The rise of the pervert primordial

The leader of the team, who was watching the battle form the back in order to interfere in case it was needed, couldn't help but frown at the result of the previous exchange.

'Even if we changed to the Blade Skin to focus on offensive, the base defensive aspects of the Iron Skin technique remains and yet she created cracks on it by just parrying their attacks… what's more she didn't receive any kind of damage', he thought.

For the enemy leader it didn't make any sense, not only that girl clearly didn't focus on defense given that her attribute wasn't metal nor earth related, otherwise he as a metal attributed cultivator would have noticed it, but she was also not attack oriented either.

In fact, even as of current he couldn't feel any threat from Dahlia, she was simply there floating with a calm expression on her pretty face, if anything she seemed to be quite observative, but nothing that was worthy of his attention, after all she isn't a soul cultivator.

So, the only conclusion he could come to, was that Dahlia's spirit weapon was special, which was understandable, after all he like most of the remaining peak Star Tribulation people participating, saw Aster's swords casually cutting through the spear of that guy from the Marsh Domain sect.

'Tsk, damn Fey Disaster faction, they for sure discovered that even spirit treasures would be affected by the distortions ahead of time and made preparations for it, we can't be losing time here, otherwise those guys will come to complain later…', concluded the leader of the team before saying.

"What are you waiting for, reinforce your Blade Skin, use your spirit weapons to attack her and don't make direct contact with that strange hammer".

The reason as to why the leader stayed back was to maintain the order and prevent the team from falling victim to panic, which is in part what made the group that went against Aster to fall in such a short period of time, or at least that's what the one leading this small team believed.

That being said, that's the reason he gave his team, but deep inside, he wanted to make use of his team to test the waters, before jumping into the fight to steal the glory of victory.

Anyway, the three guys that were actively participating in the fight, found his instructions reasonable so they obliged, with a surge of spirit energy the metal layer that covered their bodies was restored to its prime just in time for they to take out their respective weapons, the Star Axys cultivators used sabers and the early-stage Star Tribulation one had a spear.

The spear user even went the extra mile and added intent to his weapon, it was just the first level though, but that was enough to separate him from the riff-raff that mostly composed the group brought by the Supreme Elemental sect, given that the average member of the group was recently ascended peak Star Axys or early-stage Star Tribulation cultivators that had a last-minute advance with the help of resources.

In case you wonder why those guys who attacked Aster didn't use intent, when they were all captains of their respective teams, it was because Aster overwhelmed them from the very beginning, unconsciously they were intimidated by Aster's presence so it was normal that they missed a thing or two, even the masked guy from the Marsh Domain and that female yin cultivator from the Pleasure Palace were no exception, not that it would have made a difference.

With a quick exchange of gazes, those three charged at Dahlia from different directions, the spear user took the front to take advantage of the longer reach of his weapon which was further increased by Ghost Spear, while the saber users went for her right and left sides.

"Humph", with a soft snort, Dahlia's body was covered in a pretty light green glow, she rolled the metal hammer on her right hand and met their attacks head one, the result were continuous "clinking" sounds result of her hammer getting in the way of the enemy's slashes and thrusts.

However, unlike before, Dahlia didn't completely block their attacks, but deviated them enough so that they failed to reach her for a really small distance, sparks flew in a straight line as Dahlia moved while her hammer clashed against the sabers and spear.

'What the hell, how is an energy cultivator reacting so fast, she is not losing terrain even when three enemies are attacking her at the same time, however…', the team leader who was closely observing the fight found the perfect chance and exploded in spirit energy.

"Seed", unlike his teammates, the metal layer that covered his body was much more refined, instead of iron it looked closer to silver, his weapon which was a sword got covered not only in the first level which is Ghost Sword but… it also had the second level, Sharpening added to it as well, it was initial stage second level, but it was still above the average.

'In your next life don't mess with the Iron Hall as a mere single path cultivator!', he thought, with a fierce light in his eyes, the team leader appeared behind Dahlia and slashed his sword towards her back, he aimed for a hit that would land no matter what, since with a wound it would be impossible for her to not be overwhelmed by attacks coming from every direction no matter how good her reaction time was.

"Clang!", but to that guy's disbelief, instead of the sensation of cutting through flesh, what he felt was as if his sword had clashed against a wall, in fact most of his field of sight was blocked by a large piece of metal covered in the familiar image projection akin to the first level of intent.

"Pek level Phantom Hammer, but you are a single path cultivator!", exclaimed the team leader, at last that was needed to directly clash against second level intent and come out unscathed, unless there was a long gap in power, now imagine his twisted face when Dahlia's voice reached his ears the next second.

"Bloom", her voice was soft and deprived of hostility, carrying the harmonious aspect expected of a wood attributed cultivator like Dahlia, but what followed wasn't soft-like at all.

"Crack", first, a sound akin ton crystal being shattered, echoed the whole area.

"Aghhh!", then, three different screams made the pupils of the team leader, contract like needles, he could see his teammates suddenly retreating at high speed while showing clearly pained expressions, red flowers emerged from the places where their metal armor had cracked earlier.

Dahlia retrieved the Warhammer with which she blocked the enemy's sword, a silver bracelet with a similar design to the pendant from which the regular sized hammer which she was wielding with her right hand, could be seen on her left wrist.

But right now, what caught the attention of the enemy was the fact that… both hammers had first level intent applied to them, Dahlia first used the small hammer to deviate the attacks of those three and smack their armors and then at the last second, she used the Warhammer to intercept the sword of the team leader.

"D-Dual wielding with intent!", said the enemy while gritting his teeth.

His confusion was understandable though, there is a limit to the surface one's intent can cover, which varies from person to person, hence why most people don't use dual wielding along with intent, they instead gather intent in the weapon they wield with their dominant hand and use the other one as support.

That remains true until later on when they train a secondary intent to then become complete dual wielders, but we are talking about Heavenly realm experts at this point, there are also a few exceptions whose intents by innate can cover a larger surface, like Aster for example who if so, wished could not only use intent in more than two swords at the time, but also use the two different types of intent he had awakened.

Dahlia's case was neither one of the previous though. Continue reading on empire

"I simply awakened intent by training with a Warhammer on the larger side, then changed to a more regular sized one and used the "excess" for a second normal hammer", casually said Dahlia with a carefree voice as if she didn't have any worries in the world.

Naturally the previous made the enemy nearly suffer a heart attack, while let alone dual wielding but also two intents didn't necessarily mean one was stronger, as quality was better than quantity when it came to intent, what Dahlia described not only was a rarity among rarities, but also required a longer time to achieve than normal intent training.

In other words, he realized that if Dahlia had taken the regular path to obtain intent, she would have for sure surpassed the first stage of the second level, meaning she was more talented than him.

'I finally obtained second level intent after reaching the peak of the Star Tribulation… just how good is her damn comprehension!', he inwardly screamed to then say.

"So, what, you are still a mere single path cultivator, there is no way you can this level of battle prowess for too long, in fact you already suffered wounds".

He was right, in the previous clash when Dahlia blocked those three's attacks there was a small gap in which she took the initiative to attack and as a result the enemy's sabers and spear caused some cuts on Dahlia's arms and face.

"Greenhouse flowers like you are always the first to die, unless you are at a level where strength is not the main determinant for victory what really matters is… survivability", she said as she stole a gaze in Aster's direction to then add.

"And given how all of you were trembling just by being in "his" presence, you are too far from being allowed to focus solely in battle prowess".

Unlike those young inexperienced and curious girls from the Green Lotus faction who crushed on Aster after he saved them, or after seeing how strong he is, what Dahlia admired of Aster is that the base of his confidence in victory is not strength but wit.

As a proof of the previous, among the group that willingly trust their lives to him, there are many who are stronger than him and yet they listen to his words with complete seriousness and while outsiders might believe that this happens because they are involved emotionally with him in any sort of degree, Dahlia knows that is not the case.

Naturally the previous made the team leader feel humiliated, the sight of Aster easily killing people whom he would have had to look up to, was a hard blow for his confidence, to the point that he was worried about developing an inner demon, luckily for him or unfortunately to be more accurate, that is something he won't have to worry about in the future.

"Bloom", Dahlia's voice brought the team leader back to the real world.

The next second, sizzling sounds could be heard coming from the places where Dahlia was wounded, green light shone on them and steam was released as the wounds closed at an incredibly fast speed, before the team leader knew she was perfectly fine.

And that wasn't all, his teammates who were about to ambush her, stopped midway in the air, the flowers attached to their bodies which they had failed to remove no matter what they did, shone, in response their skin paled and lost their luster in a matter of seconds.

"Blegh!", the three of them vomited blood before their eyes rolled backwards as they fainted to then fall from the sky, heavily landing on the ground a moment later.

"Harvest", with a single word, Dahlia's body then exploded in green flames, there was no heat being radiated from them though, as a body cultivator the team leader could tell that those "flames" were instead a highly concentrated mass of vitality, she was literally brimming with life.

"How dare you!", with a loud shout, the enemy flashed to then appear in front of Dahlia and slash his sword towards her, imagine his smile when he saw Dahlia not reacting in time to block his attack, his sword landed right on her chest but… the sight of a bloody wound being carved in her body didn't appear.

"Clang!", the team leader felt the hilt of the sword vibrating nearly ripping his palms as the impact was transmitted to him, Dahlia on the other hand was perfectly fine, she didn't even flinch, no, to be more accurate the sword didn't even reach her but was stopped a few millimeters away by the green flames.

"Impossible, this can't be happening", with disbelief and anger, the team leader poured all his spirit energy into his sword which exploded in a bright metallic light, he retrieved it to then slash frontwards once again.

"Silver Slash!", the metal attribute spirit turned into a blinding silver light which was shot by the enemy's sword, engulfing everything within a hundred meters.

"Boooom!" the large release of spirit energy as well as the huge shockwave caused by the enemy swinging his sword with all his might, echoed through the battlefield, it was short-lived but the strength behind that silver light attack was no joke.

It was understandable as that was one of the high ranked sword techniques that were available for core disciples in the Metal branch of the Supreme Elemental sect, a low-grade Immortal rank one to be more accurate.

Once the silver light faded, the panting figure of the team leader was revealed, he had used more than a third part of his spirit energy reserves for that, Immortal grade techniques might be quite strong but their requirements are also equally high, if he wasn't a peak Star Tribulation, he would have fainted after that single shot.

"Haa… you deserved it", the team leader proposed to leave in case that terrifying black-haired youth would come for his life as he killed one of his companions, but was met with an equally traumatizing sight as he turned around, Dahlia was floating there, the green flames around her had dimmed down but she was perfectly fine.

"See I told you, to be honest the moment you couldn't kill me with a single attack, you had already lost", she limited to say to then flash towards the enemy, her Warhammer descended like a mountain landing on his chest, bending it inwards.

The enemy didn't even have a chance to scream, blood poured out of his mouth, nose and eyes before he was engulfed in green flames killing him on the spot.

"Scatter", Dahlia snapped her fingers and the flowers which were attached to the still passed out enemies on the ground, exploded in green flames consuming them a moment later, it's worth noticing that said flames didn't burn them, they dried up until they turned into dust instead.

Dahlia exhaled and the green flames surrounding her, disappeared, she was perfectly fine and her spirit energy reserves were relatively okay, but her mental fatigue was quite high.

"You really took your sweet time", mumbled Dahlia as she saw the slightly embarrassed Tiana, finally arrive after the fight had ended.

"Ahem, sorry about that", said Tiana to then add.

"Leaving that aside, you surely were hiding quite an interesting trump card", as a body cultivator, Tiana could feel the remaining fierce vitality around Dahlia's body, it didn't lose at all when compared to a Carnal Disaster cultivator.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Seeing the competitive light in Tiana's eyes, Dahlia couldn't help but bitterly smile to then say.

"I only recently learned how to use this technique for battle so please go easy on me, to be honest I should not use it until I start cultivating my soul as it puts a lot of stress into my mind".

"Mm, I wonder why did you do it then, I bet you could have stalled for time without any problem?", asked Tiana to which Dahlia's face slightly reddened.

"I… wanted to see how much I have progressed", she mumbled while avoiding Tiana's gaze, unaware that Tiana could see through her real intention, which was to show it to Aster, so that she could be in the "training list" too.

How did Tiana know, well, that's because she had been in a similar position, with the difference that she happily showed her progress to Aster at their date to then openly admit she looked up for the next time.

Feeling a familiar gaze on them, Tiana turned around just to see Aster smiling in their direction, making the energy constitution girl snort.

"Humph, stalker…", she mumbled in a voice that only she could hear, that being said the slight reddish tone in her cheeks betrayed her words, since she knew Aster was watching their backs like a guardian angel, ready to strike down anyone who wanted to pull any tricks.

"Mm, did you say something?", Dahlia who couldn't properly listen to what Tiana said, asked, only for Tiana to shake her head in a hurry.

"N-Nothing, the distortion is opening, let's go get our reward and get back", she said.

…

High into the sky a few dozens of kilometers away, a black-haired youth who was calmly floating, chuckled upon the sight of Tiana and Dahlia's interactions, who would have the leisure to calmly watch to other people's fights within the whole battlefield, while being alone, besides Aster of course.

'I did notice the aura around her having a 180° turn, but I didn't expect her to improve to this point', thought Aster as he remembered Dahlia's fight.

Back then when they met, she wasn't weak, she was captured because the enemy not only outnumbered and ambushed her group, but there were Genesis Manifestation and enemies, it was too much for Dahlia to even try and escape alone.

With the capacities that she showed, she should be able to at least leave if she were to find herself in a similar situation, but the important part is that she aimed higher than that, what she wanted was to have the power to liberate others and also safely leave, in other words she wanted to be a monster than can cross multiple realms to fight.

'I guess she isn't miss's Helena's niece for nothing, in terms of potential she doesn't lose when compared to the others, she simply wasn't interested in battle before', concluded Aster.

Helena might be only an inner elder, but she is a Void Manipulation realm cultivator and she is only a few years older than Valentina or the other core elders, if you take into account that her focus was becoming an alchemist, you could say that she is as talented as Valentina and that is a lot to say considering the latter is a princess from a ruler family.

In other words, Helena had an insanely high level of comprehension, which might not directly affect battle prowess, but had high potential for battle-oriented purposes, like… complicated spirit techniques such as the one used by Dahlia earlier.

She can learn things much faster than others, considering it only took her a couple of months, from adapting her manual's technique for battle, her intent was already like this back then though.

'Considering she planted the "seed" with the regular hammer and extracted it with the Warhammer, she was probably using them to extract resources through different methods', amusingly thought Aster.

She did achieve what she wanted, since now that Aster had seen her fighting style, a few ideas to help her improve had appeared in his mind, for starters she becoming a soul cultivator, which happens to be Aster's specialty.

'Cunning girl…', mumbled a certain empress from within the mind space before returning to her meditation.

Leaving aside Tiana and Dahlia, another fight was ongoing at the same time, as four sets of pairs observed their prey like hungry wolfs.

"Tsk, I almost don't want to attack them, if only that guy hadn't killed senior sister", said a yellow robed youth with long blond hair.

"Shut up, they are our sworn enemies!", exclaimed the team leader, who was also a yellow robed young man, the difference being that his face was filled with hatred and for a good reason, Aster had caused the death of his lover.

He didn't directly kill her, but he cut one of her arms and a leg and she was then killed by one of the girls from the Black Sword faction, he wasn't that angered by her death as he had other lovers back at the Pleasure Palace, but she was his official girlfriend since she was the highest one in the list in both realm and rank among the many girls he was involved with.

So, he brought his team to get rid of the targets which he judged would bring the most pain to the black-haired youth if they died, a frail looking white haired beauty and the little enthusiastic little girl to whom the black-haired youth was openly teaching about "life" earlier.