After listening to the treat of the bandaged leader, Aster completely discarded the idea that someone had set a trap for him, if that was the case the guy wouldn’t have given him a “chance” to live.
To the surprise of the black clothed guys, instead of the normal reactions they are used to see, such as a coward spineless man that runs away leaving behind its companions to a fate worse than death, or the useless resistance which ends in a fate worse than death for both the man and the female companions.
The black-haired youth in front of them had a smile which wasn’t a smile, making them feel uncomfortable.
And they had good reasons to feel like that, Aster was experiencing an inner debate right now, rationally he wanted to take this chance to start with Kana’s training, on the other hand, every cell of his body was urging him to rip all those guys to shreds.
Aster used his spirit sense to inspect his body and noticed that his heart was beating harder than usual, and his blood was circulating faster too.
Dragons are violent and lascivious, so what do you think it will happen if they get both angry and feel that their “mates” are being coveted by others… a massacre.
That being said Aster felt strangely calm for the situation, back then just for the way those guys were seeing Sarina and Kana right now, he would have gouged their eyes out but now things were different.
While Aster was wondering the reason of this change, inside the mind space Rya curiously observed Aster’s soul idol, normally the thing doesn’t do anything, it just stays sitting cross legged with the eyes closed as if it is meditating, but right now its eyes were open.
“A spirit opening cultivator shouldn’t even have a soul idol to begin with, not to mention the fact that dragonkin can’t cultivate in the soul path either”, mumbled Rya but she didn’t interfere in whatever was happening.
Unless Aster was to be in a certain death situation, she has already told him, she wouldn’t step in, only facing and overcoming the adversity a cultivator can become stronger after all.
“Let’s see how can you manage the urges of your bloodline”, she thought.
Back at the outside world after a couple of seconds which seemed like hours for Aster, he exhaled and then glared at Kana.
“Kana, we will start your training right now, okay?”.
Although Kana was taken by surprise, she didn’t complain and instead just nodded, Sarina simply stood still, even if Aster were to not di anything she was enough to deal with all these guys.
Aster walked until he was standing behind Kana and then pointed at the leader of the black clothed guys.
“First lesson, never believe in the words of the enemy, a moment ago that guy said he would let me go if I left, and that is clearly a lie, remember that when someone has the bigger fist it would never compromise nor leave loose ends, unless of course they are wary of the other party”.
“Mm”, Kana cutely nodded, like a student who takes notes of what her teacher says.
Aster smiled but as he was about to continue speaking, he suddenly pointed at east and a line of blue light was shot from the tip of his index finger before a loud scream could be heard coming from a tree.
“Aghhh!!!”.
A figure which was completely covered in black clothes fell from the top of tree, after writhing on the ground while screaming in agony for a couple of seconds, the figure stopped moving and then silence fell on the whole place before the body exploded in blue flames turning into ashes in less than a second.
“Never forget to be aware of your surroundings, those who think that can ambush you, will normally wouldn’t expect to be attacked by surprise by their target”.
As Aster finished speaking, the leader of the black clothed guys shouted, with a hatred filled voice.
“He is from a noble family, surround them, we have to wash this miserable planet in blood!”.
While they were positioning in all the directions around Aster and the girls, Aster continued with his training.
“This is one of the most important lessons, never trust in the persuasion caused by a surname or a backer, a cornered rabbit will bite a lion, just look at these guys, they clearly know that we aren’t commoners but instead of trying to make amends, their solution is to not leave any witness alive”.
Aster put special emphasis into his words, how many young masters and ladies believed that their surnames will keep them alive, just to meet their end in the hands of a nobody with enough guts or experience in the cruelty of the world.
“Enough with this farse, kill these three bastards”, shouted the leader, but then noticing the unwillingness in his subordinates he quickly added.
“There is a town nearby, once we finish here, you all can have some fun with the villagers”.
Sarina felt the urge to kill these group of small fries, she as the daughter of a city lord has seen, the devastation caused by bandits in towns near borders, so she already knows what fate can the women and men of the town will have, but seeing that Aster wasn’t finishing them yet, then she suppressed her killing intention and stood still.
Aster evaluated Kana’s reactions so far, he purposely didn’t kill the guy which was hiding on the tree and instead made Rigel’s flames burn him from the inside causing him a pain hard to describe, before finishing him.
Surprisingly Kana didn’t seem to be disgusted nor scared by the screams and the scene of the black clothed man dying, besides a slightly frowned expression which faded after a couple of seconds she managed to keep calmed.
“Now!”, with a loud shout, the mortal transcending realm leader let his spirit pressure fall in the whole area, then all the star tribulation realm bandits dashed towards Aster, he killed one of their comrades so of course they wanted to return the favor.
But then a different pressure overwhelmed all the presents including Kana and even Sarina, for a moment they thought a huge roar sounded but after a second look, there was no such a thing.
What did happen was that all the black clothed guys fell directly to the ground, while spitting blood due to both the pressure and the fact that their movement techniques were interrupted causing the spirit energy in their meridians to run wild.
Besides Sarina and Kana, the only one who didn’t fall to the ground was the mortal transcending realm cultivator which, but even then, he felt as if his knees were about to give in.
The man noticed his body was trembling and his pupils narrowed.
“What the hell is wrong with this killing intention… this goes beyond even those maniacs of the blood fiend sect!”, thought the man as he felt the taste of blood surging from his throat.
Aster looked at the girls again, Sarina was okay, she was only taken by surprise by the sudden aura which leaked from Aster’s body, she even doubted that he was the Aster she knows.
Because this amount of murderous intent can only be possessed by someone that has ended countless of lives, anyway right now it wasn’t the time to discuss that, she instead glared at her daughter and as she expected Kana was a bit pale.
Aster didn’t protect her more than enough from the pressure of the mortal transcending black clothed man, he even let her experience a bit of his murderous intent on purpose.
Kana couldn’t help but look at Aster feeling a bit aggrieved.
“Big brother you… did I make something wrong?”, she asked in a low voice, Aster has always treated her kindly, not only that but he always protected her from any harm, especially against dangers which were out of her league, just like back then she was allowed to fight in the war at Riga while being supervised by Mylene of course.
Noticing the genuinely sad and shocked tone in Kana’s voice, Aster felt his heart clench a bit, but that only made him steel his resolution.
“This little girl is too soft for her own good, and unfortunately I’m not omnipotent nor omnipresent… yet”, he thought.
Aster inwardly sighed before he patted Kana’s head, her little body trembled as she turned around to hug him.
Aster then noticed that some of the black clothed guys actually pissed themselves due to the fear caused by his murder intent, and he scratched the back of his head.
“Maybe I… overdid a bit”, he thought, of course he wasn’t referring to those guys, but to Kana, even if it was for just a split of a second and it was lessened, Kana did get affected by it.
Aster caressed her hair before he pecked her cheeks making Kana giggle.
“I overdid it a bit earlier, I’m not angry with you or anything like that are you okay”, he said in a tender voice.
Kana slowly nodded, the feeling Aster gave off a moment ago was totally different to the one she knows, she was treated as an “enemy” for a split of a second, it was a bit too much to handle for a little girl who was spent her days cultivating flowers and with nearly zero battle experience.
But that was the purpose of all this situation, no one was born strong after all, the fact that she recovered from the shock so fast was praise-worthy.
As Aster was about to put an end to today’s “training”, Kana tugged on the sleeve of his coat while she looked at him with her big eyes glowing.
“Big brother, help me become strong… I want to be like sister Alice or sister Aria which can confidently fight”.
Kana wasn’t dumb, she saw her mom perfectly resisting a probably worse version of the aura that nearly made her faint, and after the initial shock she resolved her little heart.
“I will become someone he can trust his back to, so that I can also be his life partner… like mom and the other sisters!”.
Sarina smiled, as he nodded in recognition, her daughter might be a bit too soft in certain aspects but she isn’t a crybaby.
Although Aster didn’t underestimate the improve in Kana’s personality, he didn’t know that he did something like giving claws and fangs to an adorable small animal which wasn’t supposed to have them, but that is a story for another day.