Once the girls finished speaking with the other disciples that attended the lesson imparted by Valentina, they returned to Aster's side, just to see him casually speaking with Agnes and Valentina, at some point Lilia also joined them, because the people here were too young for her to have something to talk with them
"Do you all want to leave?", asked Aster as he saw the girls coming his way, the Kana was all smiles because a lot of the inner and core disciples gifted her candies and other sweet things.
"Mm", the girls nodded, although they have fun, none of them were used to be surrounded by people, the only one who could have probably continued endlessly was Kana, if not for the fact that she was eager to go on a mission with Aster.
Alice and Aria were the most challenged to future spar sessions, and Tiana got dragged into that, after Alice deliberately "exposed" her saying she was the first one in the waiting list to join the family.
As for Eris, Mylene, Sarina and Camila, some inner elders came to see what was causing such a commotion and ended up participating, in this kind of social mixer.
"Okay, do you have everything you need from here; we'll make a quick stop at the center capital before returning to the valley?", asked Aster, the furniture was delivered to the store and he also wanted to check a couple of things.
Since none of them had anything else they wanted to do at the East Sky city, Aster was about to said goodbye to Agnes and Valentina, but they seemed to be so against it, that he instead invited them over.
"You can come if you want to, but I'll only be checking some things about the store we'll be opening later".
Judging by their bright smiling expressions, Aster didn't need an answer, if anything he was starting to be curious, about what did they see about his soul that made them want to hang around with him.
Using Aster's authority, they disappeared from the amphitheater, leaving a bunch of female disciples gossiping between each other.
"Hey did you see, senior Valentina and elder sister Agnes both left with junior brother Aster".
"Woah, didn't senior Valentina reject one of the direct descendants of the Tsarai family?".
"Well, junior brother doesn't lose with any of them… not to mention he doesn't look false like them, I can't imagine little Kana hanging around with anyone with ill intentions too".
"The next summit between the three sects is going to be really fun, I can't wait to see those bitches's reactions hehehe".
"Mm", the conversations continued even after they left, because for the first time, the Black Sword faction had boys joining them, although they weren't as intense as before, Aster and Erick were going to be the main subject for quite some time.
…
A couple of seconds after Aster and the others disappeared, their surroundings changed to the nearby area of the entrance of the center capital.
Aster's group seemed to draw attention no matter where they were, because upon seeing them, others started whispering between each other, but the subject this time was the small conflict with Melisa.
"Let's go", with Aster leading them, they walked towards the mission hall, apparently the information about the mission got updated so Angela told him to come check it when he had the time.
How much support the receptionist gave to the ones taking missions was up to them, but if anything, Aster was sure he wouldn't be notified if the changes on the mission were minimum.
Along the way Aster noticed a suspiciously large number of disciples from the Red Sword faction, inner and core ones, they were spread across the whole place and some tried to approach them, until they saw Valentina and then ran away.
Once they reached the mission hall, the building was pretty much crowded more than what normally is, but there was no commotion going on, most were looking at the mission board minding their own business and yet Aster frowned as he went upstairs.
The girls accompanied him this time, and as soon as they reached the entrance to the third floor, Aster was blocked from coming in by a girl who was leaning against the wall, or at least she tried to do it, but Aster didn't stop walking, so the girl was dragged along and fell on her butt due to losing her balance.
Aster looked at the whole floor which was practically being occupied by core disciples of the Red Sword faction, among which he recognized the girl that accompanied the grandson of the former law enforcer Ramon.
But he didn't pay attention to her, as she was no match for him, instead what caught his attention were a pair of people standing next to each other in front of the counter, the first one was a tall long red-haired girl in her early twenties, with a sword hanging from her waist, she was wearing a dress and armor.
The second one was a skinny woman with purple robes, unlike the red haired one, she looked a bit older, but that could be because her body was emaciated, she was also what made Aster frown before coming upstairs… because her whole body was practically covered in poison, which was colorless and would have normally been odorless, but when it came to women Aster's smell sense was never wrong.
"I told you; the mission has been updated, a rank S mission is can't be taken by a Stellar Constellation cultivator, regardless of status, don't be stubborn and register me instead you damn receptionist!", the purple clothed woman smacked her hand on the counter and raised her voice.
Angela who was coughing from time to time simply shook her head in response.
"A resignation must be handed if you want to take the mission, go and get the signed resignation from the Lord of the Twin Sword valley".
The red-haired girl sighed and then touched her friend's shoulder.
"Rina, let's go, she is not going to call him and I just returned so I'm also a bit curious about the first male winged core disciple".
"Humph", Rina snorted, small purple flower patters appeared on her arm and Aster immediately caught a faint trace of a sweet smell, but unlike the sweet and enjoyable scent of Aria for example, this one was had a spicy and salty aftermath.
Still, he simply used his spirit energy to coat his skin and didn't let go of Rina's wrist, also with a little nod, the lock on Angela disappeared, allowing her to finally move.
"Daimon… they want your spot for the mission", mumbled Angela feeling ashamed to have shown such a defenseless side of her, it wasn't her fault though, a skinny woman came out from a group of members of the Red Sword faction.
"Valentina, of course it had to be you the one who is meddling in my business".
Valentina who was observing the situation from across the room, glared at the woman and then snorted.
"A peak Void Manipulation cultivator bullying an early-stage Genesis Manifestation junior, why don't you mess with someone in your same category, Cristina?".
That's right, here the two core elders of the Red and Black Sword factions were arguing, all the other disciples in the room with the exception of the red-haired girl and the purple clothed Rina, were paralyzed due to their spirit pressures clashing.
Rina once again tried to break free from Aster's grip by releasing more poison, which made the latter smirk, blue flames exploded on Aster's hand, freezing Rina's whole arm in a matter of seconds.
"Aghh!", Rina screamed in pain as Aster let go of her, her arm handed helplessly on her sides, she couldn't feel it anymore, then she fell to the ground and her body started trembling.
"According to the rules, I can eliminate you, now that you have tried to poison me twice in just a few second", said Aster, but then he saw a blade stopping a couple of centimeters away from his neck.
The red-haired girl glared at Aster, she evaluated Rina and then slowly spoke.
"You already attacked her one and got an arm of her, that should be enough, she might not be a winged core disciple, but Rina has a really high talent alchemy and the mission got updated to require someone with experience when dealing with poison".
To her surprise Daimon nodded, but then his next words shocked her.
"You are right one attack should be enough, but I haven't done it, I only purified that disgusting poison she covered her body with, she can't move it because her own body it's rejecting being clean like a normal person, that's all".
The red-haired girl frowned, deep in her heart she knew her friend used poison for many things, but she didn't know Rina had it on her right now, she was able to touch her without any problem after all.
"Still, she is already being punished, you can ask her for compensation but I won't let you kill her… her poison isn't lethal, or the formations on the counter would have activated by themselves".
The red-haired girl was right, Rina's poison "only" caused a sharp pain upon contact, and she was experiencing it on her own body, because Rigel's flames purified the antidote, she kept in some of the many purple flower patterns on her skin.
Aster then looked at the new information about the mission and his eyes glowed for a second.
"I know how we can solve this, your spot five it to me and this matter will be over", originally, he was allowed to bring a companion which in this case was Kana, but they changed it so that only those who have registered could participate.
The red-haired girl sighed, she returned her sword to her sheath and then turned to see Angela.
"I resign my registration… please give it to that girl", she said as she pointed at Kana, only then Aster ignored them, Cristina and Valentina also stopped their small confrontation.
"What is your name?", asked the red-haired girl as she helped Rina stand up so they could leave.
"Aster".
"Iris, I hope to see you in the monthly trials".
Having said that, the disciples from the Red Sword faction as well as their core elder all left, Cristina and Valentina snorted at each other and then everything returned to normal.
"What is the new reward of the mission, to make them go this far just to have another spot in the pre selection?", asked Valentina with a curious voice.