Seeing that Aster and the others had returned, Mira softly growled and then returned to her bed as she was unwilling to get too close to them yet, which made Aster inwardly chuckle.
'What are you a grumpy cat or a Ligress', he thought, but he didn't say anything, at the very least the Ligress girl didn't seem to want to escape anymore, it will take some time before she opens to the group, but Kana is Aster's ultimate weapon when it comes to convincing, as long as one isn't a dickhead it's hard to refuse those pretty big eyes of hers, when she is asking something.
"If you want to take a look at the nearby area of the castle better do it now, we'll be returning to my valley at night", said Aster to both Nim and Mira.
The other girls weren't especially interested in this planet, mainly because since Sean Fritz has been taking the lead, there isn't any interesting places to visit, at least nothing that isn't related to cultivation, and Alice and the others who stayed behind were sick and tired of cultivating all day long, without Aster that is.
So instead, they decided to keep the fun for when they return to Galatia, where they can make Aster spoil them while they visit all the amazing places that the Myriad Occupation sect has to offer.
Event he normally energetic and enthusiastic Kana, preferred to stay in the room hugging her beloved big brother as they enjoyed a rare moment to laze around.
But Mira and Nim were different, they had been trapped for quite a long time and while the tree more or less forgot about everything whenever its curiosity over human "customs" took over, and Mira remained silent while snuggling on her bed, the two of them were indeed interested on a different scenery compared to the Silicon Forest.
Seeing that those two who were arguing a second later where about to leave the room, Aster didn't forget to say.
"Don't cause problems and don't let other people see you", Mira glared at the tree with sufficiency, thinking that was only directed to it, which made Aster add.
"That goes for the two of you", Mira softly snorted as she turned into a cold breeze that disappeared from the room, while Nim dived into the ground.
"Woah, that sister has a similar ability to mine!", said Kana as she jumped on the bed with enthusiasm, to then land on top of Aster's chest.
Aster patted the little girl's head, supposing that Mira is a hybrid of a spirit beast and a spirit element, her growing path will actually be similar to Kana, because she has the Storm Roc lineage as well as Esmeralda as her teacher, at least they both have the ability to change between physical and elemental form at will.
With those two gone, the rest of the day went on pretty smoothly, Aster had treated Tamara, so he was quite worn out, not enough to collapse out of tiredness, but he didn't feel like doing anything for the rest of the day.
Luckily, he had the most comfortable pillow in the form of Sarina's bosom, and all his girls to comfort him, so he spent the rest of the day telling the girls that didn't go with him this time, about what happened in the Silicon Forest.
Including the story of the evil spirit and the two "presences" he sent away when he was stealing the yin and yang stars, as long as Aster didn't deliberatively mention terms like "Divine Firmament", he could even say the name of the forces that were native of those places, without receiving any punishment from the Heavenly Law.
| That's a little trick that Eris and Mylene mentioned, because with how vast is the creation isn't it easy for more than one force or family to share the name, unless one specifies which one, then the Heavenly Law won't register it as breaking the rules, it's something that their masters, in other words their grandmothers taught them.
"Heh, so it was the Frost Valley, that explains how they tricked those two Heavenly Quadrants and then tried to squeeze till the last drop of resources from them, those bastard's bad reputation is a well-known thing, they are the original cause of the war that the Yin Azure Palace has been liberating for thousands of years", said Mylene with a mocking voice.
"Mm, I seem to remember that some of them once came as guests, they were a living headache", added Eris.
"Big brother, can I see the stars you got for us?", cutely asked Kana, her eyes sparkled when she imagined some stars floating above the valley.
Aster smiled as he answered.
"Not now, but I'm preparing a little surprise for later and you'll be coming with me in the next mission, Espi will too", Kana pouted first but then she brightly smiled when she heard Aster saying she'll go in the next mission as well as the little wyrm.
Originally, Aster only planned to take Sarina and Espi, but Esmeralda told Aster a couple of things in secret earlier, the little girl's talent in the energy path was… monstrous, she advanced not too long ago to the peak of the Star Formation realm by jumping the middle stage, and she was already about to reach the Stellar Constellation.
But for some reason she wasn't getting any progress on reaching the first level of her intent, which frustrated the little girl, her motivation was being able to spend time with Aster and fight alongside him, so Esmeralda wanted Aster to take her with them as much as possible.
'I guess, this will also give that Ligress girl time to get used to the valley and Aria, since I'll be out of the picture', thought Aster.
…
Once the sun left the sky and was replaced by the moon, Mira and Nim returned to the mansion, this time the Ligress girl's nose wrinkled a couple of times and she couldn't help but salivate due to the delicious smell that came from the dining room.
Nim is a tree after all, so it can feed on water and sun light, which it did during the day, but while Mira is part spirit element, she is also part spirit beast, so while she can replace food with yin energy, she will obviously prefer delicious food.
And Sarina's cooking was incredibly tempting for her right now, she doubted for a second before she went to the dining room, where Sarina, Lilia, Felicia and surprisingly Tamara were bringing the dishes from the kitchen.
Some gazes fell on Mira when she entered the room which made the Ligress girl wonder if she should leave and return later to eat something, but she then felt a soft tug on the left side of her dress.
"Tiger sister join us, big brother left an empty seat for you~", said Kana as she pointed a seat on the side of the table that was occupied by Aster and the girls, which was effectively empty.
"Mm… sure", said Mira, forgetting to correct Kana calling her "tiger sister", she grabbed a plate and waited for everyone to dig in, which happened not too long after, she saw Kana sitting on Aster's lap, as well as Sarina and Lilia competing to personally feed Aster, while the others chatted, it was quite a family-like scene, unlike the shamelessness she witnessed earlier in the morning.
There was also Tomas who was enjoying every second of being with his wife and daughter, because he'll have to leave in a couple of days, they now had Lilia's spaceship which was many times faster than the one Julian gifted to Aster, so they will be at the sect by tomorrow, just when the "death" of Tamara will be announced by Ulises.
Mira took a spoon of the stew Sarina prepared and her feline-like eyes sparkled, as she immediately took another and another, it was delicious.
Kana and the others softly laughed at Mira's reaction, but they didn't say anything and just focused on enjoying their dinner, once everyone had their fill, Ulises handed a ring to Tamara before saying.
"Here, all the savings that were going to little Alexandra, I think you can give them a better use now sis", said the tall man before he hugged Tamara.
It was a strange scene to see the tower-like body cultivator Ulises hugging the delicate Tamara, but she is the oldest of the siblings so even now Ulises treats her as his model.
Ulises let go of Tamara and then also hugged Tomas, this time with a lot of strength as the veins that bulged on his arms suggested.
"Brother, take care… I didn't have the status nor the strength to help back then, but it won't repeat, let's share a drink as the rulers of two high grade Stellar Systems one day", said Ulises, to which Tomas laughed while Jack offered a toast.
"Speaking of that, don't forget to start sending body path resources to Rodia and Velori, this will cover the initial cost, I leave the details of what those guys need to Tomas", said Aster as he gave Ulises a spatial ring.
The Fritz's clan head looked into the ring and he nearly had a heart attack, there were a few yellow walls, made out of a material he as a body cultivator knows really well.
"Y-Yang accumulation crystal, so much of it!", exclaimed Ulises, he was in awe, with this quantity and quality of yang accumulation crystal and a few more preparations, he has the confidence to finally put a foot into the Heavenly Realm, which will take the Fritz Stellar System one step closer to be near the threshold to become a high ranked Stellar System.
Tomas patted Ulises shoulder and then gave him a list, he had prepared beforehand, with the resources that Eric's master and the other prominent body path cultivators allied to the Terranova sect, specifically needed.
Once Alexandra and Tamara said goodbye to Ulises, Aster and the others went to the backyard, with a wave of Lilia's hand a giant black spaceship appeared on the ground in front of them.
"Time to go", said Aster, Lilia opened the door of the spaceship and everyone got up into it, Ulises had placed a secret space gate on the backyard of Tamara's mansion, in case they needed to escape, so they were going to leave through here, with Aster's authority they could connect it to the private dimensional tunnel reserved for the Lord of the Twin Sword valley anyway.
Though the portal wasn't as big as the ones on the port of the planet, the spaceship easily passed through and disappeared into it, leaving only Ulises and Jack behind, the latter was going to publicly leave later through regular means, to visit Alexandra at the Myriad Occupation sect, to inform her about Tamara's "death", that was the story they will make up to deal with Sean Fritz.
Speaking of Sean Fritz, while Aster and the others calmly left the planet, at an insanely high speed thanks to Lilia's spaceship, at the mansion of the patriarch in the center of the Steel Tower sect, there was a grim atmosphere.
At the throne hall of the mansion, Sean Fritz was looking at one of his other sons, the one who he just appointed as his heir after Renard died, while he tried to contact the Castle Armored sect with the help of the only elder that survived because he didn't participate on the exploration.
After a few fails, the call finally connected, which made Sean's heart bleed, the remaining elder had a communication talisman that could cross Stellar Systems, but he refused to use it to give bad news to his young master.
Those talismans had a limit of uses and they are amazingly expensive, unless there was an emergency, they were told to keep them unused, and it was Sean Fritz the one interested on reporting, because he will be the one paying compensation to all the other families and forces that lost their participants.
But of course, Sean redirected the guilt to the Steel Tower sect, which isn't a lie, as they were the ones that killed the survivors after reaching a deal with the spirit beasts.
"This contact, you are Renard's father right, I'm busy, what happened, did you get my treasure?", the high and mighty voice of a young man came from the communication treasure, which had already devoured a lot of middle grade spirit jades.
Sean Fritz was about to answer, when the laughs of couple of women could be heard coming from the device, it was obvious what was keeping the other party "busy", but Sean didn't dare to explode, though he wasted a lot of spirit jades in the previous tries to contact the other party.
"Something happened and not only the herb was lost, but the whole squad sent by young master Jim, including my own son died, but they apparently had another mission of which I wasn't aware and due to that many people are demanding compensation, so I wanted to hear young master Jim's opinion", said Sean.
"…"
For a moment, a sepulchral silence filled the room, but it didn't last long before the voice of the young man, asked in a hurry.
"Did you retrieve the treasure that was lent to Patrick's group for the mission?".
Sean had a bad premonition when he saw the face of the surviving elder paling, but he couldn't do anything but say the truth.
"No…", he couldn't finish his sentence when the other party lashed out at him.
"You, useless piece of trash, that Compass was an Immortal grade treasure that my father gifted to my advance to the Transcending realms, even if I sell you, it might not be enough to cover my loses!".
Sean gritted his teeth, and managed to not return the insult as he said.
"I'll cover the compensations that are being demanded, according to my previous contributions my second oldest son will be sent to the sect as an outer disciple, I ask the young master Jim to look after him… in exchange I have interesting information regarding someone that might have gotten the spirit herb young master wants, also I bet my niece will be delighted to become young master Jim's friend".
"Oh, you should have started with that old Sean, why bother with the dead part, I'll tell father that they were killed by members of an evil sect and the Compass was stolen by them, as for your son if the girl you mention is up to my liking, he can directly become an inner disciple under my flag", the voice of the young man took a 180° change.
"Many thanks to the young master for his generosity, I'll send the information with my son back to the sect", with that the call ended and Sean had a cold smirk as he thought.
'You think you can escape my grasp you little bitch, your mother slipped from my hands back then and ruined my ascension, but this time it will be different, as for you Tamara, let's see if you can keep your legs so tightly closed when your precious daughter is about to be taken away by that silk pants… everything will be mine, you, your daughter, the Heavenly Realms and this whole Stellar System', Sean thunderously laughed, unaware that a notice that will reach his ears tomorrow will screw his plans.
But right now, he was in a good mood, because he could please the idiot without having to use his free request, so he immediately ordered.
"Pay the compensation to those bumpkins, don't forget to keep an eye on the port, don't let that brat leave the planet, even if you have to destroy a part of the formations and declare that they need maintenance".
His personal guards nodded and then left, though things went out of hands earlier, everything was on track now, or at least, that's what he believed.
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