In what ended up being a fairly simple affair when it came to life-and-death encounters, he successfully took the life of his second target without so much as a scratch.
While Gaston didn't struggle to deal with the Blue Ape, he did discover something interesting.
This Blue Ape was noticeably different from the one's he had first encountered when he set foot on this land. It wasn't just wielding it's weapon like a beginner. Instead, it awakened a short memory in Gaston of his time in the Poisoned Continent, where he saw a new recruit under him practicing with the spear.
It was still far inferior to Gaston, dying after trading just a handful of strikes, which was still only made possible because of its superior strength and speed.
On equal physical terms, Gaston was capable of killing it in one move. This was the gap between someone that had spent nearly 30 years in perfecting their craft, and somewhat that reminded him of a new recruit.
What got his attention however was not it's skill, but that it had any to begin with, which was unlike the previous Blue Apes he had come across.
This hinted at the fact that maybe the Blue Apes were starting to grow a little worried over having lost so many of their kind to some unknown creature, even if they were only losing the weakest of their kind.
Gaston had previously held the assumption that the reason the Blue Apes didn't seem too bothered by the fact that some unknown entity was taking the lives of over a hundred of their kin was because they were using this unknown entity as a sharpening tool for their weaker members.
Just like humans would often do with insects in order to artificially create superior genes, Gaston figured the Blue Ape higher ups were doing the same thing, only with their own kin.
But now that he had run into a Blue Ape with some form of training, his opinion on the matter had changed. This was far from good news for both him, and his crew members if they were still alive.
The fact that the Blue Apes might be starting to send more experienced and stronger Blue Apes, only reinforced the ideas that Gaston already had about getting the hell out of this forest as quickly as possible.
It also made him come to the decision to expedite this process, speeding up his plans for the village even more.
Shifting his sight to the little girl next to him, who was moved to tears at the sight of her home, he deliberately changed his voice and gently said to her, "Ms. Erni, we've arrived. "
Putting his injured right hand on top of her head, he ruffled her hair and said to her, "Don't cry now, you have to be strong. Go and explain to your people what happened. The quicker everything it settled, the quicker we can give your mother the peace she deserves."
Wiping her unshed tears from her eyes, Erni turned towards him and gave him a quick hug at the waist. A move which surprised Gaston, but before he could say anything, the little one turned back around and ran towards the village.
He watched as she got the attention of the two guards that were stationed on duty on top of the wooden gate, and began saying something to them.
It was too far into the distance for Gaston to hear, but he was confident that he had earned Erni Hoover's trust in the few hours that they had known each other.
They hadn't done much talking on their way over here, but saving her life had earned the little girl's trust, which was evident in the way they worked together to deal with the pair of Blue Apes that were hunting them.
Judging by her sudden and unexpected hug however, it appeared that he had done more than just earned Erni's trust. This was in part why he had decided to trust her enough to let her go over to the village and explain to them the situation.
After all, this was a very isolated human settlement and he had no idea how they would react in the face of another human this deep into the forest.
With the little one vouching for him however, the risks he ran in approaching them were greatly reduced.
Gaston didn't just stand by as Erni was talking. Once he saw the guards pull the gate open and get out to talk to her, he began slowly making his way over there, with the female corpse still on his left shoulder.
Sure enough, the guards looked noticeably on guard the moment they discovered his presence, but the little girl quickly got in front of them and started talking again.
It wasn't long after, that other people began gathering by the gate, but it was the appearance of one man that stuck out amongst the crowd.
Not because of what he was wearing, since his clothes looked similar to that of the other people near him, but because of the fact that Gaston had identified him as a Stage 0 practitioner in the Bone Refining stage.
In fact, judging from what Gaston could see at first glance, he was not too far off from reaching the apex of the Bone Refining stage. With a little luck, it was entirely possible that this isolated little settlement might have it's own Qi Refining cultivator!
Gaston was well aware of the huge difference in magic energy between the two continents, but to see it manifest itself in such a way was still shocking to him.
In their entire continent, on which there were at least a billion humans, the number of humans at the Qi Refining stage was lower than 50, and that was an inaccurate number that factored in all the possible hermits from over the years who may or may not still be alive, the people hiding their true strength, etc.
Here however, even someone in the middle of nowhere had reached this far in his cultivation path, and even had a real possibility of reaching what would be the apex of the Poisoned Continent.
As the situation in the village heated up and the little girl began explaining to this man that Gaston assumed was their leader, Gaston found himself staring at the village with an almost wolfish ambition in his eyes!