The night went uneventful and everyone had a good time rest, at least that was what happened at the Twin Sword valley, meanwhile at the Metal Mountain valley things were quite different.
From within the main hall of a castle on top of a silver mountain, the sounds of things being thrown around and crashing could be heard, the three girls that were accompanying him were sat on a table watching from the sides.
The supreme elder from the Blacksmith peak was also sitting with them, with a grim expression on her face, none of them said anything for the next ten or so minutes until Edward calmed himself down.
"Elder, I want to kill that bastard!", said both Edward and the girl from the Purple Lotus faction.
The supreme elder sighed, she knew why these four ended up joining hands, they each had their own goals, some aligned and some didn't, since her young miss was drove away by Aster, she received the order to get back at him.
Luckily she discovered Edward and decided to invest on him, she then swayed others to her side, for now the only one who she is aware of what her thoughts are is the girl from the Purple Lotus faction.
"Julia, I told you not to do anything drastic in either in the central or east sky cities where that brat can use the array of the Twin Sword valley to defend from anyone but the ancestors", she said with a dead serious voice.
Julia gritted her teeth in response, her face twisted in hatred and some of her poisonous spirit energy leaked out of her body as she smashed her hand on the table.
"Did you expect me to keep calm when I saw the bastard who probably killed my little brother!".
Edward grabbed Julia's hand, and though the poison touched his skin it didn't seem to affect him, something that didn't escape the eyes of the other two girls who just snorted and then stood up, to leave.
The supreme elder noticed those two's reaction and she frowned.
"Where are you going, I thought you were going to move to the castle in the upcoming days?".
The girl from the Yellow Anvil faction glared at Edward before saying.
"I joined the sect to work with the best spirit blacksmith, unfortunately the female disciples aren't really good with it due to their yin nature, and the male ones whose natures align with the profession are too mediocre, today's clash it was that guy's defeat so I'm out for the time being, that's all".
The girl from the white sword faction then added.
"I wanted a sword that could perfectly accommodate my style, just like that woman's, I accepted to participate in this farse just for that reason since my blacksmith must be from my same range of age, I have been looking all over the place for someone who specializes in swords, elder didn't mention the Lord of the Twin Sword valley was one, despite knowing my requisites".
Edward clenched his fists, he just recently became known, he could probably fool around with the inner disciples of the Blacksmith peak or the new recruits, under the disguise of giving them "pointers", but these three that the supreme elder presented to him, let alone doing anything, they didn't even allow him to lay a finger on them.
Well, that was true until today, Julia who noticed he also held a grudge against Aster, apparently changed the way she saw him, so they got closer due to that, but in exchange his other two teammates were leaving.
Edward saw them leave the castle and his expression became fierce, he only had to show them his growth and they would naturally fall for him, that's what he thought when he saw three of the top five heavenly rank approaching him, but he now realized that wasn't the case.
"Mary, Elizabeth… it seems I was too lenient in our agreement, it won't happen again", said the supreme elder before she vanished, Julia and Edward stared at each other and then went to their room together.
…
Oblivious to the couple that he helped form, Aster slept like a log and woke up fresh as a lettuce, the very first thing he saw was Rya's cute sleeping face, while she laid down on top of him.
He couldn't help but tease her by poking her nose, which made her flush and slowly open her eyes, maybe because she was returning to her younger self, but her overall vibe has changed too, from a dignified Empress to the charm of a woman who has yet to exploit her potential, whichever the case, she was lovely.
Aster kissed Rya and then got up from the bed, he had a lot to do, from helping the girls with their pending objectives and spending time with them, to strengthen his soul even more, which luckily aligned with what probably Felicia was going to ask.
"Think on what you want to do for our date, any wish my cute Empress has, I will do my best to grant it", said Aster as he left the mind space.
Rya blushed a bit, she then looked at the immense but empty space surrounding Hyperion, the first time something changed in the landscape of the mind space, was when Lilia entered and created a disaster zone.
"I can't believe a day would come when I would worry about such mundane things like decorations", mumbled Rya, but then Aster's smiling face flashed through her mind and her heart skipped a beat.
"Uhhh, get a hold of yourself Rya", she said as she hid her face on the pillow which Aster was using, her body suddenly got warm upon smelling Aster's manly scent from it, but she calmed down and then jumped out of the bed too, if Aster was going to do his best for her, then she had to answer in kind.
Outside of the mind space, Aster woke up just in time to see Lilia who was about to kiss him, their eyes met and after a second Lilia still pressed those pretty lips of hers against Aster's.
"Mn, a taste of my darling first thing in the morning~", she cutely said, Aster softly laughed and then woke up the other girls, they then went to the dining room, this time Felicia who woke up early took the task of preparing the breakfast, and it was delicious as always.
During the breakfast, he noticed Vivian stealing some gazes at him from time to time, but he didn't say anything, she was clearly having a lot of fun living here, which reminded him of the short-notice message she sent to Julian.
Once the breakfast was over, Aster brought both Vivian and Kana to the training room, so that they will have enough space for their activities.
Though Kana came here, the one who was going to participate was Esmeralda.
"So how are we going to do this?", asked Aster, Kana's eyes changed from blue to a light green color and then a green gust of wind appeared next to her, once the wind stopped rotating, a wind clone of Esmeralda appeared.
She then walked around Vivian, evaluating her condition before she gave her opinion.
"I have come to two solutions, the easy thing to do will be me forming a cycle inside of that girl's body so that her spirit energy gets restricted to an area and stops causing her trouble, the problem is that by doing so, I will have to constantly renovate the channels I'll create".
Aster nodded, and then said.
"And what's the other option like?", though Esmeralda's solution was something no one in the Stellar System managed to do for Vivian, she didn't want to depend on Esmeralda all the time.
Esmeralda smiled and then pointed at Aster.
"The second method is using something that won't be worn out, even if she uses her poison a lot, something that her body won't attack no matter what, just be aware that is going to take more time, though it's more effective than the first method".
Aster nodded and then waited, ultimately it was Vivian's decision, he promised to help her as part of the deal he made with Julian, but to be honest now it was more of a friendly thing to do.
As expected, Vivian chose the second method, since it was more effective
"Without any risk of my poison going out of control, I'm going be more of help… having too many limits won't work to the places Aster will go after tall".
Esmeralda then smirked as she gazed at Aster, before saying.
"Okay then, first we need Aster to get used to the distribution of your meridians and dantian, place your hands on her dantian area and then use your spirit sense to see".
Aster nodded, and then with Vivian's permission, he placed his hand on her belly, and then slowly started advancing from that point, the very first thing Aster noticed is that her meridians which for others are represented as yellow lines, for her they were white.
Once Aster got used to the pattern of her meridians, which is something every person has and can't be repeated, it was time to go to the second step of Esmeralda's plan, this required her to show Aster how to create a cycle.
Esmeralda's wind clone placed her hands on Vivian's back and then her spirit energy flowed into her, all this while Aster was also in contact with her, so that he could watch the process from the beginning to the end.
Aster saw a few green strings forming around some specific meridians in Vivian's body, the cycle Esmeralda mentioned was basically a guide for her spirit energy to skip some meridians and put emphasis on others, a road so to speak.
After about twenty minutes, Esmeralda's clone let out a sigh of relief and then she disappeared returning to Kana's body, not without saying.
"That's a fraction of the cycle, practice until you can do something like that and then we'll go to the next step, also don't forget to see her body's reaction to your spirit energy, mine was attacked though I made it as neutral as possible, it will probably only last for the rest of the day".
Aster noticed Vivian being a bit tired of standing up during a slightly large amount of time, and he beckoned towards a table near them.
"Unlike Esmeralda, I think I'm going to take more time, let's have a seat and a small conversation while we proceed", said Aster.
"Mm", Vivian nodded and they sat together, then of course one of the subjects that Vivian was curious about, was Aster's relationship with the girls, it took her by surprise that he was with Sarina after all.
Since she grew isolated her socializing skills were pretty dull, to put it in simple words, she was too direct and blunt, but that was also part of her charm.
"Besides Sarina, who else in the group is your lover, Aster?", she straightforwardly asked, making Aster bitterly smile.
"Before I answer to that, can you tell me why do you want to know about it".
The question took Vivian by surprise, she was lost in her thoughts for a moment before she shook her head.
"I don't know, it crossed my mind when I was remembering those two Luan girls we met at the secret realm, Mylene and Camila also seem to like you, so I got curious, if it's something you don't want to talk about, we can change the subject".
Aster saw the genuine curiosity in Vivian's lavender toned pupils, and he chuckled.
"Well, I'll tell you the number is around 8".
Aster couldn't finish his sentence, when Vivian's eyes sparkled, she grabbed Aster's hands with her and then urged him to answer more questions.
"Woah, what do you like about them, do you enjoy having so many lovers, do they know about each other, do they get jealous…".
Vivian bombarded Aster with so many questions, that she didn't notice about an hour passed in a blink, and Aster finally formed the fraction of the cycle Esmeralda taught him.
Vivian looked at her belly where Aster created the first part of the cycle, she could feel her spirit energy twirling around Aster's, meaning it was working, her body didn't attack the cycle either.
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