Not expecting to see his servants, Nova was a little bit taken aback by them, but also pretty confused by seeing an unknown person behind them.
He apologized to them for the pressure he exuded and asked if someone was hurt.
"It's alright, master! These old bones of ours are pretty resilient!" Said the leading servant, Manu.
He tried to make it look as if it was nothing, even though he was on the floor a few seconds ago. Nova felt bad for them and quickly took a few Stage 9 crystals and offering them to his servants.
"Please take these! If you don't accept them, no need to come here from tomorrow onwards." Nova ended his sentence with a threat, seeing as his servants hurriedly wanted to reject the energy crystals.
Manu and the others were moved to the tears, seeing Nova offering them such precious cultivation resources.
When Nova finished with his servants, he looked behind them and saw a girl who looked to be in her 20s and exuded a powerful aura. She was very beautiful.
With her golden hair and eyes, and she also had a huge rack, but what surprised Nova wasn't her beauty. It was the shield she carried that surprised him.
The shield had to be about 2 meters in diameter, it was blue with golden stripes, perfectly round, and emitted a strong aura.
Seeing Nova not being captivated by her beauty, Elura's eyes flashed with a hint of approval.
"Hello, little Nova my name is Elura, Shield of Dawn. I'm here to escort you and the others to the tournament." She said with a smile.
"As you probably know already, my name is Nova, it's a pleasure to meet you." Nova responded with a smile of his own.
After a few minutes of talking, they made their way to the Sect's teleportation formation.
"Usually we are using interstellar ships for transportation, but because the border to the sub-region is a little bit farther than moving in our region we are going to teleport there." Elura explained.
From what Nova understood it seems that they were going to the sub-region. It was a fact that if you weren't born in a world, once you reach above Evolver Stage you couldn't return to said world.
That was the reason the tournament was being held at the border and not in the sub-regions territory.
Just like when the 'Awakening' reached Earth and his parents were ejected to their birth world.
It was only when one reached Immortal Stage or above that he could trespass these universal rules.
Arriving at the Sect's teleportation arrays Nova saw 5 other youths, three men and two women all at the Peak Seventh Stage.
They were all inner disciples and were surprised to see Nova was only a Middle Stage 7. But even more, surprised when they saw Elura was leading the way and his core disciple emblem.
"It will only be the 7 of us that are going, only you 6 will participate and I will protect you may, a problematic situation occurs.
From what I gathered a few Stage 8s are participating among the sub-regions youths this time, but it shouldn't be a problem for you.
It's more of a competition between the 6 of you to see who is lucky enough to receive the star points. As our sect prepared other rewards for the sub-regions participants."
Said Elura while also explaining to them to not hold back because their sect has a reputation to preserve. Also if they saw a talented youth they should try and recruit him.
A few minutes later they all knew each other.
The three men were called Ethan, Steve, and Kaspersky. The two girls were Alina and Melissa.
Among them Melissa was the strongest having a Fire Bloodline and an Ability that boosted all fire attacks.
The rest were pretty average from Nova's point of view, of course, they also thought the same about Nova with a bloodline that gave him all-rounder perks and an ability that made his body stronger.
At least that's what Nova said. Even the Grand Elders told him not to say unnecessary things about his bloodline and ability. Because less an enemy knows you, the better. And who knew if there were spies among them?
After chatting for a while they all stepped on the teleportation array.
For a few milliseconds, because of his eyes that were continuously tempered by Limitless and Apex, Nova saw a grey line that transcended space itself going between maybe hundreds of planets to arrive on the other side of the grey line.
Finally arriving at their destination the other youths were a little bit pale because of the teleportation process, only Elura and Nova were fine.
Nova saw two men standing in front of them wearing respectful expressions.
"Hello, esteemed guests from the Star Sect!
My name is Harith Vientienne and this is my nephew Ralph." Said a middle-aged man while receiving them warmly.
Hearing the familiar name, Nova was taken aback, and then very happy, he smiled like a fool.
Elura was surprised to see him like this because it was the first time she saw him wearing a genuine smile like that.
After introducing themselves, the people from the Vientienne family took them to their resting place. The two told them that a grand banquet will be prepared for them tonight.
Everyone had their room which they used to rest. But Nova decided against it and wanted to explore the border city for a little while.
The border city was named 'Cross City' because it had the shape of a cross. On every end of the cross, there was a military base ready for backing up the North or the South.
If you had to imagine a map, think that God's Domain was in the West and the border with the Sub-region in the East. North and West there was a void space full of votd creatures that can infiltrate the borders anytime, that's why there's a need for military bases.
Luckily, the Void creatures are very picky with their food and won't hunt prey weaker than them, only in case they are hungry or bored.
Saying that he wanted to go sightseeing in the city, the others were pretty tired after the teleportation process and wanted to rest a little bit.
Nova was left alone with the two guides Harith and Ralph.
"You two said you are from the Vientienne family?" asked Nova to make sure.
"Indeed, why are you asking that esteemed guest?" Harith was perplexed as to why is Nova asking a question so obviously. But what he heard next, stunned him.
"Then do you know Imperia Vientienne?" Nova wanted to find out if the two of them knew Imperia. And more importantly, if she was coming.