To the relief of those who followed the orders of the armored guys, those blue eyes which were the origin of the ghastly lights that suddenly swarmed those who haven't taken refuge when the sun settled down, didn't seem to go after the refuges, and instead one by one started disappearing as if they had lost interest and just left to look for other prey.
Needless to say, but their backs were full of clod sweat, in an estimated calculus each pair of blue eyes represented something with the battle prowess of at least an early-stage Mortal Transcending cultivator, sure they had some Sea of Knowledge cultivators among them, but most suffered wounds during the day, not to mention the number of enemies was quite large.
If their small group of forty were to be targeted by all those things, then they might last a few minutes before getting overwhelmed due to the abysmal gap in numbers, only those who had people with battle prowess in the Genesis Manifestation realm, could stand a chance and while the armored group had a few of them, they were right now enjoying dinner or other pleasures that were unthinkable for those who were barely holding onto their little lives.
Speaking of that, inside of the refuge of the armored group, Patrick who was laying down on a bed made out of stone, with the girl who approached him earlier, had a smile of sufficiency, when he heard someone knocking on the improvised door that he made those who were following them, carve on the ground.
"Who is it, don't you know I have some important matters to tend to!", he shouted as he let go of the body of the girl laying down next to him.
"Senior brother, it's me, I'm sorry to interrupt you, I have some questions and observations regarding the mission", said Renard.
Patrick had a displeased expression, but he still covered the naked body of the girl with a bedsheet and then said.
"Fine, come in".
The door opened and Renard entered the room, he didn't dare to even steal a gaze at the small naked skin parts of the girl that were uncovered by the bedsheet, everyone here had a higher status in the sect than a recently joined outer disciple than him, if anything he could boss around other outer disciples thanks to Patrick's backing, but those who tagged along for this mission were inner disciples and even outer elders were reduced to act as bodyguards.
"Senior brother, I heard some questions among the other brothers and sisters and that's why I came to clear them, since we have the protection of that treasure handed by the elders, why don't we keep advancing".
"Though the vast majority of people that entered is trash, there are a couple who can be troublesome, the guy from the Tsarai and those from the Zoldia Stellar System, are among them", he said.
Patrick softly snorted in response as he gazed at an arm sized yellow compass which was mounted on the wall behind his bed.
"Do you think I didn't take that into account, the Yang Sealing Compass is an Immortal grade treasure, so it definitely can keep us safe through the forest even at night, the problem is that in terms of energy nothing past the Genesis Manifestation could enter the Silicon Forest".
"It was charged by the inner elders before we came here, but after its energy is depleted, the outer elders will have to use all their reserves to recharge it, it's our trump card to capture that thing, so we can't use it for everything, besides those you mentioned are in for a surprise if they keep foolishly advancing at night, the rune mastering elder of the young master's family, assured us there was more than what the eyes sees, hiding in this place after all", said Patrick as he dismissed Renard's worries before he chased him out of his room, to continue with the matter he had in his hands.
...
At another part of the forest, Aster and the girls finished their meal and they even took a bath, a luxury that no one else among the ones who came to the Silicon Forest, had the leisure to enjoy besides them.
Naturally Aster and Aria entered together, and when they came out Aster was all smiles, while Aria's pretty face was flushed, only then the other girls entered together to not waste time.
After that they all were finished, they laid down on their beds which were next to each other, since Aster had his fun with Aria in the bathroom earlier, they were just cuddling together and this amount of flirting was normal for the other girls to see at this point, the only one who was having a hard time seeing all these "shameless" behaviors of Aster, was Tiana, which of course made her mother tease her.
"What's up with that wary expression Tia, are you worried that once he is finished in that bed, he'll jump to the next ones, don't worry I'm pretty sure you'll hear some "alarms" that will wake you up, since you are the farthest, that is if the order is followed~", she playfully said.
"M-Mom!", Tiana covered herself with her bedsheet as if she was hiding from a monster that lives under the bed, the order of the beds was, Aster and Aria, Camila was next, then it was Felicia and lastly Tiana.
While it certainly is the first time Felicia and Tiana share a room with Aster, they were defenseless enough around him, to not be uncomfortable at all, what made Tiana feel ashamed, is that Aster was constantly flirting with Aria, to which she wasn't used to.
Camila was the same earlier, but for a different reason, seeing Aster caressing and kissing Aris, reminded her of what she did back then during their date, and how she was carried while sleeping in Aster's arms, and her face was red as an apple.
"I have to say, that to make two girls blush just by being near them, you are quite skilled huh", jokingly said Felicia.
Aster who had Aria in his embrace, simply shrugged.
"It's not as if I'm going to devour them, since I have my cute Aria with me", he said.
Tiana and Camila who were blushed messes right now, trembled, a bit as they thought.
'So, if she wasn't here, we will be in danger', they wondered, naturally they knew Aster was just joking.
Leaving the jokes and teases aside, Aster looked at the direction of the entrance of the cave, at the same time as Felicia, as he mumbled.
"I was thinking this was going to be the case, but damn, there sure are a lot of them".
"Mm, I wonder for how many years this place has existed", added Felicia.
Their spirit senses were the strongest in the group and so they could peek at what was happening outside of the cave without getting discovered.
The scene outside was quite an eerie one, the disguises of the creatures that lurked in the shadow of the night, was useless against them, so they could see the large number of spirit beasts that were wandering around.
There were more of those strange birds, small rat-like things and other things like lizards and the one who outstood the most was a deer of around forty meters of size, who was as strong as the lizard they found earlier.
They were by no means, beasts that should appear this far from the middle are of the forest in such a quantity and yet they were here, which was abnormal.
But that wasn't the only thing lurking outside, there were also skeletons wearing ragged clothes or other worn-out armor and equipment with different emblems, and they were clashing with the spirit beasts.
In areas with a great number of corpses and yin, undead are prompt to be born, abandoned battlefields are a good example of it, corpse cultivators refine their corpse puppets in places like that, so their appearance wasn't any shocking for Aster.
What surprised him was the amount of them, the yin and negative feelings of a lot of dead people are used for a single undead to be born, so one could only imagine the unmeasurable number of deaths that have happened in this place, for the tide of living corpses that were fighting with the spirit beasts right now.
Aster looked with curious eyes at the battle, every time a beast or a skeleton was killed, the winner took that black crystal from the body of the defeated and then it integrated with the crystal of the winner, after that the strength of the winner increased a bit, it seemed as if they were fighting for supremacy.
"There were no records of undead appearing in this place, so this situation is new, I would bet it was purposedly caused by someone, probably those armored guys did something, that or we have some really bad luck", said Aster as he caressed Aria's pretty silky hair.
"Humans are really the most dangerous for their own kin", mumbled Felicia, unlike the spirit beasts who were only fighting the skeletons, the latter were attacking everything they saw, including other skeletons, in other words they just existed to bring calamity, on the other hand they were becoming stronger faster than the beast for that same reason.
Among that crazy frenzy, a group of different participants suddenly appeared, there were some random participants, that were running away from the east.
Their faces paled as soon as they saw the large-scale battle taking place in this area, specially because some of the skeletons and spirit beasts eyed them from the moment they appeared.
"Shit, there are more of those monsters here than earlier, everyone run!", shouted the leader of the group, he then proceeded to push one of his companions towards the skeletons, which ripped the poor guy to pieces.
A girl who was standing next to the leader, also grabbed someone, in this case a girl and pushed her towards the spirit beasts.
"Sorry junior sister, I will avenge you later on", she said as she followed the leader, screams and wails echoed through the area as the weakest members of the group were used as sacrifices for the stronger to buy time.
And their destination was of course the only close place that could work as a hideout, a stone formation that was a couple of dozens of meters away from them.
"Elder, there is no entrance, what are we going to do!", shouted the leader as he noticed, the entrance was blocked by some sort of metal ore vein.
The elder he called was a middle stage Sea of Knowledge cultivator, the only reason as to why they got so far, is because there used to be two of them, but one was sacrificed for the rest to escape, unfortunately the route of escape they chose, led them to a place which was even more infested of undead and spirit beasts.
The elder immediately jumped to action, he touched the metal to look for a weak spot, from which he could easily break through without doing too much noise, as to not draw the attention of the undead and spirit beasts who were feasting on the ones who were left behind.
It was then he noticed this metal vein wasn't natural, because it was too refined to be which meant someone was using this stone formation as a place to hide already.
"The fellows inside, please open the entrance and let us in, my Obsidian Valley will definitely be grateful for the help", shouted the elder, but he was met with a simple and direct answer.
"Get lost", why would Aster take in, some random guys that showed up, he didn't know them nor owe them anything, not to mention their "gratitude" included sacrificing their team members to escape.
The elder gritted his teeth, if those inside saw them discarding the deadweight earlier, they weren't going to let them in easily, so there was only one option left.
"Open up the entrance, unless you want to die together with us, you bastard!", shouted the elder, with a twisted expression, if the people inside the cave wanted him to die, then he won't go alone.
The other members of the team understood the intentions of the elder and they also started shouting, and insulting.
As expected, the undead and the spirit beasts soon noticed them and started rushing towards them.
The elder smiled with sufficiency, now the other party had no choice but to let them, so that they both could defend against the large number of enemies, at least that's what he thought.
But them a dazzling golden light came out from a small breach that was strategically placed, on one of the corners of the metal vein, and the elder didn't even have the chance to scream, before his head disappeared from his body.
"Ahhh!", the headless corpse of the elder collapsed on the ground, and the girl who earlier pushed her friend towards the spirit beasts, screamed at the sight of the immediate death of the strongest in their group.
The others felt the murderous aura coming from the cave and immediately turned around, and scattered to try and runaway from this place, but were soon caught by the undead or spirit beasts and eaten alive.
The girl who was the last surviving one, since she collapsed due to fear, bowed down towards the cave and then shouted.
"Esteemed senior, please let me take refuge inside, I will do anything just please save me!", she was the closest to the door earlier, standing next to the elder, so she was the only one who felt the incredibly strong aura contained in that small golden ray, her body was shivering and she even peed herself.
Which was understandable, as long as something existed, the fear towards annihilation who was its worst enemy was guaranteed, unfortunately for this woman, her poisonous nature was seen through by Aster, and so her pleas were ignored and she was soon dragged by the skeletons and devoured.
The undead approached the entrance with the intention of cracking it open, they haven't noticed those hidden inside, but their nature was to destroy, and since they separated from the main group which was still fighting against the spirit beasts, they changed their target.
"A bunch of dead losers, get lost!", a thunderous voice followed by a wave of dazzling golden light, came from within the cave.
The nearby skeletons were turned into ashes, while those who were at the back stopped advancing in cold, undead only had the most basic instincts, eating and killing was the only thing they thought, and yet right now they were reminded of another sensation, fear.
If anyone were to be witnessing the current scene of undead turning around and escaping in panic, they would for sure be scared stupid, one must know that to scare undead a high ranked undead like a Corpse King or its equal least a Law Integration cultivator is needed after all.
Inside of the cave Aster stopped paying attention to the entrance, he used some annihilation to get rid of the nuisances, the undead won't dare to approach again and the yang crystals hid them from the senses of the spirit beasts, so there shouldn't be any other trouble for the rest of the night.
Which meant it was time to sleep, so he dragged Aria closer to him and after saying goodnight to the other girls, he closed his eyes, since he needed to enter the mind space to talk with Lilia and talk with Alice and the others, to assure them he was fine.
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