Chapter 571 Domineering (part 1)
Inside of the trial's secret realm, Aster was still being hugged in a slightly weird position by Vivian, now Aster isn't someone that gets scared by physical contact, heck Lilia always wore light clothing when sleeping with him, even before the nature of their relationship changed.
Which is why he wasn't uncomfortable by feeling Vivian's smooth pale skin touching him, nor by seeing her pretty face up-close, but unfortunately, they didn't have that much time here, they will be forcefully transported out in a few minutes after all.
"Say Aster, will it be a problem if we do things like today even if we aren't in a date… quite often", mumbled Vivian as she looked away to avoid Aster's eyes.
Today has been probably one of the best days Vivian has had in her life, she got to do a lot of things she wanted, Aster cooked for her and even personally fed her, she slept next to him, they fought together, he even carried her and now she the date ended with her taking care of Aster.
Well, she still had to open her gift, but whatever it was, she was sure that she was going to love it, since it is a gift from Aster.
Aster chuckled in response as he said.
"A gift like that one everyday will be a bit too much, but for the other things I don't see the problem, as long as Vivian is okay with it", he said.
'Well, that and you can't stay in my room, otherwise those girls will get mad at me', he added to himself, but didn't say it out loud.
As "inexperienced" as Vivian might be, she knows that those who stay in Aster's room are certain to be in "that" sort of relationship with him, either right now or in the future like in Kana's case.
Of course, Kana saying that she will be one of her big brother's "wives" when she grows up, makes it obvious for all the other girls, the type of relationship Aster has with Sarina and the others, not to mention he doesn't hide the fact that he has multiple lovers.
Surprisingly, Vivian is probably the only one so far, that didn't have even the slightest reaction, after finding out that Lilia and Alice were also Aster's lovers, in part because she lacks knowledge in terms of society as she was isolated until not too long ago.
"Mm~", Vivian happily nodded and then let go of Aster, she grabbed the giftbox and opened it, just be amazed at its content.
"Aster this…", she touched her present a couple of times and was temporarily in awe, as she gazed at Aster who smiled at her.
"I wanted to give you a nice present back when we had our first date, but the result kept being either blood red or light golden, and while I'm sure you'll still look really good in them, I bet you'll like this one more".
What was inside of the large flat giftbox was a long dress, which seemed to have been made of the finest silk, in part because that was the case.
"I know hard armor isn't your thing, so I ordered a few kilograms of the processed silk from a peak Transcending realm Moonlight Silkworm, believe it or not, that was the easy part, since I could only get the last needed materials recently…", said Aster as he scratched the back of his head.
The materials he was talking about were the scales that the little wyrm shed of after reaching the Mortal Transcending realm, dust from yin accumulation crystals, as well as Eris's formations after she had recovered enough to use her Soul Queen cultivation for a short period of time, in other words this dress was completed literally not too long after they returned from the Silicon Forest.
Naturally since it was for Vivian's use, her blood was also mixed into it, and for the finishing touch, Aster's one was also added to it, the result was a white long dress with an elegant design.
Unlike the usual dresses that Vivian wears, this one was short sleeved and also didn't reach all the way to her shins, but had a though short, still conservative cut a bit above knee length.
On the other hand, it was pure white just like the ones she always wears, but it had a certain glow to it, as if star dust was being radiated by it, one would think that the Vivian who is sick and tired of white clothes, wouldn't be that excited about another one, but this dress was a gift from her dear friend Aster, so how could she not have sparkles on her eyes as she unfolded the dress.
"It seems to be a perfect fit for me, did you take my measures back when you had to analyze me for the first fragment of the cycle?", innocently asked Vivian, unaware of the double meaning that her words had.
Of course, there was no malice nor accusation behind her words, in fact she was amazed at the fact that the dress's size was like a carbon copy of the other ones in her wardrobe.
Aster chuckled in response, luckily, he was quite thick skinned since he is by all means a pervert, naturally he didn't take Vivian's measures himself, he half guessed it and half asked Alice to do the "dirty" job for him, which was ask Vivian for her measures making it look like random shameless moments of that sister of his, naturally Alice asked for a "payment", but after receiving her bribe she did her job perfectly.
"Just a coincidence, here put it on, since we are about to leave", said Aster as he took out one of the portable tents he had in his ring for when they ventured outside.
"Mm~", Vivian eagerly jumped into the tent to change her clothes, making Aster softly laugh at her acting like a child in a candy store.
'She didn't even ask why I gave her another white dress, how cute', he thought, to then change his expression to a serious one as he received a message from Lilia through the mind space.
Vivian didn't take too long to change, so Aster's smile returned quite soon as he saw her do a little turn to show off how good the dress looked on her.
"So, do you like it?", asked Aster as he admired Vivian's fairy-like aspect.
"Yes, it's a bit heavy but to for the incredibly tough defense and all the functions it has as soft armor, it's amazing, not to mention is a gift from Aster~", cutely said Vivian.
Just as Aster was about to explain more about the dress, a formation appeared below the two of them, meaning it was time to go out of the secret realm.
'Well, it's always better for it to be a surprise', thought Aster as they both disappeared.
…
Outside of the secret realm of this monthly trial, there was a turmoil ongoing, as people from all over the sect has gathered.
to enter, since the trial had already started, they were free to stay to try and get to exchange words with their idol, as long as they Originally, a lot of junior disciples came because they heard that the male idol of the sect, the Lord of he Twin Sword Valley was attending the trial, and while the guardian elder didn't allow them to enter, since the trial had already started, they were free to stay to try and get to exchange words with their idol, as long as they didn't make too much of a ruckus.
Things were normal for a few hours, besides the fact that there was an unusual number of young girls camping nearby, but since they were calm and friendly, the guardian elder overlooked it.
Then the first batch of eliminated participants came out, they looked different than what others were expecting, the pill that is available for all the disciples below the Core rank, for a "reasonable" price, doesn't have healing properties, it just cleanses poisonous effects.
Still, for those that are eliminated during the plain stage of the trial, they at most have minor scratches here and there as well as empty stomachs, worst case scenario they are bitten by the poisonous spirit beasts that are released from the underground traps buried in the plain, but the poison is cleansed leaving only the physical wound.
But this batch of people were in a… horrible state, they looked as if they have been run over by a truck, well, since this is a cultivation world, it would be more accurate to say that they were trampled by a giant spirit beast.
Broken arms, legs, ribs, missing teeth, swollen faces, black eyes, bleeding noses, rolled backward eyes, in other words they looked really miserable, and the interesting part is that all of them were in a similarly beaten-up state, so this was done clearly by the same person.
Surprisingly, there were a couple of them that were still conscious, but they didn't say anything and just asked some of their fellow disciples, or the nearby guards to help them get to the healing hall, leaving in disgrace, those were the first group that tried to rob Aster, which unknown to them, were the luckiest out of the three batches of losers that will be observed today.
Leaving aside the ungraceful appearances they had and the mockery with which the young disciples gazed at them, no one really commented about it, since those guys were eliminated so early, everyone thought that they were just really weak participants.
Well, everyone but the guardian elder who remembered each and every participant, as that was part of her duties, it's not that hard since the trial is open just once per year.
'Mm, there were a few Star Tribulation among them, and yet they were the ones that suffered the most, the traps set by the two young ladies are harsh sometimes… but not that harsh in the plain stage, so that must have been the rumored Lord of the Twin Sword Valley', thought the elder from the Orange Lotus faction.
Naturally there were some other eliminated participants appearing here and there, but they were in a really good state compared to that big batch of losers from earlier, it was then when a second large batch of participants appeared.
"H-Heelp!", if the first ones were terribly beat up, the second ones were actually rather fine, except for the fact that they looked as if someone had put them to dry under a scorching sun for a few months, their life signals were quite weak and their voices were hoarse, it was as if they had been drained of their vitality and spirit energy at the same time.
"Woaah, I heard that some strong poisons appeared in the forest stage, but they look really bad, could it be that they had the bad luck of breaking some troublesome vials set up as traps?", wondered one of the many young girls that were waiting for Aster to come out of the trial.
This time the guardian elder interfered, because those guys were really poisoned, meaning that they were stripped out of their pills before getting kicked out of the trial, the women among them were crying while the men were still trembling.
"Guardian elder you must seek justice for us, t-they used such a vicious external help to attack us, look at my poor skin, I had lost a few decades of lifespan!", exclaimed one of the female disciples that looked like a dry mummy.
The guardian elder observed them all and then shook her head in response.
"I was going to give you a special nourishment pill to help you regain some strength, so you could leave by yourselves, but this poison isn't from the trial, you tried to attack someone that was leagues above you and got "destroyed" in retaliation, learn your lesson, cultivators must live with the consequences of their actions", she said as she returned to her seat, leaving those guys on the ground like trash.
Thoe dried guys were the ones that Vivian took out with one of her new poisons, they were deprived of a chunk of their vitality and spirit energy in a single go, which is why they looked like mummies, but to be honest, they will return to normal after a few months of rest, since they are young, that being said, they still lost a few years of their life and this will be a setback for their cultivation too, as they will have to recover what they lost, Vivian's "mercy" is quite pricey apparently.
And this is where things got chaotic, because all of a sudden, a large number of disciples from the Red Sword, Purple Lotus and Light Blue Anvil factions arrived at the city of this monthly trial, led by their respective Core elders as well as the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith Peak and of course Edward who had a grim and hostile expression on his face.
Now imagine the expression on the faces of the respective elders of the factions, to whom those dried up guys that were still laying down on the ground like pieces of garbage, belonged, they all gritted their teeth and then turned to see the guardian elder, who remained calm.
"Don't look at me like that, whatever your complain is, I only interfere when it comes to the trial, they were done in by a participant they attacked by themselves, so don't even try to play any tricks", she said.
The Supreme elder frowned, she wanted to punish the guardian elder for not showing her the respect she should get, but on the other hand, if she acted and alarmed the other Supreme elder that stayed behind, then the plan they have been concocting, will go to waste.
"Who would have thought that the Orange Lotus whose focus is supposedly "healing", has such a cold approach, you three go and treat your faction members, I will sponsor you out of my pocket as a token of friendship between our factions", said the Supreme elder.
"We thank the Supreme elder for her kindness", said the three Core elders as they ordered some of their subordinates to take those guys to the healing hall, of course the previous wall all a fa?ade, they were going to heal those poor bastards to then demand them to explain why they failed at the task that was given to them, since they perfectly recognized them as the scouting team of the group that they armed together to target Aster this time.
At this point everyone noticed there was something else ongoing behind the scenes, since the Supreme elder of the Blacksmith Peak only showed herself, to cause troubles to Aster, they all expected to see another clash, what they didn't know is that this time things were going to be different, since neither the Supreme elder, nor Aster were going to let this chance go.
And then things exploded when a third batch was "eliminated" together, but this time the situation was completely different, not only this group was entirely formed of female disciples, but they were all in a perfect state.
The disgust was clear on the face of the Supreme elder as well as the Core elders from the other factions, as they saw that all those girls who were perfectly fine were from the Black Sword and Green Lotus factions only.
"How come all the disciples from our factions who were stronger than those junior disciples, ended up in such a horrible state, but they are fine, how is the Orange Lotus faction managing this secret realm?", demanded the Core elder from the Light Blue Anvil faction, a young short woman with light blue hair, called Miriam.
"Elder Miriam is right, they need to be interrogated as this is probably a case of a neutral faction colluding with others, I suppose the Orange Lotus won't get in our way, right?", said the Core elder from the Purple Lotus faction, just to be answered by a voice that came from the other side of the area.
"Where are you trying to bring the disciples of my faction without my consent, you vulture woman", the one that just arrived at the scene was a woman with a relatively gentle vibe around her, brown and green hair and an herbal scent radiating from her body, it was the Core elder from the Gren Lotus faction, Ophelia.
"I don't think I have to remind you that for you to arrest or interrogate the disciples of another faction, you have to present the proper evidence, or get the green light from the Core elder of the faction they belong to, right, Darla?", said Ophelia, her eyes burning in green flames as she glared at the Core elder from the Purple Lotus faction.
"Humph, acting all high and mighty because of your Law Enforcer older sister", said the elder from the Red Sword faction with a disdainful voice, to which Ophelia calmly said.
"You can go cry to your uncle, oh wait, you can't since Law Enforcer Ramon "vanished" into thin air, right", Ophelia's voice was quite gentle, but her words were… sharp as the elder from the Red Sword faction literally exploding in flames, suggested.
"What an unfortunate time for this type of event, this is exactly the kind of "party" to which cousin William likes to appear unexpectedly", a second calm and elegant voice sounded as another Core elder arrived to the scene, this time it was a slim young woman with dark gray hair and glasses, the Core elder of the Silver Cauldron faction, and surprisingly a relative to the bear-like William, Amanda Talis.
This time the Supreme elder interfered, Ophelia's sister is a Law Enforcer, which is not a low position, but she doesn't have the authority nor the strength to clash with a Supreme elder, William on the other hand has both of the previous, which is why Amanda's arrival was a thorn in her plans.
"Since when do the Rune Mastering Peak meddle with other peak's matters, also I don't see anything that will justify the interference of the executor", said the Supreme elder only to hear Amanda saying.
"Unfortunately for the Blacksmith elder, this is a petition that William Talis made, "Look up for that funny kid of the Black Sword Faction, otherwise my ass will be in danger", he said before leaving", a faint red blush appeared on Amanda's face as she said out loud the ruthless message left behind by William.
"So, while sister Valentina is out of the sect, the Silver Cauldron faction will openly side with the Lord of the Twin Sword Valley, since those girls belong to the Black Sword faction and are in impeccable conditions after reaching the forest stage, my guess is that they had a "lucky encounter" with a friend in common, right?", said Amanda.
Those young girls felt the gazes of all those strong elders falling on them and they felt intimidated, but they ultimately said what was in their mind.
sister taught them a lesson!", shouted one of the girls.
"Yes, senior brother protected us and then suggested us to leave, "Senior brother Aster was ambushed twice by those despicable people, they even tried to use us as bait, but a pretty white-haired sister taught them a lesson!", shouted one of the girls.
"Yes, senior brother protected us and then suggested us to leave, because things were getting dangerous inside of the trial due to some people playing tricks behind scenes", said another girl.
"So, the one who used that "external" item to make our disciples end up like that, was that girl mentioned by you, tell us who is she!", said the Supreme elder with a thunderous voice, trying to intimidate those girls, just for her pressure to be stopped in cold by another huge pressure that fell from above.
"That would be the young miss from my Galatia family defending herself, is there a problem with that?", Julian's cold voice and half-step Heavenly realm pressure, made the three Core elders behind of the Supreme Elder slightly tremble.
Julian might not have the backing of a high ranked Stellar System or an even stronger force, nor he is a genius-like existence like William, as he isn't part of the young generation, but he still stands at the top of the pyramid in what middle ranked Stellar Systems regard.
'Tsk, I told those idiots not to target anyone else besides that little bastard', thought the Supreme elder as she cancelled her pressure, even if honorary, Julian is considered an Ancestor, so while his status is lower than hers, as he isn't from a ruler level family, she can't just ignore him, unless she doesn't care about staying in the sect.
"If that's the case, then our disciples must have mistakenly antagonized the princess of the Galatia family, in which case I apologize in their stead…", the Supreme elder hadn't finished speaking when Julian interrupted her.
"No, they were on the right, since she is on a… date, with that young fellow from the Twin Sword Valley, so attacking him is the same as attacking her", it took Julian a lot of effort to say the word "date", but he still backed Aster, especially because earlier when he was just taking a few drinks with Tomas calmly, he was suddenly bathed in cold sweat after seeing Lilia appearing out of thin air in front of him to say a single word.
"Go", just that word, made it impossible for Julian to let alone be calm like before, but refuse in any way, he immediately stood up and excused himself, only now he knew why he was told to come.
'That kid is going to make me die early, not only he casually took Vivian out on a date without saying anything but his mother, almost scared me to death', thought Julian as he inwardly sighed.
On the other hand, he had to admit that Aster drew others to his side quite easily and that was the quality of someone with a great fate ahead of him.
The atmosphere which was already quite tense, only worsened when the last batch of losers appeared outside of the secret realm.
"…", a sepulchral silence reigned on the area as everyone saw the pile of severed limbs, and another pile of limbless bodies, while one would have expected the young girls to scream, pale or vomit at such a gory scene, they instead cheered because they didn't see Aster among them, meaning they were the enemies.
"As expected of senior brother, he can't be defeated by such lowly tricks as ambushes~", said the girl who first spoke on Aster's behalf earlier.
Two of the three Core elders got bloodshot eyes at the sight of the reserves from their families, ending in such a state, while the elder from the Red Sword faction frowned, wondering where were her clansmen, but as she was about to ask the guardian elder, she heard her saying.
"Young miss Iris asked to be transported to another place, using her privilege as a top disciple, I allowed it because all the ones that fought her ended up half death not by poison but by fire, she also left a message behind for you, "Punishment", my condolences", said the guardian elder.
The Core elder of the Red Sword faction paled on the spot, a thousand things flashed through her mind and ultimately, she actually bowed towards the Supreme Elder before saying.
"It appears that there are some personal matters I must attend to back at the Fireheart family, I will take my leave here, sorry".
Before the Supreme elder could say anything, that red haired woman became a flash of red light which disappeared in the horizon, she even left behind the disciples of the Red Sword faction, which is understandable as none of them had red hair, in other words they weren't part of the Fireheart family, as those guys were the ones that Iris half burned to a crisp.
And the bad news kept coming, well, bad for some, as the message declaring Aster and Vivian the first ones to ever clear the mountain stage, thus becoming the new first and second position of the leaderboard, appeared and spread through the whole sect and all of their branches.
'Sigh, that kid doesn't let down… still you could have at least told me beforehand, that little girl is like my daughter you know', thought Julian as he bitterly smiled.
Then amidst the celebration of some and the bitterness of others, the portal opened one last time and a tall handsome, black-haired youth accompanied by a pale fairy-like young girl, came out of it.
"I was hoping to see how many dogs would gather if I enjoyed a three-day date inside of the trial, but I guess that after clearing it, you can't stay there", Aster's sharp voice reached the ears of all the presents, making those young girls softly laugh while the Core elders, Edward and of course the Supreme elder, were spewing flames from their eyes.
He actually remained inside of the secret realm to flirt, meaning that he made them wait for him on purpose.
"How dare you…", just as the Core elder from the Purple Lotus faction was about to lash out at Aster, he raised his hand to stop her from speaking to then say.
"Let's cut down to the chase, you are stupidly accusing me of killing that stupid woman from your Zabback family, because the guys from the Light Blue Anvil faction told you that, right, show me the proof that I had anything to do with her death, and that it wasn't just her being stupid when cultivating and dying due to deviation".
Aster then gazed at Edward with a disdainful expression to add.
"Alternatively, if the only one that was with her through the whole last mission she took, has something to "confess", I bet you'll get the answer you want".
Edward clenched his fists and then yelled.
"I didn't kill her you psycho, she was my woman!", Edward actually tried to rush towards Aster, but he was stopped by the Supreme elder grabbing him by his shoulder.
"You don't have to listen to that murderer, he'll be judged by the sect…", of course since when has Aster left others take the lead in front of him.
He gave Edward and all the others next to him a condescending smile as he said.
"This is like the third of fourth time you all try to cause me troubles, I didn't come here to waste my time on you, so let's make this the last one, let's go to the Life and Death arena, it will be me against a representative from the four of you, if you don't have the guts then get the hell out of the sect".
The Supreme elder was about to refuse, when Edward who had a vein popping on his neck shouted.
"Deal, I will smash that damn mouth of yours!".
Aster didn't react at Edward's provocation, he instead gazed at the Supreme elder and smirked, which made her grit her teeth.
'This damn brat!!!', she inwardly screamed.
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