lightsΝοvεl ƈοm 607 Tiana’s flashing spear & Nerissa’s flowing sword (part 3)

Aster nodded after a moment of contemplation, be it accidental, prepared beforehand or simply coincidental, Nerissa had a better starting point for the plan of making every member of his family train aspects of the three paths.

"If you don't mind, I will like to take a peek at your manual later, I want to confirm a couple of things regarding your unique attribute, this is only my guess but you hadn't been inspected by Soul Kings yet, right?", he asked.

"Mm?", Nerissa raised an eyebrow in response, her attribute is quite intriguing so of course her master in other words Valentina, has inspected her using her soul enhanced spirit sense, even if her focus is more battle oriented, as a Fey princess, Valentina is a talented soul cultivator so she has a better spirit sense than average cultivators.

And despite the previous, she couldn't find anything regarding Nerissa's attribute, which is why Valentina was planning to arrange that a trustable specialist inspected Nerissa, in order to get some more information that could help her to improve her cultivation.

There are no Soul Kings that permanently reside in middle or low grade Stellar Systems, for obvious reasons, though they are just at the peak of the Transcending realms, Soul Kings are treated like treasures since they represent the peak of the soul path as of current.

In fact, by an official decree made by the ruler families and forces of the four Heavenly Quadrants, any force or family that raises a Soul King can be immediately given a galaxy in a high ranked Stellar System, in exchange for said Soul King joining one of the many factions in the high ranked Stellar Systems as a guest elder.

Of course, there are even better deals but they come with a corresponding price, most Soul Kings that aren't raised by the ruler families or forces, choose to remain as guest elders, with the previous you can imagine how appreciated Soul Kings are.

However, with Valentina's background she should have been able to make one of those old fellows personally come to check up Nerissa at this point, that is if she could rely on the power of her family and since it hadn't happened, Aster was sure there was more to the situation than what met the eye, which was confirmed the next second by Nerissa.

"Unfortunately, all the Soul Kings whose area of expertise lies in analysis through spirit sense, which master knows off, are tied to the Ocean Turquoise family branch of the Fey, and they are in really bad terms with Master's family branch so…", she didn't need to finish her sentence for Aster to understand.

Not only Nerissa was incredibly talented, she had a unique water-based attribute and a precious peak Immortal grade cultivation manual, not to mention that her attribute probably originated on an unknown to the date, either lineage or constitution.

:03

According to Agnes, each family branch from the Fey that has produced a princess, was given a tittle formed by a gem and something related to their attribute, so those Ocean Turquoise guys were for sure a water attributed family, it's not hard to imagine what would happen if they got to know about Nerissa's secrets, either they will try to rope her in or they would try to destroy her if the previous didn't work, since she was under Valentina's wings.

'Still, I don't believe there aren't any other Soul Kings that can give miss Valentina a hand, in the whole four Heavenly Quadrants', thought Aster, only to hear Lilia's voice coming from the mind space.

'It's not that there aren't enough Soul Kings in the four Heavenly Quadrants, but those old bastards are quite eccentric, since they can't enter the Heavenly realms in neither of their two cultivation paths as they choose to advance in the soul one which is still incomplete, they take a different approach to cultivate, basically they focus on a single aspect until they manage to perfect it to its utmost limit'.

'Considering that Valentina seems to be in good terms with that crazy sister of mine, there is no way that she hadn't inspected that little girl for her, and since she couldn't reach a conclusion, then a "Vision King" in other words a Soul King that has completely mastered soul enhanced spirit sense, is needed to get some kind of result and that isn't a really popular area of expertise, so most of those voyeur specialists do come from those petty water bastards', playfully said the dragon mother.

'Mom, I also train in soul enhanced spirit sense, since it seems to go really well with my eyes…', said Aster, just to listen to Lilia's amused laugh in response.

'Maybe, but you won't use it to spy on women in secret, when you can just ask us to show you, right~'.

Aster couldn't help but bitterly smile, leaving that little exchange with that teasing mother of his, he returned to reality the next second as he saw Nerissa approaching him.

"If I understand correctly, this place was built by master's cousin so it should be safe", with those words, a dim blue light shone on her forehead, the light faded down after a couple of seconds, leaving behind a small blue diamond shaped mark that was placed in the middle of Nerissa's forehead."This thing is my manual, or it would be more accurate to say that the information is stored inside of it, it seems to be made like this so it can't be stolen by others, with my permission others can see it though", she said.

Aster couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, he has seen something similar before, the wolf tattoo on Camila's upper back had a similar function, inside of it, rested the cultivation manual left behind by the Wolfstein ancestor.

That being said Camila's manual did have a physical form, it was a treasure gilded book, while according to Nerissa her manual was part of the mark on her forehead, it wasn't exactly the same but they did share some similarities, at the very least Aster could imagine that the origin of Nerissa's manual shouldn't be lower than that of Camila's.

What tickled his curiosity was where did his Fey godmother found it, taking mental note to ask Lilia about it later, Aster nodded at Nerissa to then say.

"So, what should I do?", he had an idea already, but he preferred to listen it directly from her.

Nerissa inwardly snorted, how could she not know that Aster was doing it on purpose, if anything this time Tiana was mockingly giggling at her, when she was teased by Aster, Nerissa laughed at her, it was her turn to laugh now.

"Place your finger on the mark on my forehead, that should be enough", ultimately, she had no choice but to fall in the trap willingly, since she was interested in the result, it wasn't a secret that his eyes were special so who knows he might be able to notice something that even her master and the alchemy peak's ancestor couldn't.

Aster slightly smirked in response, but he didn't push further and just gently poked Nerissa's forehead with his right index finger, a blue light shone in his eyes and then the scenery changed, from the Treasure Graveyard to a limitless blue ocean.

'Oh, it does indeed feel similar to the jade slip which contained the Soul Parade that Rya gave me, but this one clearly has more restrictions on it', thought Aster as he gazed around.

The Soul Parade didn't have any special restriction, besides the fact that it was incredibly harsh to practice, as long as one was a soul cultivator, they could practice on it, being successful was a different thing though, but Aster could tell that whatever was left here wasn't like that.

Just like Nerissa said, to practice, no, to even be able to enter this place, one had to fulfill certain a certain requirement, namely, having that unique attribute which Nerissa has, on the other hand he could take a peek because she allowed him to.

As to where was the information of this manual, even the presentation was strange, Aster sat down cross-legged, casually floating on the limitless sea, it only lasted a couple of seconds, before he slowly sank into the water.

Despite this not being a real place, the water was incredibly real, in other words he couldn't breathe and as he descended into what seemed to be a bottomless ocean, the pressure on his body increased.

It was just some kind of test though, this manual was an energy/soul oriented one, if the one trying to cultivate on it didn't have talent for the soul path, it would be unable to endure this little test and be forced to leave.lightsnovel

As Aster descended, information flashed in front of his eyes, basically it was the same as what Nerissa told him, basic sword stances, cultivation poses, the meridian positioning needed to advance as the manual needed and the like.

Aster couldn't help but frown, peak Immortal grade manuals were more than just cultivation resources, they often contained records, advices and notes from those that cultivated on it and were worthy enough to leave their mark behind, the Might of the Dragon King, which Aster used had some notes and explanations that came from the outstanding Drage ancestors of the past, not like he cared though, since for him those things were useless.

Though he "cultivated" using that manual, he didn't follow the instructions of it, the same applied to Lilia and Alice as well, their lineages had long deviated from the one of the Drage after all, if anything, the pair of mother and daughter could use the techniques left in the manual, independently, but Aster couldn't since his attribute wasn't destruction but annihilation, he could produce similar results as using those techniques by imitating them though.

The previous is one of the few downsides to annihilation that Aster has found, there were no spirit techniques that adapted to it, even Rya had nothing to say about it, but it was understandable, annihilation was the fiercest attribute that existed, there was no need for it to have techniques, which is why all the attacks that used annihilation which Aster has used so far were nameless, he simply shot it at the enemy and that was it, at least that was the case until he created "Sky Rendering".

But even then, though that attack could use a plethora of the different energies that Aster controlled like spirit energy, annihilation, Rigel's flames and so on, to produce the strongest attack which he currently had, its core was ultimately sword intent, Rya was did something similar back when she fought with the twins, her attack contained her annihilation but it was a sword attack, in fact that was what inspired Aster.

What's important, is that the manual was too simple, as if it was lacking something.

'Originally I thought that since Seven Swords of Transformation was found alongside it, it was a sub-manual of this one, but that doesn't seem to be the case, they are strangely compatible but they don't share any similarity', concluded Aster, now the question is, why was Seven Swords of Transformation in the same place then.

Aster slightly shook his head, he needed that mother of his to fill some gaps in the history of how his Fey godmother found this, if he wanted to find out anything else, luckily their date would be a nice opportunity to make her tongue slip through some "special" methods.

Having read everything that was available of Nerissa's manual as of current, since similar to Camila's one, more of it would gradually be unlocked as she advanced, Aster only had one last thing to try.

His eyes which were previously closed, opened, revealing his golden pupils which ha taken a vertical shape, but that wasn't the end, his soul enhanced spirit sense spread throughout the nearby area and then a change occurred, his vision went from being really good to perfect, there was no blind point for him and he could see till the last detail of everything that surrounded him.

This was the result of combining his soul energy, spirit sense and his dragon eyes, it was a technique that used aspects of the three paths, which might be why he could actually see something that he was sure, none of the people that has taken a peek to this place previously, had noticed.

On the surface the only thing that differentiated this limitless blue sea from a real one, would be the fact that it was completely calm, there was no currents and the water was completely still, even when he dived into it, his presence didn't cause ripples in the water, it was a bit strange, but now he could more or less understand what was happening.

What Aster could see were a few ethereal lines moving around the whole area, most of them were simple lines of light, but a few of them had some symbols that were mixed into them.

"Those look like… divine runes", mumbled Aster, if his knowledge regarding runes didn't fail him, those runes meant "edge" "flow" and "wave", they repeated countless of times through those lines that moved around the whole sea, it didn't escape Aster's eyes that there was a fourth line that seemed slightly different than the empty lines but at the same time different that the ones that had those runes on it, but it wasn't quite there yet.

Aster felt his eyes sting a little, which made him chuckle, he probably saw something that he shouldn't have, so this place was trying to scare him off, unfortunately he didn't care, he simply deactivated his dragon eyes and then his image blurred as he disappeared from the sea.

Once out, Aster retrieved his hand, Nerissa's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she asked.

"How was it, did you find out anything?", Aster found her expectation filled expression, rather cute.

"You could say that, but before that, I want to see you to explain and demonstrate the three "swords" you have created", he said with a playful voice.

Nerissa pouted, she knew he was doing it on purpose and as if to confirm that, Aster jumped a few back a few meters to then say.

"Of course, it would be boring for it to be a simple demonstration, instead let's make it a friendly spar, in exchange I'll give you a little gift if you manage to land a proper hit".

Nerissa's eyes burned with fighting spirit, she needed inspiration for her fourth sword and what could be better than to have a fight with such an incredible swordsman as Aster, who was probably the youngest person ever to set a foot into the third level of sword intent.

Aster softly laughed at her competitive expression, unfortunately his next words, destroyed her plans.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but I won't be using my sword neither intent, otherwise, I might end up destroying this place accidentally, but don't worry, I guarantee you'll be happy with the result".

Nerissa inwardly sighed, not knowing what Aster had in mind, still she chose to believe him, in any case the Treasure Graveyard will help her too, having taken her decision she extended her hand and her sword which was placed on the ground earlier to prevent the swords of this place to attack her, turned into a blue flash which she grabbed.

"Let's go!", with a soft shout, Nerissa charged towards Aster, at the same time the nearby one-handed swords trembled as they released their aura to suppress her.

"Clang!".

"Boom!".

A metal colliding sound followed by an explosion, echoed through the whole area, the first sound came from the backside of Aster's hand which clashed against Nerissa's sword, while the explosion was produced by the impact as well as the pressure released by the swords, landing on the two of them at the same time.

The next second, two figures came out of the cloud of dust that was raised due to the collision, Nerissa couldn't hide the surprise in her pretty eyes, she gazed at Aster's hand and her eyes widened a bit, his hand was completely fine.

But then she remembered that strange golden armor and how he had used it to easily clash against a Genesis Manifestation cultivator's Genesis Core, her sword might be an Immortal grade treasure, but restrictions were put on it by Valentina so that she could wield it, and as of current the maximum strength she could produce was also at the Genesis Manifestation level and that was when she used her techniques.

In other words, if she wanted to be able to scratch Aster's armor, she had to use strength that surpassed that.

'I guess, this is why Iris improved so much in a single mission, it's impossible not to feel pressured by him, bring it on!', thought Nerissa, her spirit energy exploded out of her body, Aste