623 Lilia’s desires (part 3)
The inner elder was clearly displeased over the answer given by the girl from the Green Lotus faction. Nôv(el)B\\jnn
'Damn it, I was looking from afar to confirm if it was the real deal without approaching and drawing the attention of the other fishers, where did that bitch came from!', she inwardly swore.
What angered the elder even more, is the fact that the other things at which that strange woman with a "plain" appearance, was looking at were just low worth things with shinny appearances and other similar trinkets.
In other words, from her point of view that woman just randomly decided to grab the treasure she was eyeing and was lucky to get a killing deal, based on the price tag placed on the case.
"Come on, she is just looking at low price items from the stall, I'll pay you five, no, eight times the amount tagged on the case to sell it to me right now", said the elder to the girl.
Now, it would be a lie to say that the girl wasn't tempted by such an offer, after all while resources were plentiful, unlike other sects, even inner disciples only got a bit more of the needed for cultivation every month, everything else had to be earned with merit points or by demonstrating one's talent.
Outside influence was strictly restrained, elders from high ranked places who joined the sect could support the juniors of their families as long as they proved to be talented, but the number of people an elder could support was really limited.
That being said, there were multiple ways to get rewards, since this wasn't a combat centered place but the Myriad Occupation sect, gatherers could get rewards based on the items they retrieved and sold in the sect, regardless of the channel they used as long as the transaction could be demonstrated to be legitimate of course.
Ultimately the girl shook her head, at the long term, breaking the rules she set up for her stand would drive away the trusted clients she has earned, so it wasn't worth it, not to mention she didn't like the attitude of the elder.
In the merchant district status doesn't matter, this isn't an unspoken value, but a written rule, it was made like this by the Ancestors themselves, since luck is a part of a cultivator's power, also it was to protect the sellers from being forced to cheap their items away.
"Sorry, I'm not holding an auction stall, but a "first come, first serve" kind of thing, however if I find more of the item in discussion, I'll gladly contact you if you want to", nonchalantly said the girl.
While keeping it respectful, she ultimately refused the petition from an elder, so of course some controversy was risen, especially by the disciples who are from the Brown Anvil faction who saw their inner elder be rejected despite having given such a "generous" offer.
Nevertheless, the elder raised her hand to prevent the members of her faction from berating the owner of the stall and instead walked towards Lilia with a calm expression on her face to then say.
"Excuse me, I came out today to find a birthday present for Core elder Tina and that case contains a bunch Fire Sky Spinel, a spirit gem which can greatly help a spirit blacksmith to create a dual earth-fire spirit treasure, would you be willing to sell them to the Brown Anvil faction?".
The elder gave a proper reason and even mentioned her backer in order to persuade the other party, just to see the woman ignoring her and casually grabbing some random shinny objects before continuing to look through the stall.
"...", the elder took a deep breath and then once again approached Lilia with a friendly smile.
"Don't be like that, I can't detect any fire or earth spirit energy from you, nor you are a spirit blacksmith, if you aren't interested in a monetary payment, how about we make a trade, ell me your attribute and I'll look for a resource that goes along with it, in exchange for the spirit gems in that case?".
Receiving no response again and being completely ignored, the elder finally couldn't hold back her anger.
"Hey, I am talking to you, you, insolent woman...", just as she approached Lilia and was about to grab her by her shoulder a playful voice made her stop in cold.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you", all the eyes in the vicinity, were drawn towards the origin of the voice, cultivators have way better memory than mortals, so the vast majority of the present people, immediately recognized that voice, including the inner elder.
"Why are you interfering, Lord of the Twin Sword Valley?", demanded the elder as she turned around and as expected, saw Aster who had finally decided to step in.
"Well, I am related to the people involved in this little scam you are trying to run", casually said Aster as he shrugged.
A vein popped on the elder's forehead upon hearing his answer.
"What scam, don't make things up just for the sake of opposing my faction!", she exclaimed, just to see Aster smirking.
"She did it to herself, go ask the guard of the city if you don't believe me, now unless you want to have a short duel at the Life and Death arena with me, take that woman with you and piss off".
The disciples and anyone else who had a complain, swallowed their anger, feeling a chill run down their back as they remembered the result of the previous event at the Life and Death arena, before they immediately left the vicinity.
Now only members from the Black Sword, Green and Orange Lotus, White Sword and Yellow Anvil factions stayed behind, since none of them had any enmity with Aster and were still processing what happened.
Unfortunately for those curious girls, Aster had something more urgent to tend to, so he took out a spatial ring from his pocket and threw it to the owner of the stall, who caught it just to freeze when she peeked into its contents.
"S-Senior brother this is...", Aster interrupted her by raising his hand.
"That's the safety price these materials would reach in an action, of course I'm not doing charity here, take it as me extending an invitation for you and your acquittances to first show your findings at my store", he said as he grabbed Lilia's arm to then flash away from the merchant district, leaving behind a growing turmoil.
After all, Aster's family store only sold stuff, they didn't buy, that role was left for the girls who enjoyed treasure-hunting in the merchant district, namely Vivian, Mylene and of course Camila, well, Kana tagged along but what did that little girl didn't enjoy as long as she had fun with her older sisters.
Anyway, today's experience showed Aster that among the recollection team, there were some girls with really good luck, so he might as well make good use of that, maybe they'll give him nice surprises like those rubies.
Speaking of that, he gazed at the origin of the whole previous situation, just to see Lilia cutely rubbing her face against his chest, appealing to him, which meant she wanted something.
"What, don't think that just because I couldn't see how you did that, I don't know it was you", he jokingly said as he gently flicked Lilia's nose.
"Grrr~", just to see Lilia cutely growling at him as if saying "It wasn't me", before she licked his hand to then suck on his finger.
"Hey, that tickles...", Aster thought she was just teasing them, until he noticed that she was really focused on licking his index finger and his thumb, the ones with which he grabbed that scaled pattern Red Slaughter Ruby from earlier.
So, she was half playing by licking his fingers and half asking him for the ruby, it was especially noticeable given the how that pair of red eyes needily gazed at him.
"Fine, fine, you were the one who found it anyway", said Aster as he took out that ruby from earlier, which he had sent to the mind space.
The moment he did, Lilia's eyes glowed, she let go of Aster's fingers and intensely gazed at his other hand which was holding the ruby, for a second Aster felt like teasing her, but remembering how she earlier somehow made that elder fly away, while the only thing his eyes were able to see was a glimpse of a dazzling red light and then the elder was flown away, so he decided to play it different.
Aster opened his hand to show the ruby to Lilia, waiting to see what she wanted to do with it, imagine his surprise when that dragon mother of his, casually chomped his hand, without harming him, she just took the ruby away.
"Crack!", cracking sounds then came from Lilia's mouth, she actually chewed the ruby like a candy, before swallowing with a pleasured expression on her pretty face.
Aster bitterly smiled, while a ruby wasn't as tough as diamond, among spirit gems it was still at the top in all its variations and Lilia just chewed a half Immortal grade one like nothing, it reminded him that her nails and teeth when in dragon form were horribly sharp, not like he had to worry about it, since just like the scales on her wings, they wouldn't harm him, but still.
Finishing the remaining dust of the ruby, Lilia licked her lips and then gazed at Aster, her meaning was clear she wanted more.
"You shouldn't eat too much candies", said Aster, just to be given puppy eyes by Lilia, she rubbed herself against Aster, pestering him to give her more "treats".
'And here I thought that little wyrm was a unique case of a candy loving dragon, perhaps it's an instinctive thing', wondered Aster, Espi was the same, when he asked Mylene to make some crystals out of his refined blood, the little wyrm somehow caught a glimpse of them and ate one.
From that point onwards, the little girl asked Aster from some of his blood from time to time and according to Mira it's a good thing since she is also a dragon, as long as it is only a bit, so he asked Mylene to make candies with his blood.
Feeling Lilia increasing the intensity of her rubs against his, Aster patted her head to calm her, he took out one of the candies of the little wyrm and showed it to her.
"The other pieces of ruby will take way more time to be refined, so you'll have to make do with this", he said.
Lilia's nose twitched a couple of times, then to Aster's surprise, she started drooling and immediately tried to snatch the candy away from Aster's hand, but the thing disappeared at the la