BXBX NOVEL chapter 623 Lilia’s desires (part 3)
\'Damn it, I was looking from afar to confirm if it was the real deal without approaching and drawing the attention of the other fishers, where did that bitch came from!\', she inwardly swore.
What angered the elder even more, is the fact that the other things at which that strange woman with a "plain" appearance, was looking at were just low worth things with shinny appearances and other similar trinkets.
In other words, from her point of view that woman just randomly decided to grab the treasure she was eyeing and was lucky to get a killing deal, based on the price tag placed on the case.
"Come on, she is just looking at low price items from the stall, I\'ll pay you five, no, eight times the amount tagged on the case to sell it to me right now", said the elder to the girl.
Now, it would be a lie to say that the girl wasn\'t tempted by such an offer, after all while resources were plentiful, unlike other sects, even inner disciples only got a bit more of the needed for cultivation every month, everything else had to be earned with merit points or by demonstrating one\'s talent.
Outside influence was strictly restrained, elders from high ranked places who joined the sect could support the juniors of their families as long as they proved to be talented, but the number of people an elder could support was really limited.
That being said, there were multiple ways to get rewards, since this wasn\'t a combat centered place but the Myriad Occupation sect, gatherers could get rewards based on the items they retrieved and sold in the sect, regardless of the channel they used as long as the transaction could be demonstrated to be legitimate of course.
Ultimately the girl shook her head, at the long term, breaking the rules she set up for her stand would drive away the trusted clients she has earned, so it wasn\'t worth it, not to mention she didn\'t like the attitude of the elder.
In the merchant district status doesn\'t matter, this isn\'t an unspoken value, but a written rule, it was made like this by the Ancestors themselves, since luck is a part of a cultivator\'s power, also it was to protect the sellers from being forced to cheap their items away.
"Sorry, I\'m not holding an auction stall, but a "first come, first serve" kind of thing, however if I find more of the item in discussion, I\'ll gladly contact you if you want to", nonchalantly said the girl.
While keeping it respectful, she ultimately refused the petition from an elder, so of course some controversy was risen, especially by the disciples who are from the Brown Anvil faction who saw their inner elder be rejected despite having given such a "generous" offer.
Nevertheless, the elder raised her hand to prevent the members of her faction from berating the owner of the stall and instead walked towards Lilia with a calm expression on her face to then say.
"Excuse me, I came out today to find a birthday present for Core elder Tina and that case contains a bunch Fire Sky Spinel, a spirit gem which can greatly help a spirit blacksmith to create a dual earth-fire spirit treasure, would you be willing to sell them to the Brown Anvil faction?".
The elder gave a proper reason and even mentioned her backer in order to persuade the other party, just to see the woman ignoring her and casually grabbing some random shinny objects before continuing to look through the stall.
"…", the elder took a deep breath and then once again approached Lilia with a friendly smile.
"Don\'t be like that, I can\'t detect any fire or earth spirit energy from you, nor you are a spirit blacksmith, if you aren\'t interested in a monetary payment, how about we make a trade, ell me your attribute and I\'ll look for a resource that goes along with it, in exchange for the spirit gems in that case?".
Receiving no response again and being completely ignored, the elder finally couldn\'t hold back her anger.
"Hey, I am talking to you, you, insolent woman…", just as she approached Lilia and was about to grab her by her shoulder a playful voice made her stop in cold.
"I wouldn\'t do that if I were you", all the eyes in the vicinity, were drawn towards the origin of the voice, cultivators have way better memory than mortals, so the vast majority of the present people, immediately recognized that voice, including the inner elder.
"Why are you interfering, Lord of the Twin Sword Valley?", demanded the elder as she turned around and as expected, saw Aster who had finally decided to step in.
"Well, I am related to the people involved in this little scam you are trying to run", casually said Aster as he shrugged.
A vein popped on the elder\'s forehead upon hearing his answer.
"What scam, don\'t make things up just for the sake of opposing my faction!", she exclaimed, just to see Aster smirking.
"Give me that case, please", he said, to all the people\'s surprise, the woman who previously ignored everyone, actually listened to Aster, not only that but her movements were gracious and elegant, despite her simple and plain appearance, she was like a piece of art that had come to life, at least until she arrived in front of Aster to hand over that case.
Aster opened the case and took a out a finger sized red gem from it, there were around ten similar pieces of it inside the case, but he just took one out.
"For starters, a set of ten pieces of Fire Sky Spinel of middle Stellar grade like these ones, would fairly fetch a price of around ten times the price tagged on it, so your "generous" offer of eight times the price, is already bad".
Before the woman could reply, Aster continued.
"Now, let\'s add to that the fact that this isn\'t Fire Sky Spinel, but low purity Red Slaughter Ruby in brute, which if properly processed becomes a half Immortal grade material, with a price a hundred times that of the price tag, something of which I\'m pretty sure you were aware off".
"I\'m not saying that obtaining a nice material for a low price is a bad thing to do, but when you try to take advantage of a junior, as an elder, considering that offering around thirty to fifty times the tagged price, would still be a killing, then the word "scam" is the only one I can force myself to use here", said Aster.
The elder gritted her teeth in anger, the part of she wanting the gems for the birthday of the Core Elder in charge of the Brown Anvil faction was true, if she presented such a high-ranking material as a gift, it would be practically assured that she would become the next Core Elder at its given time, and it would have costed just some measly spirit stones, what\'s more she wasn\'t planning to give the elder all the ten pieces.
But her plan was ruined by the psycho who had zero respect for let alone the Core Elders, but even the Supreme ones and she was even exposed as a miserable cheapskate.
And that wasn\'t the end, under the surprised eyes of the inner elder, Aster\'s hand which was holding the gem, exploded in blue flames that extinguished a second later.
"Now, I bet you didn\'t know this, Red Slaughter Rubies are formed by the accumulation of blood filled with strong vitality that filtrates underground and in rare cases, if you process it skillfully enough, a pattern that shows you the origin of said vitality, is formed in the resulting ruby".
Among them, the "Scaled" pattern is the most valuable, giving the ruby a value a whole notch above its pattern-less or peers, simply because of esthetics", added Aster as he opened his hand to reveal a nail sized red gem with intricate scale-like patterns all over it.
The thing looked luxurious and exotic, not to mention the rich treasure aura it was giving, which even made the weaker disciples feel pressured by its mere presence, and this was while unknown to them, there was a golden light barrier containing the thing. Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn
The elder saw the amazed expressions on the girls from the distinct factions who idolized Aster and knew there was no way she could get her hands on those rubies, so she decided to leave.
That being said, a displeased grin appeared on her face as she looked at the "Plain" woman who was now gazing at the ruby on Aster\'s hand.
\'If this bitch hadn\'t gotten in my way, that psycho wouldn\'t have come here\', she thought before saying.
"Humph, I guess that even someone known for collecting beauties like trophies, can lower his standards for the sake of treasures", just as the elder finished her words she used her authority to leave, just to realize that the portal wouldn\'t open.
Her heart immediately sank, to block the authority of an inner elder let alone from another peak, but even from another faction, a Supreme Elder level of authority was needed and the only one who she thought would do that over some petty mockery, was that psycho.
However, when she tried to turn around to demand an explanation her very existence stopped in cold, it wasn\'t just her spirit energy which she was unable to circulate no matter how much her survival instincts tried to kick, nor her body which was firmly refusing to listen to her, to the point that her eyes which were trying to look at the right, instead moved to the left, making some of the blood vessels in her eyes to rupture.
Despite that, the image of a devilish beauty was burned in her retinas, long lustrous inked black hair that cascaded all the way down to her thighs, without hindering her gracious movement, an alluring curvy figure that would tempt even the most celibate monk, a face that would make the heavens themselves envious of such beauty and blood red eyes that added a wild and exotic charm to the mix, perfect would be the way to describe her in one word.
But what probably got the more attention from the inner elder, were the two-meter sized black scaled wings that graciously spread at around the middle of her back and had a faint red glow around them.
\'Get lost\', a cold yet pleasing to the eye, voice reached the woman ears and the next thing she saw was complete darkness.
The previous took long to explain but happened in less than a second, also the process and result looked completely different for the elder and practically everyone else, with a single exception, Aster.
"Boooom!", one thing that both "versions" shared was the loud crashing sound, result of something hitting the defensive barrier of the Central Capital at an insane speed, followed by the all the nearby people looking at the place from where that explosion came, just to see the elder slowly sliding down from the barrier until she landed on the ground at the border of the city.
Miserable would be the only word to describe her current state, were her arms and legs were twisted in strange directions, not to mention the blood that was coming out of her eyes, mouth and nose, that being said, her life wasn\'t in danger.
"E-Elder!", the disciples of the Brown Anvil faction, screamed as they rushed to the elder\'s side, some gave Aster a poisonous gaze, thinking he was the one who attacked the elder, just to see him smirking at them.
"She did it to herself, go ask the guard of the city if you don\'t believe me, now unless you want to have a short duel at the Life and Death arena with me, take that woman with you and piss off".
The disciples and anyone else who had a complain, swallowed their anger, feeling a chill run down their back as they remembered the result of the previous event at the Life and Death arena, before they immediately left the vicinity.
Now only members from the Black Sword, Green and Orange Lotus, White Sword and Yellow Anvil factions stayed behind, since none of them had any enmity with Aster and were still processing what happened.
Unfortunately for those curious girls, Aster had something more urgent to tend to, so he took out a spatial ring from his pocket and threw it to the owner of the stall, who caught it just to freeze when she peeked into its contents.
"S-Senior brother this is…", Aster interrupted her by raising his hand.
"That\'s the safety price these materials would reach in an action, of course I\'m not doing charity here, take it as me extending an invitation for you and your acquittances to first show your findings at my store", he said as he grabbed Lilia\'s arm to then flash away from the merchant district, leaving behind a growing turmoil.
After all, Aster\'s family store only sold stuff, they didn\'t buy, that role was left for the girls who enjoyed treasure-hunting in the merchant district, namely Vivian, Mylene and of course Camila, well, Kana tagged along but what did that little girl didn\'t enjoy as long as she had fun with her older sisters.
Anyway, today\'s experience showed Aster that among the recollection team, there were some girls with really good luck, so he might as well make good use of that, maybe they\'ll give him nice surprises like those rubies.
Speaking of that, he gazed at the origin of the whole previous situation, just to see Lilia cutely rubbing her face against his chest, appealing to him, which meant she wanted something.
"What, don\'t think that just because I couldn\'t see how you did that, I don\'t know it was you", he jokingly said as he gently flicked Lilia\'s nose.
"Grrr~", just to see Lilia cutely growling at him as if saying "It wasn\'t me", before she licked his hand to then suck on his finger.
"Hey, that tickles…", Aster thought she was just teasing them, until he noticed that she was really focused on licking his index finger and his thumb, the ones with which he grabbed that scaled pattern Red Slaughter Ruby from earlier.
So, she was half playing by licking his fingers and half asking him for the ruby, it was especially noticeable given the how that pair of red eyes needily gazed at him.
"Fine, fine, you were the one who found it anyway", said Aster as he took out that ruby from earlier, which he had sent to the mind space.
The moment he did, Lilia\'s eyes glowed, she let go of Aster\'s fingers and intensely gazed at his other hand which was holding the ruby, for a second Aster felt like teasing her, but remembering how she earlier somehow made that elder fly away, while the only thing his eyes were able to see was a glimpse of a dazzling red light and then the elder was flown away, so he decided to play it different.
Aster opened his hand to show the ruby to Lilia, waiting to see what she wanted to do with it, imagine his surprise when that dragon mother of his, casually chomped his hand, without harming him, she just took the ruby away.
"Crack!", cracking sounds then came from Lilia\'s mouth, she actually chewed the ruby like a candy, before swallowing with a pleasured expression on her pretty face.
Aster bitterly smiled, while a ruby wasn\'t as tough as diamond, among spirit gems it was still at the top in all its variations and Lilia just chewed a half Immortal grade one like nothing, it reminded him that her nails and teeth when in dragon form were horribly sharp, not like he had to worry about it, since just like the scales on her wings, they wouldn\'t harm him, but still.
Finishing the remaining dust of the ruby, Lilia licked her lips and then gazed at Aster, her meaning was clear she wanted more.
"You shouldn\'t eat too much candies", said Aster, just to be given puppy eyes by Lilia, she rubbed herself against Aster, pestering him to give her more "treats".
\'And here I thought that little wyrm was a unique case of a candy loving dragon, perhaps it\'s an instinctive thing\', wondered Aster, Espi was the same, when he asked Mylene to make some crystals out of his refined blood, the little wyrm somehow caught a glimpse of them and ate one.
From that point onwards, the little girl asked Aster from some of his blood from time to time and according to Mira it\'s a good thing since she is also a dragon, as long as it is only a bit, so he asked Mylene to make candies with his blood.
Feeling Lilia increasing the intensity of her rubs against his, Aster patted her head to calm her, he took out one of the candies of the little wyrm and showed it to her.
"The other pieces of ruby will take way more time to be refined, so you\'ll have to make do with this", he said.
Lilia\'s nose twitched a couple of times, then to Aster\'s surprise, she started drooling and immediately tried to snatch the candy away from Aster\'s hand, but the thing disappeared at the la