Aster could feel the hostile gazes of a few people who watched him destroy a treasure just like that, not everyone here came from high ranked sects or had high statuses in their forces of origin.
This Silicon Forest is both a land of death and a land of opportunities, it depends on who is taking the spots, however every year the spots must be used or they get auctioned by the Fritz, so when an outstanding disciple doesn't take the mission, the sect just assign some poor bastard as a punishment, in order to not lose the spots.
Those who were eyeing Aster over the destruction of a middle grade Stellar armor, are mainly those type of participants, they are told they can return once they get something valuable for the sake of the face of their respective backers, and that armor equaled a life for them.
Unfortunately, they didn't know what was happening at the outskirts of the middle area of the forest, or they might have gone crazy, since their way of retreat has been severed, now even if they accomplished that requirement, they can't leave.
Aster gazed back at those guys as he leaked a bit of his murderous aura, for those at which it was aimed, it was as if the world had turned colorless.
Their legs wobbled and their bodies felt cold and numb, this gray world they were experiencing right now, was the feeling of certain death approaching their ways.
"S-Sorry, we didn't mean to offend you senior!", all of a sudden, a few people in the crowd, kneeled down and loudly shouted, others could hear the sound of their teeth were chattering as they spoke.
Surprisingly they all seemed to know each other, which made sense, since those in similar situations will naturally group in order to survive, despite the fact that they belonged to different forces.
Aster ignored them, those who glared at him earlier were too weak to notice the gap between their groups and his, if not they wouldn't have been so open about it, so he really didn't care about them.
He isn't one that enjoys bullying the weak after all and his murderous aura is far too strong for someone that belongs to the young generation, as the scene of those guys trembling on the floor would suggest.
Just his spirit pressure would have been enough as an answer, the reason as to why he leaked murderous aura was because there was murderous aura coming from the stairs that led underground.
Which probably was triggered because he destroyed the treasure that was "granted" to him.
'Heh, so you are angry that I didn't participate in your little game, but so what, what can you about it', it's what Aster's murderous aura transmitted as it clashed against the one that coming from the stairs.
"Ahh, what the hell the mist is expanding, who messed up!".
The mist which was previously just covering the area surrounding this place, now expanded and also invaded everything nearby the stairs, which can be considered as the difficulty increasing, as now others had cover to assassinate someone to get a treasure.
Aster saw the response from the being hidden inside the space underground to which the stairs led, and he smirked, the really dangerous enemies are those who remain calm and aim for the kill directly, the thing hidden there was just childishly retaliating after being provoked.
If he can get that much of a reaction, just by refusing to participate, then the enemy is quite unstable, and that makes it way easier for Aster to deal with it.
Aster anted to confirm to whom those faint traces of soul energy lingering in the mist belonged, and the trace went down into the stairs when the mist expanded, as he expected the mist was being manipulated by something.
A yellow glow was radiated by Aster as he used his yang energy to drive away the mist around him and the girls, similar glows lightened up all over the place following Aster's example.
Yang radiance is a well-spread technique, as long as you are a man you can practice it, the difference lays in the amount of yang one can release, let alone covering a group like Aster was doing, the others could barely protect themselves.
"Tsk, another damn dual cultivator, the Pleasure Palace is surely getting more and more rampant lately", mumbled some guys as they saw Aster's yang radiance.
Aster didn't bother to correct them, he didn't wear his ring from the Myriad Occupation sect on purpose, he instead turned to see the girls before saying.
"Ladies, take out one core from the beasts you hunted, we are going to take a peek at the situation down there", said Aster as he pointed at the stairs.
"Mm", the girls did as Aster told and each took out the worst beast cores, they have gotten front the yang-oriented beasts they killed on their way here, Aster's eyes saw there was a formation at the start of the staircase that led underground, earlier the rest was easy to deduce.
The meaning of "kill a spirit beast to enter" was to offer the beast core to that formation, as a source of energy to power it, though Aster was sure not all the core was needed, and the leftover energy was used for something else.
Naturally those in the crowd knew about it as they have seen others doing the same, but why would they give such information others, that will just increase the competence, since now that the mist is here, they had to take the decision to go into the underground space or leave as soon as possible.
Aster and the girls threw their best cores into the stairs which then lightened up as a formation was activated, Aster could feel the familiar sensation of a space type formation trying to split his group and he snorted.
The previously yellow yang radiance was replaced by a dazzling golden light that surrounded the whole group, with the protection from the paragon body the formation couldn't separate them, as they were a "sole" object right now.
This is the solution Aster developed after that time the second king of Prasil, pulled a fast one on him, which made him wander alone in a space tunnel for a whole month, just to be expulsed above on the sky with the intention of killing him.
Out of the girls, Tiana, Felicia and Nerissa hadn't experienced the sensation of being protected by the light of the Paragon Body, though the first two had already seen Aster using the golden armor, so they knew about it.
But Nerissa looked at the golden glow that was covering her with curious eyes, her clothes were treasures and she was also wearing light armor, since her fighting style required her to have movement freedom, in part that's why she suffered in her previous encounter against that giant undead, she doesn't focus on defense but offense after all.
But now, this golden light made her feel as protected as if she was wearing heavy armor, without any sensation of obstruction or any extra weight, it was quite a strange situation.
"Is this some kind of soul condensed armor?", she mumbled.
Which made Aster remind she is Valentina's disciple, so she naturally has knowledge that isn't common in a middle grade Stellar System, like soul condensed creations who can be ethereal having no weight but still affecting the physical world, like Felicia's clawed gauntlets or Aster's black soul sword weapon, though she was wrong this time.
The scenery changed for them, a few seconds later instead of the mist and crystal trees as well as the sounds of people fighting here and there, what welcomed them was a gloomy enclosed space with low illumination.
The oppressive and ominous sensation of darkness that lingered in this place's atmosphere, was driven away by the golden light of the paragon body that Aster was radiating.
Felicia's eyes were glowing, she grabbed Camila's hand as she smiled at her.
"Oh, so you are indeed a lucky charm, I feel that I can break through if I refine this place's spirit energy, I'll treat you to a meal when we return~".
Camila just smiled; she wasn't used to being the aim of this much enthusiasm, but it was a nice change for her that now was trying to be friends with the others, instead of having a servant-like relation with Aster and the others, and Felicia is a good start since they have the same cultivation realm, similar to how Aria, Alice and Tiana had become friends.
Aster smiled seeing the girls getting along better, but he soon changed his focus to the darkness dominated area ahead of them, his eyes glowed in golden light and then his pupils became those of a dragon, surprisingly all the darkness disappeared from his sight, and he was now able to see as clear as day, without him having to use spirit sense or anything.
'This place is similar to that star cluster with planets that have low illumination, the whole area is filled to the brim with darkness spirit energy, but it seems fabricated', he thought.
They started walking being led by Aster who could see in the darkness filled area, Aster saw Felicia gathering spirit energy as they walked, or more accurately the spirit energy was being dragged and devoured by her soul energy, which she was using as her black colored hair suggested.
She wasn't even putting any effort as she happily hummed and casually chatted with Tiana or Camila, in fact wherever they passed the darkness diminished and it became easier to see.
"You are stealing that thing's cultivation resources you know?", said Aster, which made Felicia giggle.
"First come, first served, besides if anything happens, you'll protect us right~", she carefreely said.
Aster bitterly smiled, in any case he wanted to provoke the thing that was hidden deeper into this underground place, so Felicia was doing her part and reaping some benefits on the way.
After around fifteen minutes of walking, and to Felicia's displease they left that darkness filled area and reached a different part of the underground space.
Here there were signs of other people participating in this little game, sings like puddles of blood, broken armor and gnawed dead bodies to be exact.
Not to mention he pretty unique sound of bones making friction, caused by the countless undead that were blocking the way.
"I guess the second part of this game is a riddle, the objective is to pass through the swarm of undead which can't be eliminated by fighting", said Aria.
Aster nodded, that explained why there were "leftovers" of dead cultivators, normally the skeletons wouldn't leave anything behind, they were a hungry type of undead, I fact they were pushing at each other while they bit the air as they tried to approach Aster, but were blocked by an invisible wall.
Apparently, they couldn't leave their designated area, the guys who passed here previously, probably killed some unfortunate bastards and used them as bait to advance while the swarm of undead fought each other for food.
That's probably the result the one who set this place wanted, but naturally Aster isn't going to follow the rules, as he isn't participating for the treasures that are being used to satisfy the greed of the participants.
As Aster was about to use annihilation too scare the undead away like he did back at the cave, Aria stopped him from doing so.
"Let me try something", she said as she gazed at Aster with those pretty blue eyes of hers.
Aster nodded, and then let her take the lead this time.
"Sure".
Aria inwardly smiled, Aster could probably pass all the obstacles by himself, but she also wanted to actively participate, that's why she has been training to be able to stand at his side forever.
The temperature around Aria dramatically dropped and cold mist was released from her body, before she started walking towards the swarm of undead that were clashing and fighting each other to see who will get the first bite.
But Aster didn't worry, he tends to spoil and maybe overprotect the girls, but that doesn't mean he thinks they are weak and need him to fight for them, at all, if they say they can do it, his job as their lover is to believe and support them with all he has.
Aria soon reached the area were the undead were being contained, and her pretty jade-skin hand entered the protection, the other girls were surprised to see that the undead ignored Aria's hand, it was as if they couldn't see her.
Aria then jumped inside the protection and the undead not only didn't attack her, but they didn't approach her even.
She then returned to Aster's side and held his hand, Aster saw a thin layer of ice covering his skin but he didn't resist, Aria will never harm her, and he more or less understood what she was doing.
The undead only have interest in two things, first devouring the living, second devouring each other, which means that as long as one is either yin or yang oriented, they will attack you.
So how come they didn't react when Aria entered if she has a yin constitution you might wonder, that's because they couldn't see nor feel her presence right now.
She was using her soul energy in combination with her ice spirit energy to project an illusion around her, besides the Bewitching Ice Fairy which she used back then to charm Aster and get him to low his guard for a second, a technique she created exclusively to use against him,
Her charming side was only for Aster's eyes, so she naturally created another version which didn't require her to use any charm, so she could use it with enemies.
The others saw the air waving around Aster before he disappeared from their sights, well all the girls but Felicia who though was surprised she couldn't see Aster, she could still notice his overall position.
"It's called Ice Mirage, Illusion Mirror", what do you think?", she asked to the empty space in front of her, which was actually Aster.
"Pretty good, even if others use spirit sense, they will see the reflection of the nearby area, it's a good camouflage", said Aster before he became visible again.
"Though it's a bit cold", he jokingly added, Aria might not feel the ice that has to cover her body to use this technique, Aster did.
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