Oblivious to the waves he created a few minutes ago, guided by Helena and Dahlia, Aster and the others arrived at the commercial district of the center capital city, needless to mention the place was quite crowded as always.
As visitors, inner disciples were only allowed to enter the center capital to either work or shop, as it was a city meant for core disciples, but that didn't reduce the number of people that could be seen here daily.
The best stores had their headquarters in the center capital, and while some chose to build secondary stores in the other cities, the top ones didn't, besides a small information and delivery office at the neutral city, the top stores only had their headquarters in the central city.
Of course, they had their respective ways to deliver to all the stellar system, but everything was done in a backend without physical stores, besides their HQ.
The reason was none other than reputation, when a store was renowned enough that others had to reach to them instead of the other way around, then they always bragged about it.
That's something Aster learned since he had use of reason, cultivators had big egos, the only difference between the weak and the strong ones, was their public, for example a Star Tribulation cultivator regardless of its age would have been the absolute ruler back at Rodia, but here being at the Star Tribulation realm and not being part of the young generation meant one was a limited to be a guard or an assistant.
After taking a couple of detours, they arrived at a large white building which occupied a whole street at the commercial district.
"We are here", Helena stopped walking and used a key she had in her pocket to open the large green gates of the building, the very second, she did it, a fresh herbal like scent escaped from within the reception hall of the building.
Aster noticed some disciple who were waiting on the street immediately approached Helena, but they stopped in cold after she shook her head.
"We'll be closed for the rest of the day, because the girls recently returned, I'm sorry for the inconvenience". freeweb novel.co m
The small group of disciples among which some were wearing rings as a proof of they being core disciples, seemed disappointed but to Aster's surprise they didn't complain and just nodded, before quietly leaving.
Everyone entered the building and then Helena closed the gates behind them, the insides of the building were like a completely different world, to begin with, the space inside the building was about thrice the one of the building from the outside, there were countless of showcases and cabinets full to the brim with crystal jars, urns and cases, all containing powders, dried herbs, or even perfectly fresh flowers and other vegetation, in exhibition.
Besides that, there was a lager counter which stood in front of a door that probably led to some kind of storage, a waiting area with couches and other furniture and lastly a stair which led to a second floor, but it was inaccessible.
As for the decorations, they consisted in posters with different information regarding herbs, catalogues displayed all over the place, besides that there were some statues shaped like knights which caught Aster's attention.
"This is what gave the name to our "Herbal Paradise" store", mumbled Dahlia as she revealed what was behind the door.
This time even Aster had to admit he was surprised by Helena's shop, behind that simple looking door there was a large piece of land which was occupied to build a natural garden, a small forest, a river and lastly a mansion which was probably where Helena and Dahlia lived.
It was like an indoor paradise, and although the concentration of spirit energy wasn't as high as the Twin Sword valley, it was still better than the regular areas of the planet, unlike the training area which was the biggest room at Aster's castle, the roof of this garden room was full of spirit formations which emulated the sky, and fulfilled a lot of functions, like letting wind to enter as well as purifying it, and the same about sunlight.
"I have to admit it, whoever built this "greenhouse" thought about everything", mumbled Eris, which made Lilia chuckle.
'That's obvious, because this place was built by those', she thought as she inspected the whole area with her spirit sense, while being careful enough to not damage the spirit herbs that were decorating the landscape.
"Before I take you to my private area, you can look around if you want to, besides Dahlia and the other girl who works in my store, no one is allowed to enter this garden", said Helena.
Kana was like a child in a candy store right now, she looked at Aster with puppy eyes, making Sarina sigh.
"Kana, don't trouble your big brother too much, he also needs to rest after completing his mission".
Mylene offered herself to make Kana company, but Aster told her they would just come another day, even if none of the girls have troubles with their fights, after travelling through the space four times in a short period of time, everyone was tired, the only exception was probably Lilia and Kana who for some reason was pretty energetic.
Kana pouted, but then she remembered they could still cuddle and pass the time at the castle, since Aster didn't meditate and instead trained to cultivate.
"Don't worry, we'll be coming to this place more than what you think", said Aster as he patted Kana's head.
Helena guided them to the mansion which stood near the small artificial river, behind it there was a greenhouse to which only she had access.
Noticing the obviously excited expression in Dahlia's face, Aster realized Helena didn't let anyone here, and once he saw the inside of the greenhouse he understood why. freew ebnov el
The space was divided in four regions, each one had their own special soils nurtured by different elements, fire, water, wind and earth, unlike outside where there were countless of herbs, trees and other vegetation, in this large greenhouse there were only four herbs and flowers in each region.
But while quantity was small, the quality was in a whole new level, even the lowest ranked spirit herb here was at the middle rank of the Stellar grade, in other words it equaled a Genesis Manifestation cultivator in rarity, and that wasn't all, Aster even noticed a couple which weren't completely mature yet, but once they did would probably become peak Stellar grade herbs, being useful for Law Integration, Gate Transcending or Soul King cultivators!
Needless to say, but Aster was confused, the natural treasures in this greenhouse were something a Genesis Manifestation cultivator, like Helena normally wouldn't be in charge off.
Helena noticed Aster's confusion and she proudly smiled as she said.
"I didn't become a core elder since my cultivation and battle prowess which lacks, but I'm one of the first batch of disciples which graduated from the Green Lotus faction, and I once "assisted" a strange woman which was looking for low ranked very specific herb… the next day, the property of this building as well as a large number of seeds of spirit herbs were delivered to me".
"The market at the Alchemy peak is completely held by the three factions, so I used to work for them finding herbs, like little Dahlia, after that I stopped doing so and instead started working as a provider for small and medium stores".
Aster raised an eyebrow, it was a peculiar story, but in this world of cultivation everything was possible, from dying just because you weren't eye appealing to some random strong cultivator passing by, to receive a blessing from one, the list was too large to be explained.
Helena's expression then became serious as she pointed at the many herbs growing in the greenhouse.
"The only condition I was given along with the property and the seeds, was that I couldn't sell them directly, I could occupy the place and use the herbs for pills or elixirs, but unfortunately my attribute isn't fire and I'm not an alchemist, but an herbalist… still when little Dahlia didn't return one day and I was then told about the massacre at the outpost, I nearly broke that rule".
"But instead, I placed the mission as soon as possible and with each time they failed, my heart teared apart, since I'm an inner elder I can't issue a rank A mission from the very beginning, so only after two groups failed, it became one thus attracting the attention of core disciples".
She then looked at Dahlia with tender love.
"As a relative, I can never repay you for having saved my only family, but please choose any of the herbs here as a small demonstration of my appreciation".
Aster had many doubts, like why she didn't hire mercenaries to look for Dahlia, but thinking about it twice, she might have done so, according to Agnes, the Shadow Eye organization, doesn't just gather information about anyone, they rule their operations by the amount of demand about the respective target.
Meaning it wasn't impossible for only the two groups of disciples from the sect, to ask about Dry Bone's whereabout, the best possible explanation was that those who were tempted to hunt him down, got discouraged by the fact that he was hiding at the New Moon planet… that or maybe the notice that he was in cahoots with someone from a high ranked stellar system was known in the underworld.
Whether they knew it was someone from an evil sect or not, it was something worth investigating, for the ruler family of Galatia, nor for the sect since they weren't in charge of the public order and things like that and were independent from them.
Aster looked at the many herbs and while they were pretty high ranked and seemed to be of the best quality among their species, he wasn't too interested in any of them, it's not like he already had them, but he didn't particularly need them.
So instead of that, he looked at Helena before saying.
"I'm looking to open a store in the center capital city, and I already looked through the few available empty locals but they were all pretty mediocre in terms of space and positioning, I couldn't help but notice the second floor wasn't used for anything, so would you be willing to rent it to me instead of getting the extra reward… we'll pay the right price of course".
Helena was surprised by Aster's words, normally only elders opened stores, since most of the young generation members tend to focus in venturing, and fulfilling missions to get an income.
"I don't mind, but are you sure you want to share the building with my store, we aren't too bad, but in comparison with the stores supported by the top winged disciples, we are pretty much just a small family business".
Aster looked at the girls, more accurately at Eris, Mylene, Camila and even Sarina and Kana who lately expressed their interest in becoming spirit chefs, before he said.
"That's fine with me, by the end of this month, the line outside of the store would reach exit of the city anyway".
Helena's eyes glowed for a split of a second, if a new disciple were to tell her something like that, she would think it was just someone bluffing, but she was looking at the first and sole male core disciple, who dared to kill the grandson of a law enforcer in front of him, stripped another one of her status and even rejected the peace offering from a supreme elder.
"In that case I won't take any money from you until I see that line, don't try to bargain and we have a deal~", said Helena with a bright smile on her face, while she inwardly thought.
'I can't wait to see it… finally someone who has the guts to go against the pre-existing power balance'.
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