ignoring the commotion that was ongoing outside, aster and the girls entered the store, all the girls who worked there had already finished cleaning and left, with the exception of the pigtails short girl that seemed to be the third one in the authority chain, below helena and dahlia.

"they shouldn''t cause anymore troubles for now, if anything happens just activate the defensive formations and directly attack them, as long as they still breath nothing will happen", said aster to helena, making her softly laugh before saying.

"i will do so, since our sponsor is so kind as to proportion us spirit formations that can keep even law transcending realm cultivators away~".

aster chuckled, this was his store, and also a place where the girls often spend some time, though killing is prohibited in the sect, the rules are dead and people is alive, better safe than sorry.

that''s why he asked eris to put some good formations in the store, though they will burn money to operate, they were independent from the sect and turned the store in a little fortress.

aster''s expression became fierce for a moment.

"give me a list of the ones that have been giving you trouble, people and stores included, it''s time for retribution".

seeing her beloved brother expression, alice''s body shivered, she simply loved when he was like that.

"mm, i''ll have it done by tomorrow and hand it to on our appointment at the valley", answered helena, making the girls gazes fall on aster.

"we can''t take our eyes out of you for a couple of hours", mumbled aria with a pout.no?v(el)b\\jnn

the other girls nodded, agreeing with her, which made aster chuckle, they were obviously just joking making it look as if he invited helena on a date to the valley.

"helena and dahlia will help kana make a herbal garden on the valley, since the soil there is pretty good and the atmosphere is filled to the brim with spirit energy, also with some "help" the herbs will be of the best quality, naturally those will be for our private use, only the best for my family", said aster, which made the girls brightly smile.

unfortunately for aster, though that tactic worked with the other girls, lilia didn''t get tricked by it, she approached her son from behind and whispered at him.

"and of course, you don''t mind getting closer with the cute gardeners at the same time, right darling~".

aster bitterly smiled, his mother was getting back at him for not letting her accompany them earlier, he turned to see helena and dahlia with an apologetic gaze.

helena simply smiled at aster, she has spent time with lilia and the others on the past months due to the store, so she already is more or less used to lilia''s playfulness, dahlia on the other hand blush a bit.

leaving that aside, aster and the girls said goodbye and left the store, the crowd was still outside so aster used his authority to take them back to the valley, where he spent the rest of the day with sarina and kana.

naturally they chose the gazebo at the edge of the river on the center of the valley, so while kana played in the water with the white sand wyrm, sarina leaned her head against aster''s shoulder, just enjoying the calmness of the nature that surrounded them.

"wasn''t it a noon like this, when you jumped on me", jokingly said aster while he rubbed his thumb on sarina''s soft hand, making her laugh and then kiss her lover.

but that wasn''t all, the girls decided to divide the day in two parts, and each would take half of it, that or they could get one day of attention if two of them worked together, like sarina and kana, they did it like this, because they were going to spend all their time together in the castle anyway, the one taking the next turn was agnes, and contrary to aster''s expectations, she asked for a friendly date on the sect, going out to eat and stuff like that, quite different from the training aster thought she was going to ask.

probably it had something to do with the girls from the black sword faction, who approached her and whispered some things at her, the rest of the turns were still being decided so that was the order for tomorrow.

this time sarina cooked a nice dinner for everyone and after they enjoyed the food, everyone went to their respective bedrooms to sleep.

...

inside of the mind space aster didn''t forget to pay attention to his cute sword girl, rya who has become more "human" lately, received him with her arms wide open, aster noticed that her "empress" aura has been decreasing with every strand of her hair which has turned silver, which reminded him a doubt that he got not too long ago.

"you said that after i surpass my star tribulation, you''ll be able to leave the mind space, but what if i advance in the soul path first, not to mention i still don''t have all the materials?".

rya thought about it for a second before saying.

"well, my damaged soul is what was making me stay in the mind space, i originally mentioned the star tribulation or mortal tribulation, because as a dragon you shouldn''t have been able to cultivate your soul... then when you suddenly became one, i thought it would slower for you to advance in it than in the energy path".

"if you overcome your tribulation in the soul path, my soul should fix enough for me to leave, but i know you won''t let me until you get the materials needed for my physical body, right", she said with a pout.

aster perversely smiled and dragged rya who was laying down next to him, into his embrace.

"of course, these materials are supposed to help you create the perfect vessel for your soul, i only want the best of the best for my girls... that being said i don''t want you to stay in this place alone even a second more than necessary, so i already decided it".

rya raised an eyebrow, confused about what was aster talking about, though the twins could visit or even lilia, it wasn''t a regular thing or anything he or the other parties involved could control, most likely it was orionis who did it on a whim.

aster poked rya''s pretty nose and then pointed downwards at the ground of the mind space, which was visible as they were at the highest point of hyperion on their "bedroom".

"i have been thinking about it, if you can''t go out, then i just have to bring the others here, that will also get rid of the problem of me separating from the others for too long, in case something happens in the missions... i don''t want to worry them as well", said aster, before he confidently smiled.

"i just need to reach the spirit trial realm and i will bring all the sisters here, i can''t wait to have the whole family together", said aster with a pervy expression on his face, which made rya cover her chest and crotch, feeling as if his eyes could see through her clothes.

"lewd dragons", she mumbled, but inwardly her heart was drowning in sugar, advancing in the soul path is way harder than on the other paths, and aster is a dragonkin so the difficulty for him is even higher, having to control his instincts and balance everything, that''s in part why his soul is monstrous.

in the few years he has lived in this world, he has already faced tribulations in the soul path twice, when he first looked at the void of the space and back then at the secret realm, realizations sounded easy, but they are presented to those that can''t see the answer despite it being "obvious" for others, it is ultimately personal growth.

from other people''s point of view might look easy, but when they are the ones overcoming their flaws, things are completely different, aster used his spirit sense to map the nearby areas of the mind space, measuring and doing other calculations while he cuddled with rya.

''soul cultivation surely is quite helpful'', he happily thought, as he closed his eyes and entered the land of dreams.