Chapter 568 Vivian’s soft heart (part 5)
Even asleep, Aster could feel Lilia's intense stare piercing him like a spear, she of course entered the mind space to steal a bite of her beloved darling, just to see that Aster stayed in the outside world, very much to her disappointment.
"No fair, I have been separated from my darling for too long!", exclaimed Lilia as she rolled on the bed, making Rya who was sitting at the other side of the bed meditating, stop since she couldn't concentrate.
"It hasn't even been a third part of a day, control yourself for a change, you lewd dragon woman", said Rya as she tried to regain her focus on her meditation.
Lilia chuckled as she floated until she was in front of Rya, to then say with a teasing voice.
"You say that, but I could see the jealousy on your face when Aster personally fed that little girl, earlier~".
Rya's left eyebrow twitched in response, she wanted to deny it, but she couldn't, it's not like she was jealous of Vivian, but certainly the words "It would be nice if that was me", passed through her mind at that moment.
All these "mundane" sensations were still new to her, at least, the previous Rya never envied anyone, but now she has experienced jealousy quite a few times, surprisingly she didn't hate it, in fact it increased the expectations she had for when she can finally come out of the mind space, well that was before Lilia interfered.
Aster heard those two arguing back and forth, but he didn't step in, instead he returned to sleep since tomorrow was going to be a long day, as he planned to get out of the forest in a single go.
And so, the hours passed and before Aster and Vivian noticed, the artificial sky of the secret realm of the trial had changed from night to day, just like the night, it didn't happen gradually but it was more like flipping a switch and then it was day.
Of course, for the skilled rune master that set up the formations of this secret realm, it isn't possible to commit such a mistake, it was done on purpose to mess with the participants, and it worked like a charm.
Those who weren't able to sleep at all due to being constantly ambushed by flocks of poisonous spirit beasts, finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, the spirit beasts actually "lost" interest on them all of a sudden.
But the previous wasn't a helping hand but a trap, the moment those guys lost the pressure that was keeping them awake, a lot collapsed due to the accumulated fatigue and stress, needless to say but they were disqualified.
Then there were the other side of the coin, which were the participants that found a somewhat safe place to hide, and then took turns for the night watch, unfortunately, they underestimated the capacity of the fatigue formations at night, half sleeping like they did only made them feel lethargic which combined with the poisonous food they ate, the abrupt change in illumination and the change from small and insidious spirit beasts, to large hunting ones, created a chaos first thing in the morning.
Or at least that was the case for those poor bastards, for Aster it was a great morning, he eyes opened and he was welcomed by a sunny morning after a nice night of sleep, and the pretty face of Vivian resting against his shoulder.
Aster smiled, he grabbed a fruit from the improvised bag he made with the cape of one of his victims, and then took a bite of it as he observed the result of the tree watching over them through the whole night.
The nearby area was filled with a large number of craters, which made Aster smirk.
"They really hated seeing me have a nice sleep huh?", he said as he counted the craters to reach a number around fifty or so, in other words at least fifty participants tried to take them by "surprise" when they were sleeping.
If only they knew that the tree actually helped them, because if the attacks were land on them, the paragon body would have automatically activated, and then an angered Aster whose sleep was disturbed would have beat the crap out of them.
"Mm… good morning~", Vivian rubbed her eyes a couple of times as before she stretched her body, amazed at the incredibly good night of sleep she had.
'It was even more comfortable than back then at Esmeralda's secret realm', she thought as her pretty gray/lavender eyes gazed at Aster, or more accurately at the fruit he just took a bite from.
Those pretty eyes were impossible to resist, which made Aster chuckle as he offered her the fruit as well as a vial with the water he got from the river.
"Here, we'll be leaving after a quick breakfast", he said to which Vivian smiled as she took a bite from the fruit, without taking it from Aster's hands, at least she grabbed the vial though.
Aster didn't mind it, Vivian truly seemed to enjoy when he personally fed her, and for him her joyful smile whenever she took a bite of the fruit was a delight for the eyes, so he just grabbed another fruit with his free hand and also dug in.
The fatigue formations didn't affect them as long as they were sleeping comfortably, so they woke up fresh as lettuces, and these fruits were really nutritious, so that was enough for breakfast.
Once they had their fill, Aster stood up and then his pupils changed to vertical ones, since his dragon trait isn't completely awake yet, he has decided to use his eyes more, instead of relying in his spirit sense like usual, after all he doesn't know what his trigger would be for reaching the infant stage like Lilia or Alice.
But what he knows is that, if he conforms with what he has instead of trying to improve, he will stagnate and as the head of his household he has the duty to be extraordinary, otherwise how would he be able to proudly stand in front of those exceptional girls that had decided to be a part of his family, when it is needed.
"The beasts had changed from those sly and hard to detect ones, to large and hunting types, I see Poison Clawed Wolves and there are also Corrosive Bears, however the tree is keeping them away in a straight line, so we don't need to lose time with them, but there is a "warm welcome" waiting for us", he said to Vivian who nodded in response.
"Mm", the next moment they both became flashes of light that advanced through the straight path, that the tree guarded, which was also the shortest route to the other side of the forest.
Thanks to that, in a couple of hours Aster and Vivian covered the distance that for others it took the whole night, due to the ambushes of the spirit beasts and the constant need they had of resting.
Soon they reached the line where the outer part of the forest ended and the deep part started, the forest stage was only divided in two and this area was were most of the recently joined disciples were eliminated.
For the simple reason, that there were nests of spirit beasts all over the division and some of them had an early-stage Mortal Transcending realm spirit beast acting as their boss, which might or might not come out to attack you, depending on the situation.
That was the first lesson of the deep part of the forest, if you fight when fighting against spirit beasts, a cultivator must always consider the possibility of a beast at least two minor realms above the average of the ones that can be openly seen.
So, if there are peak Star Tribulation realm beasts, it is safe to assume that a Mortal Transcending realm is hiding somewhere, in a lot of cases.
The second lesson was also present on the spot, the moment Aster and Vivian arrived at the division between the two parts of the forest stage, there was an interesting scene ongoing.
The group of around fifteen girls that Aster met yesterday, had their way blocked by a larger group of disciples, among which there were both male and female disciples from other factions.
It's worth mentioning that the guys that were ordered by Aster, to watch over those girls, had joined the enemy, but it was understandable considering the strangely large number of severed arms that were piled on the ground.
Those guys who were blocking the way, seemed strangely happy to see Aster and Vivian arriving as if they had been waiting for this, those girls on the other hand gave Aster apologetic gazes.
"Senior brother, don't come, the Red Sword faction sent one of their lackeys that purposedly suppressed their advance, just to deal with you, we were used as bait…", said the girl who earlier spoke on behalf of the junior disciples of the Black Sword faction.
Aster gazed at the enemy group blocking the way, among them, there was a guy who outstood like a sore thumb, mainly because of that red colored hair, and the slight resemblance to Iris he had.
Naturally it's not like the disciples on the Heavenly Ranks are the only ones at the peak of the earth realms, in sects that represent middle rank Stellar Systems, many people at the peak of the Star Tribulation are bound to appear.
That being said, to be part of the Heavenly Ranks, there is another requirement, which is to be less than fifty years old, if not anyone would be able reach the top ten by just entering seclusion and meditating for long periods of time while drinking elixirs or taking pills that are available with enough money or resources.
But to reach the Mortal Transcending realms in less than fifty seconds, it was impossible unless one had talent or a really big fortunate encounter, after all surpassing one's tribulation meant overcoming a barrier of some kind of mental barrier, for those members of the young generation it was hard, because due to the long lifespan of cultivators, being below a hundred years old was the same as being an immature child.
In any case, there were a lot of peak Star Tribulation people that had past the fifty years, but they weren't considered part disciples anymore, but deacons, their assigned resources were reduced and also, they were considered basically servants.
But there were exceptions, among the male disciples mainly, since their conditions to become inner disciples were harder, then they tended to be older when they reached said rank, a good example was Victor, he wasn't even a peak Star Tribulation, but he was relatively young being a little below his forties, which is why he was considered an "unofficial" Holy Son.
Anyway, the guy that was leading this trap, wasn't like that, he was the other type, which are people from the prominent families that join, to help their respective force of origin to consolidate their status in the sect, by doing different kinds of things.
In this case, judging by the number of people gathered here, plus the "hidden weapon" they brought, the idea was to either eliminate Aster from the trial, for the sake of someone else that should be advancing through the forest as of right now, or to stall for time to make Aster's score diminish.
But judging by the malicious gaze on that guy's face, it was probably the first one.
"We have been waiting for you, Lord of the Twin Sword Valley, I heard you took care of some of the juniors from my family quite "well", so I have come to return the favor", he said as he pointed at the sides of the area.
Aster looked at his surroundings, there were packs of Poison red-haired guy with hatred, but its attention then focused on Aster.
"Time for a lesson, did you know that spirit beasts that hunt in Clawed Wolves being led here by some other guys, they were full of wounds and a lot were clearly heavily poisoned, which explained how all these guys arrived here so early, they simply used others as bait, some were volunteers while others weren't.
The result was that Aster, Vivian and those girls from the Black Sword and Green Lotus factions, were now surrounded by both enemies and spirit beasts, from both sides, and that wasn't all, the red-haired guy stabbed the ground, and the nearby area trembled as a four-meter-tall bear came out of a cave, the bear looked at the red-haired guy with hatred, but its attention then focused on Aster.
"Time for a lesson, did you know that spirit beasts that hunt in packs will always choose the smaller group to attack, which is why even if the ones provoking them were us, they will attack you first, since you are an easy meal in their eyes", said the red-haired guy as he saw the large number of wolves growling at Aster and the others.
Aster shook his head in response as he casually grabbed a twig that was laying on the ground next to him,
"Vivian even went out of her way and mercifully took those guys out personally, so that they didn't have to fight me, what a shame".
"Tsk, you really think you are some kind of bigshot right, once we finish you off, those girls will be next, unfortunately we can't have any fun with them, but a few missing limbs are to be expected in this situation".
Just as the red-haired guy was about to order everyone to drown Aster and the others in long range attacks, he felt a huge sensation of crisis, so he immediately jumped upwards, the next scene will probably be engraved in his mind for the rest of his life.
Aster swinged that twig and then the legs of all the ones that were in the way, separated from their bodies, next a small puddle of blood was formed and what followed was a plethora of pained screams.
"Aghhhh!".
"He is cheating, he brought a sword with him!".
And similar screams echoed through the area, before they noticed that the wolves which were frozen a second ago, now turned to see them with obvious intentions of changing targets.
"Stay away you lowly beasts, they are still less than us, so do your damn job!", yelled the red-haired guy as he grabbed a rock and then rushed towards Aster, apparently the guy was a hammer user, and he had actually comprehended the first level of hammer intent, which meant he could use other things as hammers by adding the "ghost hammer" to it.
Unfortunately, he comprehended the simplest and easiest type of hammer intent, and also, he only learned the first level of it, in comparison Iris despite being in her twenties she had already comprehended the second stage of sword intent even before meeting Aster, so that guy was trash with a higher realm and nothing more.
Which is why, Aster discarded the twig he used before and then used his bare finger to manifest both ghost sword and sharpening, stopping the rock and the ghost hammer of the enemy with quite a lot of ease.
"Clang!", as a proof of the clash between intents, a loud metallic sound could be heard when they clashed, but it didn't last even a second before Aster's finger sliced through the ghost hammer and then also cut through the flesh and bone of the opponent, removing his whole arm up to the shoulder in a single go.
They couldn't bring armor or anything, besides the pill that they had to buy before entering the trial, the red-haired guy froze on the spot, he immediately tried to grab the bottle and take out the pill to be eliminated from the trial, but then his left arm fell off and before he could even scream, Aster grabbed his face with his hand, which still had some sword intent remaining on it.
"Aghhhh!", the red-haired guy wanted to surrender so that the formation would forcefully transport him out, but his face was being cut by Aster's sword intent, so he couldn't even articulate his thoughts properly, in other words he couldn't surrender and Aster was careful enough so that the places where he cut weren't lethal.
"You see, Vivian has such a soft heart that she prevented this from happening previously, I took it as those three old hags just being petty, but it seems more "Edwards" have appeared, and you are going to tell me who they are", said Aster.
Before the red-haired guy could refuse to speak, Aster casually cut off his legs using his sword intent.
"Aghhhhh, wait, I'll speak!!!", he shouted as he proceeded to tell Aster everything he knew, before Aster casually tossed him aside to then open his pill bottle, which made him be transported out of the trial.
He then turned to see those girls from the Black Sword and Green Lotus faction, and hen said.
"Don't forget that there are some "beings" for whom numbers mean nothing, so even if the enemy try to use packs of spirit beasts as conditional allies, you just have to be more threatening than them".
Spirit beasts had sharper senses than cultivators in most cases, so the moment Aster released some of his aura, they immediately erased any thought of attacking him, well, more accurately it was an instinctive kind of thing.
Which made sense, how could these low ranked spirit beasts, with thin lineages, dare to bare their fangs towards a pureblood dragonkin like Aster, the only reason as to why the vipers attacked him before was because he was concealing his aura, otherwise none of the beasts here would have approached them at all, let alone try to attack them.
"This time's trial is going to be different, I'll suggest you to stop here, for your first time this is a pretty nice result", said Aster only to see those girls giving him puppy eyes, however this time he didn't concede, but instead he changed his approach.
"Don't look at me like that, those idiots from the other factions are targeting us, so I need you to go and inform the other sisters as well as the elders, since a fight is going to break out once I set a foot outside".
Those girl's eyes sparkled, they now had a "mission" to fulfill, and it was given to them by their idol no less, of course Aster only wanted them to not be caught in his fight with the idiots from the other factions inside the secret realm, after all, he just severed all the limbs of some poor bastard and there was no intervention from the authorities of the sect.
"Let's finish this in the forest so we can concentrate in what's important, our date", he said to Vivian who sweetly smiled in response.
"Mm".
With those words, Aster and Vivian dove into the deep area of the forest, leaving behind a river of blood and a mountain of severed legs.
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