With a bit of effort Aster and the girls passed through the hole Eris melted on the black stone wall and reached the other side after a minute of running through it.
By habit, Aster was walking in front of the group, though with Eris and Agnes here, he was way far from being the strongest in terms of offensive of the group, in terms of defense, he won't lose, at least for some time, thanks to the Paragon Body.
Not to mention, the dangers of this place weren't as simple as strong spirit beasts that could attack them.
"Mm?", not even a second at the other side of the black stone wall, Aster's pupils contracted a bit, he exhaled and then his body exploded in bright yellow light.
The girls appeared right behind him a second later and were amazed at the huge area Aster was covering with his yang radiance right now.
But it wasn't the time for that, Aster turned to his head around a bit and then waved his hand as he took out the yang chain link.
"Eris, set up a yang nature barrier please".
Eris nodded and then immediately put hands to work, in the meantime Aster focused in maintaining his yang radiance at the same intensity.
Everyone remained calm because being agitated wasn't going to help anyone, besides Aster didn't seem to be worried at all, so why should they be scared.
That being said, they could tell why he asked Eris to create a barrier instead of using his yang radiance like before when he protected them from the mist created by the evil spirit.
The atmosphere in this place which was at the other side of the black stone barrier, was completely different than at the middle area of the forest.
There was so much yin here that the ground has turned black, there was also a black fog which corroded everything it touched, the crystal trees were releasing all the yang they had stored and they were barely able to fight back against the few spirit beasts that were trying to destroy them.
There weren't that many beasts here, just eight of them, but four were at the peak of Genesis Manifestation realm, and the other four… were exuding the pressure akin to the Void Manipulation realm.
With each of their movements the ground trembled, and the crystal of the weakest trees cracked more and more, they were clearly being outpowered due to the almost full eclipse cutting their source of power, and the moons boosting the spirit beasts.
Naturally the sudden appearance of newcomers caught the attention of the Void Manipulation realm beasts, which unlike their Genesis Manifestation subordinates, were abstaining from making big movements waiting for an opportunity to kill.
That was until a three-floor building size yang radiance broke the status quo, Aster's yang was violently clashing with the yin in the atmosphere, producing a deafening whistling sound and a release of smoke at the point of clash, similar to the crystal trees.
He had to do it, because this yin was different than the ones they have seen before in the forest, in its natural state yin isn't good or bad, it's just another kind of energy, with the proper preparations it can be driven away without any confrontation.
That's what Aster did earlier, but the yin here isn't neutral at all, it is charged with so much bloodthirst that its color has changed from its normal dark blue, to an ominous black, it only had one mission and it was to destroy everything that it touched.
Even the Genesis Manifestation beasts which were engaging in battle were being corroded, luckily, they weren't intelligent so they paid no mind and kept trying to tear the enemy they had in front of them.
But the Void Manipulation beasts were being wary because of that same reason, they knew that the black fog wasn't beneficial for them unlike other yin energy, their beastly instincts had started to change into wisdom after all.
"It's done, come here!", shouted Eris, with the help of the cover Aster created with his yang radiance, she connected her cube necklace with the yang chain link using runes and then projected a barrier to protect everyone from the black fog.
Aster stopped his yang radiance, he purposedly stayed behind the barrier because he wanted to see if this level of yin was enough to bypass the yang which has overflowed from his blood, and now coursed through his body like a second blood stream, making him a huge source of yang.
He stopped putting any resistance and let the black fog approach him, which from other people's point of view is crazy, considering the Genesis Manifestation beasts, with their sturdy physical bodies covered in strong scales, rock-like carapaces or thick hides, were being corroded with each second of exposure.
But under the surprised eyes of Tiana and Nerissa, who are new to the group, when the black fog tried to infiltrate Aster's body, his skin slightly glowed and the black fog was not only repelled but actually eliminated.
They weren't the only ones surprised though, Aster recognized this sensation that was running though his body right now, it was similar to what Alice achieved after being "charmed" by him.
"This is… Dragon Aura", mumbled Aster, he was surprised because since he isn't a body cultivator, he should be having trouble awakening this ability, on the other hand he didn't have the black hair trait of the Drage for nothing, his talent for body cultivation was as good as possible.
'It could be because of these eyes', he thought, a physical dragon trait should be enough to create Dragon Aura, since it is originated by the mix of physical energy and "Will", dragons are prideful creatures.
And his dragon lineage has greatly surpassed its original limits, just like sometimes it tries to give Aster troubles trying to make him succumb to lust or violence, it won't tolerate being challenged, the black fog tried to contaminate Aster's body and was destroyed on the spot as retaliation.
Aster could have done something similar with Rigel's flames, but he would have been spending his soul energy for that, on the other hand in this way he didn't have to do anything.
"Power can't come out of nowhere, even the paragon body drains my physical energy even if the price is too low compared to what I can do with it, so what are you using as fuel you little thing", mumbled Aster, he inspected his own body and after a quick scan he discovered what his body was burning to create Dragon Aura.
It was none other than his murderous aura which was stored in the black book inside his dantian.
Aster smirked, this was a win-win situation, he could get rid of that disgusting murderous aura, and get the more refined and equally strong Dragon Aura, which suited him better, he is a dragon not a homicidal maniac after all.
And this way he can put a use to the murderous aura he will be getting out of those who he kills with annihilation.
Agnes's eyes were sparkling, right now, somehow Aster's body looked better than usual, leaving aside his soul which is one of her favorite things to look at, her other interest is physical training and Aster has the most perfect body she has ever seen, and now he somewhat seemed to have improved in some way that she could not understand.
Which is understandable, no one in the Fey can cultivate in the body path after all, so it's normal that the concept of "Aura" is unknown to them, but the main reason is that, their eccentric personalities don't allow them to pay attention to anything that isn't of their interest.
Agnes is rather unique among her clanmates, since she is the only one that shows such passion when it comes to physical training, enough to make her almost as strong as a Karnal Disaster cultivator, despite she being an energy/soul cultivator.
It was like a new door opening for her, she decided to ask Aster to teach her how to do that, later on, but for the time being, they had another thing to deal with.
The four Void Manipulation realm beasts, all turned to see Aster, for a moment he exuded Dragon Aura, and his dragon lineage is oriented to yang as its insane vitality and strong physical body suggests, so for these beasts, a yang-oriented spirit beast appeared in front of them, in other words an unknown enemy which their pack leaders didn't take into account was interrupting their battle.
"Roarrr!", the four spirit beasts roared and then as if they had reached a mutual understanding, they charged towards Aster's group, they could always get rid of the mutual enemy before they fight each other.
And they weren't restraining at all, to the point that they were wasting their yin energy to protect themselves against the black fog, which will naturally tire them.
Aster heard the sound of fingers snapping, an then she saw the barrier Eris made expand until it has covered the whole area, including the spirit beasts who immediately lost some of their impetus, the barrier cut them off from the boosting effect of the moons.
"Humph, just a mere group of fake Void Manipulation, when I was at the Sea of Knowledge realm, real Void Manipulators weren't my opponent", said Eris as she approached Aster.
"Mm, let's see if they can resist a couple of punches unlike the previous guys", added Agnes.
But this time it wasn't just those two, there were four enemies, Eris and Agnes will get rid of one each, the third one was for Camila and Felicia, while the last one was reserved for Aster who wanted to test his new ability, as well as Aria, Tiana and Nerissa.
"They are the only spirit beasts in the vicinity if we kill them, then we will be free to advance through this area without any obstacle", said Aster.
Naturally there were less high ranked spirit beasts, so a group was apparently assigned per a certain amount of territory, usually there will be small pack lead by each leader, in other words by each Void Manipulation realm spirit beasts, but the small fries were sent to the middle area to kill the invaders and also because they would have not been able to survive the strong yin that was flooding the atmosphere in the deep area of the forest after the eclipse started.
The Genesis Manifestation beasts didn't dare to approach the yang barrier created by Eris, so they kept fighting each other and trying to destroy the crystal trees instead.
Aria approached Aster and then took out her rapier, her yin attacks were being restrained a bit since they were inside a yang barrier, but her ice was still effective, so she was perfect for control.
"I'll limit its movements, you, Tia and sister Nerissa just focus on attacking it", cutely said Aria, making Aster chuckled, he grabbed Aria's hand and kissed its reverse before saying.
"As my ice princess commands".
Before Aria could say anything, Aster jumped towards the incoming beast, leaving a pouting Aria behind, naturally he had to tease her, or he wouldn't be the Aster she knows and love.
Feeling the gazes of Tiana and Nerissa on her, Aria cleared her throat and then stabbed her rapier on the ground to use her spirit technique.
"Blizzard", her mellow voice echoed through the battlefield as a large area was covered in ice, turning the previously black corroded ground into a pretty sky-blue ice field under her command.
Aster fully trusted Aria to watch his back, so he didn't bother to wait and see what she was doing and instead focused on his role in this fight, be the offensive, like an unsheathed sword his eyes glowed with a sharp light and he descended from the sky upon the enemy he chose, a member of the reptile army, a dark blue cobra snake.
"Hisss!", the snake angrily hissed at the little creature that was trying to attack it, the thing moved its tail trying to slap Aster into a bloody mess.
But to its surprise the little creature disappeared from its field of vision all of a sudden, not even a second later, Aster's image flashed appearing next to the head of the cobra, his hand was cladded in a golden armor, and there was also a strange glow which was distorting the air surrounding it.
"Haaa!", Aster punched the cobra's head and the unthinkable happened, in comparison with the one-hundred-meter size of the Cobra, his not even two meters of height weren't worth mentioning and yet, his fist which could be considered small in comparison not only destroyed the nearby scales of the point of impact, the cobra was actually sent towards the ground.
"Booom!", the impact made the ground tremble, the cobra started moving its body in a crazy way, slapping the ground with its tail trying to get rid of the pain it was feeling, after Aster punch not only destroyed of its scales, but the shockwave made some of the veins of its right eye explode.
Tiana's little mouth was widely open, having enough strength to damage a Void Manipulation spirit beast in a physical confrontation, doesn't mean one can do it without any care on the world.
If your body isn't strong enough, the recoil will kill you, that's why one of the formations engraved on her war spear is impact reduction, so that she can exert all her physical strength without any worry about the recoil.
She has seen Aster's armor before and whole all the damage caused by external things is negated, the shockwave still affects him to some extent, the only exception being when he is using the ten seconds of invincibility of course.
But he wasn't using that, he just casually punched a Void Manipulation spirit beast, with sheer physical strength and in the clash of "meat", the beast lost not being able to mitigate the impact, it was outrageous.
Tiana came out her daze when she saw Nerissa riding a wave towards the battle, Aster was finally landing after that insane feat.
He slightly waved his hand; besides some slight numbness his hand was perfectly fine.
"I knew dragons were arrogant and prideful, but to think you will refuse to lose to an "inferior" being in a physical clash", he said as if he was talking with the blood coursing through his veins.
The Paragon body protected him from any external harm, and now that he has awakened Dragon Aura, his dragon lineage protected him from the inside, that being said that punch burned a lo of his murderous aura.
"I can give it around ten or so more of those, I'll crack its defense and you two will deal the killing blow, ready?", said Aster.
Nerissa and Tiana who landed next to him as soon as he finished speaking, both nodded in response.
"Yes!", they said.
Aster smiled, he jumped into the air and then as he flew towards the snake, he talked with Aria through the mental connection, he could feel she was preparing a strong attack that required some charging.
'Use the chance I'll make and immobilize it after I finish my attacks, a second will be enough'.
'Mm, leave it to me!', enthusiastically said Aria, unfortunately she lacked in offensive terms, against such a strong beast, so she had o rely on the control capacity of her ice.
It's not that Aria is weak, if anyone were to hear a cultivator in the Earth realms affirm with the same confidence as Aria, that it could stop a Void Manipulation realm being, even if it is for a second, others would call it crazy and laugh at them.
'Humph, I won't lose to Alice, even if I have to train until my bones break, if it is for the sake of walking at his side, then so be it, they'll return to normal anyway!', she thought as her eyes glowed with the same determination that could be seen that day when she used her tender fragile-looking body to endure the pressure of the golden armor, for the sake of reinforcing her physical body.
If being a genius that outstands in two paths isn't enough to keep up with Aster, then she'll become a monster who has powers from the three paths.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om