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n“Sure, I don’t mind, but I don’t know if we’ll remain together once we enter the dimensional tunnel”.

nIt didn’t escape Aster’s eyes, that the way to find the entrance to this place was Vivian, the others probably realized it too, but they also noticed she had no cultivation, so they ignored her.

nWhat they didn’t know, was that the Emerald Whirlwind was probably “upright”, if not why would it have forbidden the entrance to its domains, to Julian’s relatives.

nSo, he was sure that getting to its ubication first was what mattered, there was for sure some kind of trial, the Emerald Whirlwind might be imprisoned but it was still able to act, and choose who will wield it.

nVivian smiled, but then she raised an eyebrow at Aster’s answer.

n“A secret realm won’t separate a group as far as I know though”.

nAster bitterly smiled, his only experience with a secret realm ended up being another galaxy, so he didn’t know what to expect, but apparently Vivian did.

n“Is that so, let’s go then”.

n“Mm”, the girls nodded and they jumped into the green portal at the same time, just to be sure she wouldn’t end up separated from Aster, Kana clung to him as if her life depended on it.

nMylene, Camila and the recently arrived Vivian placed their hands on Aster’s shoulders and back respectively.

nWhile Julian already knew Vivian for some reason seemed to trust Aster quite a bit, the guard Oscar and the old Egil were in awe.

n“Nephew, since when that lass has become fond of that kid?”, while the guard remained silent with a contemplative expression, Egil couldn’t resist the urge to question Julian.

n“It’s not that uncle Egil, that little friend happened to have an antidote I have yet to use, and that’s why Vivi was able to move unlike what we predicted, so she is thankful for that”.

n“Oh, so that was the case, one must pay a debt of gratitude indeed”.

nAfter saying that, Egil returned to the spaceship.

nThe guard Oscar saw the old Egil leaving and he frowned.

n“Lord, it seems like your martial uncle hasn’t gotten over it yet, are you sure it was a good idea to bring him?”.

nJulian sighed, he looked at his arm which was now healed before answering.

n“That’s why I brought him too, it’s a good way for him to make amends with the past, so that he can break through”.

n…

nOblivious to the conversation that was taking place near the green portal, inside of the dimensional tunnel Aster was quick to learn the difference between the portal that led to Kana’s native galaxy and the one that lead to a real secret realm.

n“Damn, I still hate the guts of that king, causing so much trouble for nothing”, he mumbled, making Kana giggle.

n“Big brother got the inheritance of the trickster king, so all his efforts to preserve his legacy were useless”.

nAster smiled, he patted Kana’s head, Vivian whose eyes were closed since she came out of the carriage, asked.

n“Is she your little sister Aster, she seems to be quite different from you?”.

nKana turned to see Vivian and her little nose wrinkled a couple of times.

n“Pale sister, you smell nice, like apples but sweeter~”.

nVivian’s eyes slightly opened for the first time since she saw Aster back then, she inspected Kana just to let out a sigh of relief.

n“It’s not apple but “Manchineel” and you shouldn’t be able to smell it… it’s poisonous, perhaps you truly are Aster’s little sister, I’m Vivian”.

nN

/A: Manchineel is a really toxic plant, also called “Tree of the death”, its fruits smell good and they look like apples but the thing as a whole is poisonous, just FYI.

nAster raised an eyebrow, Vivian’s poison would only attack those who noticed it, or those who touched her, but he could see that the thing wasn’t going after Kana, in fact this time he couldn’t smell nor feel any poison in her.

nSo, he was more surprised by the fact that Kana could smell it.

n‘Even poison can’t stand harming her, Robert was indeed an asshole’, thought Aster.

n“Speaking of it, why did you keep your eyes closed Vivian?”, asked Aster.

nVivian slowly opened her eyes, taking Camila by surprise, both her irises and pupils were really dim and pale almost melding with the white tone of her sclera, Mylene on the other hand paid more attention to the fact that although she didn’t have any cultivation, her instincts told her she was dangerous.

n“It took me some time to get used to see again, so my eyes get tired pretty easily, in any case I can see although they are closed”.

nAs expected, although Vivian wasn’t too energetic, she was able to easily get along with Kana, something that caught Aster’s attention was that she told her, she would have liked to pat her head, but touching her might be troublesome since some of her poison sometimes affect her skin.

n‘We shook hands though’, he thought before saying.

n“We are reaching the end of the dimensional tunnel, get ready just in case”.

nVivian gave Aster a curious gaze, but she remained silent, as she noticed he was dead serious.

nAster’s vision was blurred for a split of a second and as he prepared himself to use the paragon body, I case they appeared randomly on the sky.

nBut unlike what he expected, they safely landed on the ground without any problem.

n‘Well, I guess this time is indeed a secret realm and not another galaxy’, thought Aster as he looked at his surroundings.

n“For a place called Emerald Heart, it expected more greens to be present”, mumbled Kana.

nThey appeared literally in the middle of a desert, wherever they looked it was just dune after dune of sand, there were no trees or other things besides sand.

n“I guess that if we find the green part of this realm, we’ll find what we came looking for”, said Aster.

nThe girls tried to fly just to be surprised to see they couldn’t, even Kana who usually had good flight abilities due to her wind affinity couldn’t do anything but float for a couple of centimeters.

nAster on the other hand did keep the ability to fly, but he noticed his spirit energy was being reduced at least 10 times what it should have been.

nHe then took out one of the personal spaceships he got from Riga, and tried to pilot it, but the thing didn’t do anything even after he turned it on.𝞸𝓋𝑙xt.𝓬𝚘𝕞

n“We’ll I guess we’ll have to walk, this should be part of the trials of the Emerald Whirlwind”.

nWith a few jumps Aster got high enough to see their surroundings, and even from such a height, he couldn’t see anything nearby, but there was a small river ahead of them, and in places where water tends to be scarce, living beings gather near water bodies.

n“There is a river a few kilometers ahead, let’s head its direction and then we’ll follow it, we should find an oasis at some point”.

n“Mm”, the girls nodded and they started walking, after about half an hour it the sun and the hot sand were starting to become annoying, but Aster had a good way to counter it.

nHe simply built a small dome over them using Rigel’s flames, the fresh sensation of the blue flames was a relief for the girls.

n“Those flames are really good”, Vivian who was given the change to see by Rigel’s flames couldn’t help but compliment them.

nAster was about to answer, when he felt the ground trembling a couple of times, before a few meters ahead of them, a white snake like creature emerged from the sand.

nAster looked at the strange spirit beast in front of them, and he grinned.

nIt was spirit beast which seemed to combine a sand worm and a snake of some kind, it had a white shelled exterior but no eyes, also it big spikes teeth.

n“What the hell is that?” asked Camila, in all her years venturing she saw many strange beasts, but this was something totally out of her experience.

nStill although the thing looked intimidating, it was just a spirit beast of the Star Tribulation realm, Aster could have killed it with a single slash of his sword.

nBut instead of that, he saw the thing slowly approaching them, and after looking in Aster’s direction, it actually left its body fall on the ground, as if it was revering him.

n“Up”, Aster tried to order the thing to see if it obeyed him, and to his surprise it did, its serpentine body vertically ascended until it was basically standing on its tail.

n“Roll”, Aster tried to take it to the next level, a spirit beast was supposed to be wild until it reached the Heavenly realm, thought hey were exceptions like those oysters he saw at the silver star lake, it was rarer to see in a carnivorous species.

nThe thing laid down and then rolled on the sand, which made Kana laugh.

n“Big brother, it looks like you are talking to a dog~”.

nAster chuckled, and then he jumped on the head of the creature, this was the last test, if the thing didn’t attack him, then he just found a good way to transport his group.

n“It’s all good, come here, this guy will take us to our destination”, said Aster as he tapped his hand on the head of the creature.

nThe girls exchanged gazes but ultimately shrugged, any of them could kill the creature if needed anyway.

nThe first one to go up was none other than Kana, she sat on Aster’s lap and then called the others.

n“Sister Mylene, sister Camila come here, there is a nice breeze up here~”.

nMylene and Camila rode jumped and landed on the creature, seeing no reaction they sat down and waited for Aster to order it to advance.

nOnly then Aster remembered Vivian had zero cultivation right now, with a gesture he created a staircase using Rigel’s flames, since she has already seen them before.

nVivian used them to rode on top of the spirit beast and now that they were all ready, Aster tapped its head.

n“Take us to the river”.

nThe creature nodded and then it moved its body over the sand towards the river Aster saw before, leaving a sliding trace behind of it.

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