And so the time passed inside the secret realm of the eighth monthly trial and before Aster noticed they were already in the third day, meaning the time of their date was about to end.
Aster didn't even spend too much time in the survival zone, while Tiana trained her soul like crazy in order to not wear the dressed her mother prepared for her, Felicia kept practicing how to condense soul constructions with Aster.
Which naturally tired them a lot, unlike her clawed gauntlets which seem to be naturally made to conduct soul energy, to form other things she had a rough time at first, her condensation was a bit unstable, but that soon changed.
Aster wasn't that far from that though, the method he knows off is the one used for the Soul Crushing Parade, so for him to make a detailed soul construction he has to compress a huge amount of soul energy and then build it in parts.
But that wasn't the goal of this training session, he wanted to learn "simple" soul condensation, which is what Felicia outstood at.
By the morning of the third day, Aster who was standing on the platform had two black soul sword weapons floating in front of him.
One was incomplete but the other wasn't, unfortunately despite their resemblance the complete sword was way weaker than the incomplete one, it lacked in appearance, luster and aura, and that wasn't the only difference.
The incomplete one swirled around Aster as if it was happy to come out to play with him, showing the capacity to "think", it even made a few circles around the complete sword as if it was curious about it.
In comparison the complete sword just stood still like a statue, the only way to make it move was when Aster ordered to, and even then, its movements were stiff and robotic, way less fluid than its counterpart.
"So even if I imitate it, the one made with the method of the Soul Crushing Parade it's on a league of its own", mumbled Aster.
He got curious and tried to start condensing a second soul weapon using the method of the Soul Crushing Parade, and he failed miserably, it's not as if he lacked soul energy to start creating it, but every time he tried, the soul energy simply went to the sword he was condensing right now.
And that could mean two things, first, the manual required one weapon to be fully condensed for you to start the next one, or… the sword was just as Lilia and wanted to get all of Aster's attention.
After a few tests he was more inclined to bet for the second option, because when he tried to condense other swords, the black sword soul weapon actually cut them and destroy them.
But then Aster remembered what he did during his spar with Felicia, and then tried to condense an imitation of the black sword soul weapon and this time the incomplete sword didn't attack it.
"Mom is more lenient than you, you know", said Aster to the incomplete sword.
That being said, any other thing he condensed was ignored by the incomplete sword, he could make anything but swords that didn't resemble it, as a proof of that he condensed spears, bows, maces and shields as he clashed with Felicia right now.
Also besides the sword imitation, all his other condensed things were golden colored, instead of black, it was quite an interesting thing, he even asked Rya but she said she had no idea.
Besides knowing that Lilia was somehow related to the black sword soul weapon, Aster didn't have any clue of what was happening.
"Whatever I can just test it once I have completed the first soul weapon, the second one is going to be harder to create anyway", concluded Aster.
Now that Aster learned simple condensation he also realized it was a good way for him to train his soul.
He was playing a game-like spar with Felicia in which one had to attack each other with a soul construction and the other had to defend with one, both had to be made on the run while they chased after each other.
Needless to say but they ended up exhausted, soul condensing used a lot of soul energy, not to mention they had to manipulate their creations with the mind.
Aster and Felicia clashed one last time, Felicia was using a Warhammer made out of soul energy, while Aster created a tower shield to parry the hit, they both were pushed backwards by the waves of soul energy created due to the clash.
"Shouldn't the man willingly take a hit or two to impress the girl, to think I haven't been able to land a single attack on you", jokingly said Felicia.
Aster looked at the fierce bloodthirst looking Warhammer in her hand and he bitterly smiled, if he took a hit from that his body would feel numb for a couple of minutes at least.
Soul cultivators could harm the soul of their enemies, not kill it since that was a taboo, but wound it was possible, so of course Aster and Felicia toned it down so that the other would only feel shocked by the impact, in case they got to hit the other.
Aster noticed that unlike with the incomplete sword with which he could easily pierce through other people bodies, the imitation had trouble to pierce even the skin, it could also be because Felicia is a soul cultivator though, so he had something to test in his next mission.
"It's time to go into the survival zone, this will be our last time for the timbe being", said Aster.
"Mm, let's see if that girl managed to do it or not~", said Felicia with smiling expression unbefitting of a mother who should cheer up for her daughter's improvement, as if she wanted her to fail, just to see her wearing those dresses.
Tiana who felt a chill running down her spine, suddenly opened her, she then got up and walked towards Aster and Felicia.
The three of them then entered the survival zone.
Deep inside a jungle landscape, three figures appeared out of nowhere, the first and most noticeable was a golden colored sphere of light, which had a size of around one meter of diameter.
The second one was a pitch black sphere and the third one was of a white color with yellow borders, the two were about of 50 centimeters of diameter.
"We are about to leave the jungle, let's head on straight to the exit", said Aster's spirit avatar.
"Mm", the girls agreed and then the three of them started advancing, at this point they had practically cleared all the traps, and there was only one remaining, a living trap like the eagle that tried to attack Aster a couple of days ago, but this time the one waiting for them was leagues apart from it, it was full grown tiger made out of yellow light.
"Oh, so that's the gatekeeper of the first level, ladies you know what to do".
With Aster's greenlight, Felicia and Tiana each took a side and then flanked the tiger, which took a fierce stance and roared at them.
"Roaaarr!", unfortunately for the tiger, his roar was interrupted when the pitch black spirit avatar of Felicia suddenly dragged it towards the white and yellow avatar of Tiana.
"There you go Tia", playfully said Felicia.
'What kind of mother throws a dangerous beast at her daughter so carefreely… well this would be her second time though', thought Tiana as she stole a gaze at Aster.
Her spirit avatar waved a bit and then the tiger was repelled and sent flying towards Aster's spirit avatar.
The large golden sphere dashed frontwards and the tiger's body got punched a hole through its body the size of a meter, before it exploded in a lot of yellow sparks, which were absorbed by the three spirit avatars.
At the same time a door appeared in front of the group meaning they had won the qualifications to go to the next level, the group stared at each other and they then disappeared from the survival zone.
Back at the real world and more accurately at the secret realm, Aster was now blocking Tiana's spear with one of his training swords, the tip of the sword was about to reach her chest, while he stopped Felicia's clawed gauntlets with the incomplete black sword soul weapon.
"Tsk, I wanted to see Tia wearing cute dresses so bad", mumbled Felicia as she dispelled her gauntlets.
Aster softly laughed, a whole minute passed before he landed a hit on Tiana in the real world, while they cooperated perfectly to defeat the tiger in the survival zone, meaning Tiana was able to separately participate in two different fights, and so her training session could be considered a success.
Aster kept his sword in his spatial ring and Tiana who let out a sigh of relief collapsed on the ground, it took her all to keep up with parallel thinking at the same level as Aster and Felicia for just a minute, but she did it.
Aster was impressed by her progress, she wasn't worse than Alice or Aria in terms of comprehension, with her current level of parallel thinking she should be able to keep up with those two.
'To think, Alice out of all the people would ask me to train her… well I'm sure she likes to have her as sparring partner', thought Aster.
That's right, that violent sister of his asked Aster to help Tiana improve, he was going to do it even if she didn't, but he had to admit that he liked the fact that Alice was now treating someone besides Aria as her friend, even Lilia had at least two friends who she considered her sisters and rivals after all.
'And now is time for the rewards', said Aster as he turned to see Felicia before saying.
"Do you have the ingredients to prepare the medicinal bath used for your tempering your bodies, if so then prepare two bathtubs with it, one for each of you".
Tiana's eyes sparkled, she was curious as to what Alice used for her body tempering, and Aster told her, he will reward her with it if she was successful in her training this time around.
Felicia raised an eyebrow, but she nodded and then using a pair of bathtubs she had in her ring, she took out a few materials and then filled the bathtubs with them, before she warmed the resulting liquid until it had some steam coming out of it.
Felicia couldn't help but feel curious about what Aster was going to do, one must know that each body tempering process is different, there is no manual who uses the same method as other, be the ingredients used or the way to use it they were all different, so she was curious about why Aster didn't mention it, if what he used was what Alice used to temper her body, which should only be compatible with her manual.
Then under the pair of mother and daughter's surprised eyes, Aster made a slight cut in his hand and with his soul energy he made a couple of currents of his blood float out of it, before the cut disappeared as if it never existed.
Aster's hands then lit up in blue flames and he refined a drop in each of them, in the meantime, noticing the confused expressions in those two's pretty faces, Aster smiled and then said.
"You remember that transparent potion I gave each of you, to use just in life endangering emergencies, that's the result of refining my blood to the maximum of my current capacities, in a certain way".
As Aster spoke, the currents of blood which consisted in one third of golden and two thirds of a bright red color separated, the golden part was spit out of the flames, but instead of disappearing it was absorbed back by Aster's body.
In exchange, the leftover red currents condensed in small sphere and continued to be purified getting clearer and brighter, as if they were becoming real rubies, Aster then changed the property of Rigel's flames from purifying to freezing and the result were two pretty red crystals.
"Wait, does this mean Alice has been training her body adding your blood to her body tempering elixir?", asked Tiana.
Aster nodded which left her in awe, the main ingredient of the body tempering elixirs for manuals who are inspired in spirit beasts, is the blood of a physically strong spirit beast, for example they used the blood of a steel tiger, for Tiana is one in the early stage of the Mortal Transcending realm, as for Felicia, she used the blood from a specimen in the Genesis Manifestation realm.
Which proves their talent in body cultivation, since they endured the burning pain of the body tempering, using ingredients on a higher realm compared to theirs, even if the other ingredients of the elixir were meant to lessen the pain, it wouldn't go past 30% of it.
Aster smiled amused by their reactions.
'Now that I think about it, I haven't told the new members of the group about the properties of my blood, well a couple of them figured out by themselves, like Camila and Mylene', thought Aster as he took out two tennis-ball sized metal capsules with some small holes here and there and chains attached to one side, he opened them and put the crystals inside before closing them.
Aster then let one capsule sink into each of the bathtubs, exactly five seconds for the one at the left and ten seconds for the one on the right.
The elixir which originally was of a light gray tone, turned blood red colored, also it looked as if it was hotter than before, not enough to boil but it certainly increased its temperature quite a bit.
"There it is, now just enter and cultivate the way your normally do, don't worry my blood is special so you won't feel any pain but… it's not going to be exactly comfortable too, though the results should be around ten times better than your previous sessions".
"T-Ten times!", exclaimed Tiana.
"Yes, if you keep your clothes on, if you enter naked it would be twenty times better, but don't do it, until you are at least at the Genesis Manifestation realm in one cultivation path, also don't let the blood crystals in the elixir for more than five seconds for those below the Mortal Transcending realm and more than ten seconds for those above it".
After saying that, Aster handed the encapsuled crystals to Felicia and then he took some distance from them, without leaving so that he could watch over them just in case.
"I'll be here just in case, remember what I said, it won't be painful but probably uncomfortable, you just need to ignore it and cultivate… it's the only trait of my blood I can't purify if I want it to be used for body tempering".
Felicia nodded and then she was the first one to enter the bathtub, surprisingly she didn't hesitate to do it, probably because she knew Aster wouldn't harm them, that and if her supposition was right, then this also helped Lilia gain a monstrous strength.
As son as Felicia sat down inside the bathtub with only her head out of the water, she realized what Aster meant, her face immediately flushed and she even stole a gaze at Aster but didn't say anything.
Aster bitterly smiled, the golden color of his blood represented the violent aspect of his lineage as well as its monstrous vitality which he gained due to the paragon body, the red color represented the… lascivious aspect as well as the wildness which he gained from his dragon lineage.
When they were separated each aspect will be increased and if purified they will get even stronger, in addition if his blood was "incomplete" the effect of causing lust towards him was eliminated.
The transparent liquid was the result of further purifying the golden part of his blood, by doing so, it also gained the capacity to amplify the effects of anything to which was added, that's what he used to make better elixirs and treasures with Eris and Mylene earlier.
For the red part of his blood, he hasn't been able to purify it enough to get a better version, probably because it came from his Drage lineage which of course had a lower start compared to the paragon body, as its naturally of a lower rank, and it's currently evolving to match up to it.
But it also has a special use when it's alone, it can be treated as the blood of a pure spirit beast, in this case since it represents the Drage lineage, it is of course the blood of a… Darkness Desolation Dragon, the pure blood of one on top of it, naturally its rank was the same as Aster's current strength, but that doesn't matter.
In the whole four Heavenly Quadrants, no one has been able to cultivate with the pure blood of a subspecies of a dragon since they don't exist here, let alone that, the best they got was the diluted blood of some descendants left behind, which were mixed races of serpents and subspecies or other reptiles and a subspecies, and those were the spirit beasts wrongly called dragons in the mortal realms.
This is one of the facts that allowed Lilia to improve so fast in the body path, well that and because the crystals Aster just created should last Felicia two months and Tiana four months, but Lilia used one a week, she also jumped into the elixir naked.
And the result of that were those nights of she crazily making love with Aster until they passed out, because the "uncomfortable" feeling Aster talked about was arousal.
Of course that happened because Lilia left the crystal sink in for more than a minute, and she made direct contact with it with her skin, on purpose, since she knew what would happen.
Naturally after realizing the effects, Aster forbade Alice from doing the same and adjusted the time and the level of exposition to the enhanced elixir which used his blood, so that the feeling was manageable, of course that also diminished the effect a lot, but one Lilia was hard enough to deal with back then.
With that and the nutrition she got from Aster's yang, the results Lilia got were around eighty times what she would normally get if she were to cultivate her body with the elixir the manual they used alone, so in three years she got the results of around 240 years of body tempering.
But there was also a catch, this only worked until the original lineage of the body reached the same stage as Aster's, which would be the pure blood of a Darkness Desolation Dragon, on its baby phase, still that was enough for Lilia who used to be in the Genesis Manifestation realm in terms of body cultivation, to jump all the way to the Gate Transcending realm.
That was a method only available for Lilia, and it stopped working before she reached the Gate Transcending realm, she achieved that by herself, and was gone for about a week, before she returned to the castle.
Felicia handled the situation pretty good, though it was way less intense than what Lilia experienced, it was still enough for her to feel her body hot, it wasn't directed specifically to Aster though since eliminated the golden part of his blood, so that wouldn't happen, her face was red as an apple though.
'You could have told me this was the effect', she said directly to Aster.
Aster shrugged in response.
'I couldn't think of a way to say "Enter, you are going to get excited but it's going to be fine", so it was better to show you it's not done in purpose, nor the effects are aimed at me', he said.
Felicia nodded, what he said was true, she also understood why Lilia and Alice didn't care to practice using such a method, because the side effect was good for them anyway.
'What a dangerous but marvelous reward', she thought before she turned to see her daughter to say.
"You can enter the bathtub, but prepare your mind and promise to keep calm, if you can't then I don't mind using this for myself~".
Tiana felt a vein popping on her neck, she worked so hard to not get the punishment, so of course she was going to enjoy the rewards.
Seeing her daughter determinately jump into the bathtub, Felicia giggled and then winked at Aster, making the latter sigh.
"Kyaaa!".
As expected, as soon as Tiana was submerged in the bathtub, she let out a strange sound, while her face reddened, she gave her mother an accusatory gaze but covered her mouth to silence herself.
…
After a couple of hours the bright red water in the bathtub became clear once again, meaning Felicia and Tiana had used up all its effect to temper their bodies, of course that didn't mean they were going to become dragonkin, they would need to have the lineage from the very beginning, or be using a manual that incorporated absorbing the blood of a dragon to gain such properties, and the only one that did that in the four Heavenly Quadrants was the one the Drage family used.
What they did was use the strong blood of Aster to ignite their own, that's why it only worked until their lineage reached the same stage as his, which would be still long time in the future, since they aren't using such an extreme method as Lilia.
Leaving aside Tiana who felt like digging a hole to hide after letting Aster hear her make such a weird sound, Felicia was rather happy with the results.
"Woah, Tia, touch your skin, it's so smooth, even my hair is silkier~", she happily said.
Tiana tried it out and realized it was true, that wasn't all she felt her body losing a few grams, but her strength and body shape didn't worsen, it was as if her muscles had contracted a bit.
"This had the most noticeable effect since it was the first time, from now on it would be harder to get such good results, also don't expect to advance as fast as my mom… she used something around eight times stronger than you, and that is a comparison if you were to be in the same realm as her, but if it were to be made in normal terms, it should be around thirty or so times".
Felicia already guessed it so she didn't react that much, Tiana on the other hand was dumbfounded, she couldn't help but admire Lilia's strong will to endure such a thing, of course she didn't know that Lilia didn't endure anything, she got double the "benefits" instead, since she went crazy at bed with Aster for a whole week with each body tempering session.
"If you are happy with it that's fine by me, don't forget my instructions and only use it when we are in a safe place and with people you trust near you, okay?", said Aster.
"Mn, thanks", answered Tiana.
Aster nodded and then they left the room, by the time they left the sun was setting down, because after their training session they had to take a bath to calm down and a couple of hours of rest, so they had lunch inside the room.
Luckily Aster could now return directly from the territory of the Battle Peak in the four planets, to his valley, without having to go through the neutral city, so once they were out, they held onto Aster's shoulders and disappeared.
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