Now that Helena has gotten Aster's answer regarding what has been making her feel troubled, they could go onto more private matters.
Aster looked at the garden and then patted Kana's head before saying.
"The atmosphere here is good and all, but the space is a bit limited, especially if we are going to keep such a large operation, so I was thinking in designating an area of the valley to make a herbal garden, you will be compensated for it of course".
The soil of the valleys was probably the best in the planet, because they were the major natural focus points of all the spirit energy of the planet, it was a waste not to take advantage of it.
Though Aster mostly took the decision, because of a certain little girl whose eyes were sparkling over the idea of having her own garden to take care off, it also had other benefits, naturally cultivating the herbs used as materials for pills or elixirs was cheaper than buying them, so there was no reason no downside to it.
Helena didn't hesitate as she nodded.
"Sure, you are going to need to buy seeds and other samples of the herbs you want to cultivate though, and it might be a pain since there is people from the Alchemy Peak who isn't happy about the success of the store, also the guys from the purple lotus faction are acting as mad dogs, since their holy son candidate died", she said.
Aster scratched the back of his head, he was the one who killed Victor, but he wasn't worried about it, Julian was indebted with him, as the ruler of Galatia he of course had his own stores and other business, he could be the one to provide the materials needed as well.
Not only that, after two months, the first shipload of products from the alliance he created between his Terranova, the Sand Mountain and the Barbarian Heart sects, should be arriving.
"Don't worry, I'll get the materials needed, just give me a list and I'll take care of it, tell me when you have some free time so you can come to choose the best area for the garden".
"Sure, I have yet to visit the famous Twin Sword valley, I'll bring little Dahlia with me, if you don't mind?", answered Helena.
Aster nodded.
"Perfect, if you excuse us, we'll take our...", Aster didn't finish his sentence, he frowned as he saw with his spirit sense, that some people were pushing the line of girls that was still formed out of the store, chatting with those who managed to get their pills, elixirs, herbs or weapons, aside in a not exactly friendly way.
Judging by the different badges and the cold expressions they had, none came here with good intentions.
"Let's go receive these "guests" that have bothered to come all the way from other peaks, to see us", said Aster as he waved his hand using his authority to take all the ones sitting with him, outside of the store, he didn't ask Helena or Dahlia, because if they didn't want to come, they could just resist and they wouldn't be transported, that wasn't the case though, since both of them also disappeared from the garden.
...
Outside of the store there was small commotion ongoing, a moment ago a quite surprising group arrived at the scene, if the girls forming on the line weren't from the Black Sword faction where almost every one of them treated each other like sisters, they would have stood aside and showed reverence.
Why do you ask, because the ones who arrived were none other than the second, third and fourth ranked disciples from the Heavenly ranks, and that wasn't all, all core disciples and idols between both the female and male disciples.
And that wasn't all, they were all surrounding a tall slim guy with a uniform of the sect that was different than any other, it had a blazer was of a metallic silver color and had an anvil emblem, meaning it was related to the Blacksmith peak, he was short and relatively athletic looking, unlike the bulky guys that normally appear in the Blacksmith peak, which is the only one in which there are more male disciples than female ones, though most of them are assistants still.
On top of that there was a masked woman walking behind all of them, most of the disciples here were new or have had been in the sect for not that long, still they were all at least inner disciples, so how could they not know how a Supreme Elder looked like.
One of the three girls surrounding the guy with the silver blazer, waved her hand, her badge had a purple lotus on it, meaning she was part of the Purple Lotus faction of the Alchemy peak.
And akin to her occupation as an aspiring poison master, her spirit energy which had a light purple tone flooded the area in front of them, making the girls from the Black Sword faction to be forced to move aside.
Unfortunately most of them were at the Stellar Constellation realm, and so they were too slow to react on time, still the couple of girls who had reached the peak of the Stellar Axis realm and one who has sparingly recently ascended to the Star Tribulation realm used their spirit energies to block that purple spirit energy, buying time for their fellow disciples to leave.
"Oh, don't you know that blocking a core disciple's path, while being a mere inner disciple is a crime, let this senior sister teach you a "friendly" lesson", disdainfully said the girl from the Purple Lotus faction as she jokingly increased the output of her spirit energy.
She was a maximum stage Star Tribulation realm cultivator, in other words someone who has delayed its breakthrough on purpose to solidify its base as much as possible, to make sure her battle prowess doesn't diminish and instead increases, which made her still be considered a genius at the Mortal Transcending realm, so with just putting a bit of effort, she of course easily outpowered the few girls that were containing her poisonous spirit energy, making them fall backwards, but the pain of being burned by poison and the hard fall they expected didn't happen.
They instead were bathed in a fresh and soothing sensation, that not only cleansed away all the poison that threatening with corroding their bodies, but even helped the girl that recently ascended, making her base stabilize a bit, by calming her agitated mind.
"What are these blue flames?".
"Mm, it feels good~".
Similar comments were made from the many girls that though moved aside didn't leave the place, all of them were being bathed on soft and gentle blue flames which purified their bodies from the poison released before.
They then saw a portal opening in front of all of the, from which a small group of five appeared, led by a tall handsome black haired youth they perfectly recognized.
"That is senior brother Aster!", exclaimed one of the girls and the others agreed.
"Kyaah, he looks so handsome~".
Aster's eyebrow twitched a bit, but the sparkling eyes of Kana made him sigh and comply with the petition of the little girl, one of the benefits Kana gained thanks to Esmeralda is that she can not only "see" through her spirit sense which isn't too developed due to her still relatively low realm.
The little girl in the near future will be able to see using the wind as her eyes, but for now Esmeralda was the one doing it for her, so when she told Kana there was a guy with a disdainful expression wearing a silver blazer, she of course looked at Aster expectantly with puppy eyes, how could someone try to look cooler than her big brother who is now considered the golden knight of the legends back at her native galaxy after all.
Aster ultimately obliged, since he couldn't resist those pretty expectant eyes of Kana, and the golden armor of the paragon body cladded his body, covering him in a pretty dazzling golden light and that wasn't all, he even used his spirit energy to create a cape, very much fitting the description of a "knight".
And that's what the female disciples were seeing now, a shining knight who protected them the bad guys at the last moment.
Ignoring the younger disciples who now looked like fangirls seeing a celebrity, Aster glared at the newcomers, out of all of them he only recognized the Supreme Elder from the Blacksmith peak.
But the guy wearing that flashy silver blazer had a ring with a mountain emblem on his hand, which gave him away as the guy Helena talked about, the second ever officially declared Lord of a Valley, the holy son of the Blacksmith peak, whose face turned black as he saw Aster's magistral appearance.
The Lord of the twin sword valley, is the only name that has been spoke by the female disciples, ever since Aster joined the sect, it's not an exaggeration to say he is the most popular male disciple currently, to the displease of the other male disciples, whose positions are already below the female disciples to begin with, those who joined chasing the beauties found in this piece of paradise were angry.
'I had trained for twenty god damn years before I could show my talent, and this pretty boy is getting all the attention after a couple of months, rubbish!', inwardly cursed the guy with the silver blazer.
But he then looked at the beauties surrounding him including the strong Supreme Elder who has offered him the back up from the mysterious force behind her, going as far as to accept his advances once he demonstrated his talent in private to her.
'So, what if you are handsome, all my hard work won't be outshined by a savage', he thought as he triumphantly smiled while he wrapped his arm around the other two girls, one who had a yellow cauldron badge and the other a dark green sword badge, meaning they belonged to the opposition of the Rune Mastering peak and the other to the neutral faction of the Battle peak.
In comparison, he saw that Aster was only accompanied by a mere inner elder, and an inner disciple, though the two girls standing closer to him were indeed top-class beauties, which made him feel envious, but it was to be expected since he had just started his journey and yet he has already captured the heart of three of the top five on the Heavenly Rank.
Feeling empowered, the guy with the silver blazer glared at Aster before saying.
"So, you finally showed your face Lord of the twin sword valley, you should have heard of me the rising star of the Blacksmith peak and the newly appointed Lord of the metal mountain Valley, Edward Warhama...".
Before Edward could finish his sentence, Aster's image flashed and a sword appeared on his hand, the next thing everyone saw was that a tower black shield appeared in front of Edward blocking the golden sword.
"Clang!", a loud sound of metals colliding echoed through the whole area, followed by a thunderous laugh coming from the sky as a shirtless tall guy with sandals descended, that was the reason as to why the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith peak didn't interfere, because William's pressure took her by surprise.
"As always you do the most interesting stuff, kid, HAHAHA!", said William as he landed and offered Aster a toast, though it was early he was already drinking.
Aster chuckled in response, as he shoved his sword on the ground.
"His group attacked my junior sisters in front of my store, how can I be considered a man if I swallow such an insult, especially from someone whose merits are so trash that the idea of being considered on the same level just because a certain Supreme Elder pulled some strings for him to become a Holy Son despite not being a core disciple, makes me wonder if all this is a bad taste joke".
"What!", both Edward and the Supreme Elder snorted in response.
"Oi you crazy bastard, attacking me all of a sudden is stupid, and what the hell are you talking about, my ranking is higher than yours, I challenge you and your store to a duel!", shouted Edward.
To which Aster smirked.
"I at least expected someone who was granted the Lord tittle to know how to count".
The Supreme Elder frowned, she left a meeting in which they were discussing the results of some high ranked missions, but her ally stayed back representing her, but then the voice of a woman echoed through all the city as a black stone plate appeared on the sky of all the cities in the planets that belonged to the sect, no it wasn't only that, all the establishments that belonged to the ruler family of Galatia and the sects that were subordinated to the Galatia family also saw the same message.
"Let it be known through the whole sky that the Lord of the twin sword valley now holds the 50th position in the Heavenly Rankings, congratulations!".
All the present people's eyes widened in shock, you might wonder why was there such a fuss, the previous record for male disciples was about the rank 5000, Edward's rank was below the 15,000 after all the "contributions" he made to the Blacksmith peak.
Aster's previous rank was 24, 625 and he jumped all the way to the 50th rank, which held a meaning that could be compared to the 1st rank, as it was the highest rank one could reach without participating in the monthly trials.
And that made them wonder, if Aster would have participated in the trials, then... wouldn't he have become the first rank a moment ago.
'What the hell did he do to get all those points!', screamed the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith peak in her heart.
William fell to ground as he laughed his ass off at the current expression of the Supreme Elder.
'As expected of the son of the woman my big sis accepted as a friend... damn she is so going to kick my ass for not telling her on time', thought William which made him toast to himself, he could only beg to the heavens that she would forget about his little life over the joy of reuniting with the sister she has missed so much.
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