The group which was being guided by Valentina, soon reached the entrance to the auction house, the guards stationed at the foot of the stairs, slightly bowed their heads towards Valentina.
"Welcome miss Valentina, how can we help you today?", said the guard at the right side, it's worth mentioning that those two guards were actually early-stage Void Manipulation realm cultivators.
And they were just the gatekeepers, with a quick scan, Aster could tell that there were much stronger people guarding the fort, deep inside the auction house, which made him give his treasure girl, a quick gaze which she recognized on the spot.
'Let's play the usual game, a reward for each nice finding you discover and a little punishment for each decent thing that escapes your sight', he said, since Camila isn't a Star Maiden, nor she has stimulated a star enough to form a mind connection, like Kana did back at Esmeralda's realm, then it had to be done this way.
That being said, they did have a certain connection, thanks to them sharing the Wolfstein lineage, Camila had one aspect while Aster incarnated the other one, but that's beside the point.
'Not fair, my senses have trouble with detecting things kept in spatial storage treasures, but those eyes of yours can see through that', she said to which Aster grinned at her.
'Well, it wouldn't be training if it was easy, don't worry, I'm pretty sure you'll "like" it whether the result is a reward or a punishment, so you can try your best without any worries~', he jokingly added, making Camila feel even more worried than before.
'You bully...', she cutely mumbled making Aster chuckle, of course that little exchange while unnoticeable to the other girls, the Star Maidens could practically listen to Aster's thoughts, as long as he allowed them of course and he did, because he wanted to tease them, the result was that Camila ended up being gazed by the pair of dragon mother and daughter.
While Camila was having trouble enduring the though not ill intended, still intimidating gazes of Lilia and Alice, Valentina answered the guards.
"I want the private room which the Marius company reserved for me", she said.
While the temporary city has been around for nearly a week at this point, between the big merchant companies reaching this place after being informed by the lucky bastards who were around and the auction house waiting until enough people arrived, the first auction was held until today.
Aster and the others weren't the only ones who arrived at this place recently, they were the first ones from the Myriad Occupation sect only, but they Fey family and their subordinates had been arriving since a couple of days ago and only today they finished their travels.
In other words, the auction house basically held back until all the young masters with deep pockets arrived, to make the first auction night, of course they had to show Valentina some face, since they weren't waiting for the disciples of the Myriad Occupation sect, so the merchant families in charge of the auction house told her that they will keep a special seat for her to attend.
However, judging by the stiff reactions of the guards, things weren't going to be as they should be.
"Only the rooms number 1 and 15 are big enough to comfortably allow a group as big as miss Valentina's one, to enjoy the auction, Lord Marius originally reserved room number 1 but...", the guard stopped midway as if he was afraid to finish his sentence, until the other guard continued.
"Lord Teles gave the room number 1 to the esteemed guests from the Mountain Amber and Ocean Aquamarine families, without Lord Marius's approval, they have been arguing about it, but the esteemed guests had already occupied room number 1, so we can only offer miss Valentina room number 15", the guard bowed his head and made his companion do the same.
The previous might sound like nothing, but Valentina the appointed ruler was being sent to the last VIP room, the design of the auction house is made it so that the first and last rooms, on the second floor had the most space, the problem here is that it was not only disrespectful but the auction house was going against an agreement which Valentina reached with them, hence why the guards were worried, since they could end up being dragged into the mess.
The forces behind the auction house might be rich and high ranked enough to negotiate with the Fey family, but that only applies to the direct representatives of said forces, those "Lords" mentioned by the guards, but they, the staff could end up as scapegoats for the anger of those with high status and no one would stand up for them.
And while Valentina wasn't that type of person, she was indeed angry that the auction house didn't fulfill their promise and also at those trouble makers that shared her last name.
"Don't pay attention to that, we are here to enjoy a nice dinner together", casually said Aster, to which Valentina nodded.
"Mm, you are right, we'll take room number 15, tell those old guys that I will come back for an explanation when I'm free", she said to the guards, who finally relaxed as they thanked to all the stars that it was Valentina the one, they had to deal with, had it been other Fey princess, their fates would have been rather grim.
The guards then respectfully opened the gates for them and even guided the group through the corridor, the auction house was designed like a modern theater, there were many rows of seats in an open space in front of a stage, that was the common area, of course different seats had different sizes, space and views, those who paid more or had some background could enjoy a better treatment that's a golden rule in the cultivation world, those seats were mostly occupied at this point by the way.
Then at the second floor, the real big shots, those who were affiliated with high ranked families and forces, were placed, just like the guard mentioned, the rooms at the two extremes of the second floor were larger than the other ones.
Since the auction house wasn't as big as it would normally be, due to the space limitations of the temporary city, each meter counted, in fact there were people who were going to participate in the auction through communication talismans, since they couldn't reserve a seat in time, roughly the theater could accommodate three hundred people on the first floor and around half of that on the second one.
Now don't let such a small number of participants trick you, the insides of the auction house were quite luxurious, they didn't lose when compared to Valentina's mansion back at the Battle Planet, basically it was at the highest end of luxury that could be attained in a middle grade Stellar System.
'I guess it makes sense, otherwise they wouldn't have a half step Heavenly realm cultivator guarding their treasury, I wonder is Valentina is aware of that guy's existence', thought Aster as he remembered the strong aura he discovered hidden at the depths of the auction house.
The multiple merchant families that set up this auction house, for sure came from the high-grade Stellar Systems and they put up quite importance to this event, if they went as far as to send someone with the highest realm possible for middle grade Stellar Systems.
"Dear guests, the auction is about to start, a copy of the rules and other information is waiting for you at your private room, I wish you a successful night", said the guard as he turned around to leave in a hurry along with his partner.
Aster smirked, since a while ago, he could feel the mocking gazes coming from the room number 1.
'Let me give you something interesting to watch', he thought, on the outside nothing happened, but inside his sword intent was split into two separate currents by a thin layer of annihilation.
Aster's eyes glowed for a second and an invisible stream of soul energy imbued with his sword intent, accurately shaved a part of the frontal wall of the private room assigned to Valentina, so that the number "5" was eliminated, the result is that now there were two rooms number 1.
A "Clang" sound echoed through the whole theater, drawing all the present people's attention, they turned around just in time to see the metallic golden number fall to the ground.
While Valentina and most of the girls were unaware of what just happened, Agnes who has seen Aster separate his sword intent first hand before, stole a gaze at Aster to then smile to herself, besides her the only one who noticed what just happened was Lilia who was giggling.
'So, you indeed inherited the tendency to cause trouble from me, darling~', she thought.
Ignoring the attention from all the other attendants, including the people in the other private rooms, Aster walked into the room assigned to them, followed by the others.
The private room was quite spacious, enough for everyone to relax on the multiple luxury couches and also sit at the large dinning table, while enjoying a perfect view of the stage down below where the auction will take place.
Aster grabbed a small booklet with the rules and dynamics of the auction and he was positively surprised, apparently even the dinner here was a part of the auction, snacks, regular food and complimentary drinks were offered for free.
In fact, the little girl and the little wyrm were already attacking them, but the main dishes were actually going to be auctioned, of course they couldn't be regular meals, the list explained that they were dishes prepared by renowned Spirit Chefs, stored in spatial rings and brought here all the way from high grade Stellar Systems.
"Without further ado, let's start with the opening dish, prepared by the famous Spirit Chef, lady Spring, her renowned "Four season salad", said the auctioneer as she took out a tray with a transparent crystal lid on top of it, from her spatial ring.
The dish in question was a neatly organized salad with vegetables and fruits with colors and the order of the four seasons of a year, from the vibrant green related to spring, to a vivid yellow color for summer, a mix of orange and red for summer and light blue for winter.
"Leaving esthetics aside, this dish was prepared by lady Spring and has four different benefits that can be of help for anyone whose cultivation is below the Law Integration realm, there are forty portions available, the first thirty will be auctioned in three batches of ten portions and the remaining ones will be offered individually".
"For the batches, the initial price will be of a hundred thousand spirit jades and each bid must increase the price for at least five thousand jades, the individual portions will have an initial price of ten thousand spirit jades and each bid must increase the price for at least five hundred jades, I wish good luck to everyone".
Practically all the participants on the first floor were immediately left out from the bidding war for the three ten portion batches, if they were lucky, they might be able to get an individual portion from the remaining ten at the end.
In the meantime, the price for the first batch soared all the way to three hundred thousand spirit jades, in a matter of seconds, only then the biddings slowed down.
Inside of Valentina's private room, Aster saw Kana who was sitting on her lap, being interested on that salad and he patted her head, earning a few giggles from the little girl, he hadn't made a single offer so far, because it was easier to wait for the highest bidder to show up before acting, that and because what he was waiting for hadn't happened yet.
The auctioneer who was about to start the countdown, seeing that there were no new bids, was taken by surprise by a calm voice echoing through the theater.
"Four hundred thousand spirit jades".
"...", silence fell on the whole area for a second, before the other bidder, whoever was in the private room number 3, said.
"Four hundred and ten thousand...", that person hadn't finished his sentence when Aster cut him off.
"Five hundred thousand".
The auctioneer whose eyes were sparkling, since anything past two hundred and fifty thousand was pure profit for them, waited for any other sudden interference but there was nothing, half a million middle grade spirit jades for salads was crazy when paid out of one's pocket, instead of being sponsored by one's background after all.
"The first batch has been sold to the esteemed guest of room number one", said the auctioneer as she sealed the deal, she placed a spatial ring on the podium at the stage and the thing was transported a second later when Aster placed the payment on the respective space designated for that.
It was a real time payment system, of course this was prepared for the food auction, since the amount of spirit jades won't go pass a certain number, the treasures that will come later on will follow the usual method in which the payment is done face to face between the one who bid the highest price and the staff of the auction house.
Inside of Valentina's private room, Aster handed the ring to the little girl who happily took out the content of it, ten portions of salad were placed on the large dinning table in the middle of the room.
But that wasn't all, Kana had to wait a bit more since the second batch was being auctioned right now and Aster was planning to buy it as well, this time though, he was the first one to bid.
"Five hundred thousand spirit jades".
The auctioneer who only a second ago realized that she committed a mistake saying that the one bought the previous batch was the guest in the room number one and was about to explain her mistake, swallowed her words on the spot, which made Aster smirk.
Especially since after a whole ten seconds there was no other bid, the auctioneer gazed in Aster's direction, before sealing the deal.
"The second batch has been to the esteemed guest of room number... one", while the auctioneer seemed to doubt for a second there, she still called Aster's room the number one.
Imagine her surprise when the third batch was put up for the auction and Aster's voice once again was the first to be heard.
"Five hundred thousand".
This time however, the other interested bidder, in other words the ones in the room number three, didn't remain silent.
"To the friend in that room, are you perhaps going to buy everything tonight?", said a man with a slightly aggressive voice, to which Aster casually said.
"I won't bid for the remaining ten portions, of course if you want to fight with me for this batch, I don't care".
The guys at room number three remained silent for a couple of seconds, but ultimately, they gave in.
"He can have this batch as well", they said, of course that was only to save face, even if they wanted to go against Aster they couldn't have raised the price of this dish that much, unless they were ready to give up on the chance to get some treasures later on.
And with that the auctioneer sold the third batch and now there were exactly thirty portions of salad, served at the table which was enough for the whole group and to have one plate and still there will be some for Sarina to study later on.
"Now, feel free to dig in", with Aster's green light, everyone sat at the table and started to eat, everyone was positively surprised by the nice taste and the refreshing sensation brought by the first bite.
"This is delicious, thanks big brother~", cutely said the little girl as she chewed a piece of a green vegetable from the spring part of the salad.
"Hisss~", Espi tried a fruit from the winter part first instead, but the result was the same, both little girls were enjoying their meal.
Aster smiled as he accepted a bite of salad given to him by Sarina, only to be offered one by that jealous dragon mother of his.
"I can't eat more than one plate of salad you two", said Aster, still he of course accepted Lilia's fork, making Sarina pout.
By the time the individual portions were auctioned everyone at Valentina's room had finished their entrance, now it was time for the main dish.
The moment the auctioneer took out the dish and even before she explained what it was, Lilia cutely leaned her face against Aster's to then say.
"I want to try that, darling~", Aster was taken by surprise as he saw Lilia acting all cute and girly.
'Is this also caused by mom returning to her young self, not that I mind though', he thought.