Sean Fritz saw the purple electricity crackling on the ground around the crack that was opened right in front of him and he frowned.

As far as he remembered there isn’t any prominent force or family with lightning attribute in his Fritz Stellar System, so the newcomer was obviously an outsider, and he couldn’t even directly gaze at her because that purple halo made it impossible to do so.

Unless he used spirit sense, but trying to spy on a strong lightning attribute energy path cultivator, was just asking for trouble, lightning is the best attribute to deal with anything that included either soul energy or extended senses, like spirit sense, well, besides annihilation of course.

So, after seeing the electric field surrounded the blonde woman that was still floating on the sky, Sean Fritz didn’t dare to try and spy on how she looked behind that purple halo.

What he could tell was that she is weaker than him, being in the Void Manipulation realm, so he coldly snorted and let out his spirit pressure.

“Those are some big words, especially because this is my Steel Tower sect, anyway, right now I have no time to deal with crazy people, everyone has voted to close the portal so even if someone from your force or family is inside, it is officially dead, if you have any complain, then I’ll assume you are declaring war against all of us”, said Sean with a threatening voice.

“Patriarch Sean is right, who the hell are you!”.

“Can you be responsible if the dangers inside of the portal come out?”.

“We also lost elders and disciples, so what are you trying to pull of here!”.

And similar comments could be heard coming from the crowd, they all released their pressures and shouted at the blond-haired woman, right now the Steel Tower sect, owes them for their carelessness.

For the vast majority, that were middle or even small sized forces, that was more than worth the loss of the random disciples they sent, and a good enough to compensate for the loss of the elders.

So of course, they were on the same side as Sean Fritz, otherwise their compensation will be in danger, if the Steel Tower sect suffers damages due to the portal not being closed on time.

The smile of sufficiency on Sean Fritz’s face, froze the moment he heard the blond-haired woman saying.

“I don’t see the problem, if something happened to the people I came to welcome back, all of you will be buried here, including the Castle Armored sect”, said the woman as she glared at a man who was wearing a full body armor, though it was an envoy instead of a combatant, which saved his life as he didn’t join Patrick’s group.

Of course, the words of the woman weren’t taken in a good way by all the others, Sean Fritz included, he was being threatened in his own backyard, how could he tolerate such a thing.

“A mere Void Manipulation bitch dares to say that I, Sean Fritz will be buried over the death of a reckless junior, humph, you don’t have what it takes to make such a promise!”, said Sean as he flew towards the blond woman.

“Oh, and what if I join in for the fun”, Sean Fritz was forced to stop for a moment, a huge pressure fell from above as the figure of a shirtless man wearing shorts and sandals, descended from the sky.

Most people didn’t recognize the newcomer, but those who did paled, how could they not recognize one of the few people that has put a foot into the Heavenly Realms, and can still be considered a member of the young generation, in all the Stellar Systems of this Heavenly Quadrant.

Sean Fritz gritted his teeth as he said.

“William, you have no reason to interfere here, even if you are an executor, I haven’t done anything wrong, so get lost!”.

William chuckled as he craned his neck.

“It seems like you didn’t do your homework properly Sean, this time the sole male core disciple of my Myriad Occupation sect joined, can your miserable life be used as compensation if you of close the portal before he triumphantly returns?”, said William with a mocking voice.

But Sean wasn’t willing to concede, he could fight with William if needed, but the blond mysterious woman was dangerous, his vice-leaders weren’t present in this city, and the others were non-combatants, but then as if the heavens were helping him, a gray cladded figure descended next to him.

“That is enough sir William and miss Valentina, this decision was taken to protect the Fritz Stellar System, it isn’t within our jurisdiction to decide what to do or not”.

Edward saw the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith Peak appear and his anxiousness finally calmed down, even if all the others died, he will be safe with her here.

As the Supreme Elder talked, she countered William’s pressure to allow Sean Fritz to move freely once again, so that he could close the portal.

But then the help Sean Fritz was receiving to counter William’s pressure was suddenly cut off, and Sean once again had to focus on clashing with William, the reason of it, was that a jade palanquin had appeared on the sky, meaning that the Supreme Elder from the Battle Peak has arrived too!

In other words, four peak Transcending realms were facing of right now, besides the blond woman who was Valentina, everyone on the crowd was being suppressed to the ground.

“The Blacksmith Peak has no say in this situation, because it is my Battle Peak’s Holy Son the one, we are waiting to return”, a soft voice came from within the palanquin, and the Supreme Elder from the Blacksmith Peak gritted her teeth.

She was told by Edward that he saw Aster entering the secret realm, so she wanted to use the excuse of the spirit beasts to close the portal and get rid of that nuisance once for all, in fact Edward actually lied, he only saw around fifteen or so Void Manipulation realm spirit beasts earlier.

But he had to save whatever face he had left, also he wanted to influence the decision of whether to close the portal or not, unfortunately for all of them, before entering Agnes of course told her cousin to come because the situation wasn’t like previous years.

Valentina was scolding William due to some paperwork which the shirtless guy has been neglecting, and so William tagged along because he was amused by all the chaos that stirred up wherever Aster went, and because if his supposition was right and he didn’t do anything to help, his older sister will kick his ass.

As for the Supreme Elder in the palanquin, the four Supreme Elder supervise each other, because they aren’t supposed to interfere with the members of the young generation, with a few exceptions, those are the rules of the sect, which the Supreme Elder from the Blacksmith Peak has been ignoring lately, so the elder in the palanquin followed in secret.

Though she was helpful, due to the presence of a black-haired woman who was able to hide from all the presents high into the sky, nothing would have changed if they didn’t come, naturally Lilia came to receive her beloved son back but she wasn’t the only one, as the black spaceship that was stationed on the port a few kilometers from this part of the city suggested.

While the two sides kept each other in check, the portal waved which drew everyone’s attention, Sea Fritz took the chance to take the side of “justice” to make the other party retreat.

“The spirit beasts are about to come out, everyone remember this, it was the Myriad Occupation sect the one that brought a disaster to my Stellar System, despite the sacrifices made by all of the participants!”.

But then Sean’s passionate speech was cut by a mocking voice that came from within the portal.

𝑂𝐯𝑙xt.𝐂𝗈𝓶

“What is that clown talking about?”, Aster and the others left the portal, which actually crumbled apart after they had safely arrived at the other side of it.

All the eyes landed on them, and first of all, unlike the two miserable-looking figures of earlier, they were perfectly fine, even their clothes didn’t have any damage, nor they looked tired meaning they didn’t rush or escape like the other two.

Sean frowned as he saw his “niece” tagging along that group, he was furious because his stupid son died, but that woman was still alive, not only that he just got slapped on the face, because the new group was perfectly fine.

Aster ignored Sean and the others as he and the girls walked towards Valentina and William, he could also feel Lilia, Alice and Sarina’s presence in this planet, due to his connection with the Star Maidens, which meant that they came to welcome him.

They weren’t going to leave yet, but they would not stay in the Steel Tower sect, for obvious reasons, so there was nothing he had to do here, on his way Edward pointed at him with an expression of disbelief.

“I-Impossible, I saw you deepening into the forest, even at the outer layer I was surrounded by twenty Void Manipulation spirit beasts, you can’t be alive!”, he shouted, without realizing that he just admitted he lied a moment earlier.

“Oh that, well the answer is very easy, my group is way stronger than you and the mercenaries you secretly hired”, Aster’s answer took Edward by surprise, not only he was directly humiliated, but the secret was revealed.

“Slandering a Holy Son is a grave crime, I hope you have evidences to back up that statement”, the Supreme Elder from the Blacksmith came to Edward’s rescue, because Edward will lose merit points if it was proven that he resorted to external help in secret.

It’s not like the one who took the mission couldn’t receive help from others, but that will be taken into account at the moment of receiving the reward, Aster didn’t really care about that, so he openly had Agnes and Eris, as well as Alexandra and Mira who has hidden her tiger-like ears and tail, to avoid unwanted attention, Nim also returned its miniature copy to the mind space.

Aster didn’t even pay a look to the Supreme Elder, he had nothing to explain to her, which of course made the woman coldly glare at him.

“Little fellow, where are you going, you know the rules, you must show your discoveries to my Steel Tower sect before leaving, also if you know what happened at the other side, then you must tell us, so we can know what happened to our participants”, Sean Fritz changed his focus.

Judging by the strong aura that the two strong Genesis Manifestation women on the group were radiating, he knew they working together would be able to face him, which leaving aside the shock, solved the mystery of why this group was fine when the other two looked like crap, so of course he wanted to see the treasures they discovered and get a share of them, especially because the portal collapsed after they returned.

‘The portal can be rebuilt later, but I bet such a strong group took out some incredible resources, like that flower from before, don’t think you can easily take away my property brat’, thought Sean.

What he didn’t know is that this time the portal couldn’t be rebuilt, because it was destroyed from the inside by Eris, not to mention that the secret realm to which it was connected, had disappeared, but that is a surprise that the patriarch of the Steel Tower sect will enjoy later on after spending a lot of resources for nothing.

Aster of course knew what Sean was trying to do.

“Rules huh, I wonder where were your rules when your son joined hands with the spirit beasts to massacrer all the other participants, not to mention the idiot ended up being sacrificed by the same beasts to which he worked for”.

A vein popped on Sean’s neck, bit before he could reply, Aster continued.

“I won’t show you anything, nor give you any explanation, it was your Steel Tower sect and those idiots from the Castle Armored sect the ones who hunted down all the other participants, that’s all you need to know I can even do an oath to swear I’m telling the truth, now get lost”.

After having said that, Aster calmly walked towards Valentina and the others, Sean was like a volcano about to explode, but he didn’t dare to stop the black-haired youth, what if what he said was true, the oath will prove his Steel Tower sect was to blame and then all the forces and families will demand compensation from him, of course if Aster was lying then he will die to the heaven’s punishment.

‘Is he bluffing… no who would dare to bet his life like this when he has the support of a strong force’, thought Sean, naturally he had to way to know that Aster was immune to the retribution of a soul oath, though he wasn’t exactly lying, the human cultivators that survived were mostly killed by the alliance of the four forces and the spirit beasts as sacrifices.

“Gatekeeper elder where do you think you are going?”, Sean wasn’t willing to concede yet, since he couldn’t do anything to Aster, he changed his target to Alexandra, just to hear Aster saying.

“Ah right, I almost forgot about it, she is no longer part of the Steel Tower sect, but a guest elder of the Twin Sword Valley, since your son tried to kill her”.

“What! are you bullying my Steel Tower sect, don’t take things too far kid!”, shouted Sean, if even Alexandra escaped his reach, then wouldn’t he be left with nothing.

“Yes, I’m bullying you, what can you do about it”, that was the last thing Aster said, which left Sean Fritz boiling, but the cold glare coming from the palanquin made him realize he could do anything about it.

“Hahaha, you never disappoint me kid”, William’s thunderous laugh broke the tense atmosphere, the shirtless guy was laughing his ass off at the whole situation, which earned him a few weird gazes from others, but when they saw him smack his fist on the ground trying to regain his cool, and crack a one-kilometer area around him with a simple light hit, they didn’t dare to say anything.

Aster’s group then left under the burning eyes of both Sean Fritz and the Supreme Elder of the Blacksmith Peak who were publicly challenged by a member of the young generation, the other one who was outraged was Edward, but right now no one paid him any attention.

All the representatives of the forces and families glared at Sean, they couldn’t leave empty-handed after all.