049 years.

Total owed: 1,844,674,407,370,955,161 Celestial Coins.

Repayment date: Unspecified.

As agreed in the heaven-bound oath, if the loan is not repaid in full with Celestial Coins or Spirit Stones upon the Mint's request or destruction, the Patriarch of House Stonecrest has agreed that the life force of his bloodline and descendants may be used as payment.

Diana blinked. The number on the page was astronomical. She had reviewed the Empyrea nobles' finances, and she wasn't sure there were that many spirit stones in the entire Empire. And this was the debt for a single noble family?

"For immortals, cultivators sure are blind to the powers of compounding interest," Ashlock said. "Just what were they thinking, signing such a deal?"

"Greed," Sterling said, flashing a golden smile. "When I went around offering loans of a million Celestial Coins with no fixed payback date, they all took it. I believe the Elders of House Stonecrest at the time used these funds to build towering statues of themselves out of jade."  

While Sterling was talking, Diana noticed something odd. The debt number updated in real time, but it barely increased. A wagon of spirit stones crashed into the glowing pool before them, and Diana noticed the debt number jump higher.

"So that's why you're buying up all the spirit stones," Diana muttered, causing Thanatos and Sterling to glance her way. "You pinned the value of these Celestial Coins you're minting with spirit stones. But with the Era of Ascension decreasing their value, you're buying them up to try and artificially keep the value high."

Sterling's jaw clenched. "That's... right. Pinning it against anything else, like the health of the Celestial Empire, would have been foolish considering what happened. However, even if the value of spirit stones falls by 99%, the debt is still impossible to pay off." A hostile glint flashed in his golden eyes. "I know you're considering paying off their debts, possibly with loans of your own, just so you can kill me." He stood a little taller and loomed over her. "Trust me, it won't work," he snarled. "Their greed got the better of them, and by their oath to heaven, they will pay."

Diana didn't back down as she measured his gaze. "You're bluffing."

Sterling snorted and turned away. "Bluffing? I've planned for this day thousands of years ago, when the relationship between the other egos of the Chairman began to fracture. So while they fought over useless matters, I worked to enslave the very cultivators that make up the Empire. This place is mine to rule. Not yours."

He stepped past Thanatos, slapping the scythe away from his neck.

Diana could feel Thanatos's bloodlust leak out, but Ashlock was oddly calm.

He's trying to find the hole in this scheme. There has to be one. All of the other Sins suffered from a fatal flaw. Their conceptual daos, while powerful, also broke under those same flaws.

Her gaze drifted to the ledger.

He's the sin of greed. What does a greedy person want? They always want more—wait, then how can he lend out money? Because the person agreed to pay it back with life force? No, that doesn't make sense. Life force has intrinsic value only to the person who holds it, not to Sterling, who is already immortal...

Diana hummed to herself as she walked around the opposite side of the bright pool from Sterling. Thanatos remained beside the ledger, and Diana could feel Ashlock's gaze studying it.

Another wagon of spirit stones fell down the chute in the ceiling, crashing into the lake. She could also feel Qi flowing into the room through the golden lines and into the pool. It was all concentrated there.

"What's with the pool?" Diana asked, her voice echoing through the space.

"It's connected to the ledger," Sterling answered.

"That's it?"

Sterling didn't answer. The pool was clearly important, so Diana crouched before it.

"Stick your hand in, and it will belong to my hoard," Sterling warned.

Diana raised a brow. "Does that mean you can take out from here?"

"By your definition of taking, yes. But anything that enters my hoard is mine forever."

"Just like a greedy dragon." Diana pursed her lips. "You know, Sterling, you seem like a smart individual."

"Quite the compliment coming from someone as esteemed as yourself, Grand Elder Diana—"

"Which makes your actions so odd."

Sterling frowned. "How so?"

Diana stepped away from the basin and crossed her arms as she stared up at the chute. "While you do have leverage, I don't understand why you would buy so many spirit stones and absorb all of the Qi in the region, knowing it would attract our attention. Simple greed seems like the right answer, but with the loans, you seem to satisfy your greed more methodically. This just feels sloppy. Out of place."

Thanatos floated over to Sterling, scythe grating along the ground and throwing sparks.

"Never separate a person's actions from the consequence, and vice versa," Ashlock said, and had Thanatos put the scythe under Sterling's chin. "If his actions make no sense, then look at the consequence of them, and the goal will become clear. If he's the epitome of greed, then his hoard must grow."

Sterling stayed silent.

Diana tapped her chin as she studied him.

He openly admitted to buying spirit stones to artificially keep their value steady so the debts could keep growing. I wonder what would happen if they went down? Would he suffer backlash from his conceptual dao? Could he even die from his hoard shrinking?

Realization suddenly struck her.

"Could you humor me for a moment, Sterling?"

"Certainly, Grand Elder," Sterling said coldly. "What could be on your mind?"

"These debts are tied to a bloodline, such as the Stonecrest family, rather than to an individual. Right?"

Sterling nodded. "That is correct."

"And I understand that you can call upon these loans at any time, effectively wiping out an entire bloodline as the heavens force them to pay back with their life force." Diana tilted her head. "But what happens if a bloodline is, let's say... wiped out before they pay you back? Because I believe we wiped out quite a few bloodlines during our bloody conquest, leaving nobody alive to inherit those inherited debts."

Sterling froze like a statue. He worked his jaw, but no words came out.

Got him. Diana grinned as she circled back to the ledger.

"As you said yourself, the hoard must grow. Enough debts are compounding that their interest can absorb the loss of a bloodline or two. But by how aggressively you're gathering spirit stones and Qi, I assume the books aren't as balanced as they should be?"

Sterling simply glared at her.

"I'll admit, your powers are terrifying." Diana unfurled her wings and walked toward Sterling. The golden man took a hesitant step back, right into Thanatos's arms. "You control an immense hoard of wealth that cannot be taken from you. A loophole let you loan this wealth out, trapping billions of cultivators with their life force as collateral. But you can't actually afford to call upon those debts, can you?"

Diana was standing right in front of Sterling now, and the confidence had drained from the Sin.

"If you call in those debts, the people die and pay with their life force, but you're left having to fill the hole in your hoard. Kill a few people—it's no problem. But at scale, it simply doesn't work."

Sterling's lip trembled. "Nothing's changed because you figured that out. You still can't kill me without risking the lives of billions."

"Now why would I kill you?" Ashlock said, his hundred overlapping voices carrying a bone-chilling coldness. "My Empire has a problem, and it seems you're the unexpected solution. You're far more useful to me alive."

Sterling straightened, and pride bloomed across his gaunt face. "It's good that you see my value."

"Oh, I see it." Thanatos's hand suddenly clamped onto the Gilded One's jaw. "And I plan to keep it for myself."

The rings on Sterling's fingers clattered against wood as he desperately clawed at Thanatos's grip, but it was hopeless. As he had promised, he was weak for a Monarch. "W-What is the meaning of—"

Sterling gagged as Thanatos's clawed fingers found the seam of his lips and worked to open his mouth. A small rift of desolation opened above them, and a black substance hazing into miasma poured down onto Sterling's face.

The Gilded One's eyes widened in horror as Thanatos tipped the Sin of Greed's head back to receive it.

Diana knew what Sterling had just been made to drink.

Ashlock's cursed blood.

Sterling gagged and then swallowed. Thanatos released his grip and threw the gasping man into the basin. Sterling thrashed about in the bright water, panic seizing him.

"Nothing that enters the pool can be taken from you, right?" Ashlock said, Thanatos standing guard at the edge. "Then be reborn in there and make it all mine."

"No, no, NO!" Sterling lunged for the ledger on the other side of the basin and tried to pull himself onto the podium. "Whatever you've done to me, I'll make you pay. The citizens of your stolen empire will pay their debts to me!"

His hand slammed onto the open ledger, his hand glowing golden—only for it to sputter out. Diana appeared before him in a rush of demonic mist and grabbed his wrist, but it seemed unnecessary.

"What is THIS?!" Sterling screamed as his fingers turned into twigs that grew out of his arm, which had turned to bark and was unnaturally twisting in a way no human arm should. His legs seemed to give out as he collapsed back into the basin, thrashing around as he fought against his own body.

"It's hopeless to resist," Ashlock said, and brutal moments like this reminded Diana why he ruled. "My cursed blood isn't something a weakling like you, who traded power for leverage, can resist."

Diana almost felt bad for Sterling as his skin fractures and hardened into bark. His movements began to slow. His plan was decent and a clever usage of his conceptual dao, which put him above the other Sins that seemed so simple-minded to her.

Unfortunately, as he said himself, Ashlock possesses abilities beyond the possibilities of this realm. Forcefully turning a Monarch into a spirit tree just by drinking his sap? Not even the World Tree can come close to doing something like that.

Eventually, the basin fell silent apart from some bubbling.

Diana confirmed through her clones that billions of people hadn't suddenly died, so Sterling was still alive, or he had been lying this whole time. They had never confirmed his words, only taken them at face value.

"I hope this works," Ashlock murmured. "I analyzed the pool thoroughly and concluded that if Sterling was turned into a tree outside of it, there was a slim chance the hoard would remain inaccessible to me."

Diana peered into the blindingly bright water. "I can't see him—"

A branch shot out, spraying water. It was made of solid gold and blinded Diana as it reflected the light from the water.

"Get back," Ashlock warned as something immense rose from the water.

Diana floated backward while blinking the stars out of her eyes.

Unbelievable, Diana thought as a giant golden tree rose out of the basin, its branches twisting outward as if searching for the edges of the massive hall. Its roots expanded out of the pool, with a few wrapping around the ledger in a protective embrace.

"If he had killed himself before my cursed blood reached his soul, billions would have died," Ashlock said as he watched Sterling's transformation through Thanatos's eyes. "But I was betting on his greed for life that he wouldn't."

Diana nodded. "He knew you needed him alive, though I doubt he foresaw this."

"Indeed. He probably thought I'd drug and imprison him. Though, I suppose being turned into a spirit tree is similar. Depends on who you ask, really."

Thanatos looked up at the magnificent golden tree dominating the massive vault.

"But to think we now have a way to do real-time banking in a cultivation world," Ashlock mused. "I never thought it would be through a spirit tree, but I suppose I should have seen that coming."