Aster saw Rya's troubled face and he laughed finding her cute, even if she has become younger, that dignity and authority akin to her way of talking as an "Empress", didn't disappear.
If for Lilia people would be willing to die just to see her looking in your way, if she were to let her real self in plain view f, or one wouldn't even dare to think on stealing a gaze at her, if she didn't want you to.
In front of Rya anyone who isn't mentally strong enough, would wish from the bottom of the heart to kneel and follow any order from her, that is the type of aura those two have which is part of their charm.
And that is as of current, Aster is sure that just as Lilia is still way too early to be considered in her prime, Rya is the same, what he has seen is just a small spec of their future selves.
Imagining embracing those two at the same time when that moment comes, made Aster unconsciously smile from ear to ear, which made Rya who was being hugged by Aster inwardly smile.
Noticing that he was stopping Rya from starting her training, Aster let go of her and then they both descended from Hyperion's highest spot to the ground area, next to where Lilia was having a hard time trying to fulfill her task.
"Darling, you are being too harsh on mommy, I can't even take things out of this ring", said Lilia with a pout.
Aster softly laughed and then approached his mother.
"Of course, if it was something easy then mom would have managed to do it at this point".
Lilia tried to hug Aster, happy to hear him complimenting her, but Aster dodged, if he gave her what she wanted, then she would lose that "desire" which she needed to succeed in her training.
Lilia sighed, her "defeated" expression almost made Aster jump to hold her and comfort her, which she was naturally doing on purpose.
'To make others behave based on her desires… I originally said it as a hoke, but is she actually some kind of lust demon', wondered Aster.
Desire isn't exclusive to sex, there is lust for battle, lust for money, lust for achievements, it applies to everything, as long as one exists there will be something you wish to obtain, even for those who have given up is the same, since they wish to die, no one is exempt.
Aster chuckled, of course he knew Lilia isn't that, she is a dragonkin just like him, but her star seems to be connected to desire, even before he came to this world, she acted based on what she wanted, never yielding to other people's desires, but making the world bend to her own desires.
"Don't look at me like that, I'll give you a hint, it's going to be easier if you use your wings, but you need to retain your consciousness, since the other Lilia will probably just jump at me, and that means you fail", playfully said Aster.
Lilia mumbled a few things, like "since when my beloved son became immune to my charm", and other similar things, but she then sat down and closed her eyes to meditate, Aster will never harm her, so if he said this was for the better, she was willing to bet her life on it if it was needed.
Aster noticed the change in Lilia's approach and he nodded, just like Rya couldn't directly explain some things to him, as to not affect his path, the same applied here, his deduction might be wrong so if Lilia form the erroneous concept due to him, it will bring more troubles than benefits later on.
Still, he gave her a hint, so now Lilia should be thinking "Why would I fail if I jump on my darling", or something like that, the moment she realizes it, it should be easy for her to complete her training.
Since Lilia's side was okay for now, he turned to see Rya and approached her, in her case what she needed to nurture was her soul.
Originally when Rya changed the shape of her spirit form before, Aster thought it was she manipulating her soul, but now that she was regressing to heal the damage in her soul, he realized that wasn't the case.
Because though she will probably look similar to that silver haired Rya, the feeling she gave off was completely different, so the ability she used had nothing to do with the soul path.
It made sense that her soul was her "weak" point though, sense she stated that the first one whose soul is able to interact with annihilation, without any kind of protection and not being erased from existence, is Aster, so even she who is also able to wield annihilation is not an exception to that.
Or that used to be the case, since the annihilation they both use comes from Hyperion, Aster simply ordered it to not harm Rya, or more accurately now that she is a star maiden, she is linked to Aster and so annihilation won't harm her no matter what.
This confused Aster a bit though, since Rya supposedly originated from Hyperion, but they are ultimately two different entities.
This is a realization he got thanks to Sarina, she developed a way to use annihilation which he couldn't use, not only that Rya once mentioned that annihilation shares some resemble with destruction, but in a more advanced way.
And so, he came with the conclusion that even if others had found ways to use annihilation, the only one who has it as its attribute should be him, and that left him with a new question, what was Rya's attribute then.
It had to be something that was related to annihilation, the problem is that the list was quite big, the Drage's destruction and Mylene's decadence are two examples, in the end they both bring annihilation.
Aster shook his head, he was diving too deep in something he couldn't comprehend right now, so he instead focused in what he had in front of him currently, which is a blushed Rya.
Why you ask, simple, because he was hugging her and fondling her from behind, while she tried to concentrate in meditating.
"Why are you…mnn~", Rya's words were interrupted by Aster gently nibbling on her right ear, getting a cute reaction from her.
Aster softly blew at her ear before whispering.
"I guess that even if you are starting over again, you can't cultivate in three paths, but while we are in the mind space everything you get from me benefits your soul, so I will pour in lots of "love" in you, so you can build a strong base for your new beginning", said Aster with a casual smile on his face.
Rya might not be able to cultivate soul energy since she isn't a soul cultivator, but nothing prevents her from strengthening her soul.
Normally all her efforts are directed to healing the damages in her soul but now Aster was going to help her nurture it instead, just like how he nurtured Lilia's body, with a lot of his love.
With a wave of Aster's hand, his body lit up in blue flames and then both he and Rya were covered in a blue dome that isolated them from the outside, he did it out of consideration for Lilia too.
Since Rya will be making some nice sounds, which will probably just make it even harder for Lilia to keep her cool, since she was going to use her wings, he already pushed his mother as far as he considered safe, if he teased her more, then only a "disaster" awaited him.
Rya saw the dome closing and she had a bad premonition, which soon became reality, Aster took out a large bathtub and then started preparing a medicinal bath.ραпdα `n?ν?| сom
This is a surprise he has been preparing for Rya, he sent a message to Mylene specifically asking her for an elixir that could nurture the soul, in a non-cultivation way.
He tried asking Lilia before, but as far as she knew such a thing didn't exist in the four Heavenly Quadrants, or more accurately it did exist but its purpose wasn't nurturing the soul.
It was a type of aphrodisiac used by dual cultivation sects… evil ones, it was used to relax and arouse the victim making it enter in a happy and blissful state, which isn't weird considering the practices used by those guys, they treated other people's bodies as cauldrons, feeding them materials that enhanced yang or ying, as well as vitality to then harvest it when the time came, those people died in bliss by getting their lives drained, since suffering would lower the quality of the result, and as bad as it sounded this was actually considered "soft" in evil sects, at least compared to the rough way to steal ying or yang normally used.
The "soft" way was used by those in normal dual cultivation sects, to hide their true natures, since the other party was happy even when dying, then the dual cultivator wouldn't be marked as there was no suffer involved in a sense.
Naturally Aster despised such methods, but the recipe of that elixir ended in Lilia's hands, after she killed a few guys from an evil dual cultivation sect that targeted her, when she was following the track of the Wolfstein lineage.
So Aster handed Mylene the recipe and asked her to revise it, to increase the blissful aspect and eliminate the arousal effect, since there was no need for such a low effect, when his own blood worked way better in that aspect.
'Last time I failed since my soul energy wasn't strong enough, but now…', thought Aster.
He took out two bottles from his spatial ring, one had the transparent liquid result of purifying the golden strings of his blood, the other had a hand-sized red crystal, once Aster had poured all the other ingredients, he threw the crystal and the liquid.
Rya knew what those things were and she was in awe, since this is the first time she has seen him using such a large amount of them, besides when Lilia was cultivating her body.
"Originally my blood was only able to nurture the body, but now I'm a dragon who has cultivated his soul, and within the mind space, the effect should naturally help the soul instead of the body", said Aster.
The liquid in the bathtub went through a few changes, first it was dyed blood red, then it turned golden and at the end it ended in being half and half, the reason of that is because he used way more of his red blood than the golden one, to make up for the gap in strength.
"Undress and get in", playfully said Aster as he tapped the border of the bathtub, then before Rya could say anything, he started undressing and soon he was fully naked.
Rya knew it was futile to complain, since Aster had that expression which meant he would not step back even a centimeter, on the other hand she was curious to see what he was planning to do, certainly this mix of the two aspects of his blood after being purified hasn't been used before.
Not that she knows at least, not to mention she saw the ingredients mixed in to create this medicinal bath, and all of them had calming and easing properties, so she wasn't sure what he was trying to do.
Ultimately Rya obeyed and took off his clothes, naturally Aster enjoyed the view to the content of his heart, which made Rya unconsciously smile, once they were both naked, Rya entered the bathtub.
And as she expected… nothing happened, which is normal, until she is out of the mind space and back in a physical body, even if weakened her cultivation is still way higher compared to anyone Aster has met, even if it's Aster's blood the gap is too high, but the idea isn't bad.
Rya put on an apologetic smile as she turned to see Aster.
"The idea is good, maybe when I'm back in a physical body, it will work and I will build a much sturdier soul, who knows it might be the change I need in this…mm~", before she could finish speaking Aster entered the bathtub, sat behind her wrapped his arms around her waist and sealed her lips with a kiss.
"Does your trust in your husband only amounts to this much?", asked Aster with a serious voice.
Rya slightly lowered her head, even after seeing Aster pulling miracle after miracle, she couldn't help but treat him as a member of the young generation, which is justified, there is a lot of things about the cultivation world which Aster ignores.
But it's not like he isn't aware of it, Aster gently grabbed Rya's chin and then slowly raised her head.
"When it comes to cultivation I might not be as informed as you, or as strong as mom, or as intelligent as Eris, or as skilled as Mylene, but when have I fell behind when it comes to women", jokingly said Aster.
Rya was speechless for a moment, but she then giggled, he was right, he has gone as far as to use such a treasure as the paragon body just to make Kana laugh, or Orionis's unknown power just to spend some time with the twins since he missed them, common sense didn't apply to Aster, in many ways.
"Well, I understand that words are cheap, so let me how you, the method your husband has came with to help you", proudly said Aster.
He extended his middle and index right fingers and then their tips lit up in Rigel's flames, Aster's closed his eyes and a couple of seconds later when he opened them, his pupils had changed, from the ones of a human to the vertical ones of a dragon.
Rya's little mouth widened a bit, she was already naked and to be honest at this point, Aster has seen everything that there is to see and touch everything that there is to touch, of her, at least when referring to her spirit form, or that's what she used to believe.
Because in front of Aster's new eyes, she felt defenseless, it was as if he could see through her, she didn't know why but she blushed, this felt just like the first time, Aster saw her naked, an intimacy that made her heart pound like a drum.
"Aster, that is… hyaaa~".
A loud cute sound escaped Rya's mouth, when Aster suddenly pressed his two fingers which were cladded in Rigel's flames, in a specific spot on Rya's neck, the elixir evaporated on the spot, while Rya's body shivered.
It took her a couple of minutes to be able to articulate words again, she turned her head backwards, and was lost in those golden eyes of Aster, which despite looking fierce and domineering, were filled with the most tender love and the utmost care possible.
Aster then smiled; his expression was filled of relief as if a weight had been lifted from his chest.
Rya on the other hand was beyond word, she rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
"Y-You, how did you do it", she exclaimed, but the first response she got was a kiss from Aster.
"See, you can count on me for these things, after all you are my cute Empress, right?", said Aster as he caressed Rya's belly with his free hand.
"Wuuuh~", Rya let out a happy sound in response, bit in her mind she was screaming.
'What the hell is going on!'.
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