Sofia''s body then radiated a large amount of spirit energy without she showing even the slightest sign of tiredness, in other words unlike what the enemies believed, her spirit energy reserves were quite full, despite the strong energy release of earlier when she countered their cold field.

    ''As I thought, her attribute shares some resemblance with my Rigel''s flames'', Aster''s interest was caught by the flames that Sofia used which kind of reminded him to his own Rigel''s flames, as in they could use other stuff as fuel to multiply themselves.

    Of course they weren''t the same at all, Aster''s Rigel''s flames focused on purification, their propagation property is a side effect of they purifying materials that contained spirit energy, the purifying process resulted in the creation of the second type of flames which didn''t originate in Aster and the advanced purified material.

    ''Since propagation isn''t the main objective of my flames, the ones created through the purification process aren''t of the same quality as the ones manifested from me, though the difference is not massive it is indeed noticeable'', he thought.

    In terms of strength and accuracy, the second type of Rigel''s flames lacked when compared to the original ones, they also required Aster to use some soul energy to manipulate them unlike the first kind.

    And Aster can see said differences when using his dragon eyes, on the other hand, earlier when Sofia turned the cold field into a hot hell, the flames resulting from her composed attribute burning said cold field, where exactly the same as Sofia''s ones, which is why the enemy captain found unbelievable that she an earth origin realm energy cultivator wouldn''t be exhausted after such a huge energy explosion.

    ''Well, I guess it''s a "tit for tat" kind of situation, since her attribute can''t do anything about the other materials resulting from burning the spirit energy contained within what it uses as fuel, which depending on the situation might diminish the efficiency of the resulting flames, at least at long distance'', concluded Aster.

    That''s right, though Sofia''s attribute indeed could use the spirit energy that even ice or water contained, as shown previously, she still had to deal with the element in question, unfortunately for those four women, her attribute it way stronger than theirs so their water and ice were burned without putting up much of a resistance.

    ''Mmm, now that I think about it, she did say that one of her parents had wind attribute but...'', as if she could read his mind, the energy constitution mother''s voice reached Aster''s ears.

    ''I seem to remember that fiery girl mentioning that after her fight with Eric and all, she paid a visit to her family''s treasury where a secret compartment which contained a cultivation manual, suddenly appeared''.

    ''What''s more, apparently only she could, let alone read its contents but even touch it, her father whose attribute is fire related suffered a burn just by approaching it, but the thing obediently allowed her to grab it, so she took it for herself and changed the manual she was using which was her father''s one for that'', she said.

    Aster''s eyes glowed for a second, changing manuals is possible but it normally requires to dispel one''s cultivation to re-start from the beginning, however there are exceptions, like when the manual you are changing to shares some relation with the previous one.

    This is what some families use to keep a firm grip on their secondary branches, they give them a diluted version of the family''s cultivation manual and then grant the advanced version after they contribute to the family and the like, the problem with that is that their foundation ends up being flawed if they don''t obtain the full version early.

    Unless the simplified manual wasn''t created for a negative reason like controlling the progress of those who used it, but a positive one like use it as an introduction for the young generations.

    And that seemed to be the case for Sofia, she could replace normal fire with her burning previous to the she changing her manual, but the usage of her attribute wasn''t specifically included in the manual she used which was her father''s one at all.

    In other words, she changed her manual and did so without having to suffering any setbacks, in fact her cultivation''s speed, battle prowess and the techniques she could use increased with the change.

    For example, that "Lighting Sky" spirit technique she used was new, back when she fought with Eric, she could only fight at close combat, Aster couldn''t help but steal a gaze at the blond pair of mother and daughter, because their case was quite similar.

    Sarina and Kana found the manual they were using at the secret treasury of the first king of Prasil, in other words Aurelian, and they had zero trouble when changing their Lord of the Wind manual for the Griffon Magistral Wings one.

    ''Her wind attribute is not weak but it''s not on par with Sarina and Kana''s wind, her fire attribute on the other hand has a similar starting point as when those two hadn''t awakened so her father''s family was... might have descended from Aurelian'', thought Aster.

    While Sarina and Kana inherited their wind attribute from the Breezeheart through Aurelian, he descended from that girl who was nearly sacrificed by the Tempest''s matriarch and a native from wherever she ended up after escaping, probably someone from that Viridian Griffon Heavenly Quadrant mentioned by Aurelian or its vicinity.

    ''So, it turns out that she and Kana are probably distant cousins, I''ll have to look for a way to pay visit to Aurelian''s birth place later on'', concluded Aster.

    The previous took time to explain but it happened in a matter of seconds, which is what it took those four to come out of their dazes as they saw all the spirit energy which Sofia radiated, returning to her body, making her legs lit up in that bright orange light which released some flames from time to time, similar to her arms.

    "Run!", the captain immediately gave the order and turned around to escape as fast as she could, now that their supposition of Sofia being out of spirit energy flew out of the window and based on the horrible high heat, she was radiating just by standing there, the captain judged them to have near to zero chance to win, but this situation was within the possible scenarios they discussed beforehand.

    Unlike others, the captain had instructed her subordinates on how to escape, instead of it being an "Everyone on their own" tactic, that being said, their plan might not be as good as they thought.

    The four of them who had flashed at maximum speed in a certain specific direction, without caring for the consumption of spirit energy, put on pitiful expressions as they shouted, they had escaped so fast that they didn''t even have the time to see what was happening at the other battlefield.

    Also, the members of the Iron Hall that tagged along mostly focused on defense, while the members from the Redheart family are all attack type cultivators, not to mention that Iris was well-known to be a sword user.

    "It doesn''t matter, we just have to fulfill our "duty" nothing more and nothing less, you know what to do", said the captain a tall but surprisingly slim guy to the other three whose eyes glowed for a moment as they nodded in response.

    Iris who calmly waited for her enemies to reach her vicinity frowned for a second, they didn''t bother to speak in a low voice, making sure she heard them, she didn''t care about their insults, what caught her attention was the word "duty".

    ''Just as I thought, those bastards had a reason to not go after me, also these guys look strangely eager to fight me but I have had no contact with the metal faction of the Supreme Elemental sect, unlike the fire one...'', Iris''s pretty red eyes glowed with a sharp light for a split of a second as she understood what was going on.

    Basically, all the elders and people with authority in the Redheart, including some of the ones from Layla''s Bladeheart family, wanted to send her to the Supreme Elemental sect back when she was just starting to cultivate.

    The reason is simple, they wanted to use her to gain influence within the fire branch of the sect and stablish herself as an outstanding core disciple while being part of the youngest generation, just like her cousin from the Blazeheart family did back then.

    Said cousin is now a member of the young generation, similar to Valentina, she was at the top core disciple of the fire branch who then jumped to become a core elder, which earned the Redheart glory and a chance to stablish their own faction within the fire branch of the Supreme Elemental sect.

    Meaning that they had at least a core elder, some members from their family and even a peak Transcending realm protector sent by the Redheart family, within the sect, the problem is that since their faction was relatively new and they weren''t part of the founding groups of the sect, their authority stopped at core elder level.

    So, while they could make "donations" to gain a bit of privileges from the supreme elder of the fire branch, they had no real backing at the high echelons of the sect, so they wanted Iris to join and be the new representative of their youngest generation, so that someone from their family could postulate to become a supreme elder in the nearby future.

    But Iris went and joined the Myriad Occupation sect, "ruining" their plans, what''s worse the Blazeheart and Fireheart families tried to replace her with other members of the youngest generation but while a few made it to core disciple level, like those two male cousins that were leading the group from the Redheart family as of current, none became outstanding enough to replace the empty spot left behind by Iris''s cousin.

    Ultimately the Blazeheart were forced to look for talent in another place and after a harsh selection process, found someone with the talent they were looking for which they adopted into the family, forcing them to endure the humiliation of being looked down upon by the other branches of the sect since they couldn''t find someone talented enough within their family, which was a hit to their reputation and also slowed down their plans.

    That''s the reason as to why the Blazeheart and Fireheart had been creating troubles out of the pettiest reasons for Iris, since she screwed their plans over, and this was just more of the same, they probably made some deal with these guys to target her, not to mention she didn''t return when they called her recently, which was her cousin''s order.

    The clear low interest in them from the straightforward red-haired girl, made the captain coldly snort at her in response to then say.

    "If that disdainful attitude of yours comes from the fact that your attribute has elemental superiority over ours then you are gravely mistaken, we were chosen for this little mission by senior sister after all!".

    The captain''s voice became louder at the end of his sentence, as he and his three subordinates all used Iron Skin to clad their bodies, the result however was rather different than the one achieved by the other disciples that had fought the girls so far.

    Iris raised an eyebrow at the strangely bright layer of metal that covered those four''s bodies, it was different than the silvery tone that the two representatives of the Iron Hall, had gained.

    Iron Skin is the base technique granted to anyone who was an inner disciple or above that joined the metal branch of the Supreme Elemental sect, the thing could be then improved in three ways, first is the base which is reserved for top fifty and above core disciples, like those guys with the silver robes that had obtained "Silver Skin".

    Then you have the improvement in orientation that can be obtained by specializing in one of the three aspects of a branch which are has defense, offense and support.

    Earlier some of the few attack-oriented cultivators that fought the girls used the result of that improvement which was "Blade Skin" for those that used sharp weapons, there are other variations like "Spiked Skin" for spear and puncturing attack type cultivators, or "Heavy Iron Skin" for defense type ones, none of the guys that fought Eric had it, not like it would have made a difference though.

    And then the third improvement method which came after the orientation one, was the path one, physical for body path, elemental for energy one and ethereal for the soul one, this last method didn''t have a ranking requirement, but a recognition one, in other words even bottom of the barrel core or peak inner disciples could obtain it as long as their potential was recognized.

    Long story short, these guys received the favor of someone and had received two of the three improvements to their Iron Skin, meaning that they were the closest to the original core disciples from the metal branch among the ones that came here.

    "You see, our metal attribute is especially resistant against heat and with "Reflecting Skin" added to that, the fire attribute you guys are so proud of, is useless", said the vice-captain with a shiny smiling expression.

    "I see, so you were indeed sent by that woman, how... boring, instead of sending her dogs she should have come herself so that I could slash her down", frankly said the red-haired girl, making the captain grit his teeth.

    "Nonsense, even if Reflective Skin focused on elemental defense, it does still have the base defense of Iron Skin, without your fire you can forget about breaking through our defense with less than half your strength...".

    The confident smiles on three of the four enemies frost as the head of one of the two peak star axys, suddenly fell from his neck, followed by a rain of blood and the now headless corpse falling from the sky.