BXBX NOVEL Chapter 354 Selection (Part 2)
The man that questioned Aster was lost for a couple of seconds, but then a vein popped on his neck.
"Brat, do you even know who you are talking to!".
Aster shook his head in response.
"I don\'t care, if you came here to ask for someone to do something for you, that means you lack the capacity to achieve your goal, despite being a Law Integration realm cultivator, so you can stop giving yourself those airs of grandeur in front of me".
Besides the red-haired girl and Aster who were winged core disciples, there was another guy with a purple blazer who was accompanied by the woman that tried to poison Angela, although his was a normal core disciple ring, the whole area two meters around him was avoided by others.
The other\'s whose statuses varied from inner to core disciples, were thrown in chaos as they heard Aster\'s words, although they have heard of the man sitting on the throne, the other two that accompanied him were new faces.
And one of them happened to casually be at the peak of the food chain of Galatia, or that\'s what they thought.
Aster could feel that man was actually beyond the Law Integration realm, he had set foot in the Heavenly realms, similar to William, but he purposedly feigned to not notice it, because his interest was picked by the man sitting in the throne.
"You disrespectful brat!", the man standing next to the throne snorted, and then a heavy pressure belonging to a Law Integration cultivator fell on the area.
Aster smirked, the crest of the Twin Sword valley was projected behind of him, and the pressure vanished before it could affect Aster\'s group.
The man frowned but as he was about to use the comprehension, he had about the Heavenly Realm to teach the annoying black-haired youth a little lesson, the middle-aged man on the throne raised his left hand.
"Enough uncle Egil, the young misses from the Alchemy and Rune Mastering peaks allowed us to come, so we mustn\'t cause unnecessary trouble".
The man called Egil disbelief written all over his face, for a moment he thought his ears were deceiving him, his nephew, the ruler of Galatia was acting so relaxed about a random brat being disrespectful towards him, still he swallowed his complains and retracted his spirit pressure.
The man then looked at Aster, or more specifically to the crest of the Twin Sword valley that was projected behind of him and his eyes glowed.
"Your reputation precedes you, Lord of the Twin Sword valley, I wonder what would your next course of action would be, if I were to complain about you to the ancestor of the Battle peak, my Galatia family has a deal that once a year we can demand the help of anyone in the Myriad Occupation sect".
Everyone\'s eyes fell on Aster, some with interest about what his answer would be, others with disdain thinking this time he had kicked an iron plate, unfortunately for them Aster\'s answer wasn\'t what they expected.
"What a shame, I\'m not tied to the sect, my stay here is conditioned so that I\'m not bound to obey anyone\'s orders, if I find the mission interesting, I\'ll take it, if not I will reject it, that\'s my answer".
A sepulchral silence fell on the whole area, ancestors could strip away the status of Lord of a valley, and the man in front of him, which happened to be the ruler of Galatia was granted a status similar to an ancestor, which included the power to deploy anyone with a lower level of authority in the sect if needed, although it was limited to once per year.
"Hahahah", the awkward silence was interrupted by the man in the throne suddenly laughing out loud.
"I guess that makes things easier, I choose you to be in charge of this mission, what do you say?".
"What!", the reaction of the other candidates was pure shock, in which reality the issuer of a mission accepts someone who show no respect for him, they wondered.
The red-haired girl on the other hand had an expression of "As expected" in her face, in comparison the guy with the purple blazer was gritting his teeth.
One of the other male candidates which was a veteran inner disciple bit the bullet and stood from his seat.
"Lord Julian, out of all the ones who applied for this mission, he has the lowest cultivation, and he is also a new disciple while the rest of us have been in the sect for at least one generation, I\'m not saying I\'m apt to take the lead, but at least I think senior sister Iris or senior brother Victor should be the ones taking that role".
The opinion of that disciple got the support of most of the other candidates, Aster realized that apparently the dynamics of the mission changed quite a bit, since they were talking about leading a group and other similar things.
Still as soon as the man raised his hand, all the conversations and whispers stopped.
"Unfortunately, I can\'t do that, because the only one who technically passed the selection was him", said the man as he pointed at Aster.
"Strength is indeed important, but that\'s not what I\'m looking in a leader, as veteran disciples all of you know the rules about missions and the same applies to me, and yet I arrived without further notice and called you all, none of you questioned me and came, which isn\'t wrong, but that\'s not what a leader should do".
"Since the very moment you all arrived here as soon as I called you... you were discarded for the leader position, because what I look for this mission is a strong mettle, and not blindly obeying orders is a good start".
The man on the throne then rubbed his chin before adding.
"That being said, I can tell that even if the seven of you were to join hands, you\'ll still lose against him, only that lass from the Red Sword faction and the unofficial Holy Son of the Purple Lotus faction should be able to fight at the same level".
Upon hearing the man\'s words, the other candidates felt insulted, they rushed here to leave a decent impression in the man with the biggest authority in the whole stellar system, the only one with a status that was equal to the ancestors.
And the result was that they were considered unapt to the, it was a hard to swallow pill to say the less, and the collective reaction was the one the man expected.
"If lord Julian is so sure about that, then let us attack that guy once, if he wins then we\'ll calmly leave".
The man on the throne inwardly sighed, he was trying to teach the younger generation a valuable lesson, and they took it the wrong way.
\'I wonder how many of them will die when... I don\'t even want to think about it\'.
The man sitting on the throne turned to see Aster before saying.
"You don\'t mind do you, I can see you broke through recently so take it as little exercise".
Aster shrugged.
"Sure, but let\'s do it here, no need to make a big fuss".
The man nodded and with a snap of his fingers he created a cube with spirit energy, to Aster\'s interest the man\'s spirit energy was black with little white lights sparking from time to time, similar to a starry sky.
This spirit energy is what picked Aster\'s attention, it was an interesting attribute which he hasn\'t seen nor heard about anyone having it before, even Lilia was surprised by it, because the ruler of Galatia used to be the father of the current one, so it was a new face for her.
\'The attribute of the Galatia family was earth, but this guy is a variation... or maybe an advanced version of that, it seems many things have happened in the time I was isolated from the rest of the universe\', thought Lilia.
The seven candidates as well as Aster entered the cube made of the man\'s spirit energy, the inside was pretty much the same, with the only difference that if they tried to jump, they would realize it was practically impossible.
"A single exchange of attacks, no killing, those are the rules", said the man as he leaned against the back of his chair.
Aster took out one of his training swords from his spatial ring, and the seven candidates immediately raised their guards, although the ones Aster defeated at the admission weren\'t even inner disciples, with the exception of a few, the amount was quite something, so they didn\'t underestimate him.
"Don\'t refrain, use your best attack, show him!", shouted the same candidate that spoke against Aster being selected so easily.
The other candidates each took out their weapons, and their spirit energy exploded out of their bodies.
Despite the difference in their statuses, they were all Star Tribulation cultivators, three peak ones, two middle stage and two early stages, all with experience after having joined the sect for a couple of years.
Seeing the different spirit energies gathering in front of him, condensing into different attacks, each one being an attack technique, Aster tightened his grip on the sword and injected his spirit energy into it.
"Mm?", the crowd and the others who were watching this little encounter all frowned, they touched their ears, trying to find the source of a sudden sound they were hearing.
That continued until one of them pointed at Aster.
"It\'s him, his sword is screaming!".
"Why, is he trying to intimidate the others?", and similar comments could be heard from within the crowd.
But the man sitting on the throne and the other two accompanying him, were in awe.
Even Lilia was taken by surprise, but that didn\'t last long before a proud smile flourished on her face.
\'Just a bit more and you\'ll reach it darling~".
The red-haired girl was probably the most shocked among the candidates, she who has pursued the sword since she had use of reason, could tell, that Aster has reached the point what separates enthusiasts from actual swordsmen.
\'Third level of sword intent, he got to the breaking point and now only needs inspiration to reach it, just like me... but he wasn\'t like that when I met him, and it hasn\'t been even a couple of days, what could have possibly changed him so much in such a little amount of time\', thought the red haired girl.