Chapter 879: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 32)

The previous might make you think that Aster’s plan of putting on the front of being a useless silk pants surrounded by capable beauties, is useless since their faces are covered, but that’s absolutely not the case.

To begin with, while their bodies, skin, clothes and even hair included are being covered in blue light, they all keep their shape perfectly visible and the same applies to the "vibe" they give off externally, it was made that way to maintain "individuality" in a place where identities are hidden.

In other words, if one is violent or gentle, one would still feel like that in this place, so those four who are naturally beautiful, elegant, wild, playful, gentle and the like, still give that impression, thus even without their faces not being in the open, those who look at them can tell that they are no ordinary girls by any means.

And that still works in Aster’s favor, because in case you have forgotten, what does basically everyone who sees or first meets Aster but doesn’t get to know him at a personal level, think of him, yeah, they think he is lousy dual cultivator.

Even Cassandra with her innate unusually sharp danger senses, which allowed her to navigate through her life as a mercenary, was tricked by the previous to a certain extent, and people can’t directly inspect anyone here, so the front was bound to be successfully established.

Add to that the fact that he made an unnecessarily detailed and handsome human male mask, while those four were "prudent" and didn’t give any detail to their masks, just letting them in a smooth oval blank state, and there you have it, a useless young master dual cultivator which depended on his background to provide him with a whole bunch of capable beauties to look after him.

’I have to give it to Aster, he really can play the role perfectly~’, amusingly thought Mylene as she noticed the countless looks of disdain, interest, jealousy and the like, falling on them.

Don’t get it wrong, Aster set up a front to make others look down on him, but his group made it so that others couldn’t take them as pushovers, he was the "useless" one, the fact that he has four outstanding girls surrounding him means that he comes from a camp that won a match, and they are clearly way above average, so he is not to be messed with directly.

’Would you look at that, a fish already took the bait, I have to thank our dear "main characters" for putting things into motion without me having to do anything’, thought Aster as he saw a group of nine, in other words one group of winners and two groups of losers, approach them.

After that guy with the swordfish mask had talked, there was a reaction from a small group which was "familiar" to Aster, namely those fifty people who he noticed looked at the gates even if for a fraction of a second or in secret.

They who had appeared at completely separated spots of the warrior hall, actually ended up facing each other, and after "feeling" others out, they occupied a table and then seemed to have started to introduce each other.

Not with real names and the like, but used their masks as a way to identify each other, in other words they who came from high grade gates gathered and ignored all others here.

It wasn’t as arrogant of an attitude as it sounded for a change though, to begin with, Aster could tell that none of those ten camps sent their actual leaders, they all sent one or two authorities and some other members of their respective groups, and yet they all radiated this "extraordinary" feeling.

Aster didn’t know if their groups were as large as his, given that the high grade gates from which they came were not under the blue flaming board’s jurisdiction, his and Wade’s group were the only ones that were originally supervised by it, given that blue sky was trapped in the trial road and only returned to this place when they arrived here.

Though after that, other groups were brought under the blue flaming board’s supervision and after the incident with the bear, blue sky regained complete control over the eastern zone and also obtained authority over the events regardless of zone, given that all participants had to participate in matches and other events arranged by the blue flaming board, like this one for example.

"Hi young friend, we are looking for other groups from peak middle ranked to low upper ranked backgrounds for our table, would you like to join us?", said the guy leading the group of five, he had a square brick wall pattern mask.

"We are only looking for people on similar stand with us, we won’t meddle in your actual identity", added one of the two leading one of the two member group, he had a triangular vertical line pattern mask.

’Look at these guys, calling him "young friend" to establish an age hierarchy from the very beginning while sounding "polite", that’s what Aster’s mask was made for, but it’s a bit scary that he casually made some fools take hook line and sinker right away just like that~’, amusingly thought Mylene as she calmy remained at her "young master’s" side.

"And perhaps we can exchange information of this place and trade some materials or other things at prices exclusive to us of a similar standing", said the second guy leading a group of two, his mask was a wolf head.

"Sure, I was getting bored of only exchanging gazes with others anyway", casually said Aster as he played his part of a useless second generation, it also helped that one of the "capable beauties" was keeping watch on Aster, namely Mira, and that was not feigned, it was because even in this place Alice kept clinging to Aster while rubbing her face against his shoulder.

The previous is because Aster was casually placing one of his hands on Alice’s currently invisible and untouchable for external people, tail, while he also "secretly" gazed at one of the female members of the square brick pattern masked guy, the former was to content the wild dragon princess for the latter, and both as a whole were to get the ligress fully "immersed" into her role and it worked like a charm in both cases.

"Perfect, the others should be returning with other fellows for our table, so let’s go back", said the square brick wall pattern guy as he disdainfully smiled behind his mask to then guide the way to a table.

’Giving that we are maybe not among the first round that gathered and sat on a table, but still within the firsts rounds, these guys should indeed have come from decently ranked backgrounds, all from divine firmaments most likely’, thought Aster as he, while keeping up a carefree and relaxed front, evaluated the current state of the warrior hall.

Aside from the "top" table where those that came from high grade gates had gathered, there were other around forty tables that were all about to finish having all their seats occupied, which was quite fast.

But it’s understandable since all those were from middle to upper high grade backgrounds, so they didn’t hide more than necessary, and gathered rather easily, there is a total of seven thousand people in this place, and the previous covers around 2000 people, including the top table of course.

Then you have those from peak middle to low high ranked backgrounds, which is the group in which Aster had mixed himself into, they were half finished "selecting" who to sit with currently, in a rough calculation around thirty tables which means 1500 people will form this category once they had finished the selection process.

The rest is amusing, from low middle to the average middle ranked backgrounds, "surprisingly" appear that they would only occupy twenty tables which means a 1000 people, as for the remaining 2500 people, they are either from the three categories of low ranked backgrounds, people from mortal realms, a mix of "dragons and snakes", in other words those who are hiding their real strength much more than necessary, or those that are actually weak, and last but not least those from "new" races unknown to the cultivation world even for those of divine firmaments until not too long ago, like the orcrary, and those hyena head guys for example.

They were given complete human shape, but Aster could single out a few of them whom he was sure were from said races, because there was a different kind of "hostility" to them, not the type that evil cultivators who use others as resources or for pleasure and fun have, but the type that sees others as livestock, it was much more primitive.

Not that it made it any less displeasing, since those guys clearly didn’t need to consume cultivators, they pretty much were omnivores like humans and most beast descendant races or even spirit beasts, but found cultivators "tasty", that kind of feeling is what they radiated from Aster’s point of view.

Of course, those numbers were what everyone put on the front, but in truth some were hiding their strength while others were inflating theirs, there were also fools who failed to do so though.

"Hey what is the meaning of this, you brought us to your table and now are you telling me that there are no seats left!", exclaimed a guy with an oval shaped mask which was fluid blue patterns in them, he belonged to a group of five and Aster instantly knew who he was.

’Looks like missing an arm and having his new "love" taken away by me wasn’t enough to fix him, not that it surprises me’, amusingly thought Aster as he casually sat on his chair while ignoring the ongoing loudest commotion, which was initiated by none other than... Albert, yeah that guy with glasses who is Wade’s young brother.

Wade didn’t come here, they sent the representative from the supreme elemental sect, the mountain amber young master who also lost an arm and Fawn to Aster, though in a different sense than Albert, namely Bradley was also here, the other two were a mercenary and that middle-aged uncle called Otto, which meant that while the two Fey family branches and the supreme elemental sect still kept the highest authority in their camp, they couldn’t ignore the mercenaries and Fawn’s group.

Amusingly enough, the Redheart and Bayer families, as well as the marsh domain and the pleasure palace sects were nowhere to be seen, on the other hand the fact that they were a group of five meant that they actually won their match, but well, they technically had the advantage of having mercenaries used to a life closer to that of mortals, so once they got their heads out of their asses after finally being woken up when Aster "stole" Fawn who was one of the top contributors of their camp, from them, they probably started getting some results, not without wasting most of their development week though.

But it was enough for them to consider and make themselves past a part of the same group in which Aster had mixed in, namely those from peak middle and low upper background, until after being brought to a table belonging to said group, since they were now being shooed away, the reason was simple, they felt the "weakest" among all the ones that had gathered in that table.

’Fool, there are "good" ways to draw attention and "bad" ways to do so’, thought Mylene and she was right.

"I only brought you here because you seem to be on par with us, but at a closer look, this table is too high ranked for your group, go and join one with most average or peak middle ranked groups and you’ll be fine", said a guy leading a group of five with a bird beak mask to then completely ignore Albert’s group.

"You...", Wade’s group had learned though, before Bradlay could make more of a scene, the elder from the supreme elemental sect simply snorted as he extended his arm in front of Albert and Bradley.

"We’ll take our leave", he limited to say, unfortunately, the damage was already done, because their group had friction with a table that mostly had low upper grade background members, and after they were send away, the idea that they overestimated themselves was fixated in other people’s minds.

"Sorry, we are already full", which led to the group from Wade’s camp to be rejected from sitting in all their first and even second options, ultimately making them settle for a table with most low middle grade members and a couple of average ones at most, the bottom of the barrel for the level they thought they "deserved", even after knowing that they came from a mortal realm now.

’These fucking bastards, they actually think they are "gods" because they come from divine firmaments, just you wait, we’ll destroy you like those guys at our match!’, cursed Albert to his insides, in this place he couldn’t force himself to calm down, though he kept a mortal version of his innate ability, it wasn’t good enough to keep his calm and "composed" demeanor.

In comparison, just like Mylene had said, those guys drew attention in a "bad" way, while Aster did it in a "good" way, of course the previous was relative to the goal each one had in question.

Because as Mylene sat at Aster’s left, while Mira sat at his right, Cassandra sat next to Mylene, as for Alice, she also perfectly played her role and naturally sat on Aster’s lap to then nestle her head against his chest, it was perfect for her since she wasn’t acting... at all.

Due to the previous, a seat was unoccupied but rather than caring about that, most in the table instead looked at Aster who was leisurely flirting with Alice not without checking on a couple of "outstanding" female members of other groups and all had the same thought.

’Easy prey!’, especially one of the groups that sat at the highest positions in the table, one that was exclusively formed by female members.

"Oh, who is this little brother you brought, castle?", said the one leading the previously mentioned group, a tall woman with an elegant feather design mask, ah right "castle" was the nickname of the guy with the square brick pattern mask that invited Aster to this table.

"We haven’t properly introduced ourselves, but I guarantee that he is of the same standing as us, swan", said the square masked guy, "swan" was the nickname of the woman with the feathered mask, castle also used this chance to make Aster reveal something about himself, and he "fell" for it.

"Right, we can’t exchange information without having a way to refer to each other, call me "golden sword", it’s pleasure miss swan", said Aster as he "politely" greeted the woman with the feathered mask and her group, without glancing at castle who brought him into the group, not that the latter was offended by it, he was in fact laughing to his insides, while a few others couldn’t help but almost laugh out loud or feel "pity".

To begin with, such an "arrogant" nickname as golden sword was bound to attract attention from the "actual" big fishes, because as one would expect there were a couple of sword cultivator groups at the top and high grade tables.

And add to that the fact that Aster was openly flirting with Alice and he still showed interest in other women, which was a good opening for those with female members on their groups to make use of him.

’What a sucker, to think he is trying to play nice in front of those terrifying women, there won’t be even a bone left behind of you once they are done using you kid’, thought the brock pattern masked leader.

With Aster being chosen as the "fool" to speak first, those who were brought by the ones leading the table opened up and started introducing themselves, there were a total of eight groups who had won a match, for a total of 40 people and five groups who lost, for the remaining ten people.

"Seriously this place is stupid, originally we were able to use spirit energy to a certain extent, and then out of damn nowhere we became mortals and what’s more we had to start to learn from those books", said someone from a losing group, it was that guy with the swordfish mask by the way.

"Ugh, don’t even remind me of that, we lost to some mortal realm ants, just because they randomly had taken interest in the manuals and bought them even if they were a waste of their hardly earned merits before we lost access to the spirit techniques that could be bought from the supervisors, the rewards we can obtain better be worth it", added another one from a losing group.

In case you have forgotten, prior to the return of the blue flaming board, the participants could somewhat access spirit energy, though they had to use things bought with merits, like those clouds in which James and his former teammate arrived back then, at the same time earning merits was stupidly hard to do.

Still, there were manuals that fit the criteria of the blue flaming board back then, and some groups had bought them out of curiosity or randomly despite the scarce merits that could be earned through tasks.

And those that did, ended up benefiting in a sense, because the blue flaming board confiscated everything that wasn’t at mortal level, and didn’t refund any merits to them, so the major part of the participants had to start from zero, except those that had said mortal manuals in their possession already, it was mostly a strike of good luck for the majority.

The previous allowed some groups to jump the limits of their innate abilities, talents and the like to win in the first match, and that’s how quite a few groups that would have originally won, ended up losing, because their progress fell behind those they normally would look down upon.

"Speaking of that, does anyone of you know anything about the ones running this place, I went through the memories I have of my native place’s records, but I don’t remember anything that resembled the events that have taken place here?", said the feather masked woman.

To which Aster spoke in a "hurry" as if he couldn’t let anyone else answer swan’s question before him.

"I also tried to find out, but there was no intel on my side nor that of those guys we defeated at the match, it must be a secret realm from an ancient empire who lost in a war and was erased from history", he said, which for a change was actually supported by others.

"Brother golden sword might be right, normally the only ones that have no records of them left in history at the level of our backgrounds, are those who lost and were reduced to low ranked subordinated firmaments with their legacies interrupted as punishment, or even mortal realms", said a guy with a deer horn mask, who was nicknamed as "sucker 1" by Aster because his interest in the feather masked woman was real unlike his, he also used a sarcastic voice when he called Aster "brother golden sword", in other words he thought of Aster as competition for swan’s attention.

"That would explain why they forbid the use of spirit and divine energies, otherwise we wouldn’t be facing such trouble for their petty trials", added another guy, this one’s mask had a wood-like pattern design, that was "sucker 2", he was a friend of the previous one and both were from camps that had won a match.

"B-But what about that weird new energy that was implemented?", said someone from a losing group, this one had a chain pattern mask.

"Humph, what "new", it’s just spirit energy collected in a similar way as how those fools from churches do, it’s a simple trick, a formation to gather spirit energy alongside either yin or yang energies which are affected by emotions which can alter normal spirit or divine energies in strange ways, that’s all", directly said a female leader from a winning group, her mask was rectangular and had a flame like pattern on it.

After having waited to listen to some opinions, the woman with the feathered mask changed to her actual goal, and naturally she chose an appropriate target for it.

"What do you say little brother golden sword, did you notice something interesting after implementing a "belief" on your end?", she asked.

Now that was a subject of interest for every single person here, not only for winners who were the only ones that could establish beliefs at this point, since the next match will take place until tomorrow.

But also for those who lost, because the success of the belief being implemented wasn’t guaranteed, which gave them a chance to catch on with others, most likely those whose beliefs failed to be implemented will be matched against those who lost after all.

So, if they learned on what not to do, and then won the next match, they will make up for their initial loses, unfortunately for them Aster didn’t play the role of a "young master" to enlighten these guys, but to further muddy the waters so that he could take advantage of the chaos.

That’s why he directed the conversation in a way that would discard the possibility of the ones behind this place, surpassing the level of divine empires, earlier, of course he did so in a subtle way, since the explanation of the reasons behind his answer were kindly provided by sucker 1 and 2.

"I had no trouble, I just established myself as the highest authority in my camp and since it was already like that, things proceeded smoothly, thanks to that I’m having more fun than even before", said Aster as he caressed Alice’s head, basically saying that his belief allowed him to make others in his camp to listen to him.

’That explains why that one at his right has this "angered" vibe around her when she looks at him’, thought quite a few on the table, referring to Mira.