while aster''s group was moving through the space tunnel to reach the gathering point at the steel tower sect, back at the border station, the old man who accompanied them stayed at the restaurant drinking the contents of his gourd.

he then took out his communication talisman which glowed for a second, before the old man sent a message through it.

"the myriad occupation sect has arrived as well", he calmly said.

"mm, is there anything worth mentioning", a bored female''s voice could be heard coming from the talisman a few seconds later.

"you can bet there is, lady agnes herself is accompanying the disciple they sent... but that''s not what surprised me, that kid drank a cup of my extreme magma wine as if it was nothing".

"...", after a few seconds of silence, the same voice this time with a more serious tone answered.

"is it a damn dual cultivator?".

the old man bitterly smiled remembering all the beauties surrounding the black-haired youth he met not too long ago, but he still gave his honest opinion.

"no, i don''t think that was the case, and even if i were to be wrong, his companions are the ones receiving benefits not the other way around, i''m telling you in advance lass, don''t judge that kid with common sense, anyone else in his age and realm would have turned into ashes after drinking the extreme magma wine, and he knew what he was drinking just with a gaze, the myriad occupation sect might haven''t been exaggerating things at all, i can see that kid being able to become a core disciple".

"i guess we''ll find out if he is the real deal or not soon".

after saying that, the communication talisman of the old man returned to normal, jack bitterly smiled as he continued drinking.

"sigh, brother, she is as stubborn as you", mumbled the old man.

using the vip space gate, the travel to the steel tower sect from the border station, didn''t last long, in a couple of hours they arrived to their destination.

aster looked at the scenery that was displayed at the other side of the window of the spaceship, the planet where the steel tower sect resided is the iron sand planet, which is as big as the treasure planet of the myriad occupation sect, which makes sense considering the fritz stellar system is on a similar level as galatia, with the exception that their guardian sect isn''t weaker.

the old man gave agnes a pass so that they wouldn''t be stopped by the guarding patrol around the planet, so they were able to land in the iron sand planet without any trouble.

the gate of the spaceship opened and aster followed by the girls came out of it, they were at what could be considered the equivalent of the neutral city, in the steel tower sect, a place that functioned as a port for those who arrived or wanted to leave the planet.

as aster was about to keep the spaceship in his spatial ring, another spaceship came from one of the vip space gates, and stood above them, apparently, they wanted the space in which aster landed, because the other spots were smaller.

agnes landed here because the spaceship julian gave to aster was huge, the one which just arrived was on a similar scale too.

"move out of the way bumpkin!", an authoritative voice came from the gray spaceship which was floating above.

aster completely ignored them and, he activated the defensive formations of the spaceship and then left walking calmly with the girls following him.

the girls laughed, aster didn''t take orders from the supreme elders of the sect, let alone some random guys.

he saw some guards rushing to the area he left behind, but he didn''t care and instead he followed the indications the old man gave them to reach the gathering point.

the iron sand planet was the main territory of the steel tower sect, naturally the visitors couldn''t access to all the planet, so the gathering point was in a space which was open for all the public.

on the way aster saw many people going in the same direction as them, they had all kinds of different uniforms and emblems, most of them were from other sects and forces in the fritz stellar system.

the gathering point was a plaza at the center of this port city, surprisingly there weren''t any guards placed at the entrance of the stage in which the gathering was going to take place, instead there was just a small counter with a single person sitting there, while other groups seemed to be discussing something with the one sitting at the counter.

aster looked at the ground and saw the formations engraved on it, though it didn''t affect him, those whose realms surpassed the mortal transcending realm had their realms suppressed to that level.

after saying that they left, leaving behind an angered renard, who ultimately gritted his teeth and took out his own entry pass and slightly bowed towards the armored group''s leader.

"senior brother, in this city port that crazy woman is the one in charge, my team mates were already banned by her, so if you don''t mind can i join you?".

the armored guy called patrick nodded.

"fine, since you are honest in joining us, you can come, it seems these fools don''t recognize the people from our castle armored sect, since our young master is in seclusion, but after this time they won''t forget about us never", said the armored patrick with a smirk.

"also, i want to know everything about that woman, i don''t remember you mentioning anything about her", he added.

renard nodded, happy that he could join the winning team, in any case his subordinates weren''t too outstanding, the only reason as to why he chose them is because he just joined the castle armored sect, and no one was willing to form a team with him yet, since he hasn''t gotten any merits.

''this time it will be your end, bitch... now that i think about it, why did i suddenly felt a shiver running down my spine earlier, maybe i''m getting sick or something'', thought renard.

...

at the stage behind the counter, the gray-haired girl guided the participants, until they reached wall, the girl who is the gatekeeper elder then used her identity token and the wall turned into a space portal.

all the participants were surprised by the sensation coming from the portal, there was an incredible amount of earth and metal spirit energy as well as yang coming from the other side of the portal.

"get in, everyone must enter but only those below the genesis manifestation can participate", said the girl.

aster''s group was the one closest to her, since they were the ones who followed her first, and so they were the first ones to enter.

the scenery changed from the city port with a blue sky, to what seemed to be a desertic place, with huge natural crystal formations raising from the ground, the temperature was quite high also.

not that it bothered aster and the girls, they just stood aside, since there was still one last barrier covering the whole area, meaning they had to wait for the gatekeeper elder to cross at the other side.

once by one the other participants also crossed the portal until all of them were here, the portal then closed as the gatekeeper entered too.

"all the genesis manifestation and above, come here, the exploration will start then, i trust everyone knows the rules, at the end all your discoveries have to be inspected by me".

agnes turned to see aster with an unwilling expression, she also wanted to venture with him, but she had to stay behind, which made her sigh.

aster felt amused by agnes''s current expression, but he still said.

"don''t worry, you''ll participate soon, for now stay back and wait for our return".

"mm~", agnes smiled and nodded as she went to take her seat near the gatekeeper elder, aster then turned to see eris and nodded at her.

"i leave you in charge of the formations", he said.

eris nodded back, as she followed agnes, who was all smiles right now.

"well, shall we get going ladies?", asked aster to aria and the others.

"hold onto your teammates, you''ll be transported randomly within the outer area of the forest, remember that if you die it''s only your fault", said the gray-haired girl.

ara was already grabbing aster''s arm, so she was good, camila, felicia and tiana also looked for something to hold onto, and then they disappeared.

the other groups followed after until only those who weren''t participating were the only ones left.