Chapter 845: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 23)

"Here, I brought this guy for interrogation, their arrows were trash but the bows are not that bad so I took them with me as well, besides that they had some low-quality food which wasn’t worth keeping and a few things for Mylene and the other alchemists to play with", said the ice princess as she threw the fainted Ryan at Aster’s feet to then add.

"Big contribution means a big reward, right?", that took a few people by surprise, especially the girls of the battle formation unit, you see, quite a few of them are among the ones that had sparred with Alice and the others to try and earn a date with Aster.

And while some still have bad dreams as they are reminded of how Alice ripped their clothes off every time she beat them, the contrary applies to Aria, the ice princess always kept a gentle and elegant attitude, sure she defeated them every time since she was "defending her happiness" in Alice’s words, but she wasn’t rough with those girls like Alice.

But right now, that same ice princess looked quite enthusiastic and bold, which reminded them of how Aria defeated the enemies in such a "wild" way for her standards at least.

’She is not going to treat us like that red eyed sister during spars in the future... right?’, wondered the girls of the sect.

"Sister Aria looks really happy~", as always Kana helped everyone relax with her bright smile, as she jumped from the centipede and landed on the arms of the ice princess who of course caught her on the spot.

"Of course, she is, you see, your sister Aria just completed her unique mission and she also captured an enemy leader so she is expecting a really big reward", jokingly said Aster as he pecked Aria’s right cheek, causing five different types of reactions, first and formal the ice princess blushed on the spot.

Normally Aria is not the type to ask for affection in public, very much unlike Alice who if she was allowed would be stuck to Aster like bubblegum all the day, but she was quite happy right now, so instead of feeling shy like she usually would, she instead leaned her head a bit, clearly asking for a head pat as well.

’How cute’, thought Aster as he petted the ice princess, gently stroking her pretty platinum blue hair, and that leads us to the other four different reactions, first the one of a certain girl with red hair as well as the one of the blond roc mother.

’That’s not fair!’, thought Nina and Sarina, jealousy was the second of the five types of reactions.

’Humph, next time I will cut this tease-loving guy down’, thought the ligress girl and the purple lightning princess in unison, despite their inner thoughts, relief over Aster knowing were to stop was the third type of reaction, especially because they really didn’t mean what they thought, so how would they had actually reacted to such a situation will remain a mystery.

"Woah, sister Aria really became quite bold all of a sudden", mumbled a few girls from the sect.

"I just hope that she doesn’t become like sister Alice...", added another girl, those were the fourth type of reactions, and last but not least the ones of the former enemies, or more accurately the ones of the two brothers.

’Another scary one like that blond haired lady, are monstrous fighters suddenly a common thing or what?’, is what they thought.

Don’t get it wrong, Cassandra and more importantly Lauren were also surprised by how Aria’s fight ended, especially the badger orange haired girl whose eyes were sparkling, clearly, she wanted to have a go against the ice princess, but was controlled by Cassandra who could basically read her mind and directly said.

"You even stimulated your lineage earlier so no more fighting for the rest of the day, you’ll have dinner, take a bath and then relax and rest until tomorrow".

"Mm, I’ll listen to sister Cassandra", despite the downcast light in Lauren’s eyes, she nodded and didn’t complain about Cassandra’s instructions, their relationship was more like that of a mother and her daughter than friends or sisters, it was amusing.

As for the middle-aged man also known as Andre, since earlier, he had no mind for anything besides wanting to interrogate the spear guy with whom he teamed with before and has been glaring at him all this time, clearly, he really couldn’t wait anymore.

Luckily, Aster also didn’t want to drag things, he had to deal with some trash first, before the blue flaming board made its appearance in a few minutes which would mark the end of the match, as it was time limited.

"Okay, let’s make this quick, Mira, Mylene and Sarina, wake those guys, everyone else stand close to me", said Aster to which everyone nodded.

’Fucking evil dual cultivator bastard!’ some of the fainted enemies were already up, but were just feigning to see if they could make a run for it once they were closer to the time limit, unfortunately the black-haired youth seemed to be experienced when handling prisoners.

"Wake up, if you make me say it twice, I’ll hit you for real next", casually said the pink-haired girl as she kicked a couple of the captured people.

"Gah!", naturally even a casual kick from Mylene nearly made those who received it faint again, the others who were actually fainted had water thrown at their faces by Mira or were zapped back to the real world by Sarina.

"Damn it!", naturally someone tried to escape, Aster expected it to happen, among the bunch that knew that their past actions would most likely lead to death if they were judged by a... majorly female populated enemy group.

One of the two guys who were captured by Mylene got up and then tried to make a run for it, only for him to fall frontwards the next second, blood could be seen coming from his nose and mouth, he was dead.

"Let’s clean out the irredeemable trash first", said Aster as he glared at the other guy captured by Mylene.

"W-Wait I can prov...".

"Thud", before that guy could finish his sentence, he also fell frontwards powerless, a bit of blood came out of his nose and mouth as well, that was another guy who died in such a "mysterious" way.

Naturally for Valentina and the girls of the sect there was no mystery here, that was Aster using the absolute field, that doesn’t mean they weren’t surprised though.

’Woah, senior brother can even cut the inside of the enemy, how cool!’, is what those cute girls from the battle formation unit who had sparkles in their eyes were thinking right now.

That’s right, Aster used the absolute field to cut the hearts of those two from the inside, for two reasons, first and formal small targets and at a short distance required him to use way less energy than large ones and second, he didn’t want to make a public execution in front of those girls.

Don’t get it wrong, Aster is not against killing, in the cultivation world that’s not an option if you don’t want to lose what you hold dear, however like previously stated one shouldn’t enjoy nor purposedly make it more than what it needs to be.

Which in this case that was an example, with the cooperation of the pink-haired girl who "spared" targets that were going to be killed from the very beginning, you remember that tall guy telling them that they had to fight because if their actions were discovered they would be killed anyway, to then use those two as bait right.

Well, Mylene agreed with the tall man in that aspect, she just feigned to direct her attention to the tall guy to make it so that those two wouldn’t try to escape as soon as they regained consciousness, since Mylene finished her fight quite early.

Mylene had taken upon herself to get some targets for Aster to set an example too, so in other words, they fell for the pink-haired girl’s scheme.

"You crazy...", such a scene of course made the relatively decent among the captured, complain, namely the stone axe guy and his friend the shield wielding one who were captured by Dahlia and Nina, but they were interrupted by Aster.

"I could understand you guys fighting against us if your lives depended on it, but that wasn’t originally the case, then I might even find some use for you if you tried to kill one of my teammates in order to survive for the first time, things like that happen and I’m not naïve enough to believe that the world can be exclusively divided in white and black, however, survival has nothing to do with abusing some poor girl to death, right mister leader?", he said as he sharply gazed at the blond haired guy who right now was shivering.

Humans are an interesting race, they can grow accustomed to some really crazy situations, this includes battle and slaughter, those who live in the battlefield might even stop feeling afraid of death at some point.

However, there is something to which no one can grow used to, what can scare even the toughest among the tough is the "unknown".

’He didn’t swing his sword nor was there any spirit energy reaction, what the hell is this guy!’, and the blond-haired leader is nowhere being close to a tough guy considering how he lost track of everything just because Aria killed one of his teammates.

"T-They were from the Red Flower sect, but I had nothing to do with that, they originally came in a group of five with some mercenaries and had already gotten rid of the sole guy and... "dealt" with the two women of the group, that’s all I know", said Ryan as he looked downwards, not even daring to look at Aster’s golden eyes, feeling afraid that he would die "mysteriously" by doing so.

"And there you have it, the rest of you don’t seem to be "irredeemable trash" but that doesn’t mean you are safe, if the value you can provide doesn’t outweigh your faults, then you can kiss goodbye to your lives as well", added Aster.

The amusing part is that he who had taken the role of a "god of death" was currently the one who looked the least aggressive, because basically all the girls standing next and behind of him looked furious and for a good reason.

"Damn scum", said the ligress girl, Mira was always open when it came to things like these, what’s more, she and some other people recognized the sect from which those two guys came.

"Dual faced trash from the Red Flower sect should all die", said the pair of brothers in unison.

"They are known for targeting those with no affiliation like mercenaries", added Cassandra who had a really strong killing intent shinning in her eyes, despite she being the calm one among her group of five.

They are mercenaries after all, under different circumstances they could have targeted them, that being said, things would have definitely taken a different turn if that had happened, probably both would have had their necks crushed by Lauren, but still.

"For the rest of you, I have single question, would you have truly spared us if you had defeated our group?", said Aster, to which the first one to answer was none other than the short bulky man who was captured by Kana.

"Yes, there is no merit in killing those that surrender and can become your subordinates...", Richard who had just answered suddenly had his sight blur as he fell frontwards, dead.

"I forgot to mention it but lying is useless in front of me", casually said Aster, in truth that only worked a hundred percent of the time when it came to female targets, because dragon lineage, but without relying in that strange innate ability of his, Aster can still see and interpret the smallest traces to know of someone’s intentions, if they are lying and the like.

That’s how he knew what those two he killed earlier had done, he noticed their hidden glares at the girls and that’s why he secretly asked Mylene to bring them to him to turn them into examples.

Judging by how good they were at dissimulating since aside from the Ligress who absolutely hates negative yang related things, like evil dual cultivators as those two, Mylene and Sarina who have grown used to see the bad side that people hide, Valentina and Aria who had received such gazes before and selected girls like Kana, Dahlia, Nina and Lina who didn’t directly identify what kind of "intention" those two had but whose senses were sharp enough to know it wasn’t anything good.

There were also Amanda, Brenda and Violet who had experienced the real world out of the sect but they failed to notice it because they weren’t the ones being targeted directly, those two weren’t fools and they were used to target those who looked like "easy prey", therefore, they reserved their intention for the girls of the sect who didn’t realize it, it was a combination of lack of real world experience and the opponent belonging to a sect whose members are taught to go unnoticed, so those cute girls aren’t to blame.

After all, even Cassandra didn’t notice it, because those two didn’t dare to show anything when dealing with someone that had the fierce badger orange haired girl at her side at all times.

As for the short bulky man, he hadn’t done anything of the previous nature, but he indeed had killed a lot of people and he outright lied to Aster, for his eyes it was obvious that he was the type to feign submission and look for the slightest chance to stab people in the back, not to mention that he had nothing in particular of interest for Aster and the others, so he was killed too.

Ryan was a better target for interrogation because as the leader of the group, he knew the secrets of the others, and he was an easy to control coward too, of course he couldn’t be directly told that he would live.

"Andre was it, make your questions to that guy before I do mine", said Aster to the middle-aged man who glared at the spear guy, the latter could recognize the hatred in the middle-aged man’s eyes and gritted his teeth as he shouted.

"I won’t answer anything unless my life is guaranteed, you either kill me and remain in the dark or let me live and get the answers you wan...aghhh!", before the spear guy could finish his sentence a scream escaped his mouth as he fell to the ground and held onto his leg in pain.

"Don’t get it wrong, those two got a better end than what they deserved not because I’m generous or anything like that, but because I don’t like wasting time, however ten minutes are enough to make so you let alone speak, but "sing" the answers I want to hear", casually said Aster.

Those guys were wrong in thinking that death is the worst ending that could await them, normally Mylene or Valentina would have volunteered for the previous, but Aster could make it bloodless like right now when he cut some muscles od that guy’s leg making him scream but with no wound to be seen, so he was the best choice for the task.

"You are from the Clear Weaponry sect, right?", asked the middle-aged man to the spear guy who after a fraction of a second of silence looked at Aster in fear and nodded in response.

"Yes, I’m a veteran outer disciple from the Clear Spear branch", ultimately answered the spear guy making the middle-aged man’s body tremble due to anger, before he calmed down.

"Did the young miss from the Clear Spear sect come into this place?", he asked with a cold ice voice.

"Y-Yes we were sent in advance but got spread all over the place, she should be with the assigned bodyguards and elders from the sect right now", answered the spear guy.

"Very well, please let me kill him now", said the middle-aged man as he bowed his head at Aster and Valentina, to which Aster looked at Cassandra for an answer.

"The Clear Spear patriarch and hia daughter... killed Andre’s wife", said the green-haired female leader.

"I don’t think he has any intel that could outweigh that, so he is all yours", said Aster to which the spear guy shouted.

"W-Wait you are from the Clear Knight sect right, I can tell you about the patriarch’s plans and provide intel from the young miss’s bodyguards, as well as the capacities of the elders!!!", he apparently thought he had guessed the middle-aged man’s situation based on the previous.

"I can spare you, just tell me, what were my wife parent’s names?", said the middle-aged man, whose question was met with the spear guy’s face retorting as he fell all the way to hell from sky, after thinking he could survive the situation.

"You fucking bastard is it fun playing with me... agh!", the spear guy was kicked on the face by the middle-aged man who in turn added.

"My mother-in-law was called Leila, she was a kind and brave woman who acted as bait so that her granddaughter could escape, her tomb is empty because the wounds she suffered disfigured her completely so for respect we had her cremated".

"And my father-in-law was called Norman, he was a strict but benevolent man who had long retired from the cultivation world and used his time to take in, train and teach those without a home like myself how to have a dignified life, he immolated himself to stall the patriarch and elders of the Clear Spear sect", and with those words Andre used the short-sword which had been returned to him by Aster earlier, to slit the spear’s guys throat, who didn’t die on the spot and got to hear the middle aged man saying.

"We were members of a small force called the "Radiant home" sect, but I don’t doubt that even if we would have been from the Clear Knight sect, trash like you who kill at the beck and call of that bastard wouldn’t have bothered to learn their names".

"As for the intel you could provide, don’t worry, I have wandered for years gathering information, so I already know all of that".

"...!", the spear guy couldn’t talk but given his expression he died with regrets, probably because at the end of his life he remembered who the middle-aged man was, which also meant that he participated in what happened to said small sect, but simply didn’t come to mind for him at all.

"Thanks, I won’t forget this favor", said the middle-aged man as he gazed at Aster to then walk to the side and sit down just in time for the pair of brothers to sit next to him, they didn’t talk to the middle-aged man but just made him company.

"So, would you have spared us if we had surrendered?", asked Aster to the next guys, the stone axe and the shield wielding one who had remained silent after learning of those two’s past actions.

"I don’t know about every single one, but at least I wouldn’t have had the heart to kill the younger members of your group", said the stone axe guy.

"I would have only killed the one who was fighting with me, that’s all", added the shield guy, to which Aster nodded as he passed by them to the next targets, namely Vera and Ryan.

"You two will have to answer some questions first", he said to which Vera gritted her teeth to then say.

"I can offer intel with value enough to exchange for my life, I’m willing to fully contribute to your group, I alone am worth more than Cassandra’s whole group, you might not know this but they are only mercenaries, I on the other hand have a decently high ranked background since I’m the daughter of the Poison Blood sect’s supreme elder".

"You are divine royalty right, if you take me in, my sect can act as a bridge between your group and the Rainbow Toxic divine family, gaining a divine family as an ally would be enough for you to become an heir, or if you already are to solidify your position, maybe you’ll even become a crowned prince...", Aster’s casual words made Vera’s long plea stop.

"I’m not interested in neither you nor your background, but "Rainbow Toxic" divine family, now that sounds worthy to pay attention to", he said as the image of a certain pretty girl who seemed to incarnate the white color, appeared in Aster’s mind.

"The poison blood sect is the lowest ranked vassal sect under the rainbow toxic divine family, they won’t even have hereditary viscount level intel, though the connection looks to be of no interest for you, I have worked for a hereditary marchioness of theirs and acted as second in command for one of their dukes before, if we were to visit the rainbow toxic divine family, I would be treated better than her", said Cassandra as she took out a small pendant with a multicolored plaque which had the words "Honored Guest" engraved on them.