Chapter 487 The Truth Behind The Center Of The Forest
The evil spirit saw Aster's unwavering expression and he laughed, as a few memories flashed through his mind, probably for the last time, before he said.
"Ironically the thing that was worth more than the lives of two Heavenly Quadrants, and a secondary family branch on par with a ruler level family, for those guys, was a piece of ice, the chains ended in a piece of ice which was inside that cage".
"At first I didn't know why would a piece of ice was encaged, until I personally scanned the memories of the patriarch of that family branch after killing him prior to the final battle, that thing is a gift that the patriarch of the main family got for his son… a spirit ice in embryonic stage".
The evil spirit gritted his teeth as he continued speaking.
"Can you believe it, those bastards wanted to use us to nurture a treasure for some spoiled brat, I was furious, but it was thanks to it that I was able to convince the others to retaliate".
Though the evil spirit was saying some unnecessary things Aster didn't interrupt him, instead he was secretly surprised.
Elemental beings like Esmeralda who originated from a spirit wind, are incredibly rare even in the Divine Firmaments, otherwise, so many people wouldn't have risked their lives to get her.
Curiously, he heard the auctioneer back at the Treasure planet casually mentioning that the drop of Prison Mercury could be nurtured to become a spirit water, which made him laugh.
To nurture such a being, who is basically the embodiment of a natural disaster that has become sentient due to some special unique circumstances, something like that galaxy-scale ying and yang formation mentioned by the evil spirit was needed.
Still, he didn't know it was possible to find one in embryonic stage, when a spirit elemental appears, it's already complete, though it doesn't possess wisdom, until much later, Esmeralda had to live for quite some time as an eternal green whirlwind in an isolated planet, before she gained wisdom and started cultivating, or at least that's what she remembers about those days.
'This guy isn't necessarily lying, the energy gathered by such a large formation is enough to turn a planet into a paradise for Mortal realms cultivators, if the embryo could be in a mortal plane, then it should be weak and in need of nutrients to grow', thought Aster.
This place isn't like Esmeralda's secret realm, before she formed a contract with Kana, Esmeralda was on par with a Heavenly Conqueror and that is after she has weakened over the years due to some unknown reasons, that's why the laws in her secret realm were laxer, since she descended from a Divine Firmament.
The evil spirit finished its rambling and then said.
"According to that guy inside that block of ice, there is a rare beast spirit ice called "Glacial Liger", which was found and sealed at the moment of its birth, but was then lost in the cold space for a few hundreds of thousands of years, before it was captured and sold in an auction".
"It was bought by those guy's patriarch and then to accelerate its hatch, they used their legacy formation, and some idiot got the awesome idea of using some of the secondary branches to gather "resources" from the Heavenly Quadrants without backers, and that's how my galaxy ended up being targeted by them".
The idea of some guys randomly deciding your life isn't worth anything but becoming fuel for a formation out of nowhere is quite unpleasant, and it shouldn't be something that the righteous forces openly allow, as far as Aster understands.
And he is right, the evil spirit put on a hatred filled expression as he slowly spouted the name of the enemy that caused so much damage to his native galaxy.
"Those bastards of the Yin Azure Palace tried to eliminate all the evidences before any of us could ascend and tell others what they did, that's why even someone from the main family who considered us ants, attacked us".
The evil spirit then pointed at the black crystal altar from which it appeared earlier, before saying.
"Below that yin accumulation crystal which I saved for my revival, there is a map of all the areas I inspected through the years using undead, including some of the areas that enter into what used to be the center of the ancient battlefield".
"As far as I know there aren't other sentient evil spirits like me, but the yin inside there is so strong that the spirit beasts had evolved to use it as their source of power instead of spirit energy".
"I didn't want to fuse with my other half and revive for revenge, inside there, there should be a peak Transcending spirit beast which protects the place, treating it as its lair, the cage is protected by it, since nothing can approach it, due to the left-over chains liked to the three suns that survived the last battle".
"The seal is weaker when the suns are replaced by the moons, which is also why those yin spirit beasts only roam at night, or at least that was the case before, this time, some of the guys who entered the ancient battlefield, used something to stimulate the yin even more, so the beasts may attack randomly at all times now", said the evil spirit.
Aster nodded, the Fritz probably believed there was an Immortal grade yin type of treasure at the center of the Silicon Forest, since natural treasures are usually custodied by spirit beast of the same type.
That's probably the information they gave to those armored guys that came from a high ranked Stellar System, and now they caused a calamity for the participants of this time, including themselves, if there was a Law Integration spirit beast guarding the cage in which the Glacial Liger was being kept, then they'll be obliterated once they reach its domain, in other words the center of the forest, which is also probably where the Diamond Bone Orchid is growing.
Naturally Aster isn't going to let them have none of the two treasures, he turned to see Aria whose pretty eyes had a troubled light shining on them.
Aster smiled and then walked towards Aria, he then brought her into his embrace, before he calmly asked.
"Do you want that spirit ice?".
Aria didn't know what to say for a moment, such a thing was a good way to increase her strength, and it is perfect for her whose cultivation is so linked to yin energy, it is even an embryo which means that it can be tied with a contract and grow with its user, that's probably what that patriarch guy aimed at when he bought it.
And there lies the source of her hesitation, taking it away will mean that Aster will have one more enemy, she couldn't bring herself to ask him to do that, in fact she was decided to say "no", since it meant she would save her lover a lot of trouble, but Aster stopped her from doing so by placing his finger on her pretty lips.
"If you don't want it, I'll have to destroy it, since I have decided to collapse this place anyway, it's too risky to have it connected to our Heavenly Quadrant", casually said Aster with a playful voice, as if he wasn't talking about destroying a heavenly treasure out of spite.
Aria pouted, he could read her like a book, knowing she wouldn't actively ask for anything, he "forced" it onto her.
"You bully~", she mumbled before she nodded.
"Mm, I want it, else I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with you", she said with a determined expression on her pretty face.
Aster smiled and then gently kissed Aria's cheek making her giggle.
"Hahahah!", the evil spirit suddenly laughed, it wasn't a mocking laugh, but instead he seemed to find the situation quite amusing.
"I lived so many years and saw so many "life partners" betray each other over some resources, so I was never interested in getting a life companion, and you just casually decided to destroy a priceless treasure if that little girl didn't accept it as a gift, are all modern cultivators so interesting?", he asked.
The evil spirit looked at Aster before saying.
"I wasn't honestly going to tell you this, since you are the one who frustrated my revenge, but what the hell, I have never been fully sane anyway, the yin chains on the ice were imprinted with the blood of origin of the one to whom the Glacial Liger was destined to, before you break the cage, get rid of that connection… and they won't be able to see who did it, I was going to use the countless evil spirits I nurtured in my Blood Devouring flags, to corrode that connection and take the treasure for myself, wouldn't it be poetic if the Yin Azure Palace was destroyed by the treasure they raised themselves after all".
"Just use that dreading golden giant, whatever it is its corroding properties overwhelmed my evil spirits so it should be more than enough to break a connection that has weakened over the years".
Aster raised an eyebrow, the evil spirit certainly saved him a lot of troubles, if he could take the treasure and not worry about any retaliation, wasn't that a win-win situation, but that's precisely why he was confused, why was the evil spirit helping him.
It was almost time to go, so this was the goodbye, he wasn't going to spare the evil spirit, the fragment of soul was too corrupted, this was probably the last time it could see the memories of the Blood Despair Sovereign.
In other words, after today, if left alive, it would fully become an evil spirit and probably a Ghost King with some time, but it won't be sentient anymore, and the soul fragment knew it.
"I'm not going to spare you, you know?", said Aster as he prepared to finish the evil spirit, the latter simply smiled.
"That's how it should be, otherwise I'll be disappointed, this old man lived a killer and died a killer, it is only normal to die at the hands of others, I don't even know how many years had passed since I died, or if my galaxy still exists, it has been too much for a single lifetime".
He then turned to see Aster as he laughed.
"But that's fine, at the end, they'll receive what they deserve even if it isn't by my hands, someone with such a murderous aura is going their way, what can they do besides wash their necks and wait for death, their downfall will still be related to me, so that I can laugh at them from hell hahaha!".
After that outburst the evil spirit noticed his reasoning was slowly fading away, so he laid down on the floor once again and just said.
"Go ahead, if you ever visit my Frost Bone Heavenly Quadrant, my name used to be Damian, surname Galius, I made sure that one of my disciples survived the war, by keeping it trapped in a closed space until it reached the Heavenly Realms, if it is still around them hand it my biggest treasure, the continuation of my Ghastly Blood manual it's next to the map below the yin accumulation crystal, of course you can choose to not do so, it's up to you".
After saying that the evil spirit closed its eyes, its face had started to distort, since the corruption was already starting, the last memories that kept from the Blood Despair Sovereign were used and started disappearing.
Aster frowned, but ultimately, he snapped his fingers and the evil spirit as well as the skull of the giant undead exploded in blue flames.
'Mm?'.
The evil spirit was surprised that the pain he expected didn't came, instead of that, he felt strangely comfortable, which made him smirk.
'Well, I guess death fits me better than life even at the end, to think I will go ahead and self-destroy myself because I was angered over the death of a little girl, I picked from the streets… I was definitely not sane'.
With those last thoughts, and without knowing he wasn't killed but purified by Aster's Rigel's flames, the evil spirit returned to be a soul fragment and then passed away.
Aster grabbed the yin accumulation crystal from the skull of the giant undead and then walked away towards the black altar.
"Let's wrap things up here and return to the surface, I need to talk with Eris, since the plan has changed", said Aster.
"Mm", the girls nodded and then followed Aster to see what was below the black altar.