Chapter 397 The Troubles Never End (Part 4)

Though Aster has practiced a couple of times using the manifestation of the paragon body, at a smaller scale, this is the first time he injects annihilation into it, that devastating destruction wasn't all due to physical strength.

Thanks to annihilation a part of the ground lost its structural stability, which contributed to the large amount of debris that teared apart some of the guys from the Demon Tomb sect.

Speaking of that, the survivors who were now scattered around were terrified at the result.

"W-With a single punch a fourth part of us were eliminated, he is a monster on par with the top Demon Children of the center", shouted one of the Mortal Transcending realm cultivators, that managed to avoid the worst part of the attack.

He still got blown away, and his internal organs were shaken nearly making him vomit blood, they were servants of Joseph and none cultivated in a second path, they all were energy path cultivators.

But it's not like they were particularly weak among servants, as all the Demon Children got a batch of them assigned for a start, they were considered resources and how they grew reflected how competent was their "owner".

But Joseph who was recently ascended immediately took them to a battle, saying that it was going to be a piece of cake, since he got the direct support from a core elder in their first mission.

Even in evil sects the disciples are expected to be independent, so while some get backers, it's not like the elders themselves become thugs for those who they support.

Especially since in an evil sect everyone looks for himself first, everything has a price and a purpose, probably more than in a normal sect.

Joseph convinced a Heavenly Transformation elder to accompany him, using his status as Demon Children, which could be considered on par with the core disciples of the Myriad Occupation sect, and of course the treasure in question, which in this case would be the Emerald Whirlwind as bait.

And it perfectly worked as the core elder that came with him was also recently ascended and needed resources to stabilize his cultivation, or with some carelessness he could retrocede back to the Transcending realms if he were to suffer heavy wounds, something normal in an evil sect.

That's why Aster couldn't classify that black masked guy, he has indeed entered the Heavenly Realms, but just by the skin of his teeth, his base was probably pretty poor, a normal occurrence among evil cultivators who didn't thoroughly refine their "resources", be other people's vitality, flesh, blood, women's yin, corpse energy and the like.

Evil cultivators advanced faster than regular ones, but all came with a price, they often absorbed a lot of impurities, which later needed to be refined for them to become as strong as cultivators who were less lax in quality.

That wasn't always the case, but a strong high ranked manual was needed for that, and most couldn't pay the sect for the best, and that's how many ended up as servants or even slaves in exchange of manuals or resources, the requirements to join evil sects were really low on the other hand.

"Fuck this, I don't want to die so early on", some of the survivors tried to ran away, but their bodies suddenly inflated before all of them exploded in a red mist, which then flew towards Joseph.

The right side of Joseph's body absorbed the red mist, and then his eyes became red like the ones of an enraged beast as he shouted.

"Traitors will be killed and devoured, go do your damn job!".

After saying that, he savagely attacked Vivian with his Warhammer, but the latter redirected the attacks using her ribbon.

"Soft Demon Silk", from other people's point of view, it was as if Vivian was dancing on the air, with the ribbon bouncing back Joseph's attacks.

She used her soul energy to perfectly control the ribbon at her will, it would have been an amazing art display, if not for the fact that the second part of it was… deadly.

"Hardened Demon Silk", with a gesture of her hand, Vivian's ribbon straightened and extended itself, Joseph fended of with his own weapon, but the ribbon suddenly bent and he was a second late to dodge, which caused a cut to appear on the right side of his face.

Joseph took some distance from Vivian, some blue cold mist was burning on the wound left by the ribbon, reminding him of the worst day of his life, which made his face twist in hatred, some of the red mist he absorbed leaked out of his body and Vivian's poison was actually suffocated.

"That won't work anymore bitch, my "Blood Mist Devil" manual allows me to use vitality I steal from others, to heal and boost myself… now that I know the problem is my yang, I'll just look for an extremely oriented pill or herb and after healing myself, I will torture you to my heart's content", he said as he licked his lips.

Vivian softly snorted, but then she smiled not letting Joseph's disgusting affirmations affect her.

The dim blue pattern on her shoulders faded back and then a black one bloomed on her arms, before an eerie black mist leaked out of it painting her ribbon with it, and also making Joseph's eyes widen.

"You can control other poisons besides that ying one!", he shouted in disbelief.

He could understand she controlling the poison with which she attacked him, since it had a big impact in Vivian, but now he was seeing her using another different one at will, it was outrageous.

'If she can just keep changing it, then wouldn't that be cheating!', he screamed in his heart.

And to a certain extent, Joseph was right, Vivian's poison could technically protect her from anything, but she couldn't just switch like that without taking a toll, it hasn't been even a day since she learned to somewhat control her boy constitution after all, so the limit were about three willing changes and Vivian used the second right now.

"Vitality uh, I can deal with it, let's see how you heal that disgusting face of yours when you are nothing more than a sack of bones", to hear the frail-looking Vivian say so harsh words, was strangely amusing, for Aster at least, she was enjoying the emotional freedom of being able to get angry, be happy, or sad without the fear of killing everyone else.

"Fuck!", this time Joseph didn't dare to mess around anymore, his attribute sea surrounded him and the right side of his face, changed to have red scales all over it.

"Red Mist Devil Incarnation", half of Joseph's face become similar to what a devil from the ancient texts back at earth would be, and his aura went through the roof, physical strength was related to vitality after all, and now Joseph was overdosed on it.

Vivian didn't show any concern about it though, she instead wrapped her ribbon around her right delicate hand, as if it was some kind of glove.

"Spirit Venom, Black Death Hand", black smoke covered Vivian's body making a good contrast with her unusual white pale skin and hair.

"Humph, watch me break those brittle bones of yours!", shouted Joseph.

He and Vivian clashed on the air, and indeed the sound of something cracking echoed through the whole battlefield, followed by a loud scream.

"Aghhhh!".

But the voice behind it wasn't the one of a woman, it was instead Joseph who was now retreating with a terror filled expression, as he looked at a hole in his right shoulder from which black smoke kept coming out.

He directed a large amount of vitality towards it, but the only thing that happened was that the amount of black smoke as well as the sharp pain he was feeling increased, though the wound did became smaller.

"What did you do to me!", he shouted.

Vivian didn't answer she instead dashed towards Joseph once again, leaving him no choice but to fend her attacks of with his weapon.

Vivian frowned, but then she ripped a piece of her white skirt and wrapped it around her left hand, and to Joseph's bad luck the pattern on her left arm changed to a silver one.

Both her hand and the cloth were then covered in a layer of silver metal as she mumbled.

"Spirit Venom, Silver Smelting Hand".

Then under the surprised eyes of Joseph, she actually stopped the attack of his Warhammer, with her left hand, and before he could react, she tore a piece of his weapon, which then became a puddle of liquid metal that fell to the ground.

Of course it required her to use her third change, but it was worth it because now, every time her left hand connected with Joseph's weapon she took a chunk of it away, and when he right hand landed an attack on him, he suffered a wound which fed on his vitality to cause him a sever pain and slow its heal.

Aster who was just finishing crushing the remaining survivors from before, after they decided to risk their lives against him, saw Vivian literally tearing Joseph down piece by piece and he nodded, before he looked at the other battles ongoing.

He noticed that the only ones having some trouble were Camila and Iris, the enemy summoned their Genesis Core as a defense mean whenever some their attacks will deal some decent damage, and was basically stalling them.

The whole area was filled with golden-silver spears and spikes which raised from the ground, by Camila and burned cutting marks, those two were full offensive type cultivators, but the enemy focused on defense.

Why did he didn't maintain his Genesis Core up all the time you ask, because if it was broken by the girl's attacks, then he will most likely die due to the backslash, so instead he used it to create a gap between them and then gained some distance.

Aster smirked, the legs of the giant armor bent a bit as he jumped towards them, he miscalculated a bit though and the jump got him about one kilometer upwards, but it was useful for the task.

…

"Golden Spiked Shredder".

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

"Red Burning Slash".

as soon as Camila's attack summoned tons of spears and Iris sword which was burning in red flames swung at their opponent, the latter unleashed his Genesis Core, it was a dark brown one meaning he had an earth oriented attribute.

"Clang!", the sounds of metal colliding spread through the nearby area, but besides some of Camila's spears piercing the first twenty or so meters of the Genesis Core and Iris slash leaving some shallow marks, nothing else happened.

It was still amazing, considering they were fighting a Genesis Manifestation cultivator from a sect on par with the ruler level families of the four Heavenly Quadrants, and the guy knew it.

'Damn, they are making some way through the defense of my Rock Shell Genesis Core, weren't they from a middle ranked Stellar System!', screamed the red masked guy in his mind.

But then both the red masked guy, Camila and Iris noticed a shadow projecting from above, they raised their heads just to see a giant golden figure descending from the sky.

"Care if I give you ladies a hand?", Aster's playful voice reached Camila and Iris's ears.

The red masked guy's pupils contracted to the size of a needle, but he was unable to react on time.

"Boooom!".

"Aghhh!".

The fist of the giant armor connected with the brown Genesis Core, and a huge shockwave was created due to the impact, though Aster didn't destroy it with a single punch, he sent it flying downwards basically smacking it against the ground.

Also, nearly a third part of it cracked due to the extreme impact, and the mark of a fist was imprinted into it, the walls of the Genesis Core which were about fifty meters thick, due to the attribute of the red masked guy, nearly got a hole punched right through it, a few meters more and the fist of the golden armor would have pierced through it.

The second sound was the Genesis Manifestation cultivator vomiting blood, while his Genesis Core survived he practically injected all his spirit energy into it, which Aster countered by moving whatever annihilation he had injected into the armor to its right fist.

"All yours, ladies", said Aster to Camila as he jumped again going to the next battlefield.

Iris who had a slightly weirded out expression on her face, saw Camila giggling before she pointed her spear towards the still numb enemy.

"Silver Judgement", her body shone in silver light which then gathered on her natal weapon, she threw her spear at the semi-destroyed Genesis Core and on its way down, the spear multiplied its size reaching the fifty meter mark.

'Piece of cake my ass, they are all monsters!', was the last thought the red masked guy had, as Camila's spear pierced through the Genesis Core killing him on the spot.