Chapter 564 Vivian’s soft heart (part 1)
The night went on without anything else happening, and before Aster noticed the moon had been replaced by the sun marking the start of a new day and also signaling the start of Vivian's time.
But before we get to that, he opened his eyes inside of the mind space and was welcomed by Lilia's happy satisfied "sleeping" face, her long legs were wrapped around Aster's right leg, while she was resting her head on his chest.
Naturally Rya was occupying the other side, but her sleeping position was less clingy compared to Lilia, that being said, appearances were tricky, the cute Empress got heated up after seeing Lilia wildly "preying" on Aster, so she jumped into the action too.
Luckily for Aster, the time flowed way slower inside the mind space, because those two were quite proactive this time, Rya has gotten "healthier" due to the daily treatments to cure the cracks on her soul, but her appearance had stopped changing, meaning she had reached a certain threshold.
Thanks to Aster helping her properly patch things up, she won't be returning in a much younger state, very much to Lilia's complains, since she didn't seem to be younger than her, so she couldn't tease the Empress with that in the future.
"Don't feign to be asleep mom, you either receive your morning kiss here or outside, no doubles for you", said Aster as he noticed that Lilia was waiting for him to spoil her first thing in the morning.
"Darliiiing~", Lilia opened her eyes and pouted, as she tried to steal a kiss from Aster, just to see him turning to the other side, to gently kiss Rya, before he disappeared from the mind space.
"Heh, it seems he is finally seeing through your shameless nature~", jokingly said Rya as she giggled and covered her naked body with the silk sheet, she has somewhat used to be in the same bed as Lilia, while they are both naked as long as Aster is there with them.
But without him, she still found it weird to see other people's naked bodies, it's not like she was too conscious or that she looks too much at the other girl's bodies, but more of she who doesn't want to be seen by others.
"Humph, says the one who was moaning like that after a single round, are you sure you aren't part dragon, you lewd sword~", cutely said Lilia as she jumped out of the bed, while showing the body of which she was proud of.
Despite their mockery, those two laughed at each other's words, before Lilia followed Aster, she had to get her morning dose of her beloved son's lips, otherwise she wouldn't be able to endure the thought of having to be separated from him the whole day while he is out, giving his attention to other women.
Outside of the mind space, by the time Lilia opened her eyes, the other girls had already received their morning kiss and were either going to the bathroom to wash their faces and prepare for their own daily activities, or laying down on the bed after having let go of Aster, since it was relatively early compared to their daily waking time.
The last ones remaining, were the two mothers, who acted as Aster's pillow yesterday, as it was time for Aria to have the main spot, and sleep on top of Aster, while Kana hugged Aster's left arm and Alice clung to the right one like a koala.
Aster saw Lilia's cute pouting face and couldn't help but softly laugh, he caressed her soft pretty face and then said.
"I can't believe after all that, you still want more first thing in the morning", a bright smile appeared on Lilia's face as she pressed her lips against Aster's before saying.
"There is no such a thing as too much love from my darling~".
Aster chuckled and then patted that big plump ass of hers a couple of times, which made Lilia giggle, having gotten what she wanted she stood up from the bed and stretched her magnificent body, giving Aster a nice view of her body, her panties and bra accentuated those delicious curves that could barely be contained by them.
Seeing Lilia intentionally sawing that her ample hips as she left, Aster shook his head but then smiled as he turned to see Sarina to gently kiss her, making her pretty face blush as he whispered sweet things at her.
Once he had flirted with the girls to the content of his heart, Aster dressed up and then went to the dinning room, Sarina had prepared today's breakfast beforehand and had it in her ring, because today Aster would be leaving early with Vivian.
At the dinning room, Aster only saw Camila and Agnes since the other girls were still asleep, normally Eris and Mylene are always awake since early, but they were resting due to yesterday's activities.
"Good morning", Aster sat in front of those two and greeted them, they have gotten closer during the exploration at the Silicon Forest, in part because Camila was following a similar path to Agnes, energy and soul cultivation, with a strong interest in the body path.
It's worth mentioning that Agnes also seemed to have a certain rivalry with Eris now, after having fought side to side with her, but she hadn't reached the point where she would join those two's which made Aster smile, it brought joy to his heart to see the girls getting friendlier with each other, since that led to them sleepovers, while Camila had.
"Good morning~", they said in unison as they continued chatting, which made Aster smile, it brought joy to his heart to see the girls getting friendlier with each other, since that led to them connecting with the ones that they didn't particularly were close to, not all the girls were exactly friends with the others, despite being close to Aster after all, it's not that they were unfriendly, but more of they don't knowing how to approach others, but that was slowly changing, as they spent more time together, be it in the valley, the store or during the missions.
Today's "star" didn't take long to appear at the dining room, Aster turned his head around to see Vivian entering through the door, as always, she could be perfectly described by the word "white".
Her excessively pale skin gave her a though fragile, otherworldly charm, despite her long slightly wavy hair being even whiter, it didn't create a bad contrast, but added to her uniqueness, then she had those curious light grey/lavender toned eyes, that had started to be a bit more noticeable from the white of her eyes, ever since she met Aster, which marked the point from where she hadn't lost her sight anymore.
Naturally, she was also wearing a purely white dress, since she didn't have the luxury to use clothes that weren't made without adding her blood yet, which was related to the fact that her poison would melt her clothes if it wasn't for that whether she controlled it or not, Aster had a solution for that, but that could wait for now, besides that she was also wearing some minor jewelry which consisted in earrings, something she had never seen her using.
"Good morning", Vivian's mellow voice reached Aster's ears, as she sweetly smiled at him, while for others this could be considered normal, for a girl like Vivian who had to suppress her emotions practically all her life, these small gestures were a huge advance.
Aster smiled back at her, and offered her the seat next to his, which Vivian gladly accepted, they then had a nice breakfast, during which Aster asked Vivian if she had something she wanted to do in particular, just to see her shaking her head.
"I… don't know too much about the outside, so I want Aster to choose the place for our date", she said in a low voice, their adventure at Esmeralda's secret realm, was the first time Vivian had gone out of her room, mansion or carriage, in a really long time, besides having heard some stories from Julian, about interesting places in Galatia, she knew nothing much.
Aster found her obvious nervousness rather cute, the last time they spent their time in the training room, because he had to build the first fragment of the cycle inside of Vivian's body, but this time he had something special in mind for her, but he first needed to see her progress and he had the perfect place for that.
"In that case, close your eyes, we'll be there in a second", said Aster, normally one would consider rude telling a girl who spent most of her life blind due to external causes, to close her eyes, but Vivian didn't hesitate nor showed any discomfort as she did as Aster told, especially because she could feel a warm and comforting sensation on her shoulder, where Aster had placed his hand.
The next second, they disappeared from the dining room, just in time for the other girls to enter and start bombarding Camila and Agnes, regarding Vivian's reactions, Alice was especially interested, because she "contributed" by telling Vivian a lot of things about dates, luckily Aria caught wind of it as soon as she returned, and acted to balance things out to prevent Alice from corrupting her, the results of it were yet to be seen though.
…
Soon the scenery changed from the inside of the mansion, to the lively mourning scene of a city, this city in particular was under the jurisdiction of the Alchemy peak, as the lotus decorations here and there and the lingering herbal scent of pills and elixir floating in the air suggested.
Naturally, when the nearby disciples saw Aster appearing out of nowhere, they were surprised, before those who recognized him, which were mostly the female disciples of the Green Lotus faction, approached to greet him.
"Good morning senior brother Aster!", enthusiastically said a girl with short brown hair and green eyes, green colored eyes were common among the girls of the Green Lotus faction, as in a variety of cases the eye color represented that one's attribute was related to nature or wood which were good attributes for those that cultivated or recollected spirit herbs, it wasn't absolute but it wasn't rare for it to be the case.
"Are you here for the monthly trial?", asked another girl, to which Aster smiled before saying.
"I'm sorry, but today I'm here on a date with a friend, so I'll have to excuse myself", upon hearing Aster's words, those curious girls turned to see the friend Aster mentioned, who had managed to get a date with the male idol of the sect, and any trace of envy that they had was erased the moment they saw Vivian.
"Woaah, what a pretty senior sister, how do you keep your skin so pale and smooth?".
"Ah, I have been under the sun too much lately, I feel like my hair is a bit burnt, tell me senior sister what do you use to have such a silky looking hair?".
Vivian was taken a by surprise due to all the attention she was getting from those curious girls, there is no girl who doesn't like to look good, it's not only a matter of vanity, female cultivators are in most cases beauties, and the stronger they get the harder it is to find imperfections, so being beautiful is related to being strong in the cultivation world, which is why some of these girls who were actually older than Vivian, called her "senior sister".
They weren't wrong though, Vivian was stronger than any of them, also due to her body constitution she looked younger than her actual age.
Seeing Vivian be a bit overwhelmed as she gazed at Aster with her pretty lavender eyes, without saying anything, Aster chuckled.
"We are short in time today, you can look for Vivian at East Sky city, or at my store when you go there", he said.
"Yesss!", those girls though disappointed, understood that Aster's attention was reserved for Vivian and after giving her some knowing gazes, they left, naturally this wasn't the end of it, since they knew that Dahlia was closer to Aster, so they would be bombarding her with questions, but that's something for later.
Now that they were alone again, Vivian's slightly tensed up body relaxed, her soft hands which were grabbing Aster's arms let go of him.
"Sorry, I'm not used to crowds...", she mumbled, it's not like she was shy, it's more of a reminder that her poison could explode at any time, earlier over the slightest provocation, so she still felt somewhat nervous by being surrounded by others.
Aster didn't get to see it, but after he and Aria left for the Silicon Forest, Vivian had it hard at first to open up with the others, without them, but the little girl came to the rescue doing what she knows the best, which is bringing harmony to the family and "softening" those difficult cases, just like it was happening to the ligress girl right now.
So, Vivian had gotten used to hang around with the other girls, to the point that she left the mansion a few times, to be at the store with Sarina and Kana, and even went out to eat at a restaurant with Alice a couple of times.
That being said, she had progressed a lot, with Aster here she didn't unconsciously force herself to be expressionless, and actually showed some concern, without she realizing it, and for Aster that was an advance in the right direction.
"Let's go", he said as he showed Vivian the way to the entrance of this monthly trial at the other side of the city.
"Mm", Vivian nodded and they then walked towards the area where the portals were located in this city, as one would expect there was a line in front of the portal that led to the area of this monthly trial.
Surprisingly, unlike the previous trial city which Aster visited, where like usual the female disciples were the most abundant, in this one there were a lot of male disciples, could be because there was no rank or affiliation restriction to be in the trial cities, since they were only open a month per year, meaning that outer, inner and core disciples from all the factions mingled in this place.
That being said, it was still rare to see so many male disciples gathered here so early, at least it was rare since they weren't trying to get the attention from the female disciples, but forming in the line to enter the trial.
Aster didn't stop in the ceremony and went straight to the elder who was guarding the entrance to the city, it was an inner elder from the Orange Lotus faction, in other words the neutral faction of the Alchemy Peak who specializes in antidotes and healing.
The elder, a woman in her middle thirties who had light blue hair, gazed at Aster, who showed her the ring of the Twin Sword Valley, the elder smiled in response and then activated the VIP entrance for Aster.
Naturally the previous lit up the jealousy on the hearts of a lot of the ones that had to wait on the line, but Aster utterly ignored them as he received a couple of bottles with a single orange pill inside, from the elder.
"Please don't overexert yourselves, when you feel your limit just open the bottle and swallow the pills, well-being is really important for cultivators, you won't be able to use spatial treasures inside, so keep them in your pocket, ah right, don't take your weapons out, you aren't permitted to use them", she gently said.
Aster nodded as he kept the bottles in his pocket, judging by the greedy eyes he felt on those bottles, those pills shouldn't be free, but were for him, due to his status as both a Core Disciple and the Lord of a valley, Vivian has yet to take the examination, but she is Aster's guest, and so she has the same privilege, which is normal, considering his authority is basically on par with Supreme Elders in some aspects.
In any case with a single word, they could get Julian who is an honorary Ancestor, to grant her the identity of a Core Disciple, despite of not participating on the admission trials, as long as she fulfilled the realm and age requirements, and that is because he isn't a full Ancestor, the others could bring a disciple regardless of that, though it could only join tot heir respective peaks, unless the other three Ancestors objected with a proper reason of course.
Aster nodded at Vivian and they then entered through the portal, contrary to what one would expect, the landscape at the other side of the portal looked everything but dangerous.
They appeared at a green plain, with a river that crossed through the whole area, far from here, then there was a forest and lastly that were mountains covered in light green grass and other vegetation, also unlike the previous monthly trial, there were other people here.
This place was huge, and lot of disciples could be seen here and there, some were in group while others moved alone through the plain, resting below trees or even swimming in the river, it looked like a place to go on vacations.
At least that was the case, until one looked at the giant black stone board which explained the objective of this monthly trial.
[Welcome to the first stage of the Poison Wonderland, you have three days to advance as much as you can, besides killing, everything is allowed, a reward will be given to those who participate for the first time in each stage, based on how far they get, you can only use the pill given to you by the guardian of the trial, otherwise you'll be disqualified and banned from participating for ten years, don't forget to return the empty bottle to the guardian once you are out, good luck]
Aster contemplated things, as he read the information on the board, besides the previous description, there was a list which updated in real time, showing one's position, those who were reflected on the list, were all first timers who applied to get a reward, besides that there were the historical records, surprisingly no one seemed to have had reached the end in their first time, since the tops on the list showed the word "forest" next to the distance they covered.
Aster recognized some of the names there, among which there were Iris and Nerissa in the top five, but the top one was actually that girl from the Purple Lotus faction that used to be around Edward, until she died recently that is.
Aster could feel Vivian's gaze on him, which made him laugh as he explained why he brought her here.
"I want to see how much you have progressed, forget about the rank and the trial, if you do well, I'll give you a special gift, also this isn't training, we'll move at your pace, and have small picnics and other little activities for fun, after all three days are way more than what the Vivian, I know will need to leave behind everyone in that board", he said.
A cute reddish tone appeared on Vivian's face, which was more noticeable due to her pale skin, as she slightly nodded.
"Mm, I'll be in Aster's care", she said.
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