aster observed the battle unfolding in front of him, normally he would have stepped in, not to help a stranger but because he had to pass through this area to reach the second main node.

but the battle was about to end so a couple of minutes didn''t make any difference in the plan, besides he wanted to confirm something.

oblivious to the group that was observing the fight, the gray cladded figure focused on dealing with the early-stage void manipulation realm spirit beast in front of her.

"roarr!", the alligator roared and then turned its body around, a large tail was whipped towards the gray cladded figure, but that semi-sphere made out of black metal blocked in front of her.

"clang!", the sounds of metals colliding followed by a cracking noise echoed through the whole area.

"roaaaar!", a second roar filled the area, but this time it was pained one, the scales on the tail of the alligator opened to reveal the soft defenseless meat below of it.

the black spherical shield which''s outer face was covered in yang flames, retracted once again returning to the gray cladded figure.

inside of that flash of gray spirit energy, from which aster could clearly see the real appearance of the one who was fighting the alligator, it was none other than the gatekeeper elder of the steel tower sect.

eαglesn?νel that gray-haired girl who told the guys from the castle armored sect to get lost, not too long after she crushed the teammates of renard.

unlike before, some parts of her body were covered in a combat suit made out of countless small pieces of black metal, those were the same things that formed the spherical shield that protected her from all the attacks of the alligator.

apparently, she could control them and make them expand or shrank as she liked, what surprised aster is that there weren''t any waves of soul energy, she wasn''t a soul cultivator and yet it was manipulating something so skillfully.

also, those black things weren''t a treasure, but they gave off the same feeling as her, similar to camila''s spear, which meant they originated in her.

"body constitution", concluded aster.

eris who was also looking at the fight with interest in her eyes, nodded.

"i swear, sometimes i wonder where in the world did me and mylene were sent to by that spatial breach, even at the divine firmaments it isn''t so easy to find constitution or lineage owners as it is here, i also don''t recognize any of the constitutions in the book lilia lent me", she said.

that''s a subject aster is interested into as well, though weak, there is too many families with lineages or people with body constitutions for a mortal plane, that''s also part of why natasha and charlotte were convinced aster belonged to a high ranked divine firmament, every one of the girls accompanying him had special traits and all were different, meaning they couldn''t belong to the same family or force.

in comparison rox and ley''s groups indeed were formed by people with lineages, but they were all the same, which is still not that easy to see, but nowhere as amazing as a group formed of people with different special traits, at the very least that meant belonging to a super force similar to the yin azure palace which is formed by many clans that joined together.

the idea was for her to arrive and get the treasure before any of the strongest people got to this place, but with agnes and the tall brown-haired woman, she knew her plan had failed, no, in fact with agnes was enough, she knew she had no chance to beat her, as she had left a big impression on her.

so, the question here is, why wasn''t she either moving aside or running away, but instead stood there as she summoned those black metal pieces forming a semi-sphere around her, surprisingly she was going to fight.

aster came out of the group and then said.

"are you an atria or a fritz, those are yang stealing needles, which are exclusive not only to the atria but more specifically to just two people in the whole clan, the patriarch and the supreme elder after all, and the supreme elder only has a son, but the patriarch has no descendants, so where did you get them?".

the eyes of the gray-haired girl glowed and a tinge of hostility appeared on them, she was about to risk her life to risk her life to kill at least the black-haired youth even if it meant her death, when the next words coming from that same person made her freeze on the spot.

"you are the daughter of tomas atria".

the girl finally couldn''t keep her poker face, she frowned and then gritted her teeth.

"so, you knew it, and that''s why you approached uncle jack as soon as you arrived to this stellar system, leave him and my mother out of this... you are a dual cultivator right, i''ll be yours, you can do whatever you want to me in exchange, i won''t resist", she said with a determined voice.

after listening to her, aster nearly choked, even if his yang energy practically radiated out of him all the time, he didn''t have the "disgusting" feeling they had, this has been confirmed by the girls, his yang is bright and pure bringing a warm sensation to the girls that surround him, that''s in part why they don''t mind to be radiated by it, even if they aren''t in a relationship with aster.

"oi, do i look like that kind of person!", said aster.

"mm, otherwise how could you drink uncle''s spirit liqueur and not explode, also the lord of the twin sword valley is known for always being surrounded by women, the rumors say that you joined the myriad occupation sect with the intention of claiming all the disciples as yours, and make them compete to then take those who outstand for yourself".

"if not, why will you enter a sect where men have it tougher to increase their status, just hurry up and swear you won''t lay a finger on my mother or uncle, i won''t resist after that, otherwise you won''t get even my corpse".

the roles have inversed, the previously quiet girls became talkative all of a sudden, aster on the other hand was speechless.

which bastard is spreading those rumors about him he wondered, the girls couldn''t help but laugh at the situation, which made aster poke aria''s soft cheek as he said.

"your little competition is making others believe i''m taking advantage of those girls, it seems you all need some punishment", tiana who was also glared as she participated in those small tournaments with the other girls of the black sword faction felt a shiver running down her spine after hearing the word "punishment", she still hasn''t recovered from what her mother made her wear not too long ago.

fortunately for her, aria''s cuteness saved her this time, aria simply snuggled on aster''s chest while giving him puppy eyes and the latter forgot why he was even angry to begin with.

"you are after the diamond bone orchid right, tell me what do you want it for, you sect is probably thinking of giving it away for some benefits again... one would think they would have learned after screwing it up once", he said.