Chapter 566 Vivian’s soft heart (part 3)
Naturally, Aster was no chef, back at earth he ate simple basic meals most of the time except when he had the luxury to eat out, at the orphanage the food was made in bulks, so even if it wasn't bad at all, he never got to experience a nice home cooked meal, until he reincarnated.
Which is why he really appreciated when Lilia cooked for him the first time, not to mention Sarina who had a natural gift for it.
'Tsk, I guess this really represents stepping on top of a gold mine and not being able to spend it', he thought.
The formations engraved by his godmothers were quite something, his spatial ring which was gifted to him by Lilia, was of a superior quality than any of the ones that could be found on middle ranked Stellar Systems, and yet it was actually blocked from working by the formations of the trial.
Which made sense, since the one who made it was probably one of his godmothers, that being said, those formations couldn't affect the mind space, so if he so whished to, he could have taken out some of the lunches that Sarina gladly prepared for him beforehand.
But that would be against the purpose of the date, so he did what he could with what he had, luckily Vivian found some herbs that could make up for the lack of spices, which Aster pulverized with his bare hands to then apply it on the fish using a stick he washed in the river.
When he had finished seasoning the fish, he stuck a few of them on the twigs and shoved them on the ground, to let the heat of the campfire cook them.
Vivian was having quite some fun, just observing Aster using some basic outdoor survival skills, that being said she didn't just watch from the sides and used her soul energy to cut the fruits she gathered, they had to wait a bit for the fish to cook after all, so these diced fruits would be good snack in the meantime.
"Here~", Vivian was having so much fun that she unconsciously offered some of the fruit to Aster, without trying it first, naturally Aster accepted it without a second of hesitation, unlike other cultivators, meal time is a sacred moment of the day in his household, not to mention he was feeling rather hungry.
Seeing Vivian's smile almost unnoticeably tense, Aster inwardly sighed, he was well aware of what happened in the mansion while he was gone, courtesy of the after-sex bed talk with that mother of his.
Maybe Lilia didn't involve herself too much with the younger girls of the group as she instead prefers to be as much as possible with her beloved son, but she had stablished a nice rivalry with someone that does, the motherly blond Sarina, who is in the main chef of the mansion.
Among the things that Vivian had always wanted to try before, a lot can be considered "mundane" simple activities, such as preparing a meal with her own hands, go to public places in person, or simply stroll around with friends.
And while she has progressed quite a bit thanks to Alice and the others, who had no prejudice towards her, things aren't that easy, Sarina who is the most thoughtful among the girls, couldn't help but notice that even when it was Vivian herself the one asking to help from time to time when preparing the meals, she ultimately ended up only passing things like plates, or other cookware, nothing that involved directly dealing with food, also she wore her silk white pair of long sleeved gloves all the time.
Others might confuse that with disdain towards helping in the kitchen, but how could Sarina who saw the little girl hiding her troubled expressions, for around seven years, while she was bedridden, be fooled by her expressionless fa?ade.
Like mother like daughter after all, while Kana remained around Vivian helping her be confident that her poison wasn't going to randomly explode, since she was there, Sarina was the one that asked Alice to approach Vivian more actively, though is still unknown whether that was a good decision or not…
Anyway, since today she was on a date with Aster, Vivian unconsciously wore less things than usual, not in a lewd way, but she usually doesn't expose any skin, for obvious reasons, her dresses are quite long, though that doesn't diminish her charm at all.
For her date, she chose to wear a short-sleeved dress, and she didn't wear gloves, of course she didn't expect to be in a situation like this, but that was the idea, to help this introvert pale girl open up.
"Don't make that face, my body is strong enough to ignore poison and I know for sure that Vivian wouldn't harm me, here try out the fruit is quite refreshing", said Aster as he picked a cube of fruit and offered it to the slightly perplexed Vivian.
Of course, she knew that her poisons wouldn't really harm Aster, but she didn't want to ruin the food that they got together, by mistake, earlier she went with the flow and even cut the fruits, only when she saw Aster eating, he fruit she was reminded of her constitution, which is what caused the slight troubled expression, that immediately disappeared after listening to Aster.
"Thanks", after a second of being surprised by Aster's words, Vivian smiled and happily accepted the offer, by leaning frontwards and munching on the fruit directly from Aster's fingers.
"It's actually quite refreshing, more please", she cutely said as she slightly opened her pretty lips to wait for Aster to personally feed her", making Aster chuckle.
"Julian is going to declare war against me if he sees this, you know", he jokingly said, to which Vivian softly laughed.
"It's fine because is Aster~", she confidently said.
The idea was that she took the fruit from him to then eat it, but she too actually ate it from him, not that he minded but he certainly didn't expect such a daring move from Vivian, that being said he obliged and personally fed the white haired girl to the content of her heart.
It wasn't only the act what made Vivian lively, the fruit was quite delicious, to make up for the difficulty that should be, find one of the few edible things that had zero side effects, just eating a couple of fruits should be enough to recover whatever stamina one had spent up to this part of the trial, but it wouldn't be enough to fill one's stomach.
After finishing the diced fruits, with Vivian eating the most of it, Aster checked on the fish which were just ready to be eaten.
"Here, I'm not as good as Sarina, but it shouldn't be too bad", said Aster as he handed Vivian one of the sticks.
He also grabbed one for himself and took a big bite of it, surprisingly the herbs gave it a nice taste, also the fish was soft and juicy, probably because of the river, those fishes were really healthy, which enhanced their flavor.
Vivian's eyes sparkled as she repeatedly munched on the grilled fish, her palate was quite unexperienced, due to her poison making food tasteless for her most of the time, only recently she started enjoying the delight of having delicious food thanks to Aster and Sarina, prior to that the "tastiest" things she ate were the antidotes she had to take regularly to keep her constitution under control.
So, while she certainly loved Sarina's food, this kind of simple grilled fish was a new experience for her, and she seemed to like it quite a bit.
'Alice and Aria were right, food does taste better when Aster is the one giving it to you, I will ask for it from now and onwards', thought the pale girl as she slowly but surely ate quite a few grilled fishes, seeing her taking small bites and put on a joyful expression at the taste, was a delight for Aster's eyes.
And soon they finished the food, while most would be either half poisoned and half full, or simply hungry, they had a nice satisfying meal, Aster could feel some hungry angered stares from afar, but no one dared to try and steal from him after what happened earlier.
At least they weren't stupid enough to be disqualified over some grilled fishes and fruit, that being said, some girls from the Black Sword and Green Lotus factions, did approach them, after he and Vivian finished eating, and gave them puppy eyes, which made Aster softly laugh.
"If we help you then this trial wouldn't reflect the harshness of the outside world, so don't look at me like that", he said.
Most of the girls that were participating in the first stage of this considered juniors in the sect.
And they were the ones that idolized Aster the most, since he was monthly trial, were the ones that recently joined the sect, either in the last admission or the previous one, in other words they were considered juniors in the sect.
And they were the ones that idolized Aster the most, since he was also a recently joined disciple and yet he has already accomplished such incredible feats, in comparison the male disciples mostly chose to not enter to this trial until they were sure they would get a decent result, which wasn't supposedly to be the case.
The idea of this trial was to wake up the members of the young generation to the uncertainty of the cultivation world, in other words they weren't supposed to prepare for it beforehand, but over the years, it lost a lot of its meaning turning in just a competition for points, at least that's how the male disciples saw it, since it was one of the trials in which they excelled at, which is why it was so popular for them.
"But senior brother… luck is also part of one's strength, and we were lucky enough to appear near senior brother, even if it was the outside world, you will lend us a hand if you were to encounter us and we were in danger, senior sister Iris told us how you two met", said one of the girls from the Black Sword faction.
"Umm", the other girls nodded from the Black Sword faction nodded, agreeing with the one that represented them.
"Senior brother also saved the sisters of the recollection team, like senior sister Dahlia, right?", added a girl from the Green Lotus faction.
Aster chuckled, these little girls were doing their best to convince him, to be honest they weren't exactly wrong, luck is also part of one's abilities, Dahlia and the other girls from the Green Lotus faction, wouldn't have been saved if the one taking the mission wasn't Aster.
Because the difficulty of the mission didn't go along with the rank of the mission, since an important member of an evil sect turned out to be working with the one that kidnapped those girls.
That being said, Aster didn't help them due to the mission, he could have left after confirming that the mission wasn't correctly issued, and no one could have said anything against him, since the one "risking" his neck by continuing the mission was him, he did it because he wanted to.
And it was for that same reason, that he waved his hand and a few fruits from different nearby trees, were cut and brought to him by his soul energy.
"Here, I'm reserved for Vivian today, so take these and do your best", he said as he made the fruits fly to the hands of each of those girls every one of them received two fruits, which should be enough to keep them going and if they paid attention to the trees from which he took them, they should be able to narrow the options from which to choose to get clean food.
The trees here gave birth to more than one type of fruit each, so seeing the trees from which Aster took the fruit, didn't mean others could safely eat like them, each fruit had to be analyzed as not even those that looked exactly like the ones he and Vivian ate, were free of side effects.
"Thanks, senior brother, let us repay you outside by inviting you to a restaurant~", said one of the girls as she took a bite of one of her fruits, while keeping the other for later.
"Humph, that isn't a reward for senior brother but for you, don't try to get ahead of us, you have to properly win the others to get the chance to challenge senior brother's companions!", said another girl, that being said she also bit the fruit as she smiled at Aster.
Those enthusiastic girls slightly bowed towards Vivian as they excused themselves, to not keep interrupting them, before leaving, they had to get to the outer area of the forest by night, because the night on the plain was actually harder than the initial area of the forest.
"Ah right, those fruits were my gifts, and I have memorized all the appearances of the ones that saw them, if anything happens to them, I'll hold you responsible for it whether you participate or not", said Aster out loud, making sure that the ones eyeing the fruits he gave to those girls, clearly heard him, naturally he couldn't let a gift he gave to those girls, become a source of misfortune.
Luckily a bit of the good old threatening, was all that was needed to convert those greedy bastards, into loyal watchdogs, because if even one of them tried to rob those girls, he will beat the crap out of all of them, so to prevent it they will not only supervise each other, but jump to help if others target them.
"Aster is quite popular", mumbled Vivian making Aster bitterly smile in response.
"Sorry for the interruption", he said to which Vivian slightly shook her head.
"No problem, I have Aster for the next three days, Alice will be jealous when I tell her about my date".
"Still, isn't Aster too menacing~", she jokingly said, making Aster chuckle.
"Most of them weren't in their first try here, they just wanted to have a higher score disregarding the purpose of the trial, so they might as well do something useful for a change", casually said Aster as he got up to stretch his body.
"Let's go, we should arrive at the forest before the night falls, the biggest difference between those who are unlucky to not have Vivian in their teams, will be the most noticeable inside the forest".
Vivian extended her hand as if she was requesting Aster help to get up, needless to say but her petition was fulfilled by Aster, who was happy that she had eased up, regardless of her constitution, he wanted Vivian to be relaxed and comfortable when in her daily life, whether he is present or not, since she is a part of the group and she isn't going anywhere.
Of course, he wasn't going to rush it, first she had to be able to be let go of all her worries, with him present acting as her lifeline, so that she can then take control by herself, after all Aster has never wanted to make his friends or family fully dependent of him, his role in the family is to support, motivate and help them grow, though each girl needed different kinds of support, and it worked both ways, his family was the source of Aster's wish to be the strongest.
After they got up, Aster and Vivian rushed through the plain, they previously covered more than half of the distance to the plain before they felt like take a small break to have something to eat, after all they had a pretty sumptuous breakfast back at the mansion, so a short distance wouldn't make them feel hungry, even with the fatigue causing formations, Sarina's food had recovery properties after all.
By the time the artificial sky in the secret realm of this monthly trial, gained an orange tone meaning the "sun" was about to leave the sky, they saw the entrance to the forest a few hundreds of meters ahead of them.
Not only the river that ran through the plain, openly for anyone to drink from it, ended there, as there was a small fall, making the river go underground, but the sensation of the forest over all was way more suppressive and dangerous than that of the plain.
And for a good reason, the poisons and obstacles that were inside the forest were on a different level compared to the ones in the plain, also unlike the plain where it was hard to hide and ambush others, the tall trees with their giant tops were the perfect places to hide.
But that wasn't all, unlike the plain where the only other living beings that roamed freely, besides the participants, were the harmless insects and the fishes in the river, poisonous spirit beasts were free to move inside of the forest.
Which is why there was a barrier set up around it, with entrances at different parts of the barrier, since not all the participants appeared at the same spot of the green plains.
"Wait a second", said Aster as he approached the river and filled the empty pill bottles with water, to then close the lids and keep them in the improvised back he made with the cape, he took from one of the random guys that attacked him earlier.
They also had some fruits they gathered on their way, just in case, because unlike others, Aster could tell that the intensity of the fatigue causing formations, increased quite a bit inside of the forest.
Just as Aster was about to speak, Vivian took the initiative, earlier some people tried to attack them, and she let Aster take care of them, because she was leading the way, but now they were static at the entrance of the forest.
"The barrier only stops the spirit beasts and poisons inside of the forest from coming out, so you can come out, or be forced to come out when I attack", she said as she glared at a few trees.
"Tsk!", with a loud tongue-clicking sound, a group of people wearing blazers with the emblems of the Purple Lotus faction, the Light Blue Anvil faction and lastly the Red Sword faction, came out from behind some of the trees.
There were around forty people, both male and female disciples, they were strictly covering a respective area of the entrance, so that they completely blocked it.
"Hey "senior brother", I'm afraid that this entrance is under maintenance, I suggest you go find one that is properly working", said the one that represented the group from the Light Blue Anvil faction, a girl in her middle twenties who had dark gray hair.
"Yeah, currently only female disciples can cross through this door, so you can leave that cutie enter if you want to, but you have to enter through a different part of the barrier", added the red haired guy who was leading the group from the Red Sword faction.
For a change the less annoying one, was the group from the Purple Lotus faction, but that could be, because their eyes were burning with hatred as they glared at Aster, after all, their male Core disciple candidate, died in a mission were Aster participated, and recently their female Core disciple, died in a similar situation.
Though Aster did kill Victor for allying with Ley and the other scum from the Tempest family, he had nothing to do with the death of that poisonous woman that was in cahoots with Edward, but since he crushed her arm back when she tried to poison Angela, he was the principal suspect of her death.
Of course, Edward won't admit, that his teammate died due to his own incompetence, he already lost too much face, after he was found trying to commit fraud to claim the reward of a mission, so the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith Peak couldn't have him take the blame for the death of a disciple in the top ten of the Heavenly Ranks, which ended up in rumors of Aster being the one to cause her death to sprout here and there.
Naturally those were baseless rumors, but it was enough for those among the Purple Lotus faction, who idolized that woman, to come look for trouble, he couldn't kill them inside of the sect after all, so they thought they had the upper hand.
For the Red Sword faction, it's actually been a while since they came to bother Aster, this was probably the response from having closed the door on the face of the elder from the Red Sword faction, during the incident regarding the sell of the White Silicon Ore.
As for the Light Blue Anvil faction, it was Edward's backyard, so there was no need to think too much, they didn't need reasons to cause him troubles.
Unfortunately, their choose a bad time to come and try to play tricks, because Vivian was having fun in her date with Aster, and these guys were getting on the way.
"Spirit Venom, Vampire Cobra Lily", though Vivian's mellow voice didn't inspire fear, the red snake-like pattern that covered her two arms.
Unfortunately for those guys, when they turned to see Vivian who wasn't even their target, but just "collateral damage", their bodies froze.
Small white particles of spirit energy were released by Vivian, looking like petals that covered the whole nearby area, it was a pretty spectacle, until the first scream sounded of course.
"Aghhh, no what the hell is this!", one of the members of the Red Sword faction, screamed as the white particles, stuck to him, turning into small razor-like fangs that then turned red, the body of that poor bastard shrank as his skin turned gray lifeless and his hair fell, he went from being in his twenties to look as if he was in his eighties, not to mention foam came out of his mouth as he fell from the tree, landing head first on the ground.
"What are you waiting for, destroy these damn things!", seeing the miserable destiny of that guy, the three leaders immediately shouted as they released their spirit energy to keep the white particles away from them.
Just to be horrified at the fact that the white particles pierced the protections they created with their spirit energies, and then drained it, turning into red petals, it was a though beautiful, terrifying spectacle.
They all tried to attack the white particles, using their different attributes, just to see the white particles, gnawing at their attacks, and after finding an opening they were attacked by them, turning into dry older versions of themselves, as those red petals bloomed.
Naturally they tried to attack Vivian, but she was fully surrounded by those white particles, that were swirling around her, preventing the enemies from approaching her, and blocking the incoming attacks, all while casually swirling around Aster harmlessly.
"Ahhh no help, get away from me!", the girl from the Light Blue Anvil faction, saw one of her junior sisters end up in that state and she turned around to escape, but Vivian simply pointed at her, and the previously calm and spread white particles swarmed the girl, engulfing her making her scream, before her dried self fell from the air to the ground.
Needless to say, but the life-saving formations activated, taking all those poor bastards out of the trial.
Vivian softly snorted and then snapped her fingers, the red petals then exploded and dissolved together with the white particles, cancelling each other, as the red snake-like pattern on her arms faded away.
"Let's go!", she enthusiastically said, as she smiled at Aster, who was amazed at that poison she just used.
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