After closing his eyes, Aster entered the mind space and the scenery changed from the cave, to the eternal starry sky of the mind space.
Rya who before would have been just meditating, was sitting inside a bathtub naked as she absorbed the medicinal effects, she noticed someone entering the mind space and she turned around, but was one step too late.
"Kyaa~", Rya let out a startled sound, as she felt a pair of arms hugging her from behind and fondling her naked body.
"Ah, feeling my cute Rya's soft and tender body after a long working day, what a bliss", playfully said Aster, with a big smile.
Rya sighed, she has learned that it's futile to resist, not to mention she didn't want him to stop, so she just went along with the current and leaned backwards against Aster's chest, to rest in his embrace, while she pouted.
"What working day, you even had the time to fool around with the little ice girl earlier humph", she mumbled.
Aster chuckled, he forgot Rya could watch everything from the mind space, so his little lie was seen through pretty easily.
"Ahem, whatever the case, that doesn't reduce the happiness that embracing my cute Empress brings to my heart", he confidently said.
Rya knew he was jut sweettalking her but she still couldn't help but let a smile flourish on her pretty face.
'Damn, these human emotions are surely hard to handle', she thought.
Aster softly laughed and then spoke out loud.
"Come out, I know you have been here since I arrived".
The water of the bathtub splashed and the next thing Aster knew was that his head was now resting on something springy big and soft.
"I have been waiting for you darling~", Lilia's lovely voice was a bliss for Aster's ears, not to mention she was hugging him and cutely rubbing her face against his, while her large breasts pressed against him.
The only one having a hard time was Rya, these pair of perverts always took the liberty to jump in the bathtub which was prepared for her training, with her after all.
Aster relaxed and stopped teasing Rya, he didn't come to the mind space to bother her, but to talk with Lilia, since things were taking an interesting turn in the Silicon Forest, and some preparations must be done, just to be sure.
"Mom, can you give this to Mylene, I want her to inspect these crystals and tell me everything she can discover", said Aster as he handed two crystals one light yellow and the other dark blue to Lilia.
The blue one was the one he got from that strange bird, as for the yellow one he removed one of the crystals incrusted on the walls of the cave, for research purposes, the ability of being able to communicate with the girls wherever he was, was way more useful than what he thought earlier.
If he needed something the girls could help him through Lilia, and vice versa, like right now, Eris lacked knowledge regarding these materials, but according to her, Mylene should know something, alchemist use these kinds of crystals for elixirs and pills at the Divine Firmaments since they aren't as scarce as in the mortal realms.
"Mm, sure, but how are you going to pay the "fee", this delivery service is pretty expensive you know~", whispered Lilia.
Aster chuckled, he turned around and carried Lilia in his arms, when he fondled Rya earlier, he injected his soul energy into her for a new healing cycle, so now he had to leave her focus so that it wasn't wasted.
"We'll go ahead, don't forget to join us, or you'll get punished", happily said Aster to Rya, as he flew away to the house he built, while carrying Lilia like a princess.
…
Leaving aside the sweet cries of Lilia and Rya that soon echoed through the mind space, Aster only stayed around one day with them and then he returned to the outside world, or more accurately he went to sleep this time.
The hours passed and soon Aster felt something soft and squeezable against his face, a sweet smell also assaulted his nose, relaxing him, he couldn't help but accommodate to enjoy this comfortable sensation as much as he could, so he rubbed his face against it, to better savor the feeling.
"Mm~", a low cute sound, made its way to Aster's ears, which made him smirk, his eyes slowly opened, just to be welcomed by the beautiful sight of Aria's bosom in which his head was buried right now.
Aster looked upwards and his eyes made contact with that beautiful pair of platinum blue eyes of Aria, her pale snowy skin and those clear gem-like eyes as well as her long unique hair, made her look charming, getting to see her recently woken up appearance this early in the morning, was a great way to start the day.
Aster gently caressed her face to enjoy the characteristic smoothness of Aria's skin, before he brought her face closer to his, to share a morning kiss with her.
Only after he had enjoyed her pretty lips to the content of his heart, he let go of her, naturally Aria was all smiles right now, Aster got up the bed and saw that the other girls had already woken up, they were each doing their own thing, to not be caught in the little world he created with Aria when he flirted with her.
"Good morning, ladies, how did you sleep?", he asked as he stretched his body, it might not seem like it, but he spend half a day in the mind space rolling on the bed with Lilia and Rya, and the rest of the time sleeping, so he was well rested and fresh as a lettuce.
It was as if he didn't mind about that the calamity that happened during the night, the girls saw Aster's good mood and they each formed their own suppositions.
They had a nice breakfast together and the dressed up to leave, Aster naturally extracted till the last yang accumulation crystal in the cave, before Camila removed her seal on the entrance.
Surprisingly the forest was in a better state than what Aster expected, in fact it was too good to be normal, with the scale of the battle that broke havoc last night, Aster at least expected some destroyed areas and a few trees to fall.
But besides some areas in which the vegetation was a bit shallow, and a few dimmer crystals on the trees, in other words changes that only someone with a high parallel thinking capacity would notice, everything looked the same as yesterday.
"I didn't expect any corpses to be laying around, since those skeletons are hungry undead, that became stronger thanks to the yin that blooms at night in this place, but to think all the traces of the battle were covered, this isn't something a creature that only has instincts can do", concluded Aster.
The corpses of both the undead and the spirit beats, naturally became food for the others, that was normal, but he can't imagine the spirit beasts nor the skeletons cleaning up after their mess, it were probably the trees the ones who did it.
Felicia soon noticed another change, besides some of the crystals on the trees that were now dimmer than before.
"The interference in the air is weaker too, so what's the plan for today?", she asked.
Aster looked at the forest which now had an extra sense of mystery and danger, but he didn't care, he came here with a clear goal and everything that tried to get in his way, will suffer the same destiny as the headless corpse that was laying down near the entrance of the cave.
Surprisingly the beasts nor the skeletons ate the corpse of the elder Aster killed with annihilation, he remembered what happened when he destroyed parts of the soul of one of the bandits that appeared in the Azure Sky planet to kidnap girls for an evil sect.
The parts which's soul was destroyed lost their vitality and rot on the spot, he prevented the corpse from being destroyed by annihilation on purpose, so that if others arrived, they would get scared the hell out of themselves, it was a safety measure.
Who would have thought that the skeletons and beasts refused to even approach that corpse, and just left it alone there.
"Let's advance deeper into the forest, we need to find those guys anyway, and it's going to be easier with less interference", said Aster.
To use their spirit sense yesterday they had to use extra soul energy, and even then, their range of detection was way shorter than normal, but at least for now the wild yang in the atmosphere which was getting on their way yesterday, was temporarily weaker.
"Mm", the girls nodded and they then started advancing through the forest, if you were careful enough you could still find some traces left by the guys who were escaping from the skeletons and spirit beasts.
Apparently, those traces weren't erased by the trees, so Aster whose eyes had changed to those of a dragon, only had to follow them to find the places from which those who escaped came.
Along the way, Aster also noticed that the temperature today was a bit less intense than yesterday too, so Aria didn't have to use as much Rigel's flames to keep them fresh as much as before.
Aster and Felicia suddenly reacted the same way, they both extended their arms and prevented the other girls from keep advancing.
Aster placed his index finger on his lips to tell the girls to not make any noise, as he guided them towards a small bush that was placed near one of the crystal trees.
Through his spirit sense, he saw that a few meters ahead there was an interesting situation unfolding, there were people form two different groups clashing with a single person.
One of the two attacking parts was a tall man with a black and green mask covering his face, judging by his green spirit energy and the fact that his attacks corroded the ground he was a poison cultivator.
The other attacker was a woman with a hatred filled expression, she was missing an arm and had a scar going through her otherwise pretty face, her body was glowing in a light blue light, which had yin imbued into it.
Both of them were early-stage Sea of Knowledge cultivators, and they were attacking another girl whose lower face was covered by a veil, judging by her spirit energy, she was a peak Star Tribulation cultivator, and a member of the young generation.
Still her spirit energy was strong and vast, which would explain why she was able to face people above her realm, not only that, Aster also noticed her movements were a bit clumsy and forced.
She stopped from time to time to cough, which the other two take advantage to try and suppress her.
"Aster that is…", mumbled Felicia.
"Yeah, that's the uniform of the sect, but I don't know who that girl is, the masked guy seems to come from the Marsh Domain of the Zoldia Stellar System, as for that woman, she is a dual cultivator, so I would say she belongs to the Pleasure Palace of the Tsarai Stellar System".
"Also, that girl seems to have been infected by the corpse energy of a strong undead, that's why she is having a hard time fighting with those two, otherwise the situation would have been completely the contrary".
Corpse energy is one of the most detrimental and hard to get rid of, types of energy that exists, that's why corpse cultivators are popular in evil sects, but wanted and eliminated by the righteous sects.
Aster's eyes glowed as he saw the girl take out her weapon, which was a blue sword, she seemed to have steeled her heart, as her eyes coldly glared at the one-armed woman, that was recklessly attacking her as if she held a grudge against her.
"Blue River Sword, Flow Stream", the mellow voice of the girl echoed through the nearby area, she slashed her sword and then a blue current of spirit energy was shot from it.
To the surprise of the one-armed woman, the blue current of spirit energy didn't attack her frontwards, instead it navigated by avoiding the crystal trees, and before she could react and reached her.
"Ahhh!", the legs of the woman were cleanly cut with that single slash, she collapsed on the ground and stopped moving, it was unknown if she was still alive or not.
The masked man became quite wary all of a sudden, but the attack he expected from that fierce girl didn't come, he instead saw the veiled girl kneeling on the ground while using her blue sword to support her body.
She was having troubles to breath and her face was pale, it was obvious she had reached her limit a long time ago, but she still managed to take down one of the two enemies in front of her.
The masked man let out a sigh of relief, as he carefully advanced towards the now exhausted veiled girl.
"What a shame, blame yourself for not bringing a bodyguard or at least a companion, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't dare to lay my hands on you, but the formations had been screwed up by yesterday's events, so how can I waste the opportunity to enjoy such a delicious looking "meal" hahaha…".
The laugh of the masked man stopped in cold, then while his body kept advancing, his head separated from it and fell to the ground.
The veiled girl softly snorted, her eyes fought to not close, because she knew that if they closed, she will probably won't ever open them again, her sword lost its blue radiance, with that last attack she did in secret and she fell frontwards.
It was then when she heard footsteps and she sighed, but her eyes didn't wave at all, what was left of her spirit energy started gathering around her heart, she was actually going to sever her heart meridian to kill herself, since she couldn't self-detonate her dantian, due to the corpse energy invading her body.
But then, an easing voice made her stop what she was doing.
"The galaxies are sure small, to think I would meet miss Valentina's disciple here out of all places".
The girl slightly raised her head and the last thing she saw was a black-haired youth with a particularly trust-worthy smile on his face, she couldn't discern things properly as her sight was failing her, so she only was able to see that smile and other vague details.
And yet she stopped trying to put an end to her life and instead she unconsciously chose to entrust everything to this newcomer as she fainted.
Aster was surprised to say the least, this girl in front of him killed a Sea of Knowledge and lethally wounded another one in this horrible state, it was praise-worthy, but understandable, since she was the strongest disciple of the Black Sword faction and the disciple of Agnes's cousin, Nerissa Belial.
"Oh well, let's get rid of the nuisances so that I can heal her", said Aster, he waved his hand and his soul energy gently grabbed the passed-out girl and lifted her, he on the other hand pointed his index finger at the one-armed woman who was just feigning to be out, in a try to escape her judgement.
A ray of dazzling golden light was shot from Aster's finger and before the woman even had the chance to beg for mercy, her body was reduced to nothingness, Aster did the same with the corpse of the masked guy, not before getting their spatial rings of course.
They seemed to be old acquittances who shared the same tastes, since their auras were stained with the mark of non-cultivators massacred by them, in a very specific way.
"Tsk, damn bastards using others as living furnaces", mumbled Aster, he then returned with the girls and they left this place to look for an open area to treat the passed-out Nerissa.
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