Aster looked at the old man which was doubting to speak while “secretly” gathering spirit energy in his chest, he clearly planned to break the meridians of his own heart if needed.
‘Well, I guess I look like the bad guy here, or at least someone who seeks revenge over the smallest grudge, not that it’s a lie though’, thought Aster.
Aster’s pressure fell on the old man which immediately tried to severe the meridians in his heart, just to be terrified by the discovery that… his spirit energy didn’t follow his orders.
The old man sighed.
“I was a fool to think I could hide something from the eyes of someone that could see the yang stealing needles in my body, can I ask which honorable soul king in disguise are you?”.
…
Silence fell on the room, with the exception of the half dead Trevor whose pupils contracted in terror, the didn’t react as the old man expected.
Eris and Mylene simply shook their heads.
“The people of this plane don’t seem to know the might of a soul king, I wonder if they have ever seen the manifestation of a soul avatar”, mumbled Eris.
“Well, Aster’s perception capacity is on another level on the other hand, so I understand the confusion”, answered Mylene as she took a seat, since Aster didn’t kill the old man even if he tried to commit suicide, then tings were going to take some time.
Lilia snapped her fingers and the guards which were coming with bloodlust in their faces, exploded in blood mist, then a black dome covered the whole castle and another one covered the whole asteroid.
She also leisurely laid on one couch followed by Alice, Aria, Sarina and Kana.
“Take your time darling, no one can enter and no one can leave”.
The old man’s expression was rather uncertain at first, he was pale as if he has seen a ghost, then hope glinted in his face and lastly resignation.
“Fine, I will talk, it wouldn’t be funny if my soul were to be inspected, but if I were you, I would ask the little girl to go out… my story isn’t exactly pleasant to hear”.
The old man felt a bit weird being ignored by Aster and the others, so he took it as the answer of his petition.
“My name is Tomas Atria, I’m… I used to be an elder of the main Atria family, but that position was inherited, I go it with my own merits, which ultimately earned me the attention of the clan head”.
“You can imagine the rest, let’s just say I attracted the jealousy of those from the main branches, back then I was young and ambitious and I didn’t care about offending everyone, until one day the son of the supreme elder and me had a quarrel”.
“I fought on behalf someone I shouldn’t have, and won”.
“Arms, legs, eyes even his manhood, I practically turned him into what he was, piece of trash”.
“But then it turned out I was just being tricked, the supreme elder simply set me up, so that I ended up attacking and heavily wounding a direct descendant of the main branches”.
“I was sentenced to “pay” for my crimes, they forcefully put me the yang stealing needles which were designed to deal with body cultivators, and then I was imprisoned for about one hundred years, the needles deprived me of my vitality which was transferred to the son of the supreme elder”.
“Only when my body cultivation regressed to the point that I wasn’t even a Karnal Disaster cultivator, I was thrown out of the jail”.
“Then I went to the family council to seek for justice, unfortunately the clan head entered seclusion and the one in charge was the supreme elder, even then that guy didn’t dare to kill me because I have a talisman with a wisp of will from the clan head, if I die due to an unnatural reason he will know”.
The old man then glared at Trevor which was laying on the ground with a retorted expression, and he smirked.
“When I left the jail, I realized those from my native planet were treated like cannon fodder, to the point that one third of the cultivators which shared their origins with me were all dead, luckily I had a chance to get back at the one that caused all this”.
“Even with my body cultivation almost wasted, I was still a Genesis Manifestation cultivator so I captured the son of the supreme elder and made sure he could no longer had any offspring, that little bastard in the ground is his one and only son”.
“In exchange the supreme elder attacked me and my dantian suffered damages, then I was exiled to a faraway place where there would be no chance for me to cause problems, and my jailer was the son of the one I hated the most, sent with the mission of torturing me in every way possible”.
“Oh?”, Daimon noticed the ash death expression of the old man, it was clear he vented out his anger on that guy, but even then, that didn’t make him feel better.
As for Trevor which was still laying in the ground, he was terrified, probably because the one Tomas was talking about was his father.
The old man sighed as he concluded with the story.
“You can imagine the rest, all this time I was kept in this mansion while my body was destroying itself due to all the damage I had suffered, I only lasted to this day because this throne was gifted to me in secret by the previous city lord which died not too long after I was sent here”.
“I-Impossible, I personally interrogated and inspected that old geezer myself!”, Trevor which had remained silent all this time, suddenly exclaimed, his eyes then gazed at the throne and an expression of anger and greed appeared on his face.
Aster also frowned, he already inspected the whole room and there wasn’t any treasure worth attention, the throne was decent but it wasn’t even a stellar grade treasure.
But then his eyes focused in a series of empty lockets situated on the armguards of the throne, something that didn’t escape the eyes of the old man.
“Kid, for someone that affirms to not be a soul king, your spirit sense is horribly sharp, the throne itself isn’t but a medium for what has truly kept me alive, so now what will happen?”.
The old man was clearly anxious, he purposely spoke about a treasure with the intention of making Aster feel interested on it, even if he was silenced at least he wanted to borrow Aster’s sword to take down the son of his hated enemy.
‘Something that can keep a man with almost zero yang energy alive, while his body is not tough enough to endure an extreme change, soft but still yang, could it be…’.
Aster’s eyes glowed for a split of a second, there were still some questions he needed to ask, but first he needed to make sure no one got news of what was happening here.
He took out his sword and shoved it on Trevor’s leg, then blue flames started burning his flesh making him scream like a pig in a slaughterhouse.
“Swear by the heavens to follow all my orders and never go against me”, said Aster in a cold voice.
,m Not even a split of a second later Trevor obeyed, the soul oath took place and Aster stopped what he was doing.
“Go out and tell everyone everything is fine, “you were attacked by evil cultivators and this old man saved you”, that will be the official version”.
Trevor which could now move took out some healing pills from his spatial rings before he followed Aster’s orders, his miserable figure soon left the mansion.
The old man on the other hand was more than surprised, he saw Aster glaring at him from the corner of his eyes and his heart clenched, but hen he sighed, unlike Trevor who had the backing of the supreme elder he had nothing to offer, well maybe one he did but wouldn’t it be easier to get his things from his dead body.
‘Well at least, it didn’t fall in that old bastard’s hands, I guess I fulfilled my promise’, thought the old man as he closed his eyes waiting for the sword that would end his life.
But no matter how much he waited, the cold sharp sensation of blade cutting through his neck didn’t come, he slowly opened his eyes just to see the black-haired youth smirking at him.
“Old man, do you want to take revenge?”, said Aster.
The pupils of the old man contracted, a bit of hope lit up in his heart, which made Aster inwardly nod.
‘If given a chance, living beings will always cling to whatever gives them hope’ thought Aster.
The old man contemplated things for a second, he then looked at Aster and the girls, his eyes stopped on Lilia for a split of a second, while he originally supposed she was only a Void Manipulation cultivator, he as a dual path cultivator knew how to spot others, and while he couldn’t see through Lilia’s cultivation, he was sure that both her realms surpassed him in his prime.
‘That is not the level someone from a low ranked stellar system should achieve at a young age, these people are at least from a peak middle ranked stellar system… no they are probably from a high ranked stellar system, a family with someone in the Heavenly division’, concluded the old man.
“What do you want in exchange to help me, my strength is not what it used to be, while I can swear loyalty to you, I won’t be of much help”.
Aster shook his head, he walked towards the old man and tapped his shoulder, then a black needle was slowly expelled from it, making the old man grit his teeth to endure the pain.
Once the needle was out Aster played with it, just by touching it he felt the little thing was trying to absorb his yang energy, but it couldn’t.
“You’ll become a shield for this star cluster”, said Aster while he inwardly jumped out of expectation.
‘This star cluster still had one last surprise to give me’, he thought while he mentally crossed out another of the materials needed for Rya’s new body.