Just as Aster was about to leave followed by Aria, Eris and Mylene he felt a slight shiver running down his spine, Lilia’s eyes glowed a bit as her gaze narrowed.
Although she didn’t mind her son giving some attention to the other girls, her instincts as the mate of the progenitor of a new dragon species, kicked in as soon as she felt jealous.
Unlike Alice which wasn’t that affected by Aster’s evolution, Lilia was way more susceptible to those erratic emotional episodes.
Although Aster doubted his mother could harm them in any way, her gaze was still a bit scary, so he cleared her throat before extending one of his arms at her.
“Mom, you and Camila also come… sis you can come if you want to”.
A bright smile immediately flourished in Lilia’s face, she walked towards her son and hugged his right arm, only then she felt at ease.
Rya saw that little episode and she snorted from the mind space.
“Humph, horny dragon woman”
Lilia grinned before replying.
“Better than being an old virgin aunt”.
“You!”, Rya gritted her teeth but before she could start arguing with Lilia, Aster stepped in.
“Enough”, he said with a calm but firm voice, just like how that time he ordered his star cores to behave.
Lilia immediately adopted a docile attitude, she rubbed her face against his while putting on an innocent expression, like saying “I’m a good girl”.
“I’m sorry…”, Rya on the other hand excised herself, she was the one that criticized Lilia this starting the previous discussion, it’s not like she was angry nor she wanted to insult her, she simply said what came to her mind without noticing it.
“What the hell is wrong with me… previously I argued with Lilia but I wasn’t this childish, am I seeing her as my equal?”, she thought, only recently she started taking Lilia’s actions and comments a bit more personal, it was weird to say the less.
Aster nodded happy with them acting nice to each other, since the previous exchange happened through the mental connection, only the star maidens could hear it, for Camila, Eris and Mylene, Lilia’s aura became a bit bloodthirsty but then everything returned to normal when Aster asked her to come.
Although they felt a bit weird none of them said anything so everyone went to the training room.
Once they were at the training room, Aster sat down cross legged on the floor, he took a deep breath and then focused his attention in Orionis.
As if the star answered to his wishes, the spirit energy of the atmosphere started being drawn towards the Wolfstein castle, but it remained in their normal invisible state until it reached about twenty meters of Aster.
Then it started condensing forming dim blue currents, similar to what happened when he was breaking through, he beforehand asked the girls to not actively absorb the currents so no one tried to do it.
Aster then stood up, with a wave of his hand Rigel’s flames leaked from his body and after a couple of gestures they took the form of the spirit furnace, he adapted the dimensions of it to cover fifteen meters around him.
Once the furnace was properly set, he repeated the process creating a second filter ten meters around him which was more or less the space the girls were using.
“This should be it”, he thought, then he urged Orionis one more time making the blue currents move again, but this time they passed through the first spirit furnace which turned the currents into the same light blue particles which Kana and Sarina absorbed to help them advance.
Then those particles were purified one more time after going through the second furnace.
“Mm?”, Aster frowned the light blue particles disappeared after entering into contact with the second furnace, but then after a closer gaze, he noticed it didn’t disappear, instead it was transformed into some kind of gas which gathered on the roof of the spirit furnace.
Then after a couple of seconds all the girls noticed a thin refreshing dew rained down, bathing all the presents, although its composition was similar to dew, not only it was heavier, their clothes didn’t get wet as their bodies immediately absorbed it.
Lilia touched her skin which now was smoother and she smiled, after being covered in that dew, her already pretty pale tone got an extra healthy glow.
But that wasn’t what truly caught her interest, but the fact that she recognized this “material” and its effect, as the most outstanding female of the Drage family, she was treated like a princess… at least until she refused to follow her father’s orders.
Even then, she by herself completed a lot of tasks for the family and used the contributions to enter one of the legacies of the Drage family.
“Dragon cleansing pond” … this is spirit energy which has been purified and condensed to the point of becoming liquid, similar to one of the treasured lands of the Drage family”, she mumbled.
Contrary to what one would expect, the rarest way of spirit energy wasn’t the particle form which floated in the air, nor the crystallized forms like spirit stones or jades, but the liquid form.
Because in particle or solid forms the spirit energy still had impurities mixed in it, only the liquid form was said to be completely pure and no one knew why or how it was formed.
Finding a small accumulation of liquid spirit energy was the same as becoming rich overnight.
Something Aster noticed and was confused at, was that none of the girls looked upwards when they noticed the thin dew which bathed them.
“Did any of you saw that gas which gathered on the roof of the spirit furnace?”, he asked trying to confirm something.
All the girls shook their heads, in their eyes the process stopped after the blue particles passed through the second filter.
“I didn’t see that phenomenon you mention, but this thing is closer to the energy we used to cultivate!”, said Mylene with an excited voice.
Aster felt as if he had comprehended something important, but he couldn’t pinpoint it, until he accidentally gazed at his dantian and then he remembered the supposed story about how humans started cultivating.
“The humans looked at the starry sky and its infinite wonders and they realized how to surpass their limitations, creating an inner universe inside themselves will give them that same infinite potential”.
Under the surprised eyes of all the girls, Aster closed his eyes and his body started glowing, but unlike normally it wasn’t the usual golden light, but a mysterious black mist which surrounded his body.
“A gas which transports energy”, thought Aster, back at earth where the society prospered thanks to science, originally there were three states of matter recognized from the beginning of the time which could be easily seen, liquid, solid and gas.
Then as the civilization advanced a fourth state was discovered which was plasm, what does that have with cultivators you may ask… plasm is the state of aggregation which is easier to find in the universe, stars for example are in that state.
“At earth electricity was the energy used to power almost everything, while here spirit energy takes up that role… then”.
Aster suddenly stopped what he was doing, a faint trace of blood threatened to be spat from his mouth but the golden armor appeared on his body thus any harmful effect was ignored due to the seconds of invincibility the paragon body granted him.
He then immediately interrupted the idea which was running through his mind, only then he felt at ease again, but he kept the golden armor just in case.
Aster looked at his surrounds, after making sure that none of the girls noticed what happened to him, he let out a sigh of relief, a moment ago his instincts warned him that if he continued with what he was doing something bad could have happened.
Still in his heart he was laughing out loud, some information appeared in his mind, it was similar to what happened when he learned sword intention, but he forcefully interrupted it midway, even then he still could more or less understand something thanks to the few seconds of invincibility of the paragon body.
Apparently although there were three ways in which spirit energy could be manipulated, the first was internal way, which is when cultivators absorb it in their bodies, then purify it in their dantian to integrate it in their cultivation base, it’s a natural process but it has its cons, for example it can’t be done outside of the body and condensation of spirit energy through this method is not possible.
Then there are the external means to do it, which is basically using spirit formations to imitate the gathering and purifying processes of a dantian, this is an artificial process which allows a cultivator to do something they naturally can’t, gathering and condensing spirit energy out of the body.
But the downside is that by artificial means such as spirit formations, the condensation and purity will never go past a certain point, that’s why Lilia found a bit familiar the scene of him gathering those blue currents formed by spirit energy, but at the same time they were different to what she has seen in the cultivation chambers of her family.
The last method is the natural way, which combines all the pros of the other two methods, creating the best possible outcome, liquid spirit energy just like the one found in the Dragon cleansing pond mentioned by Lilia.
The problem is that this method can’t be imitated, and it only happens naturally, it’s like the birth of a treasure, only the heavens can do it… or at least that was the rule until a moment ago.
Aster inwardly sighed.
“So that’s why no one can create liquid spirit energy, but there still exists… these heavens and their stupid rules”, he thought.
He decided to put the subject at the back of his mind for now, he created a third spirit furnace in between the first two, but just as he expected the result was the same indetectable gas which gathered on the roof before falling in the form of dew drops.
Seeing Eris and Mylene’s slightly disappointed expressions Aster laughed before he dispelled the spirit furnaces.
“Don’t worry you two, clay can be turned into porcelain but not into gold, the same principle applies here, the spirit energy of this star cluster is still thin and of bad quality, it will take some time for that to change now that Sarina advanced here, so the best result are these small drops of liquid spirit energy… but if I use a better version of spirit energy as the material, the result will be completely different”.
“Well, I’m also eager to the reach our next destination”, he mentally added, as he started imagining the possible ways to use this new “ability” he learned.
Eris and Mylene’s eyes lit up like lamps, they already felt this dew was close to what they needed to cultivate, so if what Aster said was true then… after leaving this low ranked star cluster, they might be able to cultivate again!
While most of the girls were happy, inside the mind space and next to Aster, Rya and Lilia had contemplative expressions in their faces.
A moment ago, only they felt something was off, but they couldn’t pinpoint what it was, Rya felt Aster’s emotional state became erratic for a split of a second, as for Lilia her motherly instincts rang the very moment Aster used the golden armor, but after they both inspected him thoroughly, they didn’t see anything bad so they just discarded their assumptions.