The gate of the spaceship opened and Aster followed by the girls came out of it, as soon as they set foot outside of the spaceship, the girls frowned, with the exception of Felicia and Tiana, the others circulated a bit of spirit energy to counter the strong gravity.
Aria gazed at Aster with an accusatory expression on her pretty face, he prohibited from using her spirit energy to reduce the pressure, and instead she had to endure it with just her physical body.
Still, she wasn't having as much of a hard time as she expected, the border station was in the central Star Cluster of the Fritz Stellar System, which just like others is named after the ruling family.
So, in this Fritz Star Cluster, the gravity was enough to bring anyone with physical strength below the Star Axys realm in body path terms, naturally they could also use spirit energy or even soul energy to cancel that, but that would mean they will be constantly using their powers, until they get used to it.
This is part of the training that Aster gave to Aria, for that purpose he basically spent the previous five or so days, giving lots of love to Aria, she was now brimming with life due to all the yang she received, though her strength didn't increase that much, the hardness of her bones and the flexibility of her muscles should rival those of a Body Solidification cultivator.
Such was the strong effect of Aster's yang and blood, having the capacity to nurture Aria's body to this point in a matter of days, but it made sense, for a normal person who hasn't cultivated her body at all, to swallow a treasure related to the body, the effect was bound to be great at first.
Aria had zero body cultivation, and she was fed with a treasure in the form of Aster, so her body was reinforced a lot, usually the process should be gradual since the pills or elixirs that can cause such a good effect are too fierce, but Aster's blood doesn't have that problem, besides making Aria have certain urges nothing else happened to her.
But she reached her current limit, now her body had to rest and process and transform all the remaining yang into vitality, and the best way to accelerate that process was physical exercise, in this case Aria was borrowing the high gravity of this Stellar System to train.
Aster saw Aria easily enduring the pressure and he nodded, her physical strength didn't increase as much as her defense and stamina, because of the difference in the levels of the two types of blood that flow in his veins, the red part is for strength and is related to his dragon lineage, and the golden part which is oriented for defense and vitality is related to the Paragon Body.
'Mm, in terms of defense, she should be around the Star Formation, this is the current limit of what she can get from me, since unlike mom, her constitution is oriented to the soul, but it should be enough for now', thought Aster.
Still, how could he watch his cute Aria walk funny due to not being used to the pressure, he wrapped his arm around Aria's thin waist, both to help her walk for now, and because he wanted to.
Aria happily leaned against Aster and enjoyed being close to him, so it was two birds one stone.
The other girls were surprised to see Aria not using any kind of help to endure the gravity, she and Tiana had the same level, but instead of energy, Tiana cultivated the body, so this was nothing for her.
Speaking of Tiana, a realization hit her like a truck and her face turned red.
'That guy's blood, Aria should have been using it to naturally strengthen her body, since she doesn't have to endure the side effect… how shameless', she thought.
Leaving that little episode aside, Aster also completely ignored this amount of pressure, since he was always under the protection of the paragon body, the gravity didn't affect him, in exchange the weight of such a massive object compressed was also always with him, but at this point he has gotten used to it.
The people guarding the space gates naturally approached them soon, since they came out of the VIP gate, it meant they had some sort of decent background, so the one who came to receive them wasn't a guard but an elder from the ruler family, in other words, the Fritz.
"Welcome to the Fritz Stellar System, may I know from which force do these esteemed guests come?".
Agnes who was acting as the "supervisor" for Aster's mission, took over, she showed the elder her token of identity and the elder smiled recognizing the emblem of the Myriad Occupation sect, which has a good relationship with the Fritz.
"Visitors from the Myriad Occupation sect, please let my Fritz family show some consideration and invite you to a meal", said the elder with a welcoming voice.
The girls turned to see Aster, a detail which didn't escape the eyes of the elder, Aster nodded in response.
"Sure, I don't see the problem, but we can only stay for a couple of hours at most, since we still have to visit the guardian sect of this place".
"No problem, please follow me", answered the elder as he led the way.
Aster had a good impression of the Fritz, the old man Tomas which he saved was a decent person, and so he wouldn't relate with trash people, if he considered Ulises Fritz as his best friend, then the Fritz should be pretty decent, and for now his prediction was correct.
'A Void Manipulation cultivator, there is no way this old man is just an elder, he should be the one in charge of the security of the border station', thought Aster.
Of course, there is a chance that they were just getting a better treatment, since they came from the Myriad Occupation sect, but for Aster that didn't seem to be the case, as he and the others weren't wearing their rings from the sect, and Agnes was "just" an inner elder, so from the other party's point of view their status wasn't that high.
All of this, because Aster wanted to see the attitude of the Fritz, Tomas asked him to bring them under his "flag" if possible after seeing Aster's marvelous abilities after all.
On the way to the restaurant, Aster evaluated the situation at the border station, which usually reflects how the whole Stellar System manages, there didn't seem to be any problems on the outside.
There were a lot of visitants from other Stellar Systems, but Aster could still notice the slight tension in the air, which developed between people wearing white uniforms similar to the old man guiding them and people wearing light gray clothes, they also had emblems engraved on their backs, a white octagonal gem and a gray tower respectively.
Still though they clearly had something against each other, the conflicts were only those of regular competitors, nothing too harsh, at least on the surface.
The old man finally stopped walking after a couple of minutes and they arrived at the entrance of a ten-story building, a hostess approached them and slightly bowed her head towards the old man.
"Welcome elder Jack, how can we help you today?", she politely asked.
"I brought some guests, please take us to the room at the tenth floor", said the old man.
The hostess's eyes widened a bit, but she nodded and then smiled as she guided the way for Aster's group and the old man, Aster was surprised to see that they were using a spatial formation to go to the upper floors, instead of simple staircases like normal.
In fact, it was weird to see such a tall building being used as a restaurant in the station border, maybe in the capital of the main territory of the ruler family it would be normal, but Aster noticed that even the locals and regular stores were quite luxurious looking.
This time Aster's group sat at one side while the old man took the other side, while they were waiting for their food, the old man took out a gourd and two small glasses, he then poured a few drops of the content of the gourd on the glasses, the room's temperature increased a bit for a couple of seconds.
"Black hair, golden toned eyes and surrounded by beautiful ladies, your reputation precedes you… Holy Son of the Battle Peak", said the old man as he offered a toast to Aster.
Aster smiled, he took the glass and accepted the toast by gulping down the contents of it, in a single go, he was surprised to feel a burning sensation filling his chest, but then nothing happened, whatever the gourd contained, it was made with an extreme yang ingredient.
"I'm sorry, this old man doesn't have anything special to offer to these ladies, but please feel free to order what you want from the menu, it's on the house", said the old man with a friendly smile.
"I wonder, did you know it was me from the very beginning, your first reaction told me the contrary?", asked Aster.
The old man but on an apologetic smile as he gazed at Agnes.
"No, to be honest I didn't pay attention to it first, but I did recognize lady Agnes, how could I forget someone who has beaten up the son of the patriarch of the Steel Tower sect, like a dog".
Aster raised an eyebrow and turned to see Agnes, just to see her shrugging.
"I have beaten too many idiots and honestly don't remember all, it probably happened one of the times I accompanied sister Valentina to pick up her disciple back from this place", she said with a careless voice, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, which made Aster chuckle.
The old man bitterly smiled as he continued.
"Someone who could make lady Agnes who is unruly even in the top three middle ranked Stellar Systems accompany him, can't be normal and the only renowned male disciple is the Lord of the Twin Sword valley, it wasn't that hard to connect the points".
Aster nodded, he could tell the old man wasn't lying, the food arrived and the girls happily dug in, this place's food was made with ingredients that nurtured the body, though it was a small benefit, it was still a benefit, the only one who wasn't affected at all was Aria, since her body was full to the brim with Aster's yang already.
"Elder, I have a few questions, which I hope you don't mind answering", said Aster.
The old man nodded in response.
"No problem, also please call me Jack, technically your status is higher than mine anyway", said the old man, maybe because he is a body cultivator, but the old man had a pretty easygoing personality.
"Very well, what's up with those gray uniformed guys, as far as I know the color of the Fritz family is white and both the ruler family and the guardian sect use it, since they are backed up by the Fritz, am I missing something?", asked Aster.
The old man sighed as he answered.
"The clan head of my Fritz family and the patriarch of the Steel Tower sect are brothers, both represented the Fritz previously, but now… the Steel Tower sect is mainly ruled by their patriarch, though some elders and other people still obey the Fritz, the patriarch no longer obeys his brother".
Aster tapped his finger on the table.
"Why not eliminate the resistance, the older brother should be the clan head of the Fritz, he just needs to control his brother and that's it", he said.
The old man clenched his fist for a moment, but he calmed down and then said.
"The patriarch and the clan head are now equal in terms of strength, all because the patriarch offered a certain treasure to someone from a high ranked Stellar System, in exchange for his son to be accepted in their guardian sect and some resources to catch up to his older brother".
"Naturally those benefits didn't come for free, people from that high ranked Stellar System were given spots to enter our best legacy area, the Extreme Silicon Forest and they have been waiting for it to open".
Aster nodded, the treasure they were talking about was probably the previous Diamond Bone Orchid, which Tomas mentioned, if it was given to the guys from the high ranked Stellar System, it made sense that they were now supporting the Steel Tower sect.
'What an idiot, he gave away such a treasure for mere crumbs', thought Aster, the materials Rya required were practically the best of the best if handled properly, on the other hand it could be that the Orchid that was previously found wasn't mature yet, so it was only partially usable, probably for someone of the young generation.
The patriarch didn't know how to raise the Orchid to its mature state, or he wouldn't have given it away.
'Oh, well, it seems we have gotten ourselves some guides for the Silicon Forest, seeing the place where the previous Orchid bloomed, I can look for a mature one, more easily', he thought.
After enjoying a nice meal and looking around at the stores in the border station, Aster and the girls returned to the port and then left in the spaceship, the Silicon Forest will open at noon, so they will arrive perfectly in time for it.
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