A split of a second later, Aster saw his surroundings changing from the Twin Sword valley, to a city, or it would be more accurate to call it a country, as it was a few dozens of times larger than the city they visited earlier.
But the size of the city isn’t what caught Aster’s attention the most, but the fact that every disciple here was a wearing a ring, in other words they were all core disciples meaning that this was mostly an all-female city.
Of course, there were other people besides the disciples, the ones who ran the many stores and other services as well as guards, but they were all deacons and either inner disciples or inner elders and they were also women.
Aster’s group of course drew the attention, first because they appeared directly inside of the city, something only law enforcers and a very select group of elders should be able to do, and second because there were two males in the group.
Seeing that the disciples were getting curious about them, one of the guards recognized Agnes and approached her.
“Elder Agnes, I know you have the privilege to transport inside of the capital, but bringing male disciples is prohibited even if they are inner…”.
The guard’s eyes wandered around Aster which was the closest and she froze on the spot after noticing the ring in his left hand.
“W-Winged sword emblem”.
Although Aster’s name has already spread around the whole sect, his appearance has yet to do the same, besides the fact that he has black hair and a unique golden eye color… and that is surrounded by girls, of course.
The guard didn’t raise her voice, but all the disciples here were at least star tribulation cultivators, so it wasn’t hard for them to hear her.
And as expected they were all curious about Aster, since he appeared there has been a lot of shocking things happening after all, to the point that even two supreme elders clashed due to him, so all the disciples were interested to see the famous “troublemaking” Lord of the Twin Sword valley.
It didn’t take them a couple of seconds for the disciples to gather around Aster and the others, as they gossiped between them.
“Doesn’t he look a bit old to be a Star Formation realm cultivator”.
“Despite how he looks, I heard he is only twelve years old, he probably has a special body constitution of some kind”.
“Now that I look at him up close, isn’t he quite handsome?”.
“You are right, we finally got ourselves a decent representative to fight against the members of the Tsarai family”.
The subject of the conversation drifted away quite fast, still the sudden agglomeration of people drew the attention of other important figures of the city, and finally the city lord, a brown-haired woman in her thirties appeared.
“All of you disperse, if you want to, you can get in touch with the Lord of the Twin Sword valley”.
The other disciples seemed to be unconvinced, but seeing the serious expression in the face of the city lord they all obeyed, none of them were winged emblem disciples, so their status was still below core elders after all.
The city lord sighed, before she focused her attention on Aster’s group.
“Agnes, the introduction tour for all the new disciples takes place at the east sky city for a good reason… you know inner disciples aren’t allowed to enter the center capital unless they are working at one of the stores”.
Agnes carelessly shrugged before she took out a letter and handed it to the city lord.
“The tour at the east sky city started too early, so I offered myself to show them how things work, besides, the supreme elder has given her consent”.
The city lord read the letter and her eyes widened a bit.
‘Inner disciples with the same rights as core disciples… what is the supreme elder thinking’, thought the city lord, still she didn’t complain and after returning the letter to Agnes, she excused herself.
Only then Agnes chuckled before she gave Erick and Kana a small pendant with the emblem of a sword.
Seeing Aster looking at her, Agnes cleared her throat.
“Ahem, those two also endured the whole cycle of the second trial, something never achieved before, so with the approbation of the supreme elder and two out of three faction core elders, they can access the places reserved for core disciples, although they are still inner disciples for the time being”.
“You would have brought them with you anyway… so with this we can avoid meaningless conflicts”.
Aster nodded, Erick might have not been able to meet the requirements to be a core disciple from the very beginning, but he will still become one sooner or later, as for Kana, she could have done it if she had more time to steal points from the other aspirants.
Leaving that small interaction aside, Agnes guided them to the first stop of the tour, an amphitheater where an elder was already imparting some lessons about cultivation.
“All the cities have an amphitheater where you can listen to the lessons that the elders give, everyday week there is a different subject imparted by an elder, you are free to join as long as you arrive before the lesson starts at 8:00 Am, or if the elder in turn allows you to”.
There was a lesson ongoing so the elder in turn, gave Agnes an intense gaze because the attending disciples got distracted by their arrival.
Without paying attention to them, Aster and the others left to the next stop, this time it was a three-floor building which looked like a hotel, there were disciples coming in and out almost at every moment.
Inside of the building there was a living area, a counter with a receptionist and lastly a wall completely occupied by a board with some papers attached to it,
“This is the mission hall, here you can register for a mission using your token of identity, if you have any questions just ask the elder in charge at the counter, she is also the one in charge to hand you the rewards of the mission”.
“The first floor is designated for miscellaneous tasks, the second one is for protection and escorting tasks and the third one is reserved for extermination tasks”.
Unlike the amphitheater, Agnes noticed Aster and the others seemed to be interested in the mission hall, Aster walked towards the board, the system to accept the missions was quite creative, there was a seal from the one who issued the mission, which could be scanned with the identity token, to take the mission.
“Mm?”, something that drew Aster’s attention was that the missions all involved the possibility of running into Mortal Transcending realm threats, but on the other hand they were allowed to form groups to take them, it was perfect for Alice and the others.
The next stop was a black stone slate similar to the one used for the admission trials, the difference was that here only the top one hundred core disciples were displayed, and the positions depended on the number of points of contribution the disciples had, another thing which differentiated it from the one Aster saw before, was that the list included disciples from the four peaks.
There were some stone benches and tables and a small restaurant, similar to a coffee shop from the earth, where the disciples were having some pastry and other similar snacks.
“There are four big cities in the planet besides the center capital, only in these you can see the Heavenly Rankings, all the other cities only show the ranks within the battle peak, when there are tournaments, the disciples can see the fights on the black stone slates, that’s why some restaurants were built here”.
The next stop was the most concurred area of the city, the commercial district, streets full of stores which dedicated to buy or sell all kinds of things, and the crown of the district was an auction house which was run by the sect.
Something that was quite eye catching was that some stores had different emblems on their facades, meaning they were run by different families affiliated to the sect, of course there were others who belonged to the sect.
Aster noticed the streets were pretty crowded, especially the area near the auction house, to the point that there were guards displayed to avoid conflicts.
“The auction of today was delayed due to the law enforcer Ramon disappearing”, said Agnes as she giggled.
The next stop was just seen from afar, it was a black building with guards wearing a full body black armor stationed at the entrance.
“That’s the punishment hall, it’s where disciples are prosecuted, there is also a prison but it’s not in the planet and is only accessible by those selected by elder Talis”.
Not even a couple of kilometers away there was a large Arena which was practically a deserted place, in fact even the entrance was closed.
“You might not need it, but that’s the life and death arena, it was created for disciples who can’t live under the same heaven, but both parties have to agree to it”.
The next stop was at the center of the city, right next to the mansion of the city lord, it was a portal which was guarded by inner elders instead of guards.
“Using spaceships in the planet is forbidden, each city has a portal that can take you to the neutral city where you can leave to other star clusters or stellar systems, in an emergency the disciples can transport directly from here, with the approval of the gate keepers… you can do it too since you are a Lord of a valley”.
The last stop was the whole west area of the city which was divided in four parts, unlike the rest of the city, there were disciples from the other peaks here, but they were limited to the areas designated for their respective peaks.
“Here the disciples of the different peaks can meet each other, it’s normally used as a gathering point for those who accept missions together, there is another portal there which leads to the neutral city”.
“Ahh, I nearly forgot about it, the east sky city is the base of our black sword faction, the city lord is sister Valentina”.
“Any questions?”.
“What are the requirements to open a store in the commercia district?”, asked Eris.
“You are considered inner elders, so you just need to rent a local, just be aware that the products already available are of a relatively high quality, so it’s not that easy to success”.
Eris and Mylene stared at each other and smiled.
“No problem”.