In front of the portal Isaac was having the time of his life, at first, he doubted about using the last spirit herb inherited by his ancestors to stablish a relationship with an elder from the sand mountain sect.
But now he was sure it was the best decision of his life, a couple of days ago he was contacted by his subordinates, they informed him that inside of the "secret realm", a power which surpassed the star tribulation realm was found.
Not only that but they even told him they made a deal with some ignorant natives to give in their resources in exchange for help to get rid of some worthless enemies.
Isaac was in ninth cloud, the elders of the sand mountain sect didn't receive any intel, so he offered them information and a share of the resources his subordinates got, in exchange of arranging a marriage with one of the granddaughters of the supreme elder.
The supreme elder easily accepted, he had so many relatives he didn't care using a couple of them to get resources for mortal transcending cultivators, what's more, children in question had a talent decent enough to become a sea of knowledge cultivator in the future so it was a win-win situation.
The other reason as to why he had to accept was that by the rules of the sect only one of the two sea of knowledge cultivators was allowed to go exploring, in case something happened they will be able to at least keep their domain over other star clusters.
This time it was David turn's to go, so the supreme elder knew he would not get anything of this exploration, something he could not allow, so when Isaac knocked at his door he accepted his offer.
With the resources he might be able to breakthrough and reach the peak of the sea of knowledge realm, which put him on the top of the pyramid among low ranked star clusters, and will finally allow his sand mountain sect to be noticed by the rulers of the stellar system.
Isaac saw the happy expression on he the face of the old man and he poured wine in a cup before offering it to him.
"Senior Gerard, this is a wine that has been aging for two thousand years, please accept this toast as a sign of goodwill from my Wolfstein family".
Gerard Orkel was so happy that he didn't care about Isaac calling him by his name and instead accepted the cup.
Isaac nodded seeing his offer being accepted and then rose his cup.
"For the union of my son, the proud of the Azure sky planet Valentine Wolfstein and miss Yolanda Orkel".
"And for my soon to be revenge on the woman that despised me for so many years, Lilia prepare yourself to see what a true man is made of humph", he mentally added, in his mind Lilia was a mortal transcending cultivator, so she wasn't here because she got scared of the sea of knowledge cultivators that came to Zartia.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtGerard answered the toast and drank the wine in one go.
"For a trash tier star cluster, this is some pretty good wine", he thought.
Isaac also drank the content of his cup and of course didn't forget to give Kalas Rein a disdaining gaze.
Kalas gritted his teeth, the last time he took the initiative of marrying his daughter to the adopted son of an elder, a mortal transcending cultivator on top of that, which made him the next possible ruler of the Rodia star cluster, but somehow Isaac got privileged information, while his sons didn't send him anything.
So now the one with a higher status wasn't him but Isaac, since his son would marry the descendant of a sea of knowledge cultivator.
"What a cunning bastard", he thought as he remained silent.
Unfortunately for all of them, everything they knew about the "secret realm" was a lie, the subordinates of Isaac were already under the control of the women of the Riga royal family.
Basically, Augustus was playing with them, he wanted them to send more people which would mean more nourishment for him and his confidents, so the riches and the "ignorant natives" were all a lie designed to attract them.
Suddenly everyone's attention was drawn by some changes on the portal, Gerard and Isaac stood up ready to welcome their bright future… but instead of the people they expected, a tall black-haired youth accompanied by seven girls left the portal.
While Gerard didn't know any of them, Isaac perfectly recognized three of them, Aster, Lilia and Alice of course.
The spatial portal closed behind them.
"What you look like you are disappointed to see us, as if you were expecting other people?", said Aster with a sarcastic smile on his face.
While Gerard ignored them, Isaac gritted his teeth as he replied.
"Where are the others… where is my son!!!".
Aster shrugged, "Who knows, we aren't friends nor family so why should I know where and when he dropped dead".
Isaac felt a vein popping on his neck, he took his communication talisman out of his spatial ring and tried to contact any of his subordinates, Kalas did the same but none of his children answered.
…
After a few more tries, the seconds seemed to last hours, Isaac threw his talisman to the ground and then shouted.
"You animal, you killed them all just to monopolize the resources… Lilia, I knew you hated me, but to think you would go as far as to kill kids from the young generation".
He turned to see Gerard and bowed his head.
"Senior Gerard, that woman has been abusing from her mortal transcending status to bully my Wolfstein family, her acts go against the ethic of a cultivator, please help me get justice, then we can use the things in their spatial rings as offerings to appease their victims!!!".
Aster listened to Isaac's shameless tries of turning black and white and he shook his head.
"Denying your own actions and desires, what a hypocrite asshole".
Even Gerard's lips trembled listening to Aster's words but ultimately from where the resources came, he didn't care, as long as they ended on his hands, on the other hand he was marveled by the bunch of beautiful women which were now in front of him.
Especially the woman which Isaac called Lilia, so, he decided to play the role of a respectable senior, if he gets here to join his sect then he would find the opportunity to make her his main wife.
"Ahem, what are you talking about Isaac, youngsters only need a good guide to correct their ways".
Gerard put on a gentle smile as he spoke to Aster.
"Little junior, if you don't have anything to hide then show us the content of your spatial ring, if you aren't guilty, I give you my word that we will not harm you".
He then stole a couple of gazes at Lilia and then continued.
"In fact, since you claim to have been falsely accused ad an apology if you are honest, I will invite you all to stay at my sand mountain sect, what do you say?".
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmIsaac had displeased expression, he has been lusting for Lilia for more than twenty years, so of course he realized what were the true intentions of Gerard, unfortunately he had no say on the current situation, his only comfort was that he was sure they had the treasures of the secret realm in their rings.
Aster doubted for a moment, he and the girls then threw their rings at Gerard which used his spirit sense to check them, but inside he only found low leveled things, in the ring of Lilia there were a couple of valuable things but nothing outstanding, which made him hesitate.
"Seems like the kid wasn't lying… then was Isaac trying to deceive me", he thought.
Aster mentally smiled, he then spoke in an aggrieved voice.
"Isaac has been trying to kill us, because I'm more talented than his trash son, that's why he invented all this story about resources inside that portal, we only found abandoned buildings and bones scattered here and there".
"On the other hand, I'm more than interested in joining the sand mountain sect… but me and my mother will only join if Isaac gets the punishment he deserves".
Gerard frowned his brows.
"So, what is your suggestion?".
Aster smiled.
"Unlike him, I'm not as vicious to kill him over a matter of resources, but he will keep trying to harm us, so I think crippling his cultivation would be a fair punishment, considering he wanted to kill me".
Isaac nearly choked when he noticed what was going on, the worst part is that they might not have anything to do with the disappearance of his subordinates, he turned to see Gerard but before he could explain himself, he felt a burning pain on his dantian.
"Aghhh!!!".
Isaac fell to the ground there was a small hole on his stomach from where blood was leaking, not only that, the spirit energy he has gathered all over his life was now returning to the heaven and earth.
Gerard had a severe expression, he reached the conclusion that Isaac made him waste his time, but on the other hand he now had the chance to recruit a mortal transcending cultivator and a beauty on top of that, so a mere stellar axys cultivator like Isaac had no use for him anymore.
He ignored Isaac which was rolling and trying to cover his wound to prevent his cultivation from dispersing, and with a warm smile he turned to see Aster.
"I got justice for you little friend now… aghhhh my eyes!!!".
When he was about to steal a glance at Lilia he felt a sharp pain on his eyes, blood spilled and he covered his face with his hands, all this while Aster smiled with a sword which edge had blood on it.