At some point the sounds in Aster's room calmed down meaning everyone had their share, and so they all fell asleep while hugging Aster.
Well, almost everyone was sleeping with a happy satisfied expression on their faces, the only exception being Lilia who laying down on top of Aster.
Her beautiful naked figure was a delight for Aster's eyes, while she used her hands to held her face and observed Aster with those red ruby-like eyes of hers.
Aster could feel those soft breasts of Lilia pressing down onto his chest and he bitterly smiled, feeling his thing reacting in between Lilia's legs.
"I'll settle with this for now, since you have to rest for tomorrow's date, but you better have something good in store for me, darling~", cutely said Lilia.
Aster felt his heart skip a beat, his mother who knew how to get to him the most was… feeling jealous.
He grabbed Lilia by her waist and brought her closer to him, enough so that he could seal her lips with his.
"Mn~", normally they would be having an intense battle on the bed after the others were "defeated", but it got quite late as everyone was in the mood today for some reason, so they needed to go to sleep.
Aster let go of Lilia and while she rested her head on his chest, he gently caressed her long black silky hair, as they both feel asleep in the embrace of the other.
Naturally he also took some time to spoil Rya inside the mind space, he had a little surprise planned for the last day of dates, which he knew they will love, but for now they had to wait.
After some hours the moon left the sky and the sun raised bringing a sunny day for the Battle Planet.
Aster opened his eyes feeling fresh as a lettuce, he observed the garden of naked beauties who were peacefully sleeping around him and smiled, he gently placed Lilia next to him and after kissing each one of them, and patting Kana, he left to the bathroom.
Naturally after everything that happened yesterday, he was covered on the love juices of the girls, so he had a nice bath and only then he dressed up and silently left his room, he checked his communication talisman to see if he had any messages.
After returning from the Treasure Planet he sent Salazar a message asking for his authority to be increased, so that he could freely go the areas managed by the Battle Peak in the four planets without having to go through the neutral city.
"The formation in your ring was adjusted, so you can travel through the four planets only, but it has to be done from the Twin Sword Valley instead of the neutral city, if you want more authority become the first ranked disciple", that was the message he got from Salazar.
Aster chuckled, this was enough for now, he walked towards the living room where Felicia and Tiana were waiting for him.
"Good morning, should we get going?", asked Aster.
"Good morning, sure let's go before Tiana gets cold feet~", as usual Felicia had that lively attitude while she teased her daughter.
She was wearing a long-sleeved black turtle neck sweater, and a skirt, as well as a silver necklace and a earrings, nothing too flashy but it suited her perfectly.
Tiana on the other hand was wearing her usual attire, which consisted in black leggings and a short dress over it, as well as armor made out of the bones of some spirit beast, protecting her upper body and arms.
One of them was dressed casually while the other didn't, naturally Felicia sighed seeing her daughter not getting on the mood for a date.
Aster beckoned and the approached him, there was no need for physical contact for them to be transported by Aster's authority, as long they had their rings, Aster could link them to his for the formation to bring them along, that being said though they didn't hold onto his arms like the others, they placed their hands on Aster's shoulders.
They then disappeared from the mansion; the scenery changed from the living room to what seemed to be a city.
"Mm?", it didn't take the pair of mother and daughter too much to realize that while they were in a city, this wasn't the Battle Planet, for the simple reason that there were giant symbols floating on the sky.
Aster also looked at those symbols which were naturally runes, this was the Rune Mastering Planet of the sect, another of the four planets that conformed the main territory of the Myriad Occupation sect.
Unlike the Treasure Planet, this one was "habitable" and so the disciples could stay here as much at they wanted, but there were only twelve cities spread through the whole planet.
All of them had an area assigned to each of the four peaks, but they were together and Aster took Felicia and Tiana to the eighth city, more accurately to the territory managed by the Battle Peak in the eighth city.
"Let's go have something for breakfast and I will tell you what will our date consist on", said Aster, he then led the pair of mother and daughter to a restaurant, though he only had some generic information about this planet, as he doesn't know anyone from the Rune Mastering Peak, it was easy to find a decent restaurant.
While they were waiting for the food they ordered, Aster tapped his finger on the table a couple of times before saying.
"Once you reach the top fifty, you need to accumulate more than merits to keep climbing, one of the requisites are the monthly trials that the sect has for the disciples, we are on the eight month of the year, so we can only access the eight city right now, but turns out this monthly trial is perfect for what I had in mind for you two".
The reason as to why there are runes visible in the sky, is because the Rune Mastering Planet is surrounded by a huge formation, this is also the biggest planet out of the four, and it is used for a single purpose, all the trial grounds, special training battlefields and similar are located here, or at least their entrances are.
That's right, this planet is full to the brim with "small" secret realms created by the Rune Mastering Ancestor, each one has their own purposes, for example the space used for the admission trials is one of them, though Salazar could open a portal in the neutral city, the secret realm resides in the Rune Mastering Planet.
There are secret realms who are open during all the year, those who open for certain occasions, some with conditions or other restrictions, there is basically a myriad of scenarios, which the sect offers for the disciples to train in.
By clearing them you can get merit points and other rewards, not to mention the twelve monthly trials which are needed to climb past the current rank Aster held.
"This month's trial is one related to the soul path".
The pair of mother and daughter were naturally interested, both of them are soul cultivators after all, though their main is the body path.
As soon as the food arrived and they took the first bite, they were surprised once again, everything in the menu included ingredients that would nurture the soul, the amount naturally depended on the price of the dish, but it was indeed strange.
Aster smiled, though there were more a lot of secret realms that they could enter, the disciples only were allowed to be in the twelve cities, which were focused on the monthly trials, and their culture was oriented to that too.
After enjoying a nice breakfast, Aster took them to the area where the portals to the secret realms were, which was the place in which the four areas assigned to each of the peaks converged, there was an elder guarding each portal.
And out of the countless portals, the bigger one was the one that led to the secret realm of the monthly trial.
With Aster's status as a Lord, he ignored the line and directly approached the elder, which made the people waiting frown and complain, until they saw the winged ring in Aster's hands, even if now there were technically two holy sons, the sole male core disciple was still Aster.
And since the elder didn't accuse him of fraud, it meant the ring was authentic.
"Good morning Lord Aster, please wear this Avatar Wristband, the instructions for the trial are can be consulted on it", said the elder as he handed Aster three black wristbands with runes engraved on them.
Aster thanked the elder and accepted after they put the wristbands they entered through the portal.
At the other side of it, they appeared inside a room which looked familiar to them, because it was almost a copy of the training room they had at the mansions, which was normal since it was made by the same person.
The only difference is that this one was way smaller, but still spacious enough to have a platform, an exercise area full of training devices, a separated bath area, a dining area as well as a resting area.
The girls curiously looked around for a moment while Aster confirmed the rules of the trial, which even he found interesting.
[Spirit Avatar Survival, the time ratio in this secret realm is of 3:1, meaning that one day here is equal to a day outside, there rooms which are private for each group are equipped to cover any needs the participants might have, to enter the trial sit down on the platform and inject your spirit sense in the wristband that you received]
Felicia and Tiana also read the introduction and the three of them went to the platform, they sat own next to each other and then poured their spirit sense into the wrist band.
To everyone's surprise the wristbands illuminated and then a small wisp appeared in front of each of them, Aster's one was of a magnificent pure golden color, Felicia's was pitch black as for Tiana hers was blue with white borders.
The three of them curiously looked at those things, and then another set of instructions was displayed from the wristband.
[Welcome to the Spirit Avatar Survival, this are your initial avatars, to develop them you must enter the survival zone, which is accessible exclusively on the platforms of the secret realm, please close your eyes and concentrate your spirit sense in your avatars, good luck]
Aster did as the instructions told and he felt a similar sensation as to when he used the spirit slip Rya gave him, Lilia knew about them so it was a technique that existed in high ranked Stellar Systems.
The next thing he knew is that "he" was floating at the entrance of a jungle, but when Aster looked downwards, he couldn't see his feet, in fact he couldn't feel his body at all, after a close inspection he noticed he was just a wisp of golden colored light, he couldn't access his cultivation or his spatial ring, anything, the only exception being that he could still talk with Rya and enter the mind space, or more accurately switch from this place to the mind space.
Aster turned around and saw the wisps that represented Felicia and Tiana appearing next to him.
"Woah, so only out consciousness were brought here", mumbled Felicia.
They instinctively knew how to leave and then just as they appeared they left, the wisps extinguished and then Aster and the girls returned to the room in the secret realm.
"That was quite strange, so we are supposed to cross that jungle in that state?", asked Tiana, it was a strange feeling not to be in her body, though for Aster it was similar to be in the mind space so he was used to it.
"Yeah, and that is in part what we need for your training", said Aster, he stood up and then after a couple of seconds of calculations, his golden wisp appeared in front of him, it was also slightly bigger than before.
Tiana frowned, the instructions said they had to sit down for the wristband to work, noticing her confused expression, Aster smiled before saying.
"The only real condition is to be in the area of the platform, that being said maintaining this "avatar" is way easier if you don't move and sit down, since it's easier to meditate that way".
"But if you can concentrate enough, then you can do this…", under Tiana's surprised eyes, the wisp disappeared, but the wristband was clearly still active, while Aster's eyes were open, in other words, he was both in the trial zone and in the real world at the same time.
"So, you brought us here to improve our parallel thinking, what a well-planned date~", jokingly said Felicia.
Aster smiled and then his spirit avatar returned, again it looked slightly bigger than before.
"Well that is for Tiana's case, if you pay enough attention you can notice that the real concept behind this trial, is to be able to divide your attention in two separate things, you can train your mind and another thing at the same time".
"The spirit avatars don't depend on the realm in any of the three paths, they are the same for everyone in every aspect but one, the purity of one's soul".
Unlike the strength, intensity, quality and quantity of the soul energy, which can normally only be cultivated, by those who walk in the soul path, the purity of the soul is something that anyone, cultivator or not can improve.
This wristbands used spirit sense to activate, and they formed an avatar with zero characteristics, with the exception of soul purity, the more time they spent and survived in the trial zone, the more their avatars would develop, supposedly after a certain threshold, the purity of the soul would be increased, a bit, that was the function of the formation in this monthly trial.
But for Aster, that was just the surface of it, since his godmother who is the Ancestor of the Rune Mastering Peak, is according to Lilia a battle maniac, there is no way such a person would be happy with meditating to breakthrough, and the only way to not be stuck in a room to advance, besides the body path, was to improve one's capacity to think, until you could do two completely different things at the same time.
It was similar to how he trained his soul, by using all his soul energy, treating the soul path as if it was the body path, strengthening his soul by using it and then let it recover, something only a madman would do, since with a little mistake one could suffer a wound in its soul.
This was a safer and naturally less productive way to do that, since not everyone had an abnormal soul like Aster.
"Well, that's it, you have the rest of the day to be able to freely move in the platform while also sending your avatar to the trial zone, if you fail, there will be a punishment, let's see, you'll have to wear only dresses and no armor from now and onwards, until we return from our mission", playfully said Aster to Tiana.
"What!", Tiana felt the urge to choke the black-haired youth in front of her, she was only comfortable wearing her armor and battle suit, it's not like she had no casual clothes, but even those were mostly pants and blouses, just like Felicia said, she was quite tomboyish.
Felicia placed her hand on her daughter's shoulder as if she was giving her, her support, but her next words placed the last nail on her coffin.
"Don't worry Tia, I have tons of dresses I bought for you during the year, so even if you fail everything will be fine~".
Leaving the fact that teasing Tiana who immediately sat down and started practicing, Aster had a different plan for Felicia.
So they took some distance from Tiana to not interrupt her, Aster then looked at the smiling woman in front of him before saying.
"I just want to confirm it, but you can already do it right, advanced parallel thinking like me".
Felicia smiled and then the wisp that represented her appeared next to her, on the exterior all the wisps were the same, besides the color which represented a participant and the size which increased with the time spend inside the trial zone, but the consistence depended on the purity of the soul, and Aster could tell Felicia surpassed him in that aspect… by a lot.
Felicia walked around Aster while her wisp remained fully formed without any sign of disappearing due to a poor concentration, she even sent it inside the trial zone and retrieved it with ease.
"What do you think, do I pass?", she jokingly said.
Aster chuckled, he expected as much, since she affirmed to be able to manipulate spirit energy with her soul energy, it could be related to her constitution or maybe she trained like crazy trying to find a way to advance even when restrained by the lack of purer spirit energy before she met him.
"I guess in your case, we can focus in soul condensing, I also want to see you manipulating spirit energy with soul energy", said Aster as he summoned his black sword soul weapon, while he maintained his spirit avatar golden wisp at the same time.
Felicia smiled, her hands were then clad in black soul energy forming those black clawed gauntlets she used before.
"I'll be in your care~".
With those words, both Aster and Felicia became flashes of light who clashed with each other, unlike a physical clash which would cause a thunder like explosion, they only clashed with their soul condensed weapons, though soundless, the air waved a bit when they made contact.
The reason as to why the soul path is still pursued, despite it being only known up to the peak of the Transcending realms in the four Heavenly Quadrants, is the capacity to affect the world with one's mind, the ability reserved for those who are known as Soul Kings, but that can be observed in a way smaller scale, when two strong soul cultivators clash, like right now.
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