321 The first and only one (part 3)
The girl core disciple expression became grim, there has always been a clear distinction in how winged emblem disciples and those who climbed up, get treated, that doesn't mean all the winged emblem disciples are necessarily better, but that tends to be the case.
The red-haired guy who accompanied the girl, gritted his teeth at the sight of the winged sword emblem ring on Aster's hand, he has been saving up contribution points to get the right to apply for the core disciple position, for so long and some kid who popped out of nowhere suddenly left him on the dirt, of course he was angry.
His family is among the top three forces in Galatia, below the Myriad Occupation sect of course, and so he has heard some rumors from the elders, saying that the ancestors behind the sect come from some kind of super force whose limits go beyond what anyone can imagine.
Officially there aren't any cultivators who have entered the Heavenly realms in Galatia, instead the limit publicly know are half-step Heavenly realm cultivators, so it was easy for him to suppose that the families of the peak masters probably have true Heavenly realm cultivators.
The reason as to why every male disciple coveted the position of core disciple, is none other than getting the attention of the peak masters, since it's said they were the ones who set the bar so high for men to become core disciples.
The most popular belief was that if anyone managed to fulfill the requirements, then that disciple will be nurtured and then invited to a higher ranked stellar system, it was an opportunity to achieve greatness.
But all that disappeared in a flash, due to the black-haired kid who was standing in front of him, with a calm expression as if getting the position everyone has fought to achieve since the sect was created was just a natural thing for him.
'Why him, why did that law enforcer favored him, why couldn't he arrive a couple of years later', that's what all the inner disciples who were aiming to become the first ever male core disciple were thinking.
Comparisons are hateful, would be the most accurate way to describe what other.
In any case, Aster didn't care about all that, he could notice there were other people carefully observing how will things unfold, but none of them were strong enough to be candidates, unlike the red-haired guy.
Meaning that the others weren't as stupid as him, or at least were more cautious, which made them a bit more troublesome to deal with.
'I guess killing the chicken to warn the monkey is the way to go', thought Aster as he stopped patting Kana's head.
"So, what business does an inner disciple like you have with me?", askes Aster in a calm composed voice.
The red-haired guy finally couldn't keep it together, he spat on the floor as a red sword appeared on his hand before he became a red flash who shot towards Aster.
"Hector wait", the girl reacted a second too late and was unable to stop her companion.
"Clang!", the sound of metals colliding echoed through the whole place as Aster grabbed the edge of the sword with his bare hand.
"What...aghh", the red-haired inner disciple Hector couldn't believe what he was seeing, an early-stage Stellar Constellation cultivator stopped his slash as if it was nothing, he was informed of what happened in the third trial, and deduced Aster was incredibly strong in long ranged combat.
That's why he chose to attack him frontwards like this, which resulted in his sword being stopped and Aster grabbing him by his neck.
Hector saw Aster's indifferent expression and he felt a shiver running down his spine, he noticed Aster's hand was slowly closing and his eyes widened.
'Is this guy going to...", he screamed in his heart.
A sudden pressure fell on the city followed by an imposing voice which came from above.
"Stay your hand!".
The law enforcer Ramon arrived just on time to see Aster closing his hand, what followed was the sound of a bone breaking and then a sepulchral silence, followed by a dull sound as Aster let go of Hector's corpse which fell to the ground, with eyes full of disbelief at the fact that he was killed in one of the main planets of the sect.
It took Ramon a moment to process what happened, it was instead the comments of the crowd what made him come out of his daze.
"H-He killed an inner disciple in front of a law enforcer".
"Forget about that, wasn't senior brother Hector elder's Ramon grandson!".
Ramon's eyes became bloodshot, his beloved grandson, the hope of the male side of the family in which he had invested so many resources, was killed in front of him.
"Aghhhh, I want you to die!".
The sky was illuminated in orange light as a huge sphere of fire appeared above him and the pressure of a Void Manipulation cultivator spread across the whole city.
Without thinking about it, Ramon extended his hand towards Aster and the fire sphere descended.
The other disciples immediately tried to get some distance from the place to not get trapped in the fight, normally the spirit formations of the city would suffocate the attack, but Ramon was using his authority as a law enforcer to override the defensive properties of the barrier.
"Elder Ramon has gone crazy, run!".
"Where to, do you think we can outrun the expansive shockwave from a Void Manipulation level attack".
The deacons and other low ranked elders who were nearby gathered, but as they were about to risk their lives to stop Ramon's attack, they saw that huge fire sphere vanishing into thin air.
Lilia who a moment ago was about to raise her finger to send Ramon's attack back at him, giggled as she saw Aster's winged sword ring glowing.
But that wasn't all, a projection of two towers crossed out by a pair of perfectly similar swords was now floating right in front of Aster's chest.
Ramon trembled due to anger, he flashed towards Aster and directly punched him, like most of the people in medium ranked stellar systems he was an energy/body cultivator, so with his body being at the early stage of the Carnal Disaster realm, he wanted to give it a try.
"Aghhh!", but the result wasn't what he expected, the projection didn't even wave and instead, the impact of his attack bounced back and sent him flying backwards.
Ramon destroyed a couple of buildings before he was able to finally stop, a couple of seconds later he emerged from the debris with a miserable appearance, there was blood coming from his mouth and his clothes were ragged, not to mention his hand was swollen.
Although he has advanced in the body path, he is mediocre on it at the best, so while his strength might have increased, his physical defense wasn't his strong point, which resulted in his own attack breaking his hand.
Salazar and William appeared on the roof of a building a few meters away from Ramon, and after openly laughing at his haggard appearance, Salazar snorted.
"It seems you have forgotten what does the "Lord" of a valley or "Holy Son" status means, unless you are a Heavenly Realm cultivator, no one above the Mortal Transcending realm can hurt him, within the territories of the battle peak", he said as he pointed at Aster.
The projection of the two towers crossed by identical swords shrank before it faded, at the same time Aster noticed that what Salazar called "sword law line", which was glowing a moment ago on the ground at the valley, also returned to normal.
Which gave him a vague idea about how it worked, basically he was protected by the planet itself.
Ultimately, Aster shrugged, as he was never in danger to begin with, let alone Lilia, even Eris or Mylene could have fought head on against Ramon, but since he now had the support of the valley then it was better since he didn't have to depend on them.
While it was still depending on an external help, this status is something he got due to his own merits.
William descended from the roof next to Aster but bypassed him and instead crouched down to inspect Hector's corpse, which now was burnt, the projection only protected Aster and those who he wanted to protect, that's why the city was still affected including the corpse.
In fact, Hector's body wasn't the only one which suffered due to Ramon's attack, some other disciples were a bit slow in their escape and got wounded due to the heat.
William raised an eyebrow as he turned to see Aster.
"He was dead before the fire affected him; his neck is completely broken, I wonder how did you know we wouldn't pursue the matter of you killing a fellow disciple though?".
Aster shook his head as he walked towards the girls.
"I didn't know it, but why should I forgive an idiot who swings a sword against me, just so that he can do it again later, I will never be restrained nor follow anyone's orders, if someone attacks me or my family, they better be prepared to die because I won't show them any mercy, regardless of who they are, it is a simple as that".
The disciples who were gathering again to see the result of the clash stopped in cold, they looked at Aster with horrified expressions in their faces.
Salazar took the opportunity to do what he came to do from the very beginning.
"Let it be known across the whole sect that the Battle Peak has granted the lord of Twin Sword Valley the authority to eliminate anyone who attacks him on the Battle Peak grounds!".
Salazar's voice echoed not only through the city but through the whole planet, bringing surprise and shock to most of the disciples and even the elders, no one had the right to kill outside of the life and death arena, nor disciples, nor elders, hell even the law enforcers would be punished if they broke the rules.
And now for the first time since the foundation of the sect, such a right was granted to and to a "mere" Stellar Constellation realm cultivator on top of that, this was bound to create a huge wave in the whole stellar system.
William was lost in his thoughts as he flew towards Salazar to leave, he couldn't help but steal a gaze at Lilia before he feigned ignorance, but deep in his heart he was more than surprised.
'The bloody princess of the Drage family has a son now... and he is even more of a monster than her!', he screamed in his heart.
Only now he understood why Lilia looked slightly familiar to him, before he refused to believe it as no one in their right mind would think Lilia would be close to a man, family or not.
But seeing them up close he found a certain familiarity between them, and that shocked him to the bone.
'Damn, sis is going to kick my ass for not having told her before she left earlier', he thought.
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