Chapter 562 Eris’s Soul Avatar & Mylene’s Aura (part 3)
Aster of course noticed that Eris was a bit out of breath after finishing engraving the yang chain link, and it was justified what she just did actually required one to be a Soul King, or Queen in her case.
For the simple reason that the yang chain link was an Immortal grade treasure, temporal engraved runes weren't hard to do for Eris even in her weakened state, where her soul energy reserves aren't even at the Spirit Trial realm.
Meaning that to achieve a momentaneous Soul Queen level, she has to use all her reserves in a single go, resulting in her feeling a bit drowsy.
Naturally, just like Mylene, she has her ways to draw out as much power as possible, which in her case means using her Genesis Core as a power source for a devastating attack.
For those two, this was a re-run of the Mortal realm, which they basically speeded through, due to their background, but this time they were not only enjoying it quite a bit, but also experiencing improvement and that is a lot to say, considering the status they held back at their Divine Firmament.
Leaving aside the complicated stuff for now, Aster invited Mylene to sit down too, maybe she didn't look tired on the outside since she has a higher vitality than Eris, but she actually a hell lot of aura a moment ago.
"Have you two been drinking the medicine we created last time, properly?", asked Aster as he looked for a few things within the mind space.
Seeing that those two weren't answering, Aster turned to see them and then jokingly said.
"What, you aren't going to tell me that you didn't like it because its bitter or something, right?".
Mylene pouted in response, though she did accept the offer to sit under the shadow of the tree, next to Eris.
"Hey, don't treat us like little kids, we are older than you… that being said it is indeed kind of bitter", she said, which made Aster chuckle before saying.
"Now that you mention it, how old are you two, even after all the time you spend as spirit forms, you don't seem to be older than Camila".
"I can't believe a certified womanizer like you, made such an amateur mistake, asking a lady her age is a taboo", jokingly said Eris before adding.
"Time flows different up there, even if we are here, we age in that way, previous to coming here, we were in our twenties, but for those in the mortal planes that would be… ahem just add a few zeros to that".
"The time we spent as ghost doesn't count by the way, so we are barely older than Alice and the others and haven't even reached our thirties!", said Mylene.
Aster laughed as he took out a few things from the mind space, a blanket which he put on the ground, a little table with a low height and a basket with food that Sarina prepared for them earlier.
As expected of the motherly blond woman, she had such a big "heart", normally Aster is used to eat lots of meat from spirit bet, grilled, a simple yet satisfying dish for someone with a huge vitality like him, Mylene is the same.
The higher the vitality, the more food is needed to nurture the body, there are even some body cultivators who practically eat raw meat, to get as much benefits as possible, but such savage practices aren't up to Aster's liking, much less to the like of Mylene who grew up as a proper young miss from a big family.
So, they would have normally compensated with quantity or quality, if not for the fact that Aster provided only the highest quality ingredients, while Sarina provides the best preparations, giving the family both aspects.
This time's menu, was a bit on the light side, some nicely packed sandwiches, diced fruit and a few snacks like cookies, certainly not the usual full course meal they are used to, but it was a nice change of pace, especially since this was a little picnic break.
"But seriously, we did take the medicine, it's just that we are correcting some flaws we found, thanks to what we have learned, so the extra spirit energy is being used for that", said Mylene as she happily munched on her sandwich, cooking wasn't her thing so Sarina had become her idol due to her amazing cooking skill.
Not that she could be blamed though, past a certain point, most cultivators eat nutritional pills, instead of food, since that is considered a waste of time, unless they are eating foo that can benefit their cultivations of course.
Maybe because Aster isn't a native from the cultivation world, but he honestly found that aspect of cultivators to be very stupid, there were really few things for him, that could beat, enjoying a nice warm meal with his family.
"Mm, we have a lot to integrate into our Genesis Cores, only after recovering enough, we'll use the effect of the medicine to advance, it wouldn't be funny if our "student" outshines us too much after all, besides I so want to study how the space works here, before entering the Void Manipulation realm", said Eris.
"Yeah, I can't wait to see what my Transcending Gate will look like~", added Mylene
Aster softly laughed, those two were quite motivated in that aspect, but they have reasons for that, after all, today they achieved something amazing, by working together they created a miniature sun with an output that can be regulated.
He hadn't seen all the monthly trials, but in a rough calculation, the simplified formation which Eris was implementing with Mylene's help right now, shouldn't be that far from the ones that were used to create the secret realm that was used for the monthly trial he visited with Felicia and Tiana back then.
Of course, Eris and Mylene couldn't do such a complicated thing, as of current even if they joined hands, but that will change once they recover more of their powers, for the time being they were focusing on their energy path.
After finishing their meal, those two laid down on the ground, using the soft and fresh grass as their bed, Aster was sitting between them, so he saw them leisurely resting, which reminded him of how he met Eris.
Back then she was sitting on the branch of a three, outside of the city that Sofia's father ruled, who would have thought that the encounter would lead to not only her but even Mylene who was supposedly an enemy, to end up joining the group.
Aster smiled and then let his body fall backwards, landing in the middle of those two, only now they seemed to become aware of the compromising position in which they currently were, judging by the light reddish tone that appeared on their pretty faces.
"Say Aster, after we leave this Mortal realm and visit our families… will there be a problem if we want to leave with you?", suddenly asked Eris, as she turned her head away, so that Aster couldn't see her face.
"Mm?", Aster was taken a bit by surprise by Eris's question, but he inwardly smirked before saying in a confused voice.
"What are you talking about… I wasn't planning on letting you two go alone to those unsightly places, after you take care of your pending matters, you'll of course be leaving with us", he said.
The first part of Aster's sentence, made those two feel a strange sensation of clenching in their chests, but then the second part made their little maiden hearts flutter.
"Besides, Kana will be really sad to part ways with her "big sisters Eris and Mylene", so for my little Kana's sake, you'll be trapped with us forever", he jokingly said, making those two softly laugh.
They haven't told Aster about their problems, and he won't push the matter, after all he himself knows pretty well, what's like having a secret of which you aren't sure if sharing might bring more harm than good, they will tell him when they feel ready.
"Ah, now that I think about it, you better keep your hands away from my grandmother!", said Mylene as she softly punched Aster's right shoulder.
Despite his stupidly tenacious physique, that soft punch from Mylene, he actually felt it, as him rubbing his shoulder, suggested.
"Oh, come on, do I look like a sex maniac to you", said Aster, only to hear Eris answering immediately and without any hesitation.
"Yes… thanks for the reminder Mylene, I must warn my grandmother to not even exchange gazes with a certain someone who likes to surround himself by pairs of relatives", she mumbled, referring to the fact that there were currently, three pairs of mothers and daughters in the group, not to mention the twins who were sisters.
Well, if you stretch things a bit, there is Agnes and Valetina who are cousins, and also tag along if possible.
Aster bitterly smiled, at this point it was too late to deny it, so he instead pridefully accepted the charges, but didn't go down alone.
"That would mean that at least one of their relatives is already "surrounding" me, should I take that as a confession", he said with a teasing voice, making those two blush on the spot.
"Y-You wish, my partner must be able to assist me when I concoct pills and elixirs, his aura must be as strong as mine at least, and also he has to be able to provide me with the rarest ingredients for my alchemy and most importantly he has to be someone that tells others what he thinks right on their faces instead of being a scheming bastard!", exclaimed Mylene.
"Y-Yeah, for me, knowing about runes and formations is a must, I won't even consider someone whose soul energy isn't as pure as mine, he also has to be accepted by my master and…", Eris whose voice was a bit flustered, turned to see Aster who was writing what they were saying on a notebook and she froze on the spot.
"Oh, don't mind me, I'm just taking notes for future reference", he said.
"Y-You, lascivious dragon!", they both shouted, to then burst in laughs after noticing Aster's cheerful smile, every time they mentioned their grandmothers, their mood went down quite a bit, which of course Aster noticed, which is why he messed with them to cheer them up.
"Mm?", Aster saw those two grabbing his arms which he was using as his pillow, and allowed them to do as they pleased, to his surprise they extended them, and then rested their heads on the antecubital areas, which literally paralyzed his arms.
"Flirting with the young miss of the Heavenly Rose clan, the punishment would normally be death you know~", said Eris.
"Same here, my grandmother personally crushed a couple of skulls when she heard I was being chased by some shameless guys~", added Mylene.
Aster didn't know whether he should laugh or cry, he was "imprisoned" by those two, but it wasn't that bad, their soft and happy giggles were a delight for the ear, specially under this though warm, fresh "sunny" area, they created.
Maybe because they just ate, or because they used up a lot of soul energy and aura, respectively, it could also be the nurturing effect of the yang radiated by the formation, or maybe they just feel too comfortable resting while using Aster's arms as pillows, but those two actually fell asleep without noticing, leaving a slightly troubled Aster behind.
Not because of those two, he is used to having the girls clinging to him or resting on top of his body, they feel as light as feathers for him, so even if they stay like this for many days, he won't end up numb or stiff at all, what was making him feel a bit weird were the gazes of a certain pair of girls that were piercing him like spears.
That possessive mother of his, had entered the mind space just in time to witness what happened a moment ago, and was now intensely staring at him, to his surprise, for a change, Rya seemed to agree with Lilia on something, since she was also curiously watching the whole thing.
'You'll have your turn, so no spying on the dates of the others', inwardly said Aster, only to hear Lilia giggling.
'We are just preparing to receive new sisters into the family, darling~', she said, making Aster sigh as he closed his eyes to take a small rest too.
…
With those three peacefully resting under the shadow of a tree, time flew by and before they noticed, a few hours past midday had passed.
Aster had already shared a room with those two, separately, with Mylene back at Esmeralda's realm and Eris in the recent mission at the Silicon Forest, but this is the first time he got to see them sleeping up-close.
And when he opened his eyes, he was met with their pretty sleeping faces, they had accommodated sidewards to be more comfortable in their sleep, so they were now directly facing at him.
"Mm?", those two slightly opened their eyes, and with sleepy expressions they were welcomed by Aster's face up-close.
Aster could see their faces turning red as they both jumped to get up.
"L-Let's go finish the array before it gets dark", said Eris.
"Y-Yeah, yin will get stronger at night, so it will be harder to isolate the yin chain link", added Mylene as the two of them became flashes of light that shot towards the rock mountain area mentioned before.
Aster laughed and then followed those two, the scenery soon changed from the predominant forest that extended through the valley, to an area with very scarce vegetation.
From an outsider's point of view, it would be considered a barren land, where there were basically only rocks, but that wasn't the case, the earth spirit energy here was quite dense, which caused the lack of plants but made the mountains raise to really high heights.
It was perfect for the yin formation, as these mountains will soon become snowy peaks, where the girls with earth, ice, water, yin and even wind attributes would find it easier to cultivate, at least that was the idea.
Eris and Mylene who were floating next to each other, mumbling in a low voice, saw Aster arriving and they were startled for a second before they regained their composure.
"Ahem, since you already saw the process up-close, this time it will be more beneficial for you to observe it from afar, you can also give us your opinion regarding our teamwork, to see if there are any obvious areas where we can improve without too much work", said Eris.
"Mm", Mylene nodded, agreeing with the idea, which made Aster chuckle, seeing those two "panicking" due to having slept with him, was truly amusing, still he knew when to no not take things further, each girl had her own limits and he respected them.
Not to mention they were certainly getting closer overtime, there is no need to rush, just like Lilia said, those two won't be able to "escape", nor will they ever want to even try anyway, so why not enjoy the process.
"Sure, in fact let's give my new eyes a try", said Aster, as he closed his eyes, just to open them the next second, revealing his now golden vertical pupils.
Certainly, he was enjoying the flirting and all, but though the dates he had with the girls were meant to be funny, they also had the function to help Aster see their development, as well as his.
'Now that I think about it, I hadn't seen a Soul Avatar nor aura with these eyes, will there be a change?', he wondered.
Eris and Mylene inwardly let out sighs of relief as they smiled at Aster, at the end of the day, they haven't experienced romantic feelings before, so all these "tingly" sensations in their hearts, were new to them.
And while they couldn't affirm that they were in love with Aster, they were sure that they enjoyed his company, and felt safe around him, otherwise they wouldn't have unconsciously lowered their guards enough to fall asleep in such a compromising position earlier.
naturally higher resistances against yin.
What's more, they both had probably the best rests of their lives earlier, so their minds were a bit agitated right now, if anything they now had a subject to thoroughly discuss during their usual overnight sleepovers, in Eris's room, where other girls had started to participate, well it was only Camil for the time being though.
Seeing Aster giving them some distance, as he descended from the sky to sit down on a large rock, those two put hands to work, unlike with the yang chain link, things were easier when it came to the yin nodes, which is normal, since they are both girls and have a naturally higher resistances against yin.
Eris waved her hand and the cores of Void Manipulation yin spirit beasts, appeared around them, a total of thirty to be more accurate.
Mylene snapped her fingers and all the cores were isolated, to keep them perfectly standing still where they were, Eris softly laughed as she looked at Mylene's still flushed face.
"Don't lose focus, or you might end up destroying the cores", she said.
"Humph, the same for you, I can hear your heart racing all the way from here, don't lose your cool and screw up the formation~", naturally Mylene got back at her, while she looked at her surroundings for a split of a second, to then shake her head.
Eris softly snorted and then manifested her Soul Avatar, making a second Eris made up completely of dark green light, appear behind of her.
Unlike Agnes, whose Soul Avatar was always wearing that "revealing" outfit, which is why she increased the brightness of her soul energy to the maximum, making the eyes of anyone who tried to sneak a peek, burn as if lava was poured on them, Eris's Soul Avatar was wearing the same clothes as her, but in exchange it had a giant wood brush that Eris lacked.
Just as Eris was about to start working on the nodes, she suddenly had a strange premonition, but she couldn't pinpoint what it was, so she affiliated it to the fact that she still felt ashamed due to what happened earlier.
'Focus Eris!', she thought as she took a deep breath and then started engraving runes on two cores at the same time.
While those two were working on the preparations for the yin formation, Aster who was observing from the ground, had stopped using his dragon eyes.
It's not like he didn't find out something new, in fact he made a big discovery, when he saw Mylene using aura, he could see the way her aura circulated through her body, until it reached her objective.
Also, he added some soul energy to his eyes and used the previously sole ability he thought his eyes had, he could see whether there were "flaws" on things or not, and he was amazed at how pretty Mylene's aura was.
There was not even a single flaw in her aura, nor the way it circulated through her body, or even how it was applied to external object, meaning that in her current level, her aura had reached "perfection", or at least there was no loss or misuse of it, as one would expect from someone that takes a lot of pride in her aura, like Mylene.
Surprisingly, though Aster wasn't spying on her, when he used his dragon eyes, his eyes covered the whole area, it was 360° field of vision without any blind spots, naturally the previous put a lot of stress in one's eyes and brain, since there was ton of information to be processed.
But Aster whose body and soul were monstrous, had what it was needed to use such an absurd ability, it's worth mentioning that in this way, others couldn't detect his gaze or senses observing them, because his gaze came from "everywhere", so at most the target would have that fake sensation of being observed that someone often experiences under certain circumstances, but won't be able to trace it to Aster, and the previous is only if the target has unusually sharp senses.
Of course, if the other party has a big gap in terms of cultivation compared to Aster, then it's obvious that Aster will be discovered, but so far, not even the girls with she sharpest senses, namely Eris and Felicia, or the one with the highest cultivation base, in other words Lilia, could detect it, so it is safe to assume that in this Stellar System, no one would notice it.
Speaking of Eris, that brings the reason as to why Aster dispelled his dragon eyes, so far he didn't have any reserves at the moment of using them, though he could see through the bodies of the targets, what he saw were the meridians and other spots where energies circulated, like the dantian.
But, when he tried to inspect her Soul Avatar, well he got to see more than what he expected, luckily, he was looking at the upper part of the second Eris, so he only had a peek of her naked breasts and that was the origin of the strange sensation that invaded Eris a moment ago.
'The first dragon ever to be able to cultivate in the soul path, and you use such a strong ability to peek at the naked bodies of other's soul avatars… I guess I should have expected it from you', mumbled Rya from within the mind space.
'Ah, I now wish to have cultivated my soul~', jokingly added Lilia.
Aster bitterly smiled, he didn't do it on purpose, but it was good to know he could do such a thing, this eyes of his weren't completed yet, since he hadn't reached the infant stage properly, unlike Lilia or Alice, there was no precedent of their evolutions, but they could tell, and while those two were sure to have entered the infant stage, Aster knew he was missing something.
"Ahem, it was an unfortunate accident", mumbled Aster as he focused on observing those two finishing the array, meaning it was almost time to call Lilia for the finishing touch.
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