Chapter 532 Reunion & Reasons (Part 1)
Tamara who was feeling quite energetic, her skin was glistening with a healthy glow, after she expulsed that dark yellow air, she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest, both literally and figuratively.
She felt as if she could breathe more easily, but right now this wasn't the time to admire the huge improvement in her condition, thanks to the black-haired youth in front of her, she was rather calm but the little flower buds on her chest, were slightly swollen due to the stimulation caused by the yang energy that was injected in her body.
Alexandra approached her mother and put a bath robe to cover Tamara's body, the daughter still felt a bit aggrieved towards Aster due to what happened earlier, but on the other hand she was too happy after seeing that the treatment was effective.
So, she calmed down and instead smiled as she hugged her mother, making Tamara softly laugh.
"Lass, I spent years without seeing you smile and you have been doing it quite a lot in a couple of days", said Tamara before she turned to see Aster.
"We'll take our leave, feel free to use the room as you see fit, the nearby area is also safe, because this part of the planet belongs to me".
After thanking Aster and the others, the pair of mother and daughter left the training room, they originally wanted to have some small chat with Lilia and the girls, but they felt the urge to take a bath after the treatment, especially Alexandra.
Aster of course noticed it, but he feigned ignorance because it was already embarrassing for them, once they left Aster let his body fall backwards on the ground.
"Me and my great ideas… it's not hard to use the energy of the star on the armor transferring it to other people is freaking tiring" mumbled Aster.
The girls heard Aster and they giggled as they approached him and sat around him.
"Mm, you used your own body as a node for the connection after all, a normal person would have exploded on flames and then turn into a crisp and yet you affected the yang of the star instead of getting influenced by it, like it happened to those spirit beasts, seriously what kind of mythical creature are you?", said Eris.
There are some clans that descend from spirit beasts who can take advantage of celestial bodies for their cultivation, Natasha's Sun Graceful Luan and Charlotte's Moon Stream Luan families are good examples of it.
Once they are strong enough, they can feed on suns or moons, but it's not something that "infants" in the mortal realms can do, as a proof of it, they used some kind of treasures that stored the energy from the sun and the moon of Esmeralda's secret realm, for later refinement, Natasha even did something to the moon, messing up with the yin radiated by it, which ended up making Camila and Mylene asking to share the same room with Aster.
But Aster received the energy from a star without any refinement process, the yang within his body was domineering enough to actually alter the one of the star, when it should have been the other way around.
Not to mention, Eris's eyes were sparkling after she saw that the "mind space" of which she just recently got a proper explanation of, could actually be kept open and connected with the outside world, energies could move from one side to the other, without the components that were used to transport them being static, a fundamental impossibility for Rune Masters.
Aster felt Eris's intense gaze on him and he chuckled.
"You can study the applications to the mind space, later, I'm too tired for today", he said, which made Eris pout, the princess of the Heavenly Rose clan was really enthusiastic when it came to anything that was related to formations, perhaps that's what made her get along so easily with Agnes, because she had a similar passion but for body cultivation.
"You haven't seen anything, back then when there were competitions among the youngest generation, Eris used to lecture other rune masters, she was quite annoying to be honest~", playfully said Mylene.
"Humph, I seem to remember you liked to humiliate other aspiring alchemists so much that most ended up quitting, the masters of the Alchemist Union ordered their disciples to run when they saw you", naturally Eris got back at her friend on the spot.
While those two started telling on the other, Sarina and Lilia sneakily moved behind of Aster, and then the two of them tried to place Aster's head on their laps at the same time, only to meet in between and then reach a mutual agreement and share him.
"Don't lower your guard Sarina, I never took too much interest in cooking, but I'm a quick learner, I'll catch up in no time, especially because I can practice on the mind space~", said Lilia with a teasing smile
"Oh, thy the rush, miss Lilia's talent relies in destroying things not making them, even your attribute is like that, I would focus on training instead, with my new wings I'll be able to advance pretty fast, who knows I might reach the peak of the Transcending realms quite fast and next is my turn to venture with Aster too~", confidently answered Sarina.
Aster bitterly smiled seeing those two so fired up, but that was good, they used each other's strong points as motivation, Sarina wasn't weak in battle, she was able to resist the corruption created based on Mylene's blood.
In part because she had her own lineage, though dormant it was still there, in fact Aster now wondered if her Storm Roc bloodline would have awakened under the threat of death, spirit beasts grow stronger by doing three things, fighting, eating and aging, the same applies to their descendants.
In terms of age, Sarina who isn't even one hundred years old is too young, just like Lilia and Alice, she just entered the infant stage in terms of her lineage, the resources back at Prasil weren't exactly of high quality too, but battles never lacked, luckily, she could now enjoy doing the three with Aster, and so she was sure she will be advancing in no time.
Speaking of advance, Aster suddenly closed his eyes while he enjoyed the comfortable sensation of Lilia and Sarina's thighs on the back of his head, advancing is a curious thing, you can reach the utmost limit of your realm and still not be able to advance.
People can also miss the proper time to advance, and end up becoming a "half-step", but Aster doesn't have that problem, he on the contrary just needs to reach the amount of saturation of spirit energy required, and that's it, at least until he reaches the important barriers such as the star tribulation.
There is just one problem, he requires and immense amount of spirit energy of the highest quality to reach the limit, his huge reserves made it like that, it can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you see it.
But Aster has found a way to overcome that extra difficulty, he just needs to push himself to the limit and then recover, that way he can force either his inner universe or his even his soul to improve, a "brutish" but incredibly efficient way to cultivate which only Aster dares to use on a regular basis.
It was only a minor advance, so it didn't take long, but the girls still noticed the change, it would have been hard not to, considering all the spirit energy that suddenly gathered in the room.
They then saw Aster's eyes opening, his golden pupils were glowing in a bright golden light, which disappeared not too long after, as Aster's realm raised to the high stage of the Stellar Constellation realm.
"You just advanced in the soul path recently and now in the energy path too, that's a bit too much", mumbled Tiana.
"Big brother is the best~", Kana who was floating above Aster let her body fall on top of his chest and then rubbed her face on it, right now Aster's body was radiating spirit energy, which the little girl found quite comfortable.
The door of the room suddenly opened and Ulises as well as Jack and even Alexandra entered with curious expressions on their faces.
But after a couple of seconds of contemplation, they three of them frowned as they didn't find what they expected.
"Who of you advanced to the Mortal Transcending realm?", asked Ulises, only to be met with strange gazes from the girls.
"I advanced to the high stage of the Stellar Constellation realm", said Aster, which took those three by surprise.
"You caused a phenomenon like that over a minor breakthrough… I know members of the young generation are meant to surpass but damn", it's all Ulises could say.
Aster chuckled, the girls weren't surprised because all of Aster's advances on the energy path, always have this effect, but while it had become a common occurrence for them, it was something extremely strange for others, Ulises and Jack even thought that a new Mortal Transcended from the young generation had been born, they all bet it was Nerissa who is rumored to have already surpassed her star tribulation, the one who advanced, but to their surprise that wasn't the case.
They weren't the only ones surprised though, at the guest room where Aster and the others are staying, the Ligress girl Mira whose tail was slowly moving while her feline eyes glowed.
"First that little girl and now him, no, he isn't loved by spirit energy unlike Esmeralda's host, the spirit energy was actually dragged towards him whether it liked it or not, also what the hell was that aura I felt, how can the blood of someone that hasn't reached the infant stage properly have such a strong aura… those two women aren't that far either, do dragons exist in this mere Mortal plane?", wondered Mira.
…
The next couple of days were pretty calm, because after a session of treatment, Aster ended up pretty roughed up, something worth mentioning is that with each session, not only Tamara's condition visibly improved, but Aster grew used to the charge that circulating the energy of the star put in his body.
By the end of the third session, even after he finished treating Tamara, he didn't feel like collapsing, unlike the previous days.
"I know you are insanely sturdy, but give your body a week or so without using the Star Reinforcing Formation, I will make modifications to the runes to increase the efficiency of the formation too", said Eris.
Aster nodded in response.
"No problem, her body needs to process all the nurturing yang that she has received too", said Aster as he pointed at Tamara, who was covering her almost naked body with a robe, unlike before she could do it by herself now.
In fact, she could now even do demanding activities without any help, and all her daily needs could be solved by herself now, besides cultivating she had practically returned to be a healthy woman.
Today the pair of mother and daughter were in an especially good mood, because Tomas will be arriving to this planet soon, he was already in the Fritz Stellar System.
And to heir delight, they saw Aster take out his communication talisman to then turn to look at them.
"Let's go to the living room, they'll be here in a few minutes".
Tamara smiled and then she and her daughter went to their room to prepare to meet Tomas, while Aster and the others went to the living room, where Ulises and Jack were already waiting for them.
Aster was amused as those two seemed more eager to meet Tomas, than even Tamara, but it's understandable, out of the little things Tamara has spoke about during the treatment sessions, apparently those two had been Tomas's friends since they were kids, Tamara on the other hand was isolated, for a long time, because the attraction she caused on others only increased as she grew older, and she was unable to limit it, like she does now.
Currently besides seeing the bare skin of certain parts of her body, or when she actively uses the charm of her eyes, others won't be attracted to her, Ulises was taken by surprise back then when he inspected her, because he didn't expect her body to have recovered that capacity.
The door of the mansion opened, and the eyes of all the presents fell on the figure that was entering with a slightly anxious expression.
Unlike back then, Tomas has recovered quite a bit, from having gotten old enough to be in his fifties, he now seemed to be in his middle thirties, Tomas had a light brown hair and dark brown eyes.
He was tall and had a decent athletic figure, right now Tomas was wearing the uniform of the Terranova sect, which consisted in armor that had green, brown and blue tones, making him look like an experienced general.
Aster saw that not only Ulises and Jack but even Tomas froze, they were surprised to see the other, which was rather funny.
"If seeing these two guys is making you like this, I wonder what will happen when you see the two ladies that are doubting to enter through that door", said Aster as he pointed at the door that led to the corridor where Tamara and Alexandra's rooms were.
"I'm sorry for showing this strange scene to the young master", said Tomas as he scratched the back of his head.
Ulises and Jack wanted to rush and hug their friend, but they stared at each other and left that to the pair of mother and daughter that just entered the room.
Tomas saw Alexandra and his eyes got teary, he had a daughter all this time, a little girl who grew thinking he was dead, he then focused on Tamara who seemed to not have aged a single day compared to back then, of course that is because her condition has improved a lot.
Without any words, Tamara approached her husband and hugged him, Tamara was more reserved, so she didn't join, but Tomas placed his hand on her head, like a father who comforts a little girl.
"I'm home", said Tomas.
"Welcome back", answered Tamara and Alexandra.