The four core elders were frost for a couple of seconds, before they stared at each other, the value or a half-immortal grade material greatly surpassed the one of a peak Stellar grade one, even if it is an incomplete kind of thing.
There is a reason as to why Heavenly Realm cultivators, can't enter middle or low ranked Stellar Systems, unless they suppress their cultivation which is hard to do the higher their realm.
It's not only a rule set up by the rulers of the Heavenly Quadrants, but a rule that the heavens themselves reinforce, the principle is similar to the one that states that for other Mortal Transcending realms to appear in a Star Cluster, there must be a pioneer.
The space, atmosphere, laws and spirit energy of a certain area will be reinforced due to the appearance of cultivators on the Transcending or Heavenly realms.
So, while the first one will have it tough to advance, the next ones won't suffer as much, that's why in the high ranked Stellar Systems, only from the Mortal Transcending realm and above one would be considered a real cultivator.
Because that is the first realm in which the cultivator will have an effect on the world, that's also why Aster helped Sarina advance in the Azure Sky planet, she opened the path for other Transcending realm cultivators to appear, the more the better the conditions for cultivators will be.
The Heavenly realms were similar, but unlike the Transcending realms, they had started to represent a massive threat for regular people, and so the Heavenly Law put some regulations.
But while that protects some, it gets in the way of others, for a middle ranked Stellar System to advance to the level of a high ranked one, a Heavenly Realm must appear there, naturally one would think that it would be enough to call someone from a high ranked System to advance there and problem solved, but the Heavenly Law isn't easy to trick.
Advancing to the Heavenly Realms is already quite hard, there is a high chance of failing, and the difficulty increases exponentially in a Stellar System, where there haven't been Heavenly Realm cultivators before, it's said that some greedy idiots put set up a high price to advance in one of the middle-ranked Systems, only to die because their tribulations became too harsh.
Not to mention talented cultivators prefer to first put a foot into the Heavenly Realms, and then slowly grow used to it while they solidify their bases enough so that their bases won't suffer in case of failing, being a half-baked Heavenly Realm is the same as accepting to be never be outstanding again, at least not without some heaven-defying natural treasures.
Anyway, half step Heavenly Realm cultivators, are allowed to enter middle and even low-grade Stellar Systems without having to go through the hassle of sealing their cultivations, which is why not only they are the top of the food chain in the vast majority of a Heavenly Quadrant, but also the sign that a Stellar System has the potential to become a high ranked one.
And now, Aster was presenting a material which could be used to draw out all the potential of those same cultivators, by rule for a cultivator to exhibit its maximum battle capacity, a treasure of the same grade is needed, in this case a half-immortal grade one.
Of course, there are cases of people who can power immortal grade treasures while being half step Heavenly Realm cultivators, but those will be the geniuses among geniuses, and even then, a couple of usages will drain them out of their energy.
All of that made the White Silicon Ore which Aster casually took out to sell, a few more times valuable than the regular one, even if it was of the best quality.
And that made the elders wonder, what was Aster thinking, to sell such a rare material in a private transaction, when he could have put it in an auction and probably get an even higher price, than what they will be paying for sure.
"1500 high grade spirit jades per fifty kilograms of the ore plus the cost of workforce of four customized treasures within the Transcending realms, the materials will be proportioned by you", the first one to make an offer was the tall elder Riley, this was her field or expertise after all.
'75 million of middle grade spirit jades and four customized treasures, so around one hundred million middle grade sprit stones of value, that's more than what I expected', thought Aster.
Riley's new offer more than tripled her previous one, though 1500 high grade spirit jades were worth only 75 million of middle grade ones, that is not a realistic change rate, a more real number be 90 million, and she is adding the cost of the workforce needed for four customized weapons, which on a good day will be ten million each.
Naturally he will still have to pay materials and the fee for the spirit blacksmith, but that's quite a nice deal for Aster, specially because he lacks the skill to create the raw weapons for the girls with the new materials he got.
And besides the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith Peak, Riley should be one of the most skilled Spirit Blacksmiths of the sect… which is the same as saying she is one of the best in all the middle ranked Stellar Systems, it's a fair offer, that benefited both parties.
"Deal", said Aster which made the tall woman smile, she was dying to take back such high-quality materials to create some nice treasures, she didn't bother to hide her enthusiasm.
"1500 high grade spirit jades and a contract for the sale of ten thousand bottles of spirit recovery pills, we can discuss an extension depending on the result", the elder Ophelia made her offer too, in her case she offered a deal that involved selling one of the basic pills that were sold in Aster's store.
It might sound like nothing, but the stores that the Green Lotus faction owned, had a huge prestige backing them, to get a contract with them, one must be able to supply a pill that outclasses the ones the master alchemists that work for them can concoct, as well as a lot of other quality tests, they are putting their prestige at the stake on the products they sell after all.
It's a perfect way to expand the influence of Aster's store, so he of course accepted it.
"I accept, you can discuss the details with Helena", he said, which made Ophelia smile, Helena is an inner elder of her faction, so she is happy that she has a decent connection with the raising star in front of her.
The next one was Amanda, she had it a bit harder because Aster's store didn't sell talismans, yet, but based on the formations she saw engraved on the "generic" weapons that were exhibited, she could tell that the Rune Master that worked on them was of a top notch one, to be able to make basic formations so efficient and powerful, it was amazing.
"My offer is 1500 high grade spirit jades and a contract for the sale of two thousand Fire Blaze talismans, I assume the Lord of the Twin Sword Valley has it in mind to sell talismans with such a talented Rune Master under his wing right", said the glassed elegant woman.
Aster nodded, this also aligned with Eris's current goal, which is learning the runes used in Mortal Planes and mastering them, the Fire Blaze talisman is one of the most basic ones, so it was perfect for it.
And with that, only Mikaela was left, the elder of the White Sword faction was in a small predicament, as someone from the Battle Peak her area of expertise is of course fighting, but the White Sword faction is a neutral one, they shouldn't favor anyone.
Not to mention, it was a well-known thing that the Lord of the Twin Sword valley had strong cultivators with him all the time, they didn't even know who his backer is, but just with Vivian hanging around, they at least knew Julian was on his side, and that is a half-step Heavenly Realm cultivator already, someone on par with the Supreme Elders of the sect.
But then her eyes glowed for a split of a second, she has a second identity in the sect, one that can be useful for this deal.
"I offer the same number of spirit jades and the private room number 1 on the auction house of the Treasure planet for the next year for your exclusive use, as well as a safe passage so you can leave without any trouble, that being said I won't be partial to you in the auctions", she said with a slightly troubled expression, it is obvious she was stretching her neutrality to the extreme by making this offer.
Aster chuckled in response.
"That will be enough, ah right I forgot to mention it, naturally you are free to do as you please with what you buy from me, but if you try to benefit the ones that are outside whining right now, you can forget to ever make a commercial deal with me again, I'll leave the decision to you", he said.
The four elders raised an eyebrow, but then the voice that came from the formation engraved on the table, made them understand what Aster meant.
"Sorry for the interruption, but there are some troublesome guys outside making a ruckus, the store will be fine but the little girls are starting to get a bit heated, since it's the second time", said Helena.
Aster smirked and then turned to see the four elders before saying.
"This time it was a short notice kind of situation so you probably don't have the whole payment on yourselves, I'll leave the materials with Helena and you can come later to get them with the payment, it seems I have some other matters to tend to, so I will take my leave, you can come if you want to enjoy the show too, especially senior Riley".
The four elders stared at each other, participating in the conflicts of others is something they shouldn't do as representatives of their own factions, but observing brings no harm for them, so they nodded.
Aster got up his seat and then walked downstairs followed by Aria and the others, the girls who were inside of the store were calmly choosing their things without any rush, whatever happened outside, the Twin Sword Store guaranteed the safety of those inside its walls.
Helena saw Aster coming down and she got up from her seat behind the counter, before she activated the defensive statues using her ring which was one of the master controls.
The eyes of a couple of three-meter statues that were previously standing behind of the counter, near the door that led to the garden of the store, lit up and then the statues started moving.
These statues are called golem guards, normally they only reach up to the Genesis Manifestation realm, because is quite hard to make something that doesn't have any "will" to rival a Void Manipulation cultivator who has the ability to move through space.
But these two as well as the ones that are standing at the entrance of the store, were personally modified by Eris using the best catalyzer she has ever seen or heard off, Aster's refined blood.
Needless to say, but the four elders were surprised to feel the aura radiated by the statue guards, they knew they were golems with a single view since the moment they entered the store, but they were stronger than what they thought.
"Void manipulation level battle golems!", exclaimed both Riley and Amanda, in other words a Spirit Blacksmith and a Rune Master, they couldn't help but raise their impression of Aster another notch, as this level of technology is still new even at the high ranked Stellar Systems.
We are talking about creating something that can fight for you after all, it's one of the culminations of both Rune Mastering and Spirit Blacksmithing, maybe not as good as a sentient weapon, but probably the best next option.
Ignoring the reactions of the elders, Aster left the store followed by the girls and the two statues, outside as he expected there were a few Void Manipulation troublemakers, among which he recognized the Core Elder of the Red Sword faction, a woman with red hair and a sharp expression.
Besides her, there was also a short young woman with light blue hair, her clothes had a light blue anvil emblem engraved on them, meaning she was from the original faction of the Blacksmith Peak.
The last one was a woman with short brown hair, who had a resentful expression, judging by her clothes that should be the elder Olivia, in other words the elder who decided to try and not fully pay for the mission Aster took.
Besides them, there was of course Edward's group, formed by him, the girl from the Purple Lotus faction Julia, and there was also a new girl whose badge identified her as a member of the Red Sword faction, but she shouldn't be on the same level as Julia, as she was only a middle stage Star Tribulation realm cultivator.
Of course, the Blacksmith Peak's Supreme Elder was here as well, and all the eyes of the previously mentioned fell on Aster the moment he left the store.
"So many troublemakers are gathering in front of my store, what a relief that I got a new way to make money so that I can hire more guards", said Aster with a smirk, which made Edward grit his teeth.
"What is the meaning of this, Lord of the Twin Sword Valley, I came all the way here just to be negated the chance to even enter your store, who do you think you are!", said the red-haired Core Elder.
"Helena, can you name the stores that have openly slandered us, and the backers they mentioned when they did so?", asked Aster out loud.
"Mm, the principals are the Red Medicinal Pavilion and the Purple Cloud Hall, the others are their subsidiaries and they are backed by the Red Sword and Purple Lotus factions", said Helena.
"There is your answer, as for that idiot and everyone related to him, I don't need to explain, he came with ill intentions the last time so he and his lackeys are banned from entering my store, that includes those who wag their tails for them too", said Aster as he glared at the elder from the Brown Anvil faction, which of course caused a harsh reaction.
"What did you say!", the two elders took a step ahead, but were intercepted by the two statues, as for the Supreme Elder, Agnes's sharp eyes were fixated on her, if she even dared to try and move, she will regret it.
The troublemakers all had angry expressions, they came here to take advantage of a "na?ve" idiot who was selling such a precious material as White Silicon Ore but ended up being humiliated, by not even been allowed to enter a store, they Core Elders and Void Manipulation experts were left outside like dogs, of course they were angry.
"If that was the case you should have specified who was welcomed and who wasn't, I can't believe that the famous the Lord of the Twin Sword valley is such a small person", spat the Core Elder Olivia, she is from a neutral faction so publicly her words could make Aster look bad, or that could have been the case if she was really neutral.
"Heh, that is an interesting choice of words for someone that was vague on purpose in a mission, to not properly pay for it", answered Aster.
"You, you are making all this just because of the lack of a free customized weapon!", shouted Olivia, which made Aster smirk, the woman kept digging her own grave.
"Don't overestimate yourself, there are no better weapons in the same grade as the ones we use, in the whole Stellar System, I couldn't care less for a weapon made by you, what angers me is the fact that my mission was messed with, what assures me that it won't happen again… and due to that I want to bring this case to the Law Enforcers", he said.
"Y-You!", Olivia was speechless, she was being accused over such a thing, and to her bad luck, while William isn't here, the old Salazar is, and he knew Aster was plotting something when he got news of the White Silicon Ore.
'Sigh, you haven't been here for a whole day yet, you know', thought Salazar as he descended from the sky, he then gazed at Aster and said.
"An accusation against a Core Elder is a serious matter, please present or declare your evidences".
Aster had the urge to laugh out loud, the Supreme Elder brought him all the evidences he needed.
"He is the evidence, just ask him where did the White Silicon Ore he presented as part of the mission, came from", said Aster as he pointed at Edward, whose expression became unsightly the moment he was pointed by Aster.
"What do you mean by that, I got it from the Silicon Forest, where I went for my mission, you were there too, Lord of the Twin Sword valley", said Edward.
"Really, then can you swear that what you said is true, because I'm willing to swear you didn't get it from there", answered Aster, which made Edward's expression darken even more.
"You don't have to, since we aren't welcomed, we'll take our leave", angrily said the Supreme Elder, but Salazar raised his hand to stop her from saying anything else.
"Cheating on the missions is a serious crime which falls in the jurisdiction of my Punishment Hall, the accusatory is willing to proceed with a soul oath, so the accused must respond with the same, as they both took the same mission at the same time", said the old man, which made the Supreme Elder grit her teeth.
She gazed at Aster and saw the ridiculing smile on his face, and she felt a shiver running down her spine.
'He made me bring Edward and Julia on purpose, from the very beginning this was his goal!', she inwardly screamed.
Edward's Holy Son promotion was questioned more and more lately, as he isn't a core disciple, if this accusation proceeded then… his reputation will be gone forever, and that will affect her too, because she acted as his guarantee.
The problem is that she had no way out of this, so she could only powerlessly observe as Salazar demanded Edward to answer.
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