Chapter 573 The beginning of a new era
Naturally the previous scene of Vivian "rewarding" Aster with a kiss, fired up the young maiden hearts of all the junior disciples, as well as a large part of the seniors that were acting as spectators.
Most of the girls that joined the sect, were sheltered flowers of their respective distinguished families or forces, that cultivated at closed for the sake of passing the trial, the experience was supposed to be obtained once they are at the sect.
In part it is done like that by their parents and guardians, because it is nearly impossible for a female disciple to get taken advantage of in the Myriad Occupation sect, at leas by the male disciples, since one can't control what happens when they venture outside.
Of course, not all of the ones that get into the sect are innocent inexperienced young misses, since the Myriad Occupation sect doesn't demand an "entrance fee" for those that try to take the entry trials, so long one has talent, regardless of their social standing or financial state, the opportunity to enter is the same.
In fact, if the Ancestors wished to, they could make that outside influences would be fully useless inside of the sect, meaning that the strong families would have zero chance to try and play tricks, but that would eliminate the chance for the disciples to learn how to overcome adversity.
In its purest state, being a cultivator means to go against the heavens, face difficulties to obtain the power to do as you please, a cultivator who lacked that was sure to get stuck at some point, regardless of how talented or nurtured could be.
The previous resulted in the half and half state in which the sect was supposed to operate, outside influence would be helpful to a certain extent, but at the same time to obtain noticeable "privileges" one had to be quite high in the Heavenly Ranks.
And to balance the outer influence, once a disciple with enough renown you could obtain everything you needed, Aster is still too new to the sect, but every year there was a "payday" where the ranks would reset and those that stood at the top of the pyramid would obtain special rewards, which may or may not include direct guidance from the Supreme elders, high ranked treasures, resources, or they could even request to be enlightened by a specific person they idolized.
Alternatively, those who held a position of importance in the sect could always sponsor a disciple they saw promise in, regardless of its status or gender, which is what the Supreme elder of the Blacksmith Peak has been using as way to bring disciples to Edward's side.
Unfortunately for her, she kicked an iron plate this time, she finally found someone that was worth bringing to her side not as a pawn but as a member of the force behind of her, and that young promise was beheaded in front of a big audience, what's more the black haired youth that has crushed her plans was being cheered up for it, and as angry as she was, she couldn't do anything to either the perpetrator nor those who openly supported him.
In other words, popularity, fame and achievements were equally or maybe even more important than backing here, for the simple reason that no matter who they were, they couldn't flaunt their backings in the Myriad Occupation sect, unless they wanted to die of course.
Well, there was a really scarce number of exceptions to that, among which there was Lilia and naturally Aster being her son was also included into that.
But enough of that, seeing the large number of disciples that stood up and left the arena, and the fact that there was nothing left of the four representatives chosen to fight Aster, the Supreme elder glared at the skybox of the Twin Sword Valley, before doing the same to Aster, as she left without causing a scene.
'You are so mean darling, you didn't even leave a corpse for them to inspect in a try to find out a way to cause you troubles, not like it would have mattered though~', Lilia's cheerful voice made its way to Aster's ears.
Aster smirked in response, he didn't put the condition that other equipment besides armor and a single weapon was the limit, because he feared the treasures that the Supreme elder could grant to Edward and the others, at the end no matter what they did, they couldn't use anything that by itself could produce strength past the Sea of Knowledge realm, in other words low Stellar ranked treasures.
Because they would be unable to power up the formations, of course the materials could give them a certain advantage, but no one was more used to fight with rune-less weapons than Aster, since up until not too long ago he could only use swords without formations.
When it came to a clash of sheer material quality and raw strength, Aster was confident of not losing against anyone, he had Rigel's flames and the stupidly high strength of his dragon lineage after all, so the result was decided even before the battle started, additionally, he used Rigel's flames to get rid of the corpses so that the Supreme elder couldn't learn anything about him.
In a modern world, things like finger prints, or other microscopical things would give an investigator a lot of information, in the cultivation world, everything you touched would have traces of your energy firm, and it worked the same.
So, if anything was left of Edward and the others, by studying the corpses there is a chance though small, of them learning about Aster's sword intent, the properties of his spirit energy, or she might have just tried to make up something, which is why Aster didn't leave anything behind.
'They are lucky that I didn't want to use Annihilation in front of so much people, otherwise they would have been more than just dead', said Aster as he greeted those girls cheering for him, as he flew towards the skybox where the others were, accompanied by Vivian who was all smiles, and Julian who was still in blank due to Vivian kissing Aster.
On the way they met Ophelia and Amanda, the two core elders had different reactions, the brown and green haired Ophelia clapped at Aster as she thanked him.
"I know you didn't do it for the sake of those girls, but they are now way more motivated thanks to you, also it seems like coincidentally or not, our goals tend to align, I hope you can spare some of your time for a little meeting with me and my sister once she returns, till then, feel free to pay a visit at the territories of the Green Lotus faction, we'll be sure to give you a warm welcome", she said as he gently smiled before nodding at Julian to then go meet those girls that Aster met inside of the trial.
Amanda on the other hand accommodated her glasses as she gazed at Aster.
"I knew that someone who was praised by cousin couldn't be normal but I think you honestly go way above that, sister Valentina might get angry at me for trying to "steal" from her little disciple, but there is a certain talent that I would like to introduce to you, please give me a call when you have the time", she said as she handed Aster a communication talisman with a silver cauldron engraved on it, needless to say but the runes on it were exquisite, as that is their specialty.
Aster nodded, he didn't have anything to lose, and William is for sure related to one of his godmothers, which means that so is Amanda and while that doesn't mean they are close to him, he is at least positively inclined to give them a chance to join his circle.
Not to mention William has been siding with him since the first time, well, he probably just found Aster's actions interesting and helped on a whim, but it was still useful.
"I will stay in the sect for a few more days, once I deal with what I have in mind, I will be more than willing to invite miss Talis to pay a visit to my valley", he said.
"Mm, I'll look up for it, you seem to have pending matters to attend so I will take my leave", after saying that, Amanda rose the sides of her dress as a proper lady to say goodbye and then became a gray along the way, Julian suddenly put on a bitter expression as he cleared his throat.
flash that flew out of the arena, disappearing the next second.
With that out of the way they then flew towards the skybox, but along the way, Julian suddenly put on a bitter expression as he cleared his throat.
"Ahem, since miss Valentina isn't in the sect, I'll go check on those little girls from the Black Sword faction", he said as he left to the seats where the disciples from the Black Sword faction were.
Technically Vivian was a member of the Black Sword faction, she originally wanted to join the Orange Lotus, as they are neutral and she wanted to learn how to make antidotes, despite she clearly being a poison master by innate, and Julian supported that, he was even going to ask for an audience to request the Alchemy Peak's Ancestor to teach Vivian something.
But now she wanted nothing more than be around Aster, and there was an extremely talented alchemist in the form of Mylene in Aster's family, so she didn't have to wait for the Alchemy Peak's Ancestor to be in the sect to start learning, not to mention that despite her desire to learn about antidotes she was ultimately a battle-oriented cultivator.
So, the Battle Peak was the only one that now had the support of two Ancestors, the one designated to cover for Lilia, and Julian who though honorary is still an Ancestor, strangely enough, Lilia didn't consider herself an Ancestor of the Battle Peak, she instead preferred to be considered the Matriarch of her darling's family.
Aster and Vivian entered the skybox and were received by the girls in a different manner, Alice and the others dragged Vivian to ask till the last detail about their date, which had finally come to an end as the sun was leaving the sky, as for Aster Lilia hugged him from behind to then poke his cheek as she said with a teasing voice.
"To be the first dragon ever to cultivate in the soul path, you surely didn't "react" on time back then darling~", she clearly referred to when Vivian kissed him, Lilia's clearly jealous voice made the others softly laugh, with the exception of Camila who was trying to meld with the room in order for her reddened face to not be noticed by the others, as he was reminded of having done something similar after their date back then.
So far no one has really put much thought into it, besides Lilia who always appeared to know everything, the others didn't touch the subject, not even Eris or Mylene with whom she spent more time during their sleepovers.
'I-I did that back then too, was it too soon, it was our first date and now what am I supposed to do, control yourself Camila, friends can kiss too, yeah it's not like we have…', Camila's train of thought was interrupted by Eris who noticed she wasn't going along with the atmosphere.
"You okay, Cami?", she asked making Camila return to reality.
"Y-Yes, I was just distracted for a second", said Camila as she laughed a couple of times, something that of course didn't go unnoticed by Lilia, but she decided to stop here for today.
There was another girl who was a bit distracted and it was none other than Sarina, she had won the drawing lots earlier meaning that her date was next, and while previously she would have gladly conceded her spot to one of the younger girls, this time she decided to claim her "prize".
After enjoying some laughs and giggles with the girls, they all returned to the valley, Alice intensely stared at Aster throughout the whole rest of the day, as she was amazed at the dress he made for Vivian.
Today there were no night activities since Aster was rather mentally tired, due to having used his sword intent in a new way, but even when she was clinging to him on the bed to sleep, Alice still gazed at Aster more than normal until he had no choice but to say.
"Sis, if you don't go to sleep, I won't give you the gift I prepared for you".
Alice giggled and then kissed Aster's cheek, as she snuggled with him, she knew Aster had something in store for her, but wanted to hear it directly from him, as usual that sister of his was stubborn at the strangest things.
Seeing Alice sleeping with such a happy smiling expression, Aster inwardly sighed and then closed his eyes, unaware of the big wave he caused on the sect this time.
…
The rest of the night went on uneventful at Aster's valley, everyone had a good night rest, luckily, as they all woke up rather early, since there was an unexpected visitor at the border of the valley, waiting even before the sun had raised up properly.
Aster heard his communication talisman receiving a message which made him open his eyes, after reading it, he sent a short answer and then proceeded with his usual morning routine, which was to kiss all the sleeping beauties.
They indeed were asleep this time though, because it was freaking 5:00 am in the morning.
'Luckily I had a lot of sleep in the mind space…', thought Aster as he saw the girls cuddle on the bed together, while he got up, the only one that truly woke up was the motherly Sarina who is used to wake up early to prepare the breakfast for everyone.
But as she was about to stand up for her daily routine, Aster leaned down and kissed her to then whisper at her.
"Today is my Sarina's day, stay here, I'll deal with everything, okay?", he said as he caressed her pretty face.
"Mm~", Sarina happily nodded and then hugged the little girl who was still happily sleeping, while the little wyrm was coiled around her neck, they both looked cute.
'It does really well to one's heart to wake up surrounded by cuties', thought Aster as he put on some clothes, to then leave the room.
He then washed his face, stretched his body and then turned to see Lilia who had appeared out of nowhere without making any sound.
"Thanks to the heavens that I can always feel where you are, due to you being a Star Maiden", mumbled Aster, which made Lilia giggle.
"Another thing in which Rya gets in my way~", she said.
Aster shook his head and then used his authority to disappear from the castle, the scenery changed and then the two of them appeared at the border of the valley, where Salazar was waiting for him.
Well, he wasn't the only one, Agnes as well as Julian, in other words the two that held some kind of position in the sect, were present, while the others were still sleeping soundly on their beds.
The old punishment elder saw Aster's calm expression as if he had no worries at all, and he sighed.
"Kid, can't you leave my old bones rest for a day?", he rhetorically asked, before saying.
"It seems like you made it this time, do you know how many people left the arena after your declaration, yesterday?".
Aster shrugged as he answered.
"I didn't really pay much attention to them, but I would say that around ten to fifteen thousand maybe".
Old Salazar nodded in response.
"Close enough, a total of eighteen thousand to be accurate, in case you wonder how I who didn't have the leisure to go and watch a battle whose result I already knew, know the exact number, that is because my Punishment Hall received the same exact number of petitions to "restrain" you, with the same condition in case nothing was done, which was the one that sent the petition leaving the sect".
Aster grinned before saying.
"So?".
Salazar saw the unwavering confidence on the black-haired youth, that has been breaking all the conventionalisms with his amazing achievements and overwhelming victories and he couldn't help but smile.
"Well, I just wanted to personally inform you that around eighteen thousand disciples, of which fourteen thousand were male disciples and four thousand were female disciples, just left the sect".
"But I didn't come here just for that, since I suppose not only you knew it would happen, but wanted it to happen, your challenge has spread across the whole Stellar System overnight thanks to a certain "someone", so you'll have to oblige when a challenger appears".
"Don't worry, I received instructions from the Battle Peak's Ancestor as well as the Supreme elder, to fully support the "champion" of the sect, so we'll take care of everything and only call you when you are needed to participate, or if you want to refuse, it can also be done", said Salazar before he felt Agnes's sharp gaze on him, which made the old man clear his throat.
"Ahem, I nearly forgot about it, but from this point onwards, inner elder Agnes will be officially assigned as your personal supervisor, she'll stay in your valley and accompany you to witness and give faith of your achievements, since in terms of male disciples from the youngest generation, you will be representing the sect".
Aster gazed at Agnes who smiled at him, before he nodded.
"Okay, but I'll be the one to decide the date for the battles, since I have more important things to tend to than helping suicidal aspirers to achieve their goal", he said.
Salazar was surprisingly okay with that, as he was about to turn around to leave, he heard Aster saying.
"Speaking of the Ancestors, I thought all of them weren't in the sect, not to mention the Supreme elder of the Battle Peak didn't seem to interfere to deal with that woman".
The woman in the palanquin didn't appear to deal with the Supreme elder from the Blacksmith Peak this time around, he didn't need her, but it was a bit disappointing that the one that was supposed to deal with that annoying woman, didn't do her job properly.
"The Battle Peak's Ancestor is always in the sect for safety reasons, but cultivating at closed doors, the only one who can contact her is the Supreme elder of the Battle Peak, since she is most of the time centered in cultivation and they share the same secret facility".
"Being strong in battle is their duty, so don't take it personal, they were the ones that requested for you to be rewarded, which is why you are receiving more privileges, as for the thing with that woman, that slacker of William should be the one dealing with these kinds of situations, but he is out, so I'll be giving her a nice warning".
"I don't think I have to remind you, but be aware of the Pleasure Palace and the Marsh Domain, since the trash we discarded is being scouted by them as of current", said the old man as he bid farewell.
Salazar who was flying back to his office, saw Aster from the corner of his eyes and he inwardly nodded.
'I guess one can't completely contain someone that is meant to change the world, I'm wishing to see how will you change the era', he thought.
Aster nodded at Salazar and then put the matter at the back of his head, he couldn't control what happened on the vast universe… yet, but at least now, unless they were literally ready to put their lives on the line, others won't try to mess with him nor his family in the sect, which is a big step.
And not only that, those who harbored ill intention towards him, will be eventually driven out of the sect, unless they succeed at killing him of course, so the enemies will be presenting their necks by themselves.
"For a moment I thought it was you threatening them, mom", said Aster after making sure that Salazar was gone, but Lilia simply shrugged.
"Nah, I'm much more practical, I would have just erased the mansion of that Supreme elder, alongside her and the Core elder of the Light Blue Anvil faction~", she said.
Aster chuckled and then snapped his fingers using his authority to return everyone to his mansion, as he had something harder than killing Edward with a single slash of his sword, to accomplish right now… make a proper breakfast for his Sarina as that was the first step of the date, he had planned for her.
'How come I can even create my own spirit techniques, but a damn omelet kicks my ass', he thought as he went into the kitchen to start a "fierce" fight.
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