Aster felt a slight shock below his feet which meant that the space ship finally landed, they left the room and Eric who was waiting for them outside guided them to the exit, this time the ship was not floating and a ladder was deployed on the side of the ship so that everyone could go down.
Once they left the ship Aster started curiously looking at his surroundings, while it may not be so amazing for others, for him, a once normal human visiting another planet was a big achievement, he internally laughed while imagining how would have been if this was his past life, “I would have had a parade only dedicated to me or something like that”.
This little episode ended when Ritz approached them with some familiar people, besides him it was the old man that left a good impression in Aster’s opinion, Wieland Kraft who was leading some guys from the Kraft family, of course Ward was not among them since he was still under the effect of the soul oath.
Speaking of Wieland for a moment it was hard for him to believe that the young man in front of him was the little kid from back then, he left the azure sky planet one year after Arthur’s birthday and at that point Aster was still more or less visiting Ghaleria from time to time and he didn’t have his current appearance so it was normal for Wieland to be surprised by it.
Like always Eric was the first one to speak.
“Uncle Wieland, it’s been some time since I attended the auction house, how have you been!!!”.
Wieland smiled.
“I’m fine, but not as much as you, your voice is finally adapting to your look”.
Even Aster couldn’t hold laughing a bit, it was true that the only thing that changed about Eric in these three years was that his voice didn’t sound ad childish as before.
Ritz nodded.
“Brother Wieland is right, the only thing this brat has improved is his voice tone hahaha”.
Apparently although the Kraft didn’t have the support of another force, their long story with the Asher family made the barbarian heart sect treat them as allies too.
“So basically, it’s the Asher and Kraft families against the Rein and the Wolfstein families… and on the other battle field, the Barbarian Heart sect against the Sand Mountain sect”, Aster thought.
Fate was a mysterious thing, even if Lilia didn’t come to this star cluster, knowing Isaac he would have still made the same deal with the Rein family to get rid of the Asher and Kraft families, the resources that were supposed to be on the secret realm were too tempting for the any of the patriarchs of the four families to ignore, since they might be the key for them to finally advance to the star tribulation realm.
Ritz’s expression suddenly changed to a serious one, he slowly positioned himself in front of the whole group, of course since he knew Lilia was stronger than him, he paid more attention to Eric and the Kraft family group.
After a moment Aster saw some of his old “friends” approaching them, between them he recognized Isaac, Valentine and Karla along with some random five guys who he supposed were members of the Wolfstein family, besides them there was Kray and Kail next to each other and a middle-aged man that looked like an older version of Kray, Kalas Rein the current patriarch of the Rein family.
Isaac was surprised to see Lilia and her children here but he hid his surprise as if he suddenly thought of something.
Unlike Isaac, what actually surprised Aster was that Kayla was holding hands with a tanned guy using an outfit that clearly meant “I’m from the sand mountain sect”, “now that is for sure an interesting development we got here”, he thought.
Soon the two groups were in front of each other, Kalas Rein took the initiative to speak.
“It’s been a long time since I have seen people from the Asher and Kraft families, I hope your two families have been doing well…. however, I don’t think it’s polite from those old two patriarchs to no come here personally, considering we have a respected guest visiting “our” Rodia star cluster, don’t you agree elder Adil?”.
A middle-aged man with some extra kilograms who was wearing flashy clothes took a few steps ahead, he quickly inspected the people in front of him, his eyes stopped for a second to look at Lilia but Aster immediately stood in front of her, since his body grew up, although Lilia was still taller than him, the difference was at most of eight to ten centimeters so he could perfectly block that guy’s line of view.
Adil’s eyes narrowed a bit, but before he said anything, Ritz interrupted him.
“The other two patriarchs couldn’t come due to a variety of reasons, however seeing my brother Wieland is the same as seeing the patriarch from the Kraft family, as for the Asher family I consider Eric my own nephew so I don’t see any problems”.
Adil smiled, before saying.
“And who might you be, my friend?”, he asked.
Ritz extended his hand to offer a handshake.
“I’m Ritz Karze, an elder from the Barbarian heart sect, the hegemon of the Veluri star cluster”.
Isaac and Kalas who were previously all smiles immediately changed their expressions to serious ones.
…
Adil accepted the handshake.
“What a coincidence, I’m Adil Orkel, an elder from the Sand Mountain sect, the hegemon of the Erimos star cluster… who would have thought that I would meet a fellow mortal transcending realm cultivator here”.
Adil walked towards the guy that was holding hands with Kayla Rein and place his hand on one of his shoulders, before saying.
“Now that I have presented myself, and since everyone here seems to know each other, let me present you my proud, my adopted son Amir Orkel”.
Amir smiled.
“It’s a pleasure, I’m Amir Orkel, Kayla’s fiancé”.
Although he looked as if he was not paying too much attention to anyone, Aster could feel the malicious intent behind that relaxed smile.
“First that Adil clown, and now a snake from the desert, seems like Isaac attracts a lot of idiots as allies”, he thought.
Now that the presentations were over, the two groups parted to where the entrance to the secret realm was about to open, on the way Lilia was completely stuck to Aster, although she ignores other men gazes at her she was really happy seeing her son stand in front of her.
“The number one in my darling’s heart ♥”, she kept repeating to herself.
Aster could feel his mother’s happiness overflowing, to be honest he would have done the same for any of his girls but there was no point in spoiling her mood, “a happy wife is the same as a happy man”, he thought.
After almost 10 minutes of walking through a forest they reached a plain, where there we no trees, a completely open space with only a weird rock circle in the middle, above of the circle the space was visibly waving which was an indication that a secret realm was about to open.
Aster noticed that on every rock that conformed the circle there were a lot of symbols that looked like runes, but he couldn’t recognize any of them, he turned to see his mother with a questioning expression.
Lilia frowned her eyebrows for a moment before shaking her head and whispering in his ears.
“They are definitely some kind of spirit runes, I can vaguely understand that their purpose is to stabilize space but they are different to the runes I know… when I secretly visited this place the space was waving like right now, that’s how everyone can identify an entrance to a secret realm but the rocks around it were not like this”.
Aster nodded.
The two groups stopped a couple of meters away from the rock circle to wait until the entrance was completely open which happened almost immediately, the space stopped waving and after a couple of seconds a circular hole surrounded by some kind of mist and some electricity appeared.
Without anyone noticing Lilia inspected it with her spirit sense to be sure it was safe and after some contemplation she nodded at her son.
On the other hand, Adil snapped his fingers and one of the five guys brought a skinny man of about 20 years old with a collar on his neck which was attached to a long chain, before anyone reacted, he pushed the man through the portal and after some time he pulled the chain back… the man was completely fine with the exception that it was a bit pale.
Adil smiled.
“Everything is clear, if no one has a complain then we will enter first”.
Ritz turned to see if anyone had any objection, his gaze stopped at Aster for a moment but seeing that he didn’t say anything, he simply shrugged.
“No objections”.
Adil nodded and the team completely conformed of members from the Sand Mountain sect entered the portal before being followed by the Reins, Valentine and Amir.
Aster said goodbye to Lilia and Aria, Alice took over their place and hugged her brother’s arm before they walked along with Eric towards the portal followed by Brig and Cade, Eric and his “followers” entered first, Aster stopped in front of the portal, he gave Adil a sharp gaze before also entering with Alice.