This second golden core elder introduced himself as Daoist Green Viper. Despite his enthusiastic and friendly attitude towards Arthur, Arthur stayed away from him and didn't let the man touch him at all.
He was being cautious because Green Viper's body was toxic and contained highly potent poisons. Many years of experience have made him learn not to make any contact with the people of the Purple Flower sect even if he was looting their corpse.
So he tried to distance himself from physical contact with Green Viper. Green Viper didn't like his reaction, though.
Daoist Pale Shadow, who was watching their interaction from the side, understood why Arthur didn't want to have physical contact with Green Viper and thought that Arthur's behavior was reasonable.
Even Green Viper himself knew that Arthur was probably afraid of his poison, which was why he promised Arthur that he could control his body and seal the poison. But Arthur didn't believe him and refused to take the risk. This made him very displeased.
Actually, at first, he was proud that his poison could make a peer from the Blood Skull sect cautious. But the more Arthur denied him, the more displeased he became.
He became so displeased that he became angry. He wanted to have an outburst there and fight Arthur, but Daoist Pale Shadow stopped him.
Daoist Green Viper had frowned and said, "Why don't you want to touch me? Do you think I'm dirty? Do you think you're better than me? If you're so great, then prove it by defeating me in a fight."
It was at this point that Daoist Pale Shadow interfered. She said with a cool, detached voice, "There is no need for that because there is no need to force our guest to risk danger."
Her reasonable point and the way she said it made Green Viper's temper cool down. He still wanted to fight, but what she had said had reminded him that he might be in the wrong here, and even if he had been snubbed by Arthur, it wasn't a good idea to force Arthur, as he is a guest of important status.
So he swallowed back his anger and snorted in displeasure. For the rest of the banquet, he ignored Arthur, didn't speak with Arthur unless he had to, and was cold when he had to speak to Arthur.
His reaction went the other way, from enthusiasm to see Arthur to a strong dislike of Arthur's presence. This forced the one that was supposed to be the cool, detached one, Daoist Plae Shadow, to entertain him.
But she was a bad conversationalist. She had no interest in chatting with him, and she was bad at socializing, so their conversation was dull. The way she spoke with him was as if she was being forced to do something to pass the time.
This made Arthur think to himself, "When will this be over?"
If he were someone like Green Viper, whose emotions always get the better of him and whose emotions have been influenced by the poison in his body to be bitter and venomous, he would have surely taken offense by the way he was being treated by these two.
But he had both his emotions and a powerful mind to balance and keep his emotions in check. So he could still prioritize the goal and success of his mission over the slight done to his person.
This was why he didn't get angry. He recognized that he was on a mission and should prioritize the success of his mission instead of getting angry that he was being treated poorly.
In fact, he became bored instead of becoming angry. He wished that the mission would end soon so that he could leave and do the things that make him happy.
While he was distracting himself with his thoughts and listening to Pale Shadow drone on with a forced cadence, something happened down below in the banquet that made things become even more awkward.
The three golden core elders were sitting at a table on a platform that overlooked the floor of the hall. The disciples of the Blood Skull sect and the welcoming party of the Purple Flower sect were interacting below this platform on the floor of the hall and enjoying themselves at the banquet.
Some of these people looked at the three golden core cultivators from time to time. But most of them didn't bother to look because there was nothing to see.
To their gaze, the three golden core cultivators look like three golden and bright statues. Of these three statues, one of them was as tall and as bright as the other two, while the other two were either tall or short. However, they all had the same level of brightness.
Arthur didn't lose out to the other two in terms of height and brightness because his body was as strong as the strongest body of the other two, and because his energy was also on par with the strongest golden core of the other two.
Green Viper's body was big, while Pale Shadow was the smallest. This indicated that Green Viper had a body that was stronger than hers.
Despite this disparity in size, Green Viper and Pale Shadow had the same level of brightness. This was because they had the same power output and were on par in terms of strength.
Since Pale Shadow had a much weaker body, the only reason that she would be on par with Green Viper in terms of power output would be if her core had a power output that was on par with the power output of Green Viper's body.
The two of them were on different paths but were equally strong. So their existence radiated about the same amount of mana even though there was a clear disparity in their appearance.
On the other hand, Arthur was on both paths, but he was able to match them in their specialty. This was despite the fact that he was at least two hundred years younger than them.