As they walked to their respective rooms, Aster turned to see Mylene before saying.
"It seems you have gotten yourself a toxic suitor, miss "cosmos tree", both she and Camila have remained silent, all along and it was too much of a contrast compared to the smiles and giggles he is used to, so if he wanted these two to open up with him, he needed to take the first step.
Listening to Aster, Mylene nearly tripped, remembering that time she feigned to be the deity of their native place, her face turned bright red.
"Don't make me remember such an embarrassing thing… besides weren't you considered the golden knight too", Mylene's try to get back at Aster was rather childish, but it was a good way to start.
Aster didn't know it, but the reason as to why Eris and Mylene mostly talked to each other, and the other girls but kept a certain distance with him, was because bot of them didn't know how to deal with him.
Over their really long lives so far, they have had family, servants, subordinates and the like, but Aster was their first true friend and he happened to be a guy, not to mention he was the first trustable person they met outside of their respective select relative.
So, they didn't know how to treat him, it was easier to talk to each other, and they had a lot of things to discuss, so they kind of kept postponing it.
But this time there was a good chance, so they tossed a coin and Mylene lost so she was sent ahead.
'Damn you Eris, using me to test waters, I'll remember this, she thought.
Once they reached their rooms, they noticed it was two next to each other and one in front of the first two.
Aster saw Camila's troubled expression and he knew she probably was having problems controlling her constitution again, so he offered her the room next to the one he'll be taking for him and Kana.
"Here you go, if you feel anxious like before I'll be next door, okay?", he also gave Camila the now destroyed sword he used to fight the other candidates back at the center capital.
"Mm… thanks, I will train a bit while we reach our destination~", Camila gladly accepted the key and the sword, she could feel her natal treasure trembling in joy as soon as she got a hold of the broken sword.
"I'll be in front of you two, but I'll make sure to watch everything with my spirit sense, just in case there is a surprise in the middle of the trave", said Mylene as she went to her room.
Aster saw those two escaping and he chuckled.
"I guess it's a good start, we have time so taking things slowly won't hurt", he mumbled.
Kana's big eyes looked at Aster directly as she asked with a curious voice.
"Big brother, do you like sister Mylene and sister Camila, I could feel you didn't like how that guy looked at sister Mylene?".
Aster bitterly smiled.
'This little girl a bit too sensitive', he thought, but he still patted her head before saying.
"Some men look at others with bad intentions, I have always had the ability to notice it and I can't stand it when it's directed towards anyone in my family, it's not that they need my help or anything, it's just like how your sister Alice can't stop arguing with your sister Aria, just a personal thing I guess".
"It's a bit hard to explain, but if you ever feel someone looking at you like that, just do as I taught you, okay?".
"Mm, I'll listen to big brother", Kana repeatedly nodded with a smiling expression, earning her more of the head pats she loved.
One they were inside of their room, an alarm echoed through the spaceship, to warn everyone to be prepared for the sudden acceleration resulting of entering the dimensional tunnel.
Kana clung to Aster and not even a second later, they felt as if the floor of the spaceship trembled for a split of a second, before everything returned to normal.
In Lilia's spaceship such a thing didn't happen, but that was because hers, was made with immortal grade materials, and formations, which at its best allowed one to travel at the same speed of a Heavenly Manifestation cultivator, so of course a dimensional tunnel in a middle ranked stellar system even if it was one of the best among them, wasn't strong enough to have any effect on it.
Seeing that Kana wasn't letting go of him, he patted her shoulder.
"I wasn't lying when I said the goal of this mission is to help the family grow stronger as a whole, and that includes you".
"I want you to meditate for the next four hours, then show me the progress you have made with your bow skills…".
Aster looked downwards just to see Kana giving him puppy eyes, she wanted to participate in the mission, but she also wanted Aster to spoil her.
"Don't look at me like that, after your training I will spoil you as much as you want, okay?".
With a snap of his fingers, Aster created a small cube with Rigel's flames and threw some of the middle-ranked spirit jades he got as a reward in, producing enough pure spirit energy for Kana to cultivate for the next hours, it was important for her to start filling her stat with her attribute, so that she can reach the Stellar Constellation realm.
Kana's motivation was lit up with that, she entered the cube and sat down cross legged on that side of the bed as she started cultivating.
Aster nodded in recognition and then he laid down on the other side of the bed, and summoned the black sword soul weapon, the thing now had about seventeen centimeters in total between the complete hilt and the part of the blade that has condensed so far.
As always, the incomplete black sword started twirling around Aster as soon as it appeared, when its inside the mind space it does the same but around the soul avatar, unless Aster calls it of course.
Aster laid down there and controlled the sword to fly around the room, he even tried for the sword to stab him, but the thing went right through him without causing him any harm, he did this until he practically depleted his reserves of soul energy before he closed his eyes and rested to recover.
…
And so, the hours passed, at some point Kana finished absorbing all the spirit energy Aster refined for her, unlike him whose body is though both in the outside and the inside, her meridians weren't completely developed due to her young age, so there was a limit as to how much spirit energy she could circulate through her body in a certain period of time.
That's what limited how much time a cultivator could fight, spirit energy could be replenished, but one's fatigue wouldn't vanish just like that, of course the limit could be stretched with training, but it would never disappear, many people believed that was the limiter set up by the heavens.
With Kana snuggling on his chest, while she rested after her cultivation session of the day, Aster heard someone knocking on the door, before a familiar voice came from the other side of the door.
"We arrived at the Green Firmament stellar system; Lord Julian told me to call all of you for the ritual needed to find where the entrance is, please go to the captain's cabin as soon as possible", it was the voice of the guard that stopped his slash.
"We'll be there in a moment".
A couple of minutes later, Aster and the girls arrived at the captain's cabin, though this time they weren't the last to arrive, Victor and the women from the purple Lotus faction weren't here yet.
But Iris was here already, she nodded towards Aster as a way to greet to him and Aster nodded back at her, it took another five minutes or so for Victor and his group to arrive.
Now that everyone was here, Julian proceeded to explain how they will locate the entrance to the secret realm where the Emerald Whirlwind is imprisoned, which turned out to be called the Emerald Heart secret realm.
For others it was a surprise when they saw the carriage opening, and it was another even bigger surprise when they saw Vivian coming from it.
"She is Vivian, the whole reason of this mission, according to the oath, you must assist her if possible and in the case one of you gets the Emerald Whirlwind, you must help me with her treatment".
Needless to say, but Victor's eyes wandered through Vivian, but she didn't seem to care, and Julian also didn't say anything, so Aster ignored it as well, as long as it had nothing to be with his family, he could die out of exhaustion for all Aster cared, which he wasn't far from as his yang was really low.
Julian did a small cut in Vivian's finger and then let a drop of blood fall on an old compass, which renovated itself upon contact with the blood.
The compass then moved by itself about three times, before it pointed at the east, Julian nodded and then he set the spaceship towards that direction.
Aster and the girls went to observe the stellar system with their own eyes, through the window.
Loyal to its name, all the stars here had a green tone, probably caused by the poisonous properties in the spirit energy here.
Aster used his spirit sense to se feel through the walls of the spaceship, and was immediately taken a back by what he discovered.
The spirit energy was indeed corrupted by the poisonous nature, besides the chaotic state in which it was from the very beginning and yet the amount lingering in this place, was supposed to know.
"This is your first time in the wastelands so let me remind you that trying to gather spirit energy here is a suicide, it's chaotic enough to break your meridians".
Soon they arrived at their destination, and just like Julian previously said, Aster could feel there was something keeping the corrupt spirit energy out of this whole place.
"That's the entrance, scar please
With some maneuvers the spaceship soon landed on an asteroid, which was just a couple of meters next to the entrance of the secret realm, a green space gate of some kind.
Everyone went down the spaceship, Julian then inspected the green space gate before nodding at them.
"Everything It's a good, I wish you good luck".
As soon as his words ended, the other two groups jumped into the action, but Aster calmly snapped his fingers and the girls in his group were suddenly coated in an invisible later of Rigel's flames.
'One can never be too cautious', thought Aster.
Vivian who hadn't entered the green spatial gate, approached Aster's group and after seeing they were the only ones who were left, she said.
"Can I join your group, Aster?".
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l