?

    after enjoying a nice warm meal with the girls, during which aster took the chance to set up the schedule for the next days, he saw that alexandra and tamara had started to mingle with the others.

    alexandra never had any friends since she didn''t have time to relax due to her mother''s condition, so it was still a bit awkward for her, but she seemed to have gotten a bit closer to the youngest girls, namely alice, aria and tiana.

    tamara participated in making the dinner along with the other mothers, and surprisingly camilla who also tagged along with them, because she wanted to learn more from sarina, who was the best chef of the family as of current.

    as for the ones that were missing from the dinner, eric and sofia will be returning tomorrow according to a message they sent to felicia, there was also tomas who called beforehand to tell tamara he would stay all the night as he was discussing some things with julian.

    aster honestly thought that the poor man wanted to recover after being sucked dry by his wife, so he gave him the "order" to discuss about how to improve the cooperation between the sects that were part of the alliance.

    once they had their fill, everyone parted ways, some of them had other things they wanted to do, while aster and the girls went straight to their bedroom, there won''t be any naughty things tonight, as they went quite hard at it earlier, but they wanted to cuddle all together, kana included this time.

    and so, the hours passed and the moon was replaced by the sun at some point, just as he proposed earlier, aster went to the mind space to have some cuddly time with rya, and also help her with her daily recovery session.

    since the process took quite a toll on his soul energy reserves, this also worked as part of his barbaric way to train his soul and more importantly, both of them ended up pretty tired after it, so they enjoyed hugging each other to sleep even more than normal.

    aster opened his eyes and was received by the sight of rya''s pretty face up-close, she slowly opened her eyes almost at the same time as aster, and then sweetly smiled at him.

    aster couldn''t help but kiss her soft peachy lips as he caressed her face, making his cute empress blush.

    "doing perverted things first thing in the morning~", she cutely mumbled, making aster laugh as he stretched his body, naturally they went to sleep wearing light clothes, but while rya was wearing some of the lingerie that lilia "recommended", aster used shorts and a t-shirt.

    "think what you want to do for our date, i''ll fulfill all the desires of my cute empress", teasingly said aster as he pecked rya''s lips one more time before leaving the mind space.

    on the outside world, things were a bit more crowded, though aster''s bed could accommodate more than ten people at the time, the girls always clang to aster, so they occupied a relatively small part of the mattress.

    aster opened his eyes in the outside world, he looked downwards just the see kana snuggling on his chest, while mumbling "big brother", with a happy smiling face.

    since the others had their fun with aster, they left kana have the "main" spot, which was basically sleeping on top of aster, and she was enjoying it to the fullest, as her smiling sleeping expression suggested.

    if you wonder how were the others able to convince lilia to concede her rightful place, she and sarina acted as aster''s pillow tonight, as those large and fluffy breasts on which he was resting his head suggested.

    "mm~ good morshning big brother~" kana cutely rubbed her eyes as she greeted aster to then peck his right cheek, as she "demanded" some head pats, which aster gave to her with please, the little girl giggled and hen got up the bed, since she was going to assist her beloved big brother with the first activity of the day.

    aster could then feel alice''s tightening her grip on his right arm, and he chuckled, this sister of his was awake since a few minutes ago, and was waiting to get her morning kiss, or she won''t let go of him.

    aster lifted his right arm and alice came along with it, to put her on top of him and then press his lips against hers.

    "mmm~", after getting what she wanted, alice "woke up" as she let out a happy sound to then get up and follow kana to wash her face.

    next was the ice princess''s turn, aria was actually sleeping, and since he had a bit more leisure to move, aster rolled his body to be accommodated sidewards, while facing aria, as always, she had hat soft and sweet scent which aster loved, on her.

    "uhhh~", aria let out a cute sound as she felt her lover gently pecking her lips, she smiled while keeping her eyes closed, before getting up.

    last but not least, aster decided to attack the two mothers at the same time, so he flipped his body over, and his face landed in between those two giant pairs of breasts, after getting a nice taste of their feminine fragrance, he moved upwards and then kissed lilia, before doing the same to sarina.

    "more darling~", lilia dragged aster towards to get seconds, making sarina pout as she did the same, only after they got ten kisses, they let go of him, since they knew aster had something important to do, they will be looking anyway, so it''s not like they won''t be seeing him.

    ...

    after a quick breakfast, the girls followed aster outside of the mansion, eric and sofia as well as tomas and even julian joined them as they went deep into the valley, to an area aster designated for something he has been planning for quite a while, this visit to the silicon forest, made him realize the importance of having a ride.

    "of course, we are talking about my darling after all~", said lilia as she created a barrier at a few dozens of kilometers, it was time for everyone to give the little wyrm some space, aster had already created a spirit furnace to refine spirit energy using rigel''s flames, creating the best conditions possible for espi''s breakthrough, just like he did for sarina, felicia and camila back then.

    he was the last one to leave, he saw espi''s eyes were filled with emotions, which included anticipation and nervousness, so he extended his hands towards it and the little wyrm leaned its head frontwards, so that aster could pat it.

    "don''t worry about anything, focus on advancing so that you can come with kana and me to explore this universe full of wonders", said aster.

    though he hadn''t spent too much time with the little wyrm, he has completely accepted it in his family, so he didn''t want it to suffer any harm.

    "hisss!", the little wyrm let out an enthusiastic hiss, and then moved towards the center of the circle created by the materials, where the refined spirit energy was naturally flowing to, as those things were all high ranked treasures.

    aster flew away and then reunited with the others; julian was amazed at everything he had seen today.

    as the ruler of galatia, he has visited high ranked stellar system, and those guys love to show off, to demonstrate the "difference" between a middle ranked and a high ranked territory, among which he has gotten a glimpse of some guardian beasts of a couple of sects.

    of course, they did it with the intention of humiliating him, since those spirit beasts were stronger than him, it was as if they were saying "look, my guardian dog can kick your ass", so he really didn''t let them impress him, as to not give them the thrill they wanted, but right now he was genuinely amazed.

    "kid, i have seen the eyes of those spirit beasts and i can tell that they will probably escape at the slightest sign of difficulties, unless their contracts say otherwise, compared to them, this spirit beast of yours is on a whole different level", he said, even if he didn''t harbor any ill intention to aster, there was a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

    aster smiled, he knew espi was especial since it followed and helped them out of its own will back then, even fighting against the bastards of the tempest family, of which it had been hiding for a long time.

    kana hugged aster''s right arm and then gave him puppy eyes, which made aster chuckle, he snapped his fingers and the spirit furnace lit up in light blue flames, as it increased the refinement of spirit energy, until small drops of blue liquid started appearing just to be guided towards espi.

    it was quite a visual spectacle, which helped the little girl distract, and ignore the dangers of the process that was about to start.

    espi stood there in the middle of the circle, its scales surprisingly absorbed the drops of liquified spirit energy, making it put an expression of comfort, before its body started shining in a dazzling white light.

    the materials were attracted towards espi''s scales and stuck to them, before they started being slowly absorbed by them, at the same time the sky above the valley darkened and black clouds appeared on the previously clear sky.

    aster saw that the tribulation was about to start any time soon, and he used his authority as the lord of the valley to open the roof of the barrier around the valley, the formations will get in the way of the tribulation, which might cause espi problems, no to mention they will be damaged if they were hit by the lightning, but more importantly they will increase the difficulty of the tribulation as they will be counted as external help, which is penalized by the heavenly law.

    naturally, aster had foreseen this happening, so he made sure that no one could approach the valley, either out of curiosity or just to cause troubles, he did so by asking eris to put an illusion array at the distance, where the heavenly law won''t take it as interference, it basically blocked the sight of others with a fake image, it didn''t take her that long since she used her cube necklace to do it.

    and in case someone tried to come and cause trouble, he had julian who is an honorary ancestor, in reserve, not to mention agnes was here and if authority and strength doesn''t work, lilia can always beat the crap out of anyone in this stellar system.

    all this was prepared, because aster didn''t know what to expect from a spirit beast''s tribulation, they are said to be more violent than the ones of cultivators, since they not only go against the heavenly law to obtain more power, but to obtain wisdom, of course things get balanced since they have stronger bodies and higher vitality than cultivators in most of the cases.

    "it''s starting", aster raised his head and saw electricity illuminating the clouds, meaning that the tribulation was about to start, every tribulation is different and while they don''t know what is going through espi''s mind right now, they can see the color and properties of the lightning that has been summoned by the heavenly law.

    the electricity gathered on a cloud until it changed its color, aster recognized the tone and property immediately, it was that lavender tone that the core of the centipede gained after being refined, in fact the lightning looked illusory but he could tell it was perfectly real.

    "boooom!", the sparks flew and the sky was illuminated as the first lightning fell, directly impacting the little wyrm where it was standing.

    "hisss!", with a slightly pained hiss, the lightning hit the area of espi''s body where the core of the centipede was attached to, making it explode into countless lavender colored wisps of mist, that were then fully absorbed by espi''s scales.

    then, the electricity on the sky changed its color, this time it had a green and yellowish tone, similar to that piece of wood radiated by yang energy which aster selected for espi.

    aster could feel kana''s little hand tightening around his, and he patted her head to calm her down.

    "don''t put that face, smile, we are here to support espi after all", he said.

    "mm~", the little girl regained her usual bright smile as she observed the determined little wyrm, which was looking at the sky with a resolute expression like saying "is that everything you have!".

    in response a thunder echoed through the sky as the second lightning descended on the little wyrm.