Aster saw Kana’s big eyes glowing with determination and he found her cute, so after patting her head a couple of times making her smile, he then changed to a more serious expression.
He took out one of his training swords from his spatial ring and then with Kana still clinging to him, Aster walked towards the black clothed men which were trying their best to break free from Aster’s spirit pressure.
The strongest among the star tribulation realm managed to scratch the ground as they tried to get up, what they have done they knew it better than anyone else, so none of them expected mercy from a previous “prey”.
Aster stopped about one meter away from one of the star tribulation cultivators before he spoke in a calm voice.
“Listen Kana, everyone has a different vision of the world, so to be honest good or evil are relative, for example for someone who has gotten robbed, the thief is “bad”, but that same thief might be in a position which required him to rob others in order to live”.
Kana nodded, a good example of the previous was Mylene, due to some misunderstandings she was considered as the great evil in Prasil, until she met Aster and then it turned out that the Riga royal family and the traitor king were the true scum.
After Kana got to know Mylene, she realized she was a good person, at the very least she has never killed or purposely affected anyone that wasn’t in conflict with her, even Eris gave her that.
Kana’s mind was running like crazy trying to understand, if good or evil depended from the point of view then, what differentiated people from each other, fortunately for her Aster then shared his way to view things.
“You used to believe I was the golden knight, but do you remember what I told you before?”.
Kana nodded, the memory was fresh in her mind, after all, previous to that she believed Aster was the golden knight from the stories of Prasil, although she still saw him as her knight in a shining armor.
“Big brother told me that he isn’t a hero nor a saint… but at the same time he has never used his sword against anyone that didn’t deserve it”.
Aster chuckled; he was almost there.
“That’s right, but at the same I never told you how those that “deserve it” are decided right?”.
“Mm”, Kana nodded a bit confused.
“The answer is actually quite simple, what I like is correct and what I don’t is incorrect, despite what others think”.
Kana was speechless, what Aster just said sounded… selfish, noticing her troubled expression Aster elaborated.
“Don’t look at me like that, of course there are things that shouldn’t be done, unfortunately sometimes this world is not kind enough to let you chose, just like magic beasts hunt each other to survive the same happens to humans”.
Then Aster’s gaze became sharp as he stabbed his sword on the tendon of the closest star tribulation bandit making him yell due to the pain as small quantities of Rigel’s flames burned him from the inside.
“But there is a huge difference in things that must be done to survive and just finding pleasure in depriving and harming others”.
Once the bandit stopped breathing, he then turned to see Kana which looked a bit uncomfortable at the sight of the man dying screaming in pain.
“These guys for example have done horrible things to others… women specially it seems, and although I won’t actively chase them unless they become a threat for my family, if they cross my way, I don’t mind eliminating them from the world”.
“For the simple reason that I don’t like what they do and because I’m stronger than them, not because of benevolence or because I consider myself upright”.
Aster was aware that his way of seeing things is not remotely the best, there are good people in the world, those who do good deeds just because that’s the right thing do exist, but there is no such a thing as a saint, that’s something Aster firmly believed in, everyone has something for which he or she will be selfish.
Who would waste a precious medicine on a complete stranger when a close relative needs it, who can affirm from the bottom of his heart that he will give up his life to seek justice for people he doesn’t know.
Aster tried to simplify things as much as he could for Kana, his way to see things was quite straightforward, probably because of the time he lived back at earth were moral and rights were more stablished than in this cultivation world.
Ultimately, in his heart Aster was clear that if needed he wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone non related to him, for the sake of his family and those close to him.
Aster rested his sword on his shoulder before he patted Kana’s head.
“You can be kind to others as long as it doesn’t become a burden to you or require you to suffer, but never hesitate to kill an enemy, I think that should be a good pillar for your own vision of the world, the rest is up to you”.
Aster didn’t mind if Kana remained kind and pure, but being kind it’s not the same as being naïve or innocent, what he wanted to teach her was to not let others take advantage of her kindness.
Looking at it from the point of view of a stranger, she brought him to her house after meeting him for too little time, while it had a good end since he cured Sarina and helped them with Robert and all, not all the people were decent enough to not stab in the back those who welcomed them.
“Mm”, Kana nodded while she was lost in her thoughts.
Aster smiled, a change for the better doesn’t happen immediately, but he already showed her the start of the path, and now it was time to get some “answers” from the guys that clearly weren’t natives of this star cluster.
“That’s enough for today, you can go with Sarina or follow me in what’s about to happen, but be aware that the “me” you’ll see right now is the one that let out that aura which scared you before”.
Surprisingly Kana rounded her arms around Aster body, with a stubborn expression in her face, which instead of making her look resolved, made her look adorable.
Aster laughed as he gazed at Sarina just to see her nodding at him, her daughter must become aware of the cruel reality of the world, so that she can protect herself when she or the other members of the family aren’t around.
Seeing that she wasn’t going to let go Aster changed his plans, originally, he was going to take those guys into the woods to “interrogate” them, but since Kana decided to see the process, there was no need to change the location.
“Well, it’s not like I enjoy torture anyway”, he thought as he walked towards the next guy, luckily there were simpler ways to make them tell the truth, besides physical torture which is quite graphic.
The guy which saw Aster’s legs stopping next to him from the corner of his eyes felt his body trembling, but he gritted his teeth and gave him a defying gaze.
“Let’s start with the basics, who are you people, what is your objective, how many of you are in this star cluster and who sent you”.
Aster proceeded to enumerate the basic questions from which he will part, after waiting exactly one minute in silence, he simply waved his hand and the guy in the ground rolled before foam was expelled from his mouth before all his movements stopped.
The eyes of the mortal transcending leader narrowed.
“I didn’t feel any spirit energy being used, nor anything was shot from his hands, he just made a gesture and a peak star tribulation cultivator died…what the hell is going on!!”, he screamed in his mind as he saw one of his subordinates dying without understanding how it happened.
Aster saw from the corner of his eyes that all the bandits were now even messier than before and he inwardly nodded, in a world where killing each other for the sake of benefits or treasures what people fears the most, isn’t death nor pain but the unknown.
“All of them are energy path cultivators only, annihilation by itself isn’t easy to detect, and I used my soul energy with annihilation properties… what a good method for assassination”, thought Aster as he walked to the next guy.
But to the surprise of the other bandits, he passed by without saying anything and the bandit died in the same horrible way while retorting and foaming from his mouth.
Aster then stopped next to the third bandit and this time he spoke.
“You know my questions, but unlike your previous companion you only have thirty seconds to…”.
“I will talk!!!”, the poor guy didn’t even let Aster finish his sentence, given the type of life he had, he was sure someday he was going to find himself in a situation where dying is better, so he was prepared to end his own life.
The problem is that no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t circulate his spirit energy, the pressure that the black-haired youth was expelling seemed to block his cultivation, as if his dantian itself was scared, it was absurd to the point that he thought he was being punished by some mythical being for his actions.
Normally to prevent someone to circulate spirit energy, there is a need of a blocking meridian pill or some kind of medicine which does the job, there are also spirit techniques which do that, but he hasn’t heard of someone doing it with just spirit pressure.
In fact, even Aster was surprised by the result of his little experiment, spirit pressure plus murderous intent plus the natural suppression of his lineage, seemed to have an interesting intimidatory effect not only in the bodies of the enemies but even their souls and minds.
It was a complete suppression similar to how being targeted by a superior creature will make one’s body freeze, the difference was that Aster managed to numb also the soul of the affected ones so that they wouldn’t be able to retaliate.
“This surely will help me save some spirit jades”, he thought remembering how he had to administrate a paralysis poison to the assassin sent by Kayla Rein, to interrogate him back then.