Back at Aster's shelter, things were pretty different, Camila mixed some of the yang crystals which they found at the cave earlier, into the metal walls so that the beasts wouldn't notice them and since they were hidden underground the undead won't bother them too.
While the girls were sharing the bathroom, Aster threw himself on the bed, using the giant version of the armor requires him to use a lot of physical energy, and he also used spirit energy since he injected annihilation into it.
Not to mention the battle of soul energy and murderous aura he had with the evil spirit, in a sense he used powers of the three paths in the fight earlier, so it was normal for Aster to feel tired.
While Aster laying down on the bed resting, the door of the portable bath opened and the girls who looked refreshed and relaxed came out of it, they were wearing casual clothes and were chatting with each other.
"Phew, nothing beats a nice bath after fighting, I can't believe I ventured without this treasure of yours~", playfully said Felicia referring to the portable bathroom.
The other girls agreed with Felicia on this, even Tiana, normally cultivators have to spend long periods of time in the wilderness whenever they go out on a mission, and while is true that the higher the realm, the harder is for female cultivators to get dirty in any meaning, which girl didn't like to be clean and fresh at the end of a day.
Aster comes from earth and he is also used to modern commodities, so he asked Eris to make this little luxury for the girls and him to enjoy when they are out, luckily it seems that it won't be needed for too long, if Lilia's training goes well.
This time Aria accompanied the other girls to bath, since she knew Aster was tired and if they entered together, they will for sure end up flirting and playing.
"Go take a bath, I'll prepare the dinner with miss Felicia's help", cutely said Aria, acting like a proper wife who welcomes her husband after a day of hard work.
Aster laughed and after kissing Aria's pretty face a couple of times he entered the bathroom, in the meantime the girls prepared the table, Nerissa was surprised to see the family dynamic that everyone had here.
Besides Aria who she obviously noticed is Aster's lover, the others have some vague relationships with him, at the very least she can confirm all of them are quite comfortable around him, which is a first for her.
Her experience with guys isn't exactly a fond memory, when she was little, she saw her master being courted by male cultivators everywhere they went, but besides those guys ending up with their asses beaten up by Valentina, nothing else happened.
When her beauty bloomed with years, she got to experience something similar, since she became renowned, nowadays in Galatia there is no guy from the young generation who hasn't heard of her, and most also think of her as their dreamed lover.
'I guess, big sister Agnes wouldn't be so close to him, if he was a bad guy, so there is nothing to worry about', she concluded.
After Aster finished his bath, he joined the girls at the table and they enjoyed a nice dinner together, tomorrow things will be getting more serious since the elders of all the families and forces of the participants will be joining, it's probable that they won't be getting a full rest from now and onwards.
That's why Aster didn't make the girls travel at night, even if they could open a path through the spirit beasts, the real battle will start tomorrow so why not take the chance to have a good rest before that.
After that everyone parted ways to do their own thing, Camila and Nerissa polished their weapons, while sitting on their respective beds, Felicia was happily combing Tiana's hair.
And Aster was naturally cuddling with Aria, enjoying the smooth sensation of her skin in his embrace, just by doing so he had started to feel fully recovered.
Aria happily snuggled on Aster's chest enjoying his caresses, she actually fell asleep before Aster since she was feeling so comfortable in his arms, Aster noticed it and he gently patted her head before he closed his eyes to sleep.
For Aster's group the rest of the night went on pretty uneventful, but on the outside the forest trembled as larger spirit beasts had started appearing, a couple of thousands of kilometers away from where Aster and the girls were resting, a couple of crystal trees were suddenly knocked down as a large figure emerged from a zero-illuminated area.
It was a twenty-meter sized ape-like spirit beast wearing the skull of another spirit beast as a helmet, there was a slight trace of intelligence flashing in its eyes, but it was soon replaced by a bloodshot expression.
The reason is that it saw a fifteen-meter bird and a twenty-meter lizard appearing on its way, the three bests stood there for a couple of seconds before they started roaring at each other, while exuding the pressure of the Genesis Manifestation realm.
Unlike spirit beasts who had unlocked wisdom and gained human form, regular spirit beasts don't get access to the trait of each realm, in this case the ability to manifest their Genesis Cores, but that didn't make them weak at all.
"Booom!", the three spirit beasts charged at each other provoking a disaster in the nearby area, similar scenes repeated all over the forest, the only difference is that in some places the battles focused in quantity instead of quality, but the result was the same, a lot of crystal trees were destroyed, and a lot of spirit beasts as well as undead were killed, nurturing the grow of new trees.
…
Completely oblivious to the disaster that happened overnight, Aster slowly opened his eyes, before going to sleep he entered the mind space, because he needed to spend some time with Lilia, or she would tease him until she had her share of her darling's attention.
In any case, Aster wanted to use the difference in the time flow to meditate and help Rya with her daily training, so it was a win-win situation.
Naturally he woke sharing his bed with both Lilia and Rya who were cuddling with him, after kissing them he left the mind space, those two have started to get closer since they share a big thing in common, they both love Aster more than anything else.
Outside of the mind space Aster was welcomed with the pretty sight of Aria's cute sleeping face, the other girls had already woken up and they were just killing time, Aria was too comfortable and that's why even right now, she hadn't woken up.
Aster poked the ice princess's nose which made her eyelids tremble a bit, before she slowly opened her eyes, Aria's sleepy eyes had a certain charm to hem, well to be honest everything about her was charming, without putting any effort she was too captivating.
"Good morning~", she mumbled as she took the initiative to kiss Aster, unfortunately not even a couple of seconds into the kiss, her turned bright red as she felt the stares of the other girls on her, her shy nature didn't allow her to shamelessly continue with the public shows of affection, unlike Alice who was glued to Aster regardless of the time and place.
Aster softly laughed and then he got up the bed, while the girls prepared to leave, he closed his eyes and used his spirit sense to inspect the outside.
The result was different than what he expected, this time the forest didn't fully return to normal, there were knocked down trees here and there and also corpses of spirit beasts spread at certain spots of the forest, naturally the yin cores of the beasts and the yang crystals of the trees were gone, probably taken by the winner of each respective fight.
There were also more gaps between the dome-like treetop than before, allowing more of the sunlight to pass through it, which increased the temperature of the forest, probably the trees themselves did it to absorb more yang.
"So, the trees are also participating in the fight, well their job is to keep the Glacial Liger in check, so I guess it makes sense", mumbled Aster.
The girls finished their preparations and then Camila made an opening on the metal roof of the shelter for them to leave, they didn't bother in destroying it because who knows it might come in handy later.
There were still a couple of hours before the Genesis Manifestation cultivators entered the Silicon Forest, in other words until Eris and Agnes could join them, in the meantime Aster decided to take a look at the area which Camila felt the most attracted to, which also turned out to be the area with the most yang accumulated in the vicinity, according to Aster and Felicia's spirit senses.
And so, Aster and the girls started moving through the forest, each using their respective means, each one of them had their own movement spirit technique related to their respective attribute, amusingly, Aria and Nerissa's ones complemented each other.
Nerissa used created a wave of water with her spirit energy and then surfed on top of her sword, it was a bit strange-looking but the results were convincing, since that allowed her to maneuver very skillfully, she was basically riding a wave through the forest.
Aria used a similar principle, she was creating an ice trail and sliding on it, the water trail created by Nerissa made it even easier for her, since both of their attributes were water oriented, those two's abilities complemented each other.
Camila and Felicia were just flying at low height, they are Mortal Transcended after all, so even if they go to high ranked Stellar Systems they can fly without any problem, Tiana was clumsily using her ability to repel things, as a way to impulse herself, she jumped and used her ability at the same time, which made her travel quite a large distance before she landed on the ground once again, the only problem is that she was having trouble to maneuver.
Aster resorted to the way of flying in which he is the most skilled, using his soul energy to levitate through telekinesis, he really took a liking to this way of moving, since he could move and react as fast as his capacity of process allowed him to.
The group flashed through the forest, ignoring any obstacle and dead spirit beast, some still had their yin cores intact, but in comparison with the big prize they were targeting, those little yin crystals weren't worth mentioning, besides yin accumulation crystal that the evil spirit had created to ease its revival, was more than enough to guarantee a minor advance for everyone in the group, without weakening their bases.
Camila which was somewhat competing with Felicia to see who was faster at flying, approached Aster who was flying next to them to say.
"We are almost there; I can feel a rich treasure aura one kilometer ahead of us".
Aster nodded, he slowed down the pace and the girls who were following him did the same, the reason is that the temperature had started to go up quite a bit as sign that they were approaching a piece of land rich in yang energy.
And they fully stopped advancing around five hundred meters away from their destination, they couldn't advance more without any safety measures, well that applied to the girls, because for Aster this yang filled area couldn't do affect him at all, he swam in the lava pool Rya created in her dragon form without any problem after all.
ραпdα n?νa| сom Aster smirked as he saw the area ahead of them, the earth and also the nearby vegetation were all bright amber colored, as a sign that they were rich in yang energy, not to mention the steam released due to the high temperature of the ground.
He waved his hand and all the girls were covered in a dazzling golden light, Aria could have protected them with her cold Rigel flames, but there might be a reaction due to the clash of yin and yang, so Aster instead used the light protection of the paragon body, which works against both.
The girls saw their skins being covered by a pretty golden glow and then noticed that they weren't being affected by the increased temperature anymore, only then Aster told them to follow him, they had to find the area which used to be the central point of all the yang that has now overflowed all over the place, creating this mini yang garden.
Camila's eyes suddenly glowed, she used her pretty index finger to point at a specific area where there was a small crater.
"There is something there, Aster!", she happily said, she didn't notice it, but finding treasures for him made her mood improve quite a bit, a trait she probably developed due to her Wolfstein lineage.
Aster nodded and then his eyes became those of a dragon, as he inspected that small crater, he then walked towards it and covered his right hand with the golden armor before he grabbed a small shining object that stuck out of the ground.
"Mm?", Aster frowned, not only the object didn't come off, his hand lit up in yellow flames, the girls were alarmed for a moment, but they quickly noticed he was fine, so they remained calm.
Aster smiled seeing their quick judgement of the situation, the golden armor was blocking those fierce yellow flames, so he didn't feel any pain, at the same time the thing wasn't coming out of the ground.
Aster took a deep breath and then he covered his other hand with the golden armor before he used both of them to grab onto the thing that was trying to fry his arms.
"Humph, come out!", with one last pull, Aster managed to take out the thing which was stuck on the ground, or more accurately he teared off and lifted a piece of rock of around fifty meters of size.
It was a rock with a porous surface and a dark red hue, similar to the result of lava when it cools off, turning into a volcanic rock, the difference is that this rock was created due to the heat of the object Aster pulled out off the ground.
Aster casually left the giant rock land on the ground and then punched it, breaking the layer of rock which was covering the object, as a result a bright yellow light flooded the whole area.
The temperature went through the roof on the spot and the ground near Aster started melting to form lava, in fact Aster's whole body was covered in yellow flames, but he softly snorted and used the light of the paragon body to put them off.
What was hidden inside that layer of rock was actually chain link, a bright yellow chain link of around fifty meters of size to be more accurate.
"Well, that explains why a Diamond Bone Orchid was able to bloom in this place", mumbled Aster.
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