Chapter 289 An Unexpected Outcome

Not even ten minutes later Aster heard someone knocking at the door, after getting his permission, the door opened and the owner followed by a couple of waiters accommodated the dishes on the table.

"Please enjoy your food, if you need anything else just ring the service bell".

After saying that, the owner left while taking note to be ready in case they needed some help.

Aster raised an eyebrow not understanding that was the big fuss about this sea of knowledge meat.

Lilia giggled as she cut a piece of the grilled meat to taste it, it wasn't in her plans to stay that long in the Azure sky planet, so she didn't bring food or ingredients, and only centered in pills, elixirs, techniques and things related to cultivation.

'I sure changed quite a bit thanks to my darling', though Lilia, as she would have never paid attention to things like food or comfortability when she wasn't a mother.

After finishing munching her food, she cut a piece and offered it to her son.

"Eating the meat of spirit beasts which surpass your realm for a big gap has two possible outcomes, the first is getting stronger and maybe a little stomachache, the other one is exploding due to a violent reaction, although I doubt that will ever happen to you darling~".

Aster accepted her offer, the meat was quite tender and juicy, also it was incredibly tasty, but there was still something missing, the next one to try it was Sarina and judging by her expression she reached a similar conclusion.

"Compared to the food of the fragrant pavilion it is indeed a bit tastier, but not because of the chef but of the ingredients used... it's a waste of a good meat".

"Mm, Mom is right big brother, we can prepare something better for you, can we buy something of this meat before we go?".

Aster smiled seeing both mother and daughter so enthusiastic about their cooking, to the point that they seemed to forget that their next destination was even better to buy what they wanted.

'Whatever, happy wife, happy life', he thought, in any case after the recent "donations" made from the mercenaries of the Lagrae stellar system, he had a lot of low ranked spirit jades, which would lose a lot of their purchasing power once they reached their destination.

"Sure, but for now no more of this meat for you", he said as he patted Kana's head and took away the plate earning a little pout from her, unfortunately no matter how much she looked at Aster with those pretty big eyes of hers, he didn't fell for it.

The wiseman who once said that eating accompanied by beauties is a pleasure itself, was right, Aster fully enjoyed this meal with the girls while they chatted about some random things.

Once everyone had their fill Aster called the owner of the restaurant, but as he was about to pay for the food, he looked at the door which was closed and frowned.

"You realize that if I want to, I can raze this place to the ground, right?", he said as he played with a low ranked spirit jade.

The owner bitterly sighed, but worried that his restaurant could end up being collateral damage he raised his hands and explained in a calm voice.

"Please calm your anger esteemed customer, someone in the other private rooms seems to be interested in your group, they tried to get information from me but I didn't say anything... unfortunately I can't force an early-stage sea of knowledge cultivator and two early-stage mortal transcending realm ones to leave if they don't want to".

The old man was sweating bullets, just now he made a bet, the other party which was despotic and demanded him to tell who was the pink haired woman that arrived earlier, in other words Mylene.

But he decided to play on Aster's side, because he could still feel the cultivation of the other party, but there were at least four people in Aster's group about whom he couldn't even imagine what where their realms.

Lilia, Eris, Sarina and lastly Aster, Mylene revealed the pressure of a mortal transcending earlier so he supposed that was her power, Alice, Aria, Camila and Kana didn't bother to hide their cultivation as there was no point in doing it, but Lilia, Eris, Sarina and Aster seemed to be normal mortals with their cultivations suppressed, which wasn't possible as a mortal would be crushed into pieces due to the gravity in the border station.

The door suddenly opened and an old men followed by a middle age couple and a young man, barged in.

The owner of the restaurant felt their gazes piercing him, but he ignored them while praying that his decision was correct.

Aster easily recognized light in the eyes of the guy which was about Alice's age and he looked at Mylene before nodding at her.

Mylene stood up from her seat and asked.

"What do you want?".

The old man immediately frowned, his bravado disappeared the very moment he was gazed at by Mylene, all his instincts were screaming that if he said the wrong words, his life might meet its end here in the hallway of a restaurant in a low ranked star cluster.

So, before his grandson could say what he originally wanted, he slightly bowed and apologized.

"I'm sorry, this old man must have mistaken you for an old acquittance of mine, please let this meal be my treat as an apology for interrupting your... family time".

To the old man's surprise, the pink haired woman whose face was covered by a veil didn't immediately reject nor accept his apology, but instead turned to see the only man in her group and only after seeing him nod, she answered.

"Fine, if that's all, then you may leave".

The old man bitterly smiled, he stole one last glance at the owner of the restaurant, as if he was thanking him for having silently warned them, before taking his leave while dragging his family with him.

The owner of the restaurant was speechless.

'A Sea of Knowledge expert retreated just like that... without causing any trouble!', he screamed in his heart.

"That's an unexpected outcome, I guess not all the people are stupid", said Aster as he stood up from his seat.

"I want to buy some of that meat you served us earlier, I will pay the price of the dish for the ingredient".

The owner of the restaurant came out of his daze as he listened to Aster's request, and he cursed himself for not having bought more of it, although the offer was really tempting, he adored his life more than some spirit jades.

"Ahem, esteemed customer, my inventory is a bit tight right now, so I can't do that, but I can teel you where to buy it", he said as he handed a card with the emblem of the restaurant.

"Merchant district, the store is called "Chef's paradise", show them this card and you'll get a 10% discount in everything you buy... it's the least I can do for having saved my restaurant".

Aster knew the owner wasn't at fault here, what could a star tribulation cultivator have done against an early-stage Sea of Knowledge expert after all, in fact he was surprised that he decided to not sell them away.

'I guess people without a backer in other star clusters are more used to the "law of the jungle", since there is a flow of people from other places unlike back at Rodia", thought Aster as he accepted the card.

Under the surprised gaze of the owner of the restaurant, Aster's group disappeared, they literally vanished without any trace, which made him remember one of his most glorious days, back when he was a rogue cultivator working as a guard for some member of a big family.

They were surrounded by enemies in all directions, the captain of the hired guards a sea of knowledge was at the end of the string, because there were two on the side of the enemy, when he thought his life was about to end, a person appeared floating in the sky and with a wave of his hand all the enemies were turned into minced meat.

With a snap of his fingers, they all disappeared and the next thing he knew was that they were in another planet perfectly safe, then he heard the sea of knowledge captain mumbling a pair of words which he would never forget for the rest of his life.

"V-Void Manipulation... heavens I was in presence of a Void Manipulation expert", mumbled the owner of the restaurant, while also deciding to keep his mouth tightly shut about what happened here today.

A Void Manipulation expert can only be found in middle ranked stellar systems, so in his eyes, Aster suddenly became the young master of a force in that rank, someone who can travel around the galaxies without any worry.

...

Outside of the restaurant Alice giggled at Mylene as they walked towards the store mentioned by the owner of the restaurant.

"To think that even with the veil you'll end up attracting some random guy, to the point that he probably asked his ancestor to get you for him".

The corner of Mylene's lips trembled, which made the other girls laugh.

Even Aster was rather amused by the situation, ultimately there was no harm and, in any case, Mylene solved it by herself.

Lilia hugged Aster's right arm as she said.

"A small price to travel with beauties, don't you agree darling~".

Aster raised an eyebrow but he still nodded, if he was going to be surrounded by girls, he would need to get used to these kinds of situations.

"True, but I won't interfere unless there is a need of my help, my girls aren't pushovers after all", he said, making them slightly blush.

Leaving aside their flirting, it didn't take long for them to arrive at the merchant district, as expected the stores were quite luxurious surpassing even the golden cloud auction house back at Luonto.