,m Aster made a little cut on his index finger and let a drop of his blood fall on the spirit slip, if Eris or Mylene were present in the room they would have been in awe, seeing that the color of Aster’s blood was a mix between red and small traces of golden.
It didn’t take even a second for his cut to close without leaving any mark a proof that his body had a monstrous vitality, even when he hasn’t cultivated in the body path.
Lilia curiously looked at the little crystal in Aster’s hand, while for Rya it wasn’t nothing, spirit slips are expensive, the information inside of them has to be recorded by a rune master using a special method and a lot of spirit energy.
Aster smiled and injected his spirit energy inside of the crystal, there was two things which conformed a spirit slip, first a written description and other information which could be projected on the real world for everyone to see, the creator could limit the what he wanted to be seen as this didn’t require for someone to mark it with blood thus taking ownership of the slip.
The other part was what truly mattered, a recorded explanation of the technique or whatever the creator wanted to pass down in the spirit slip, to access it you needed to get the ownership of the slip, in Rya’s words it was basically “a compact disc which reproduced a video inside your head”.
Since Lilia also wanted to see, he chose to project the description, the crystal floated before it illuminated creating a screen with a lot of text written on it.
“Soul Crushing Parade: Introduction volume”.
Aster’s eyes glowed.
There was a variety of soul techniques but the three main divisions were suppression, mind suggestion and attack, the first category included spirit sense and spirit pressure, the second category was focused in things like hypnosis and illusions, as for the later, they were as simple as the name implies.
The basic for soul attacks was concentrating soul energy in the form of a weapon which was then throwed at the enemy, the simplest one was soul needle, while a soul attack was the best against body cultivators, the heavens were fair so the attack could be detected and repelled easily by energy cultivators.
That’s why many soul attacks included other effects at the cost or reducing their effectiveness, but in this case, Rya handed the one she thought would fit Aster the most.
“Overwhelms the enemy with consecutive attacks, with each attack the power will double (limited to three times for those below the soul king realm)”.
Lilia nodded reading the description.
“Simple but effective, it’s a technique which can help you cross realms since the effect multiplies with each attack, not bad Rya”.
Rya smiled inside the mind space.
“Aster is already showing signs of annihilation in his soul energy by innate, so there is no need for anything else, this technique is unique because it amplifies the output but in exchange there is no extra effect”.
Aster totally agreed with Rya, annihilation was already probably the strongest attribute in offensive terms, if anything he lacked in terms of soul cultivation being only at the spirit opening realm, the paragon body didn’t increase the strength of his soul as it was focused on the body and Rigel’s flame did help his soul path cultivation but it wasn’t a booster but a long-term help.
So, this technique perfectly fitted his fighting style which consisted in crushing his enemy with an overwhelming force.
Aster placed his hand on the crystal closed his eyes.
“Mom watch over me while I study this thing”, he said as he focused his attention on the spirit slip.
Soon the scene in Aster’s eyes changed, from Lilia’s room to a blank space, it was similar to the mind space but at the same time it felt fake compared to it, he couldn’t interact with the space.
“It is truly like watching a movie inside my head”, he thought.
After a couple of seconds, the explanation started, a faceless and genderless figure appeared and followed some steps as an undistinguishable voice sounded.
“The first step to use Soul Crushing Parade is selecting the form of the weapon you’ll use, remember the form must have a decent amount of soul energy concentrated, if diluted the amplifying effect would not activate”.
Aster saw the figure sit down cross legged and then joining its hands as if it was praying, then small particles leaked from its body taking the form of an arrow, but then the “video” stopped.
“So, I have to literally advance step by step”, with a thought he left that blank place which he decided to call “training space” and then tried to replicate what he saw a moment ago.
Aster kept his eyes closed and then tried to irradiate those “particles” like the figure of the spirit slip, his soul avatar inside the mind space glowed, while Rigel’s flames were still enveloping it.
Lilia which was using her spirit sense to make sure everything was going well, noticed little golden particles started appearing out of her son’s body.
“This feels like my darling’s attribute… but it’s also different and weaker”.
Rya which was also watching Aster going through the first step of the soul crushing parade, explained to Lilia.
“Be it vitality, spirit energy or soul energy, everything is ultimately energy, so they can affect and cancel each other, annihilation doesn’t harm those Aster has strong feelings for and the high vitality radiated by a gate transcending realm further lessens the threat you can fell from his soul energy”.
“Just wait until his soul energy takes form”.
While Lilia and Rya were chatting with each other, Aster was now experiencing one of the hardships of cultivation, hours of repetitive and boring meditation.
Every time he tried to condense his soul energy the form collapsed dispersing it into the particles, making him feel frustrated.
“God damn, I’m following the process, so why does it keep failing”.
Aster was trying to use the form he was more used to, a sword, but after a certain amount of soul energy was condensed, cracks appeared on the sword and then the condensing failed.
It was then he felt something soft and soothing pressing against his back before he heard the sweet comforting voice of Lilia whispering at him.
“Calm down darling, your heart is beating too fast and you are frowning”.
Aster didn’t open his eyes but he nodded and took a deep breath before exhaling.
Rya nodded seeing him advancing in the correct direction even if it was just a bit.
“Dragons never cultivate their souls, this path you have chosen is extremely hard… but at the same time what you will become is something never seen before, truly fitting of the man I love”, she thought.
The cultivation of the soul requires a calm and clear mind but dragons are violent and lascivious, their nature itself goes against the principles of soul cultivation, in exchange their bodies are tyrannical of course.
Rya didn’t mention it because she wanted to see if Aster could go against all odds one more time and her supposition was right.
Rya chuckled seeing the now pacific expression in Aster’s face.
“I feel a bit jealous that he was inspired by Lilia, but I guess putting more effort when a girl is involved is part of his charm”.
For Aster the time seemed to flow extremely low and what he thought were a couple of minutes, was in fact a few hours, by the time he finally managed to achieve a little success on his training the sun was about to set.
He opened his eyes and saw a small black pommel with an exquisite pattern and some designs floating above his head, the thing wasn’t big but there was a big amount of soul energy condensed on it.
The next thing Aster saw was his mother’s slightly worried expression.
“Let’s stop the training for today darling, Sarina and little Kana should be finishing their first lesson, so we should go and dine with them… also you need to rest”.
Aster completely ignored it, but his face was a bit pale and not only in the real world, inside the mind space the golden light of his soul avatar was quite dim, a sign that Aster has used a high amount of his soul energy.
He caressed Lilia’s face and then gave her a short kiss.
“Okay, we’ll finish it for today, go put some clothes and then we’ll go to the dining room, okay?”.
Although Lilia’s almost naked body was a delight for his eyes, they were going to have dinner and probably Camila and maybe even the owner of the restaurant were going to be there, so it was better for Lilia to wear some proper clothes.
“Mm ♥”, Lilia accepted her son’s caresses before she let go of him to put on a simple black dress, not too formal but not too casual.
Surprisingly the pommel he condenses in this training session didn’t disperse and instead with a thought it appeared inside the mind space, more accurately it orbited his soul avatar.
Rya couldn’t help but be marveled by the result.
“I gave him that technique on a whim… but now I can’t wait to see the result, I wonder how will be affected by those two’s evolution”.