The old man was beyond words right now.
‘H-He took out the yang stealing needle just like that, and he is even holding it with his bare hands!’, screamed the man in his heart.
Then he stole a glance at the girls while being careful enough to not fall prey of their incredibly beautiful appearances, and a weird supposition formed in his heart.
‘So many beautiful women gathering around a sole man and a member from the young generation on top, is nearly impossible… could it be a young lady in disguise?’, thought the old man.
Then he looked at Aster’s tall and manly built and he immediately discarded that supposition, but that only made him even more confused, the only ones that are able to directly touch a yang stealing needles without being affected are women or those whose yang energy had surpassed what the needles can absorb.
But that’s not all, they of course had spirit formations engraved on them so that they couldn’t be removed by anyone but the one that placed them, they aren’t one of the legacy treasures of the Atria family for nothing after all.
Aster noticed the surprised expression of the old man and he supposed he did something that went against common sense in his eyes, but that was the idea, there was a certain requirement for what he needed to get from the old man.
‘A resource that has to be handed with good intentions for it to properly work… I guess everything is possible in a world where people can fly through the space without a spaceship’, thought Aster.
In other situation Aster would have simply told the old man to do a soul oath to obey him, in exchange he would take out the needles out of his body, the shield selected for the Rodia star cluster couldn’t be a crippled old man after all, and then he’ll take the resource he needed from the old man.
But this occasion was rather special, because while he could forcefully get any of the other material of the list, after “liberating” the previous owner from it, there was one which had to be willingly handed by others if not found by oneself.
“Do you want revenge?”, asked Aster as he played with the needle in his hand.
“Mm?”, the old man looked at Aster’s eyes directly, clearly confused by his question.
“I need someone strong to protect this star cluster, in this situation you have no choice but to do a soul oath, if you want me to take out the needles that is”.
“Buy if we do things that way then that would be the only thing I’ll do for you, you’ll spend the rest of your life here as the gatekeeper, of course there is a chance that the father of that guy gets in my way in which case I will eliminate him but there is also a chance that doesn’t happen, and I don’t have the time to get out of my way to help someone I don’t have any relation with”.
The pupils of the old man contracted, in other words he could do a soul oath against his will and be tied to this place forever, or sincerely pledge loyalty and then get a chance to take revenge with his own hands.
Remembering the mocking disdainful gazes that glared him back then, the old man felt his blood boiling, then every doubt he had faded, he moved his body which regained a little of strength after one of the needles was removed and kneeled down.
“Tomas Atria is willing to pledge loyalty, how may I address you?”.
Aster smiled, with a wave of his hand the other needles flew out of the old man’s body, the change was immediate, his face recovered some color and his grayish hair regained a brown tone, even the bags under his eyes disappeared.
“Drage… I’m Aster Drage”.
The old man felt his heart stopping, normal elders doesn’t know the surname of the true rulers, but he was a candidate for the clan’s head position and so he has heard it, directly from the clan head himself.
“Never offend someone whose surname is “Drage”, because if they wanted to, our stellar system would be obliterated and no one would put up a word in our behalf”.
The man was suddenly brought back to the present when he saw the needles flying out of the room, then a few seconds later he felt a current of warmness running through his body.
“Aghhhh!”, a familiar voice screaming also came from outside of the mansion, making the old man understand what was happening.
“You were tortured by him right, since he has to “report” the situation to his father from time to time, you can’t kill him but he can make up for what was stolen away from you”, said Aster.
The needles were now shoved in the body of Trevor, and now his yang energy and thus his vitality which has been absorbed by him, will return to his legit owner, of course Aster didn’t care if Tomas took more from Trevor to help his body recover.
Also, now that the old man didn’t have the needles, Aster understood why he was able to advance in two paths at the same time, normally those who cultivate their second path only do it after their main cultivation has reached a certain point, keeping a big gap between both paths.
For example, in the Drage family they tend to start body cultivation after reaching the star formation realm in the energy path, although it’s not a must, it’s easier that way as advancing in a second path tends to be harder.
Lilia and Alice were exceptions though, but they purposedly decided to advance first in the energy path, while this old man was able to be in the same realm of two paths because he turned out to have a body constitution.
“Well, that explains why even after having nearly zero yang left, you were able to survive all this time, even if the needles stole your yang energy at every moment, your body kept producing more, it’s a yang-oriented constitution right?”.
The old man cleared his throat remembering that apparently, he couldn’t hide anything from Aster’s eyes.
“Ahem, young master is right, although that old bastard stole almost all my yang and left the needles in my body, my constitution allowed me to survive all these years… but that wasn’t all, the previous city lord left something behind for me, a treasure that has been secretly custodied by the lord of this border station”.
The old man tapped a random part of the ground and a little compartment opened, he then bit his finger and let a drop fill a little socket and another space opened from which he took out a red talisman.
He respectfully handed the talisman to Aster while he pointed at the throne.
“This is the “key” while the throne is the gate, young master there is a place I want you to see”.
Aster nodded and the girls also stood up since they might get to see something interesting.
The old man didn’t bother to ask and he just placed the talisman on the back of the throne, then he put spirit jades into the many sockets of the armguards and the throne illuminated before a small spatial gate appeared.
The old man took the initiative to put his arm inside of the gate to show there wasn’t any problem with it, and then with Aster’s confirmation he guided them through the gate.
The next thing everyone saw was the inside of a cave, Aster felt a sudden increase in the temperature but that was to be expected since there was a river of magma flowing at both sides of them.
“Big brother, this place smells nice~”, Kana which was curiously looking at her surroundings, suddenly wrinkled her little nose.
Aster raised an eyebrow trying to catch the nice smell of which Kana was talking about, but besides the smell of melted rocks there was nothing else, on the other hand out of all the presents the one with the most experience in plants was probably Kana, and that helped Aster get rid of the last doubt he had about this treasure the old man seemed to have inherited from the previous city lord.
“Mm~”, Kana let out a cute sound feeling Aster patting her head, although he didn’t say anything she understood her words helped him somehow.
Oblivious of the fact the surprise was spoiled by a little girl who loves gardens and flowers, the old man guided Aster and the girls through a system of caves, until they reached an open space which had a completely different landscape compared to the lifeless rocks and magma they have seen so far.
In front of Aster there was a small garden of green grass covering an extension of about one hundred meters within a cave, in the middle of the garden there was a small mound in which two one-meter-tall red crystal-like flowers stood out.
Aster’s eyes glowed recognizing the flowers, but he didn’t say anything and instead waited for the old man to complete the process.
Tomas walked towards the mound and after a moment of silence, he took out one of the flowers and offered it to Aster.
“Young master, this is the treasure of the Rodia star cluster, something that has been passed on by the city lords of the border station… “Volcanic Crystal Calceolaria”, a rare yang spirit herb with a soft nature”.
As Aster’s hand touched the flower, the latter exploded in flames, making the old man put on a terrified expression.
“Young master!”, he shouted.
But to his surprise none of the girls accompanying him moved nor look surprised, so after that little reaction Tomas kept quiet until the flames put out.
Of course, although Lilia knew Aster’s body could withstand normal flames, she would have still acted if he didn’t warn them beforehand.
Aster looked at the now ten centimeters flower in his hand which had flames covering its petals and he smiled.
‘Docile Fire Calceolaria, the flower that requires the previous owner to willingly hand it over with a completely sincere intention, and one of the few yang spirit herbs with a soft nature’, he thought.