Chapter 656 Is chaos better than order? (part 11)
656 Is chaos better than order? (part 11)
From afar Aster who was observing the fight couldn't help but chuckle, at the enemies being momentarily at a loss for words due to Sofia's sharp tongue.
They as pretty girls from a dual cultivation sect had never had such humiliating words directed at them, Sofia on the other hand had a rough enough vocabulary to get along with Eric, so how could those four ever dream to win against her in a verbal fight, they were just asking to be humiliated.
'That was probably directed to me, right?', thought Aster.
Of course he wasn't referring to the insulting part, but the "Not all the guys are horny losers" one.
And Aster was right, when Sofia joined the group, she originally had some reservations regarding Aster, it can't be helped, since whether he wants it or not, Aster has a certain "aura" that is only noticeable by the members of the opposite sex, and even when he actively suppresses it to the maximum of his capacities, there are only two possible results.
Either said aura tickles the curiosity of the girls who are inexperienced or makes it so that those who are not so sheltered to be wary of him, since it can be perceived as a charm type soul technique, add to that the fact that Aster's looks are way above average and that he is surrounded by beauties all the time, and you get the same conclusion that Alexandra first reached when she met Aster, that he is a dual cultivator.
And that is without taking into account his abnormally strong yang energy, basically for those girls who aren't easily swayed away by looks, have strong personalities and the like, Aster has all the red flags of the kind of playboys they would avoid like the plague, not all female cultivators are sheltered flowers and know about those poor women that have ended up in disgrace after being tricked.
Those four from the Pleasure Palace are a perfect example, they were indeed interested in Aster, but it was for selfish materialistic reasons so they aren't genuinely infatuated with him unlike the curious girls from the Black Sword faction, that being said they still found him attractive but it was all superficial.
Sofia being enough of a battle maniac to take a liking to Eric, naturally should have showed such wariness towards Aster, which usually diminishes after getting to know him properly, but in her case, it simply disappeared from day to another.
As she had zero trouble at the time of interacting either with him or the girls, even if the situations were far too few until recently since she accompanied Eric all the time.
And the reason is actually Eric himself, since back after they fought each other until they basically collapsed on the ground due to exhaustion, Eric kept talking about his "brother", so it was normal that Sofia respected the one whom the first man in which he has ever been interested, looks up to.
15:08
'Mm, someone that distributes resources without discrimination between let alone lovers and friends but even to the women of another man without any hidden intentions nor insinuations, worthy of the "brother" that dumb boyfriend of mine has chosen to follow', she thought.
You might think that the previous is not something that should stand out, since it is to be expected that a decent man won't covet the woman of friend, but let's not forget that cultivators have long lives, it's not rare for them to seek for some excitement in order to not suffer from boredom.
In "normal" quantities, occupations such as alchemy, rune mastering, spirit cooking and the like tend to be the answer, others indulge in carnal pleasures and other bad habits like gambling, some others become prompt to conflict over the pettiest reasons and those that go to the extreme fall to the temptation of evil techniques.
Anyway, the point is that the current Sofia respects Aster not only because of her relationship with Eric, but because he has proven to be a true and loyal friend, she is also interested in sparring with physically strong monsters like Alice as well elementally domineering ones like Aria or Vivian but that's beside the point.
"Enough, let's just kill her", said the captain to which her three subordinates nodded in agreement, the four of them separated in two pairs, with the captain and the vice-captain each taking one of the peak star axys members of their team along with them.
With a "swoosh" the four of them flashed, forming a square around Sofia, the captain's team taking the right side while the vice's one took the left side.
"Booom!", spirit energy exploded from the four corners of the invisible square formed by them, it's worth mentioning that they put quite a bit of distance between themselves and Sofia, meaning that they were being wary of her, even if they disdained her, since she is a main body path cultivator, so the last thing they wanted was for Sofia to get close to them.
"Soft Rain!", from the left the vice-captain and her peak star axys teammate turned the water attributed spirit energy they radiated into thin rain drops that dispersed all over the vicinity, creating a high humidity area.
"Ice Blizzard!", the captain and the remaining subordinate on the other hand, caused the temperature to drop by creating a cold current with their ice attributed spirit energies, in other words two of them had water attributes and the other two had ice attributes.
The result was that the battlefield was suddenly engulfed in a thick cold mist created by the reaction of the spirit techniques those four used.
People tend to believe that ice attribute is an advanced version of water attribute, and that water cultivators become ice attribute cultivators when they improve, but that's not the case,
It would be like comparing apples with oranges, ice attributes have their advantages and water ones also have their own pros, none is superior by default, it all depends on the one using it, for example Nerissa as a water attributed, has crushed the female core disciples from the Pleasure Palace who thought that due to being ice attributed by innate, they could suppress her.
"A sensory jamming technique, it seems like you four aren't as trash as the others enemies I have seen so far", she said.
Those four from the Pleasure Palace actually used a soul technique that required combining spirit techniques of two different attributes in preparation, it was definitely not something those mediocre people that just advanced due to resources could obtain.
"Humph, this "Cold Camouflaging Field" is the result of all our cooperative efforts", snorted the enemy captain in response.
Of course, talking in a field where sight was blocked was just giving away your position, which is a stupid thing to do, but that was the idea as the four giant pieces of ice that were about to squash Sofia between themselves, suggested.
'That's right, get crushed to death and become a trampoline for our success!', inwardly cursed the captain, she decided not to take chances and directly use the strategy she and her juniors use to hunt spirit beasts that are stronger than them, which consisted in them joining hands to create an area that was beneficial for them but restrained the enemy, before attacking from all directions.
Naturally a technique that interfered with the senses in a large area and could be enhanced by multiple people cooperating, was not easy to obtain, this is a low Immortal grade technique which those four obtained from a "victim" they seduced in group a long time ago.
They basically struck gold and met a guy who found this soul technique manual, whose value he wasn't aware off, since the requirements were quite high, needing people with two different attributes to cooperate and scammed the hell out of him, they also didn't use it in public… until now.
"I see, so basically you four hid in the shadows and waited for a chance to gain fame outside of your sect not bad, what a shame you were blinded by greed and tried to use those fake smiles on Eric", said Sofia, which made the captain get a bad premonition.
"Don't give her time to react, full speed ahead!", she shouted, now that they were revealing their special tactics, they had to get a victory no matter what, the idea was to be recognized and taken in by a sect from a high ranked Stellar System.
Pressure came from every direction, as the mist split apart and four giant pieces of ice surrounded Sofia, and that wasn't all, a current of cold water ascended from below to block the vicinity in case she tried to escape, in other words those four were forcing Sofia to take their attacks head on.
"Lighting Sky", the very moment the pieces of ice reached Sofia, the sound of fingers snapping echoed through the area, what followed was like a nightmare for the four girls from the Pleasure Palace.
The temperature suddenly went through the roof, as if a spark had fallen in a tank of gasoline, the previously cold paradise became a hot hell with Sofia in the center, to begin with the ice was evaporated on the spot and the white-transparent cold mist was tainted black and turned into smoke.
"Aghhh!", the change was so abrupt that those four were caught by surprise, though they managed to get out of the hot inferno and retreated a couple of kilometers in a split of a second, the weakest among them suffered some burns.
In fact, one of the peak star axys, lost all her hair, while the other had a few burnt patches on her arms, the vice and the captain mostly had the corners of their clothes burnt but managed to escape with their hair intact.
That being said, their expressions weren't better than that of the girl who lost her hair, in the least, their previously elegant and haughty appearances were nowhere to be seen, they had some ashes tainting their faces which were twisted due to anger as well.
"That bitch… it took me a year to get my skin to be so smooth", mumbled the vice who nearly suffered burns in her arms, while the two-peak star axys who did suffer them seemed to be about to cry.
"You can exchange some merits for elixirs, forget about it for now, I could feel the huge amount of spirit energy that was used to counter the cold field so she must be exhausted, since she acts like a beast, let's kill her like a beast!", said the captain with unadulterated anger in her voice as she took out her spirit weapon, a bow.
"The captain is right, we can exchange her head for nurturing elixirs and cosmetic pills as well", agreed the girl who lest her hair, as she also took out a bow from her spatial ring.
The vice-captain and the remaining star axys nodded and followed the order, the best time to get rid of the enemy was now, so they took out their spirit weapons which were whips.
Not wanting to give Sofia even another second to recover, the captain took the lead, exploding in ice spirit energy and even adding yin radiance to the mix.
"Go all out", she ordered as she used first level intent, she was a bow intent user and thus used Ghost Bow instead of Ghost Arrow like the little girl, but she didn't stop there and added second level intent which in her case was "Homing", remember that bow intent focuses on accuracy and distance unlike arrow intent which focuses in destruction force.
The other three didn't stand still, while the girl who lost her hair imitated the captain, except for the fact that she couldn't use intent, the vice-captain and the other girl who were water attributed, appeared at Sofia's sides to then lash their whips which turned into fluid rivers of cold water thanks to them injecting all the spirit energy they had gathered into them.
The vice-leader whose whip had a longer reach, thanks to her being able to use Ghost Whip, in other words first level intent, landed her attack first.
"Chain Flow!", the cold current of water surrounded and restrained Sofia, the contact caused a pillar of steam to raise into the sky as a sign of the high heat which was radiated by her not too long ago.
The peak star axys girl in the team of the vice-captain, landed a second later helping balancing things up, since the water in the vice's whip was being reduced at a visible ration.
'Damn it, just how much fire spirit energy she has!', inwardly cursed the vice-captain, her water and yin energy reserves were being depleted with each second, as she had to pour more into her whip to keep the restrain.
Luckily for her, the captain and the other girl finished charging their attacks in time, they both released the arrows in their bows at the same time.
"Northern Arrow!", two dim blue flashes flew out of their bows, one was noticeable larger then the other and unlike what one would expect, they didn't aim at Sofia directly but at… the water currents instead!
The ice imbued arrows landed the next second, and the currents of water had their surfaces frozen on the spot, the release of steam became fiercer as a sign of the violent clash between heat and coldness, but then the captain and her teammate appeared next to the vice and the other peak star axys to then place their hands on the whips, to infuse their ice and yin energies into them.
Ultimately the continuous infusion of both water and ice spirit energies and well as yin radiance from the four of them, formed a giant dark blue colored iceberg, the dark blue color was caused by their yin energy being mixed into the ice.
"Dark Ice Prison", said the captain while panting, this was their trump card, an amalgam of water, ice and yin energies as well as their intents, the whips to restrain and the bows used to aim at the whips in specific points.
"You didn't expect it right, by not attacking you directly even life-saving talismans can be tricked", said the vice-captain as she knocked on the giant iceberg a couple of times, creating a few "tinkling" sounds.
The previous also meant that those four had probably killed someone that had a life-saving talisman.
"Don't lower your guards, prepare another round of attacks, I won't be at peace until that bitch has been turned into frozen pieces of debris…", the though tired, hatred-filled words of the captain were stopped in cold by she catching a terrifying scene from the corner of her eyes, Sofia's eyes which were frozen while open, suddenly gazed at her.
'No way!', she inwardly screamed, but before she could react, the dark blue ice was illuminated from the inside.
"Booom!", the giant iceberg was suddenly covered in cracks, before it exploded into small pieces of ice as well as drops of water that evaporated in a second to reveal a Sofia who was perfectly dry, also her skin all the way from tip of her fingers to her shoulders had turned bright orange, small flames were released from her arms from time to time.
"Don't tell me you actually forgot that I am mainly a body cultivator, so of course what I can do at close combat far surpasses what I can do at long distance".
Her previous was like a bolt out of the blue for those four, earlier they focused too much on the huge amount of spirit energy that they felt coming from Sofia when she countered their cold field, that they actually forgot that she is mainly a body path cultivator, in other words at close combat she should be able to create even stronger fire.
"I-Impossible, if you have such a strong fire attribute then why is your damn hair not red!", exclaimed the vice-captain, which earned her a snort from Sofia.
"I don't remember ever saying that fire is my attribute, have you never seen what happens when you mix red and green?", she said making those four feel their hearts sunk as Sofia pointed at her dark brown hair.
"The answer is brown".
Contrary to what those women from the Pleasure Palace thought, Sofia being an earth origin realm in her secondary path is not a sign of her being mediocre, but a sign of her talent instead.
After all, she has only been cultivating in her secondary path for a few months, her solid foundation coupled with the open vault of resources that Aster offered to everyone in the family made it so that she had no trouble to make multiple advances.
Of course, that didn't mean she was more talented that Kana or Sarina, but unlike them, she didn't waste even a second back when she lived in Prasil, while Kana wasn't interesting in cultivation and instead focused in taking care of her mother and Sarina had to stop since she was bedridden, Sofia trained every day and she started cultiva