Lilia giggled seeing that her son saw through her intentions, to be honest since the beginning she didn’t want to keep her plans in the dark from him, after all her son wasn’t resilient from accepting new girls in the family a point which was proven by Sarina and in the future Kana.
Without any warning she pushed her son down on the bed and laid on top of him.
“Mom?”, Aster looked at his mother thinking she was having one of those excitement episodes, but to his surprise her eyes were as clear as gems.
Lilia caressed her son’s face a couple of times, she couldn’t help but proudly smile, twelve years old, peak of the star formation realm and invincible among his peers.
From the bottom of her heart, she believed her son wouldn’t lose to anyone in his same group of age or realm, in other words only those of from a couple of generations before him could pose a threat, but for that it was that she was here.
Lilia then got off her son and laid down on the bed, her relaxed voice then made its way to Aster’s ears.
“Did you know that my father had ten official wives and five concubines… or at least that was the case when I left the family, at this point I’m pretty sure that number has changed”.
“I once told you the offspring of the higher echelons in the Drage family get a maid assigned to become their first partner at its due time, for the male heirs the excellency of their partners is a motive of pride, you could say it’s a competition”.
Aster chuckled understanding what Lilia wanted, she wanted him to outshine everyone in the young generation of the Drage family, not because he needed but because he could.
In other words, his mother wanted him to crush the pride of the Drage family, which to be honest was his idea from the very beginning, but his focus was more in the talent/prowess fields instead of the capacity to find outstanding partners.
Lilia then stretched her beautiful body making her dress stick to her like a second skin, accentuating her curves in the process, which of course she did on purpose.
“There are thirteen stars which mean we have space for at least another new six sisters in the family, I’m just presenting candidates for the wife number eight for you darling.
Lilia then rested her head on his chest before looking at him with a bright smiling expression.
“I don’t mind bringing all the outstanding girls in the world to the family because I will be the number one always anyway ♥”.
Aster had a bitter smile listening to the innocent yet playful voice of his mother, but Rya replied form the mind space.
“Hey don’t give him such crazy ideas, just wait until I can go outside, there won’t be any need to pay attention to other women”.
Lilia shook her head and then answered as if she was lecturing a little girl.
“No, no, no, a little virgin who has yet to see the world like you is not apt to manage the royal harem of my darling”.
Rya who takes pride in keeping her composure under extreme circumstances actually stomped, even when Alice discussed with her, she easily kept her cool, but with Lilia it was different, for some reason she couldn’t simply ignore her comments.
“Humph, when this empress was fighting for her life, your great-great grandfather wasn’t in in this world yet!”.
Lilia smirked having made Rya fall into her trap.
“What a tone for an old virgin”.
Rya fritted her teeth, but then she remembered something that made her smile.
“You are wrong, let me tell you a little secret, the body I will get will be at its hundreds just like you, because the materials needed to restore my original body are impossible to find or don’t exist”.
“And unlike humans, my soul stopped aging once I reached my prime, so I will be in the same range of age as you when I leave the mind space, no you know what I will intentionally make it some years younger just to call you aunt Lilia”.
Lilia’s smile stiffened at the sole thought of Rya addressing her as if she was an old woman, she put puppy eyes as she looked at Aster.
“Darling, make her look like an old lady”.
Aster heard those two quarreling like dogs and cats and he chuckled.
“Are you two Alice and Aria’s past lives or something like that”, he thought before saying.
“Keep on fighting if you want to, with Camila I will have an easier time finding the rest of the materials, see if I don’t spank your asses at the same time later”.
Both Lilia and Rya rubbed their butts, imagining the massacre, a moment ago Lilia only felt a soft caress when her son spanked her, she is a gate transcending realm cultivator after all, so her body is tough even if she is purposedly keeping it suppressed.
The problem is that Aster has yet to start cultivating his body and he still made her feel it a bit, a proof that Aster’s physique is monstrous by innate, of course there was the possibility that when he starts doing it, he will jump some realms just like how he reached the spirit opening realm.
Lilia rubbed her face against her son’s chest and put on an adorable expression which would make anyone feel empathy at her.
“I’ll be good”.
Aster laughed at his mother’s act, these moments of laziness might seem like a waste of time for others, but a cultivator is ultimately a human, if they only focus in training without any relax in between the result will be an inner demon.
One of the first things Lilia taught him when he started cultivating was, to give his all during his training but also enjoy his free time to the fullest, and so far, it has worked like a charm for him.
Aster’s eyes glowed in golden light, he stood up from the bed and sat cross legged on the floor.
Lilia was a bit curious about her son’s behave, but she didn’t interrupt him, because she felt the spirit energy of the world running from all the place to her room.
Past a certain point of concentration, the spirit energy that roams free in the atmosphere becomes visible to the naked eye, and right now that condition was met so in front of Lilia’s eyes, she saw dim blue currents of spirit energy swirling around her son.
For Rya the scene was different, while the stars remained the same, another of the characters which conformed the inscription at the sides of Hyperion illuminated, then the amount of golden light which is constantly being radiated from it increased.
Rya saw it and she smiled, her form became solider, if Aster where to see her right now, he would say that she now gave of a closer feeling to the Rya he met inside the book which contained the twins.
While Aster was absorbing the spirit energy like a black hole, the sound of steps could be heard coming from the hall, a slightly surprised Eris accompanied by Mylene entered Lilia’s room after a couple of seconds.
Mylene’s eyes glowed when she saw Aster’s current state, although she thought her eyes were deceiving her, she couldn’t help but exclaim.
“He isn’t breaking through to major division, it’s not a spirit formation… he is making the spirit energy of the world manifest by himself!!!”.
Both Eris and Mylene turned to see Lilia clearly wanting to hear what she had to say about what was happening, but Lilia only shrugged, besides that time when Aster went through his awakening ceremony, she hasn’t seen her son being “baptized” by the spirit energy of the world again… until this moment.
In fact, Lilia was also in shock, besides the awakening ceremony, surpassing the star tribulation or reaching the heavenly transformation or the equivalent in another path, she doesn’t recall ever seeing a scene like this.
There is a reason as to why cultivators absorb the energy, they need from spirit stones until the star tribulation realm and spirit jades above it.
Cultivating is the same as going against the heavens, so absorbing the spirit energy of the atmosphere is hundreds of times harder than doing it from a spirit stone, it’s an obstacle naturally set by the heavens to regulate the speed at which a cultivator advances.
The only exception is when one breaks through to an important realm, such like surpassing the star tribulation to become a mortal transcending realm cultivator, or reaching the heavenly transformation realm.
With the help of a rune master cultivators had imitated this phenomenon, using a spirit formation to extract the spirit energy of tons of spirit stones in a small space, making it condense in visible currents like the ones that are surrounding Aster right now.
But the effect is not close at all, one is a “gift” from the heavens and the other is an imitation after all, so those who use a spirit formation like that can also advance faster but it will take them some time to stabilize their cultivation base after each break through.
While Lilia, Eris and Mylene’s minds were trying to find a way to explain what they were witnessing, Aster was now in a place he has visited a few times before, his dantian, more accurately inside of his dantian.
Just like when he did a self-introspection, he saw his inner universe, there was his original giant star core which was dazzling in the characteristic golden color of annihilation, then it was that black star which was similar in form to Orionis of the same size and lastly a “normal” smaller looking star dazzling in a dim yellow light.
The three stars were pulsating as if they were resonating with each other, from Aster’s point of view it was as if they were trying to tell him something.
“The name “stellar constellation realm” isn’t just to show, according to mom once the original star core reaches its maximum capacity, copies of it will be formed to increase the amount of spirit energy a cultivator can store… but with Orionis here I don’t know how till things will result”.
“Well, my path has never been normal to begin with”, he thought before extending his hands towards Orionis and his star core.