The guard that was standing behind the man in the throne who somehow recovered faster from the surprise of Aster talent with the sword, frowned.’

“I think we should stop him, sharpening can be blocked with spirit energy or a strong physical body, but that kid has set a foot in the territory of concepts… and his swordsmanship is by far the fiercest I have seen or heard off, if we enter one step too late, we’ll have a bunch of disciples cut in half’, the guard directly spoke to the mind of man in the throne, something only a high ranked soul cultivator should be able to do, without an special connection like Aster and the star maidens of course.

The man rubbed his chin for a couple of seconds considering the words of the guard, but ultimately, he shook his head.

‘They were the ones who asked this exchange; besides you said it yourself, that kid’s sword is indomitable, I can tell just by looking at his stance that he will only draw his sword for an important purpose, unlike those guys who seek flashy and refined techniques… it’s as if he has turned into a sword himself, honestly I want to see what the third level of his intent would be in the future”.

Back at the cube, Aster felt his whole-body light right now, he couldn’t feel the sword in his hands and yet he knew it was there, but it was as if it had become an extension of him, unfortunately he could tell that whatever it was, it was incomplete and thus it would not bring him any benefit to use it, in fact, he could feel small needle like punctures in his hand, and that was after considering the innately abnormally tough defense of the paragon body.

‘Damn, you always do reckless things without thinking too much about it, any other cultivator below the Mortal Transcending realm would have blown his hand away with that you know’.

Rya who was sleeping up to a moment ago, couldn’t help but scold Aster, but she was also smiling from ear to ear, just like Lilia, but for a slightly different reason.

‘Just a bit more, you’ll be able to wield me sooner or later~’.

While Rya was jumping in her heart, Aster reduced the output of his spirit energy into the sword, because even if it had spirit formations to increase the durability and was supposed to endure some usage while being coated with annihilation, the sword had started to crack due to the tension.

Aster then looked at his opponents who were also dumbfounded, among them there were other intent owners of different weapons, and they could tell Aster was in another level now.

“D-Don’t let him attack, as of right now, even without any cultivation he could cut our bodies in half!”.

Without a second of delay the seven candidates launched their attacks, lights of different colors were shot at Aster, each with their own properties, one of them was enhanced using the second level of saber intent.

‘How curious, everything looks so slow, did my breakthrough only manifested now that I’m in a battle’, thought Aster, he wasn’t using his soul cultivation actively and yet, he could see the attack leaving their respective casters.

He could see the different expressions in those who were watching the fight, the man in the throne whose expression was filled of expectation, the other disciples in the crowd who were unable to stay unaffected due to the roar of his sword, Kana whose eyes were sparkling, his mother and Mylene who weren’t in slow motion but smiling at him, and lastly the guard standing next to the man on the throne, who was moving but at a slow pace.

Then he slashed his sword and the only thing he could see after that was a flash of white.

But for the others things were completely different, those who were watching the fight only saw Aster’s figure blurring for a split of a second, then all the attacks were dispersed into particles of spirit energy and an invisible wave advanced towards the other candidates, before the guard next to the man in the throne rushed in, using his own hand to stop the attack.

A loud whistling sound echoed through the whole area, forcing most of the people to cover their ears, before the guard actually had to use spirit energy to dispel Aster’s slash, that caused the sudden increase in illumination.

Aster completely ignored the result of his attack on the opponents, he instead looked at the sword in his hand, or what was left of it.

Unlike the ones he has worn out by using annihilation which internal structures became brittle and full of cracks, this time the whole sword had countless of deep scars as if it had survived a thousand fierce battles, it was the sword of a veteran.

“Kid, your attribute why didn’t you use it?”, asked the guard, he looked at his palm which now had a small but noticeable cut, and that wasn’t all, the skin near the wound has dried and became paler, moreover he wasn’t bleeding but the pain was excruciating.

Aster looked at the guard and then shrugged.

“They would have died, even if you stepped in, the goal of my sword is to be unstoppable, when I slash it, something is bound to be cut, regardless of distance, defense or differences in strength”.

The disciples in the crowd, the man in the throne, the red-haired girl and even the curious presence inside the carriage, all were speechless.

Basically, they were listening to a twelve-year-old saying his ambition was to reach the perfection in swordsmanship, a sword that cannot be fended off by any means, an impossibility by nature, and yet they couldn’t bring themselves to laugh at him, at least not after having witnessed the previous exchange.

Even the candidates whose faces were pale, while most had hatred filled expressions, there was one who also used a sword, whose eyes now were filled with respect, the other one who reacted like that was the red-haired girl.

‘He only mentioned his goal with the sword, but not his motivation, if I can get a reason like him, I’m sure I can surpass it… the wall of the one percent!’, is what they were both thinking.

For weapon users, there is a reason as to why the first two levels are considered for enthusiasts, while the third one means one can be recognized as a real swordsman, spearman etc.

Not only because the third level is unique to each person, but because reaching the third level can be considered as hard as reaching the peak of the Transcending realms, depending solely on one’s comprehension, without using even one pill or elixir along the whole way.

Because intents couldn’t be taught by anyone, not much was known about them, but according to Soul Kings, intents were engraved in one’s essence and didn’t require soul, spirit or body energy to be used.

Mylene had a bitter smile on her face as her gaze focused on Lilia and then Aster.

‘If he were to go to that place, what could the result be… I need to talk with Eris’, she thought.

The guard hid his hand so that others wouldn’t see the small wound and then returned next to the man on the throne.

The man on the throne whose real name was Julian Galatia, dispelled his cube of spirit energy and then looked at the candidates that were still in shock.

“I suppose you have no more objections, right?”.

Most of the candidates just nodded and then left feeling they had no face now, with the exception of one, the youngest among them and an early-stage Star Tribulation cultivator.

“Senior brother Aster has taught me about swordsmanship today and for that please accept this bow from me, I, William Kaiser will engrave this debt in my heart”, the guy then left without saying anything else.

The man then turned to see the red-haired girl as well as the guy in the purple blazer before saying.

“You two are the other ones chose for the mission, any objection on my decision?”.

The red-haired Iris was faster in answering, and her response was loud and clear.

“No”, she still had a lot to process, after being stagnated she has finally discovered what she was lacking, but now she realized she didn’t know where to start, and honestly that was the only thing in her mind right now.

As for the purple blazer Victor, even if he wanted to complain, they were 2v1 now, so his opinion wouldn’t change anything, and it would only leave a bad impression in the patriarch of the Galatia family which was against his purposes.𝞸𝓋𝑙xt.𝓬𝚘𝕞

“No… I think lord Julian wouldn’t chose wrongly; we don’t know the details of the mission after all”.

Julian nodded, he looked at the carriage and then turned to see the three groups left.

“I need to inform you of the purpose of the mission, but first let’s go to a more private place… also I’ll let you know that if you want to continue with this, you’ll have to do a secrecy oath, if you still want to participate then come with me”.

After saying that the man made a gesture with his hand and a spatial gate appeared on the air, Julian wasn’t joking when he said he was an honorary ancestor, his authority was above even Aster’s.

The other two groups entered first followed by the guard and the man that Julian called “uncle Egil”, leaving only Julia and Aster’s group behind.

“Are you going to come Lord of the Twin Sword valley?”, asked Julian.

Aster took out a list from his pocket and threw it at Julian.

“Originally I took this mission for the monetary reward and as a mean to train, but something tells me it’s going to be quite a bother, those are things I want to find, if you have one or the information on how to get one, then I’m in, if not sorry but I mare easier ways to make money”.

Julian read the list and at first his eyes were filled with disappointment, until he reached the end of it.

“I have one of these items in my treasury, in fact it has something to do with the mission, so I can assure you is the real deal, if you help out, then it’s all yours”.

Aster’s eyes glowed for a split of a seconds, he kept what was left of his sword in his spatial ring and then asked.

“Which one is it?”.

The man showed the list to Aster as he pointed to a name at the end of it.

“Vein Recovery Crystal, one kilogram of it, I have the exact amount you need and I can assure you it’s going to be hell for you to gather some of it… it took me about fifteen years of making deals with fifty or so different stellar systems”.

Aster nodded.

“I’m in”, and with that the team for the mission was decided.