Aster could easily tell by Ixas’s voice tone, that he wasn’t exactly excited to enter the Emerald Heart mansion, and he understood why, he has been trapped here because the Emerald Whirlwind had a grudge against him and his cultivation was suppressed to the point where he was practically bullied by it.

“I was too impulsive back then, but I have learned from my mistake and no longer resent the Emerald Whirlwind, also I have to thank you because although I’m pretty sure getting the Emerald Whirlwind is out of my possibilities, if I manage to reach the end of the trials I will be allowed to return to my home”, said Ixas with a genuine thankful voice.

Aster nodded in response, he saw from the corner of his eyes that the girls had woken up and were all coming to the living room.

“Good morning, ladies”, said Aster, which earned him a smile from most of them, the only exceptions were the protectors of Natasha and Charlotte who only nodded at him.

While, Camila, Kana and Natasha’s protector as well as Charlotte’s one, where making breakfast, Charlotte, Natasha and Mylene sat on the table with Aster and Ixas.

Since everyone was in the room now, Aster proceeded to ask Ixas what was in his mind.

“Speaking of the trials, what can you tell me about them?”.

Ixas contemplated things for a moment before he raised three of his fingers.

“Although they are called trials, truth to be told you can advance to the third one regardless of the first two, that being said the first one is to see how compatible you might be with the elements that the Emerald Whirlwind represents, in other word, poison, wind and earth”.

“Mm?”, Aster was surprised to hear Ixas saying that a spirit wind, had earth attribute too, poison was still fine since it’s a neutral element in the meaning that with the correct dose, everything can be poisonous, that’s one of the principles of alchemy which Mylene has taught him.

And that saying was proved as truth, since there is both ying and yang poison, ying representing cold and darkness, while yang represents the contrary, warm and light, both completely different from the other and yet there was poison derived from both.

But Earth was in no mean related to wind, for example the poison Vivian’s body constitution generated to counter the one from the Storm Roc family, came from an earth attributed spirit beast.

Ixas noticed Aster’s confusion and he bitterly smiled.

“Right, I always forget you aren’t from a Divine Firmament… those embodiments of elements who gain consciousness can cultivate just like other living beings; my Rock Gigas race originated from a certain legendary mountain which gained consciousness countless years ago for example”.

“Unfortunately, in the present things aren’t that simple, they can’t just become able to have offspring and develop flesh and blood like in the record of clans that had existed for a long time, in exchange they can become more complex existences by expanding the elements that their essence represents”.

“But the Emerald Whirlwind is so coveted not only because it can be considered a conscious growing type treasure, but because even among them it is pretty unique, instead of focusing in the elemental concept, it went for the concept of “green”, and as weird as it sounds, it worked”.

“That’s why I lost so bad… even while having earth element which should be its counter, the elements I noticed back then were, wind, poison and emerald a mineral which is related to earth”.

Aster had to admit that the Emerald Whirlwind sounded better the more he learned about it, a spirit wind which was able to overcome its weakness in such an interesting way, was quite praise worthy, that also explained why people like Natasha, Charlotte and the rumored young master of the Storm Roc family as well as others with similar statutes risked their lives, coming to the secret realm to try and get it.

“Anyway, the second trial is an intelligence

/strategy trial, where you should be faced with the natural counter of your own element, since the Emerald Whirlwind managed to do it, then its master should be able to, or at least that’s the idea of the second trial if you ask me”.

Ixas then looked through the window as if he was nostalgic for a split of a second, before saying.

“The third trial is independent; everyone faces a different one but I would say it’s a personality test, also unlike the prior ones, the last one is done individually so everyone will be separated from the others”.

“That’s too bothersome, I asked the Emerald Whirlwind to directly come with me and was thrown out during the first trial, ah right also fighting isn’t allowed inside that green castle~”, as always Natasha’s way of doing thing was rather… unique.

And in a rare occasion Charlotte didn’t mock her, which meant she was probably thrown out too, and her next words confirmed Aster’s supposition.

“Mm, my answer in the second trial was “wrong” so I was thrown out too”, she mumbled.

Aster chuckled, after failing the trials even if you managed to find the Emerald Heart mansion, you won’t be allowed to participate for a whole year, luckily the ban period on Natasha and Charlotte ended a few days ago, and they were busy fighting against the other people here to look for the mansion, which ended in them getting to know Aster.

In comparison, the woman from the Storm Roc family has tried two times and failed, so the little “advantage” she got thanks to being her the first one in her family to find the entrance to this secret realm was gone, and then her older brother the young master of the Storm Roc family was sent to ensure obtaining the Emerald Whirlwind as soon as the mansion stopped.

You might ask why Aster’s group was leisurely taking breakfast without any worries, and the reason is very simple, the tornados that were permanently devastating the valley, which were controlled by the Emerald Whirlwind, were blocking each and all the ways of getting close to the green castle, meaning it wasn’t still the moment for them to enter.

Kana and the other girls placed the dishes on the table, before Kana sat on Aster’s lap and then everyone enjoyed their meal, Espi dived into the earth, in case other people arrived while everyone was resting, but the last time Mylene looked with her divine sense they were the first ones to arrive.

Once everyone finished their breakfast, they prepare to leave and then Aster realized there was a small problem in hand, Espi couldn’t enter the green castle, but since there will be some strong people here if it was left alone, it’s probable that they will hunt it.

Aster already asked Natasha and Charlotte why the other wyrms were captured, and apparently it had to be with the fact that dragon races are extremely hard to come by outside of the Imperdra Divine Firmament.

And they normally don’t allow outsiders to deal them, as those races without a backer in other words a family which descended from an ancestor who took human form, are seen as precious resources or manpower.

So even the most “common” ones like sand wyrms, fetch a high price in the market of the other Divine Firmaments, the few that were spread across the secret realm were captured in the short span of a year or two, once people started entering.

Espi was the last one and as also a variant so, it was guaranteed that others will try to hunt it, unfortunately Aster had no way to store a living being in hi spatial ring, and he couldn’t bring living beings to the mind space yet.𝒐𝐯𝐋xt.𝗰𝑜𝕞

Natasha noticed Aster’s predicament and she giggled, as she threw an orange crystal ring with a beautiful flame bird engraved on it.

“There you go, at our Divine Feather Firmament having a tamed bird spirit beast is a symbol of status, so we have developed ways to transport them, I haven’t found one that is up to my likings so that ring isn’t useful for me, the next time make sure to be you the one giving me a ring~”.

Let alone Aster, even Mylene was surprised to see such a rare treasure in the hands of someone from the young generation, and the fact that she was giving it away so easily was another shock.

“Young miss…”, Natasha’s protector tried to complain, but Natasha stopped her from doing so.

“Mom’s a beast tamer and she has a lot of these, don’t tell me I the princess of the Sun Graceful Luan clan am not allowed to gift such a trivial thing, to the one I’m courting~”, said Natasha as she threw Aster a kiss.

“Besides it can at most contain a tamed beast at the peak of the Mortal realm, so what’s the big deal, humph”, with those words, the protector knew Natasha wasn’t going to change her mind so her protector just sighed and remained silent about it.

Charlotte was fast as lightning to take out blue crystal ring with a water bird engraved on it, she intensely looked at Aster with her blue eyes until he took the ring from her, surprisingly her protector didn’t say anything, apparently in the culture of the Moon Stream Luan, females giving gifts tot heir favorite partner, was pretty normal.

Aster saw Mylene nodding at him, and he knew these rings weren’t something that should be given away on a whim, heck even Eris hasn’t mentioned this kind of ring existed, so it’s probable that is a new treasure developed while she was trapped in the galaxy where Sarina and Kana lived.

Aster thought about it for a second before he also took out an item which Mylene, Camila and Kana recognized at first sight, as they had it in the emergency kit Aster left in the rings, he gave to each one of them.

It was a small five millimeters golden bottle with a transparent liquid inside, in other words it was a bottle of the result of purifying about one liter of Aster’s blood with Rigel’s flames, this version had the same detoxifying and healing properties as his blood without the secondary effect of increasing the libido and attraction towards Aster on the one that drinks it.

“I Aster will always repay kindness with kindness, please let a drop of your blood fall on these bottles”, said Aster as he extended one of his hands towards each one of them.

Natasha and Charlotte stared at each other and then without a doubt did as Aster asked, though they didn’t know what the bottles contained, their instincts which originated from a high ranked divine beast, told them they would regret not getting those bottles, though both were going to accept them from the very beginning, since it was the first “gift” Aster had given them.

Once the bottle absorbed the drop of blood from each one of them, the emblem of a red and blue bird respectively appeared on the cork of the respective bottle.

The protectors both frowned recognizing the formation engraved on the bottle, as a divine rune formation, instead of the incomplete rune formations that the mortal planes use.

“There is no need for you to be surprised, that is indeed a blood-gratitude tying formation, personally created by my friend whose master is a Rune Sovereign, and revised by me whose master is an Alchemist Sovereign, so unless those two girls willingly open the bottle and drink it, the contents will become useless”, said Mylene with a proud voice.

‘Not to mention the little “surprise” Aster stored for curious eyes, since it’s that strange golden energy of his, the one acting as the security measure, like in my necklace’, she thought to herself.

Natasha a Charlotte both accepted the bottles from Aster, but no matter how much they looked at the content from the outside they couldn’t think what it was, that was of course until they both took off the cork and took a whiff of the transparent liquid.

The first one to react was Natasha, her bright red hair literally lit up in orange flames, she had a drunk smiling expression on her ace as she licked her lips.

“What is this, some kind of divine yang liqueur, it smells delicious~”.

Charlotte was the same, her cheeks even flushed a bit, since her race ate yang to produce ying, she was even more tempted to swallow the contents of the bottle, as she knew she will immediately breakthrough.

She gave Aster an interrogative gaze, which made him chuckle before saying.

“That is a second life, if you are below the Heavenly Conqueror realm, no matter how serious your wounds might be, as long as you drink it, you’ll fully recover, and when I say fully, I mean it… meridians, dantian, lost limbs if it isn’t an innate disability then it will be cured, no side effects as well”.

…

An awkward silence fell on the room, while Mylene was softly laughing to herself at the faces of Natasha and Charlotte’s protectors, she did it because her reaction was pretty much the same the first time, she heard Aster saying it.

‘A miraculous medicine, with such a strong effect but at the same time soft enough to be taken in a critical state, even my grandmother would declare it a master piece, something only the most experienced Sovereigns will be able to brew with an extremely low success rate and purity’, she thought.