Chapter 603 Aria’s soothing cold & Mira’s warm heart (part 4)  

"Hey that is not fair, what is up with those blue flames!", exclaimed the ligress girl upon seeing how easily Aster dealt with the magma golem, even if its attack pattern and reaction time wasn't as good as the real deal, that thing was still a peak Mortal Transcending realm being and yet he dealt with it so easily.

Mira is aware of how much of a monster Aster is, he fought against her back then after all, she is especially curious towards that golden light which originally made her feel a dreading sensation of death, when she thought, Aster was going to kill her to use her corpse as a resource, which was the alternative plan that the she knew the guys from the Yin Azure Palace had if they couldn't force her into submission after all that.

But her perspective took a 180° turn when that menacing golden light destroyed the restraining necklace that deprived her from her freedom, easily, she realized two things at that moment, first, if he really wanted to, considering the horrible state in which she was, Aster would have succeeded in killing her.

Second, she has never heard of an attribute that can be so destructive and yet so soft, the property of a cultivator's attribute varies from person to person, for example even if two people have water attribute that doesn't mean their spirit energy will be similar, water spirit energy can have different properties like, healing, eroding, calming, illusions and the list goes on. historical

For those who are considered talented it's not impossible to develop more than one property, lineages, constitutions and certain spirit techniques can also help diversify one's attribute, such is her case as she inherited different kinds of ice attributes from her parents.

But there are limitations in such cases too, since some properties enter in conflict with each other if they are deployed at the same time, which is why she has two different types of ice, the first one is "solid ice" which has an incredibly high defense property and then there is "wild ice" which is the complete opposite as it focuses on attack power.

She can use the first one by default but she has to manifest her ears and tail, the proof of her spirit beast's ascendence to use the second, she also loses the capacity to use the solid ice in that state, at least that is her current situation now that her cultivation has regressed to the early stage of the Sea of Knowledge realm.

'Even back then after learning how to balance my existence with the techniques father and mother gave me, I only managed to manifest half of the defensive and offensive properties of my ice at the same time but he… he goes so easily from one extreme of the spectrum to the other one', she thought.

"Amazing right, Aster's flames specialty is "purifying" and "propagation", regardless of elemental differences, he can turn practically anything into fuel for Rigel's flames".

"W-Wait a second, that would mean that he…", mumbled Mira in shock before she used her divine sense to look at Aster who was surrounded by a small river of blue flames right now.

Her eyes widened in disbelief as she saw the two different things hidden deeply behind the exact blue tone that the flames had as a whole.

'No way, the flames that came out of his body are yang based and the ones created by burning the magma golem are yin based, not only he can control both of them, they both are ice attributed!', inwardly screamed Mira, as small as it might be, every living being certainly has both yin and yang as they are needed to create life, by default women have larger amounts of yin in their bodies and the opposite applies to men.

Also, not all the time ice and fire are related to yin and yang respectively, there is ice that isn't related to yin and fire which isn't related to yang, but when they are, their relation is absolute, yin produces poison, darkness, water, ice and related things, yang produces light, vitality, fire, etc.

And here she was, seeing cold flames that despite being yang oriented were ice attributed, not only that, Aria had the same flames but, in her case, they were indeed yin based as they should be.

'Mother has told me about existences that have both fire and ice attributes at the same time, like the Blazing Cold Butterfly or special lineages that process yang to create yin or yin to create yang like the Moon Stream and Sun Graceful Luans… but this isn't that, he can use both and isn't affected by the extreme difference in elements', concluded the ligress girl.

She couldn't believe her own conclusion though, what she was seeing was similar to mixing fire and water in a bucket without the water vaporizing or the fire being put out, a fundamental impossibility.

"It seems like no one has noticed it yet, I guess it's normal, I spent thousands of years being exposed to both yin and yang extracted from celestial bodies, so I became especially sensitive towards it…", mumbled Mira.

"Mm?", Aria looked at Mira with a slightly confused expression on her pretty face, but the ligress girl shook her head in response.

"Nothing, we can discuss about it later, for now, for some reason I don't want him to win", she said with a strangely excited voice, which made bitterly smile Aria smile.

"I agree, his flames multiply too fast and we can't expect him to run out of soul energy to control them, since Aster's soul is monstrous to say the least, my flames however produce way lower temperatures than his, but my range is also smaller, if we want to finish before him, we only have one chance…", she said before she raised her head to look at the sky to then sigh.

Mira noticed the change on Aria's expression and she followed her gaze, there coming from the sky she saw four meteors at least twice the size of the previous they had seen, all coming towards them.

The ligress's girl softly growled to then change her focus to Aster who was leisurely floating sitting on top of one of the many streams of blue flames that were now attacking three golems at the same time, their gazes met just in time for her to see Aster teasingly smiling at her.

'He did it on purpose, this bastard… aghh fine, I'll concede this time', thought the ligress girl, after seeing that provocative smile on Aster's face, she really didn't want to lose this little activity he prepared for them, even if it meant walking right into the "trap" that the black-haired youth had set up for her. Mira gazed at Aria with a strangely competitive light shining in her eyes to then say.

"Let's teach him a lesson, at my signal, release all the flames you have and also that ice which comes from your body constitution towards the sky, leave the rest to me", she also sent a sound transmission that only the ice princess could hear, since she was sure that Aster's ears were ridiculously sharp.

Aria nodded, she then looked at Aster and cutely stuck out her tongue at him for a second, of course she knew he was doing all this to help her grow, but this was still a bit too extreme for her liking.

Aria's pretty platinum blue hair as well as her light blue eyes shone in a dazzling blue tone, cracking sounds came from the ground as the nearby area was frozen the next second.

"Permafrost Sealing Tower", followed by Aria's mellow voice, a five hundred meters tall and eighty meters wide ice pillar, raised from the ground all the way to the sky.

Aster whose eyes hadn't looked away from those two since earlier, proudly smiled at the sight of what he was sure was the result of Aria's daily training, as well as the growth she had during the previous mission, unlike the other techniques she has used in her Ice Fairy state so far, where her ice had to be in contact with the target to "seal" it into it, that giant ice pillar was affecting its surroundings just by being there.

Sure, the golems weren't being completely stopped unlike when she encompasses them with that ice, but they lost at least a third of their mobility all of a sudden and it wasn't just one or two of them, a whole total of ten were affected by it, in case you don't remember the golems were rushing towards them and what would you think would happen to someone that is running and suddenly is forced to slow down, the answer is simple, they will trip.

"Sgrhshaa!", the golems roared as the sudden interruption made them fall, what's worse is that the ones that were behind the ten that fell to the ground causing a small tremor, were also too slow to react on time and ended up landing on top of their comrades.

As impressing as the previous was, that's not what Aster was expecting to see, Aria only discovered the ability to use the permafrost that originated from her body constitution not too long ago, she still had a long way to go before she reached a breaking point, she needed to improve her physical body for that.

No, the opportunity that was right in front of her according to Aster's dragon eyes, lied in her ability as a Star Maiden, in other words her Rigel's flames which used to be as food as possible at its previous level, had a flaw exposed meaning they were on the border of an advance to a higher stage.

'I have some really competitive wives, how cute', thought Aster, Sarina obtained a new attribute, Alice just recently managed to change the armor so that it cladded her tail, increasing its already dangerous attack power, a notch up and Aria was now at the verge of improving her cold flames, it was as if they really didn't want to be surpassed by the other.

Aster came out of his daze as he saw Aria placing her hand on the tower, which's roof then exploded to release a large burst of Rigel's flames right into the scorching sky, creating blue clouds.

After doing that, Aria's Ice Fairy state was forcefully stopped, her breath was a bit erratic as well but she had fulfilled her task, which was to pave the way for the ligress girl.

Speaking of Mira, she had already soared into the sky, she was once again facing against those meteors which took her by surprise not too long ago, and just as she expected they all had that yellow scalding liquid in their core, which still made her feel nauseous.

"Mm?", Mira whose teeth were gritted a second ago, suddenly felt a warm comforting sensation coming from the top of her head, her blue eyes sparkled for a second before she flew into the blue clouds.

Aster smiled, since those two had prepared their movement, it was time for him to do the same, the streams of blue flames that were surrounding him all shot towards the remaining golems piercing their chests on the spot, making them slowly turn into large spheres of blue flames, that then ascended into the sky.

His vertical pupils contracted a bit and it was as if the time was slowed down, the blue clouds created by Aria previously as well as the spheres of blue flames which he created were suddenly dragged towards the tiger eared girl who was floating on the sky, then the giant image of a white ligress's head manifested behind Mira.

"Roaaaaar!", as if to announce its presence to the world, the ligress opened its mouth to let out a majestic roar which echoed through the sky.

Aster who was ascending into the sky, felt a strange sensation invading him, which made him stop along the way, he could also see the invisible waves of cold energy passing through his body, without affecting him, which made him chuckle.

Other things didn't have the same luck though, the golems, the meteors, the ground and the scorching sky itself were frozen on the spot.

"Crack!", the meteors which not too long ago where radiating heat, had turned into giant frozen icebergs which cracked and exploded the next second, creating a rain of thin ice dust all over a five-kilometer area.

As amazing as the previous sounded, it wasn't worth mentioning compared to what happened next, everything which that ice dust touched froze in a second, so from the original five-kilometer radio, it ended up extending to around fifty kilometers, in other words ten times its original range.

You might wonder what's so amazing about that, when the Sea of Knowledge of a cultivator in the stage with the same name, as Mira for example, can reach up to ten kilometers of size for those that talented enough.

Well, the area of effect of a cultivator's attack varies a lot depending on many factors, sure a Sea of Knowledge realm cultivator can destroy a low Stellar grade planet given enough time, but its attack will barely raise waves in a middle grade one, that's how things work, the laws, energies and physical integrity of a planet will suffocate the threats automatically.

Earlier, Aria's permafrost showed its special property not being affected by the magma attribute of the golems, sealing them perfectly yes, but that at the same time it drained Aria's stamina like crazy since that ice is produced by her body constitution. But now, Mira was descending from the sky, Aria was sitting on top of the ice tower and Aster was floating towards the latter, there were no signs of any of them doing anything besides the previous and yet, the ice overturned the scorching atmosphere in the range mentioned before, without any signs of it changing back.

Aria who was sitting cross-legged opened her ice just in time for Aster and Mira to land on the top of the ice tower, while the ligress girl seemed to be lost in her thoughts, Aster was smiling at her.

"You two also felt it right, the moment "our" ice was created", he said as he casually sat down.

"Humph, what I felt was that you nearly kill me with those flames of yours, if it wasn't for Aria's flames evening things, the result could have been disastrous", mumbled the ligress girl as she softly growled at him, however in her heart she was brimming with curiosity.

'My spirit ice's concept is "Wildness", it's fierce and can frostbite fire cultivators like they are nothing and yet, I had a rough time using those cold flames of his!', she inwardly screamed.

Aster teasingly smiled at her in response.

"I was counting on Aria to correct that; besides didn't I lend you a "hand" too".

"I-I don't know what you are talking about!", yelled the ligress girl in a hurry, the truth is that she recognized the origin of the warm sensation that helped her overcome the nauseous sensation that the yang solution inside the meteors caused her.

Unconsciously, Aster constantly radiates yang energy just by existing, the girls that spend time with him end up being bathed in it, some notice it while others don't, however none really mind, since it is beneficial for them anyway, with how pure Aster's yang is, regular human women wouldn't age as long as they remain close to him, for cultivators the effect diminishes but it is still like a health and beauty tonic for them, since it is essentially vitality.

And that is when he isn't actively trying to do anything, examples of his yang being purposedly "applied" to his companions, would be Lilia's perfect physical recovery, Aria's body being enhanced enough for her to compete with low ranked earth realm body cultivators, Eris and Mylene's meridians being restored and Alexandra's mother's poison being cured.

Of course, the previous also required the girls to do their part… in varied aspects, the point is that there is a world of difference between just being exposed to Aster's yang and he purposedly applying to someone.

And the ligress girl experienced the previous, firsthand a moment ago, that warm and easing sensation came from her cute tiger ears, more exactly from the part which Aster caressed earlier.

Mira of course knew it but she will never admit, that it was Aster's yang what chased away the disgust sensation that was messing with her every time that she was exposed to a relatively strong yang energy, that being said, Aster didn't mind, in fact he was enjoying seeing the ligress girl cutely feigning to not have noticed it.

"Ahem, still, why didn't you mention your flames had that property earlier, we could have beaten him more easily", said Mira trying to change the subject, just to see Aria shaking her head.

Her hand lit up in light blue flames, if one paid enough attention the changes on it would be quite easy to spot, unlike before, the flames looked smooth and fluid.

"Ahem, still, why didn't you mention your flames had that property earlier, we could have beaten him more easily", said Mira trying to change the subject, just to see Aria shaking her head.

Her hand lit up in light blue flames, if one paid enough attention the changes on it would be quite easy to spot, unlike before, the flames looked smooth and fluid.

"I didn't have it before, they changed midway when you dragged them towards you along Aster's flames, I just didn't want it to fail…", she said with a low voice.

"Just like my Aria, those flames have the capacity to soothe things up", said Aster which made the ice princess slightly blush.

Aster put on a teasing smile to then add.

"Who would have thought that below that cold exterior, a certain ligress would have a warm heart, taking the most dangerous role though".

"L-Leave me alone, I'm an energy/body cultivator and have spirit beast's ascendence, I would have been fine even if it didn't succeed!", exclaimed Mira while she softly growled at Aster, which made both he and Aria laugh.

"Don't tease her too much Aster, besides I think you are forgetting something", said Aria which made Aster raise an eyebrow.

Aria pointed backwards at the area behind the ice tower, there was cold mist blocking the sight, but once Aster activated his dragon eyes, he could easily see through it.

What lied there was a large field of ice peaks that raised from below, piercing what were now broken giant frozen rocks, that used to be the golems.

"I destroyed their cores the moment they fell but didn't freeze them, in other words we finished our golems before you~", proudly said the ice princess.

Aster bitterly smiled, he honestly didn't mind to look at the golems and Aria made it so his attention was drawn towards the ice tower, that being said he was going to give them the little gifts he prepared for them anyway.

'They are really becoming quite competitive…', he thought.