Chapter 358 The Wastelands (Part 1)

After a couple of minutes which seemed like years for Julian, Aster stopped.

"That's all I can do, if the root of the poison where to be attacked her life would be in danger, but this should help her for the time being".

The girl closed her hand a couple of times, and was marveled by the feeling, even when she drank antidotes to get a period of mobility it wasn't as smooth as this, for the first time her body was in a "normal" state, on the other hand she couldn't feel her cultivation, but that was within her expectations.

Her eyelids trembled a couple of times before she opened her eyes, which to Aster's surprise where really pale and dim too, barely differentiating from the sclera, and yet Julian placed his hands on Aster's shoulders.

"Kid, I can't thank you enough for this... if you ever need something please don't hesitate to ask about it, I will do my best to help you, if I Julian Galatia were to break this promise may the heavens punish me!".

Aster felt a bit weird, although he realized the process was smoother than what it would normally be, it shouldn't be enough to get such a reaction from Julian.

Only after he listened to the girl softly speaking with an impossible to hide happy tone in her voice he understood.

"Pardon my uncle, it's the first time in 17 years that I can see, also thank you... I don't know how to call you?".

"My name is Aster".

"Aster, Aster... Aster", the girl looked at Aster and repeated his name as if she wanted to make sure she wouldn't forget it before she answered with a bright smile.

"I'm Vivian, I will be in your care~", said Vivian as she offered her delicate hand to Aster for a handshake

Watching from the sides, Julian was flabbergasted, in the 19 years he had taken care of Vivian, let alone having contact with anyone, she never started a conversation by herself once before, nor showed too much of a reaction to anything.

It's not that she was ungrateful, cold or anything of the sort, the poison in her body was sensitive towards her emotions, from a point of view it could be said that the poison had a mind of its own.

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That's why once it infected anyone while for it to be cleansed it was like attacking her indirectly, they were linked unfortunately the one in control wasn't her.

So, she had to keep a poker face and a lethargic and calm attitude, so that the poison would be as little aggressive as possible.

Aster didn't think too much about it and accepted her gesture, unlike that bitch that tried to poison Angela who had her whole body smeared in poison, even before he helped her with Rigel's flames, Vivian's poison was mostly contained in her body... otherwise the carriage would have probably melted away.

After shaking hands with Aster, Vivian looked at Julian before saying.

"Uncle, it's been years since I was able to eat without feeling unwell, could you please bring me some food?".

Aster also had some things to arrange before leaving, so he excused himself and left the carriage, leaving Vivian and Julian behind, not without receiving a scroll with a seal on it.

"This is the information we talked about, be careful with it... and if you end up having an excess of it, please consider selling it to me".

Aster nodded, but inwardly he was sure to not do that, unless he had twice the amount needed, he wouldn't sell even the tiniest bit of the materials he has been gathering for Rya, because one can never be too cautious.

Aster suddenly remembered something that was bothering him.

"Now that I think about it, you didn't mention where will we be going, I would have normally not asked, but I have a certain girl back at my home who wouldn't let me go for too much time, without knowing".

Julian bitterly smiled, but then after what he has seen Aster do, and the deal he made with him out of the records, there was no harm, in telling him in advance, he already made an oath anyway.

"We'll be going to one of the ten stellar systems at the border of the Heavenly Quadrant, the Green Firmament stellar system to be more exact, don't ask me which star cluster though, because our final destination moves from time to time".

"I have a way to detect the entrance once we are there, also don't worry about the chaotic spirit energy, the area near the Emerald Whirlwind will always be clean, pretty ironic considering it has poisonous properties, but it can't stand corrupted spirit energy", said Julian with a nostalgic expression.

Having gotten his answer, Aster nodded and then left the carriage.

As soon as Aster left, Julian turned to see Vivian and he mumbled.

"Little missy, you could have warned me before you offered him a handshake, my heart nearly stopped for a moment".

Vivian sighed and then slowly bur firmly stood up from her seat, it's been a while since she used her legs, so she felt like stretching a bit.

"I needed to confirm something, besides I still had "that" to cure... Aster in case things didn't go well, when he first entered the carriage, before I recovered by sight, I couldn't determine what he was".

Listening to Vivian, Julian couldn't help but inwardly sigh.

'I can finally start repaying my debt with this', he thought.

Vivian thought about for a couple of seconds before continuing.

"It was like having some kind of fierce spirit beast in front of me... but at the same time it was like looking at an unsheathed sword, there were other things but they were too vague, however it's the first time I'm unable to "see" through anyone".

"But while it is something incredible it's not a bad feeling, also now I know I can trust him inside the Emerald Heart secret realm".

Julian nodded with a contemplative expression on his face.

"I understand the sword you mentioned, that kid is certainly sharp, also as incredible as it might sound, he has set a foot in the third level of sword intent at such a young age... his slash even forced Oscar to use his spirit energy to dispel the attack".

Vivian's eyes sparkled for a second.

"Sounds like his intent will be completely different to the boring ones uncle has told me about so far".

Julian didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.

'Regardless of the result, anyone who reached the third level of intent is worthy of praise, you know?', he thought to himself.

...

Outside of the carriage Aster walked towards the girls and they then entered the spatial gate and returned to the center capital, at a different spot than when they entered, but there was no problem as Julian told them they just needed to be in a public area for him to pick them up when the time to leave in a couple of hours came.

"How did it go darling?", asked Lilia to her son seeing him a bit lost in his thoughts.

"Everything is okay, let's return with the others first, we already have all what we need for any travel in our rings anyway", seeing Vivian's situation he was once again reminded of the fact that there were a lot of secrets about him, that he still needed to uncover.

'Once this mission finishes, I'll be one more step ahead in the correct direction, plus this information and the one I got from that man about the Fritz stellar system, I'll soon take you out of that place Rya', thought Aster.

"Mm", the girls nodded and then using Aster's authority they disappeared from the center capital.

A couple of seconds later they appeared inside the castle, Erick and Tiana were there and Agnes tagged along too.

Aster called all the girls to come to the living room, and soon Alice, Aria, Eris and Camila joined them.

Everyone took a seat in the couches at the living area, while Kana sat o Aster's lap, before Aster explained all the information he got ahead of the others, needless to say but the girls were surprised to hear Aster was going to such a place, but again a cultivator needs challenges and tribulations to get stronger and Aster being anormal, needed some pressure to grow stronger, now the question was who will go, the conditions mentioned by Julian just limited Lilia and Agnes, so the others had to decide who will go, besides Kana of course.

"I won't go this time darling... but if you need me, you know what to do~", it took Lilia a whole lot of courage to be the first to stay out of the mission, but it was all for the sake of her beloved son, so she wanted to be the first.

Aster chuckled, conditions or not, he was sure Lilia would have found a way to go with him, so he was happy she took the first step this time.

"Ahh, damn, I will stay to train with the ice princess", Alice pouted but the still asked to stay here, not without dragging Aria down with her of course.

Aria sighed but she still went along with Alice, because there was something she needed to do before going in a mission with Aster.

Tiana was the same, and Erick already stated that he was going on missions with Sofia, so that only left Eris, Mylene, Camila and Tiana.

"Mm, I'll stay this time, I want to study some of the runes I have seen in this place, so this time it's Mylene's tu Eris wasn't lying she was genuinely interested in how much some "mortals", advanced with the use of incomplete runes, something outrageous from where she was.

Mylene simply smiled, she was happy to go as she would help Aster while also be there to look after Kana, whom she already treated like a little sister.

Aster then looked at the remaining two girls and pointed at Camila.

"We are going to hunt treasures, so Camila's ability will be of great this time, any objections?".

The girls shook their heads, meaning everyone was okay with the decision, of course it didn't escape Aster's eyes that Camila had a slightly troubled expression which she tried to hide.

But that's also why he chose her, her constitution was directly linked to the Wolfstein lineage he inherited too, so he needed to fight alongside her, something told him that was the right thing to do.

'I guess I'll talk about it with her later'.