Chapter 91: I Won't Regret Anything Whatsoever!
She looked so happy that he couldn\'t help but grin widely. Seeing such an angelic image made him realize that it was impossible for anyone not to fall for her charm. He ate the meal silently while thinking about how lucky he was to have someone like her by his side. It really felt as if life itself had given him another chance to live happily with everyone dear to him once again.
"By the way, Aunt Olivia, why are you out and not cultivating in the cultivation chamber anymore?" Soon, Asher asked about what was on his mind.
She paused while setting up another plate, glanced at him, and asked, "Don\'t you remember the time you spent inside the cultivation chamber? It has already been a week since you introduced us to this Mystic Starry Realm and gave us access to come and go freely."
Asher was stunned by the unexpected reply.
"You mean, it\'s already been seven days?" He asked, being quite surprised at the time he spent while breaking through.
Olivia giggled softly in response before answering. "Yes. From then on, everyone cultivated in the cultivation chamber and took turns taking care of Lily while you were busy training. Aria thought that Lily would still need someone beside her to not feel lonely, so she hired Miss Eleanor to take care of her since they already knew each other.
Although Miss Eleanor seemed reluctant to leave kids at the orphanage, she accepted the job nonetheless after getting reassurance from Lysandra that nothing bad would happen to kids in the orphanage. Currently, she went there to finalize all the processes."
Asher nodded while eating the food cooked by Olivia, appreciating how tasty the dish was. "I see. Thanks, Auntie."
Asher appreciated how quickly they adapted to this realm after he got them here. He thought about what should be done next now that they were safe and secure in a place protected in every possible way. \'I should practice my skills and abilities now. That way, I will be able to utilize them well.\'
As Asher ate his dinner, thinking about his future steps, Olivia blushed a little, remembering what happened recently at the gazebo.
She remembered how it felt to be dominated by Asher and loved it more than anything else. It was different from any experience she ever had, whether she had known about it before or discovered it just recently. It left her feeling fulfilled and content, making her satisfied physically as well as emotionally. She recalled how gentle he treated her afterwards, too.
Thinking about everything made her heart pound faster in her chest.
\'No matter what happens next between us, I won\'t regret anything whatsoever!\'
As Asher finished eating his dinner, he stood up and wiped his mouth before looking at her lovingly and saying, "Aunt Olivia, I\'ll go train my skills in the training room, and thank you for taking care of Lily while we are away."
"No need to thank me; I also like being with her. Do you need anything else, Little Ash?" Olivia asked, gazing back at him affectionately as if trying to convey her feelings through her eyes alone.
"No, Aunt Olivia. I\'ll take my leave for now."
Before going out, he placed his hand on her cheek and leaned forward to press his lips against hers. They exchanged a long, passionate kiss before separating and smiling gently at each other right before Asher left.
She watched him disappear from sight as his footsteps echoed throughout the halls. Her face reddened immediately afterward, realizing how intimate she\'d acted just then.
\'What should I do? This is really embarrassing!\' She covered her cheeks with her hands, as if trying to cool them down. But no matter how hard she tried, the heat wouldn\'t go away. She couldn\'t understand why she felt so flustered about a simple kiss; perhaps she just wasn\'t used to acting like that toward anyone before? Or maybe there was something else going on inside her heart.
Whatever it was, Olivia knew she needed time to sort through these complicated emotions because they threatened to overwhelm her completely otherwise.
...
When Asher got into the training room, he slowly shut the door behind himself.
Immediately after that, he felt the richness of spiritual energy within these surroundings. Spirit essence flowed thickly inside and permeated the room; even without using any method to absorb spirit essence, Asher could feel his body absorbing the pure and dense energies naturally.
Inside the training room, there was a large open space in the middle for spars, while at the end of one direction, there were many practice dummies made with special materials that could withstand powerful attacks.
Asher quickly started his training routine, practicing his current skills and improving his control over shadow elements and techniques. At the same time, he paid attention to how much spirit essence he consumed. After each try, he noticed that it required a huge amount of spirit essence to perform certain moves, as he was still making many mistakes.
However, he understood that he couldn\'t blame himself either; he was still new to the path of cultivation, so it would obviously take him some time until he could fully master it. He knew that patience was the key and that making haste would lead to disaster during the most crucial moments.
He trained relentlessly and focused hard on every detail of every move. No matter what mistake occurred, he didn\'t lose focus. Instead, he learned from it and moved forward with even greater determination.
By now, he had already gained a deep understanding of various ways to use his techniques in combat situations. In addition, he also developed new strategies for dealing with opponents more efficiently.
Overall, Asher felt confident about himself; however, he understood that he still lacked experience in real fights against strong foes. To gain more battle wisdom, he needs to fight against other cultivators and star beasts to adjust his methods accordingly.
But right now, his main objective was to become stronger; if he got stronger, then he wouldn\'t have any difficulty defeating all other enemies effortlessly in the future!
Asher decided to first test how far his current level of control over the shadow illusion technique extended. While standing straight on the ground, he spread out his palms to both sides of his body, releasing a vast amount of dark spirit essence into his surroundings. Instantaneously, dozens of black figures appeared around him.
These figures that resembled him were made out of pure darkness; they were lifeless beings whose only purpose was to do his bidding. These silhouettes possessed no individual will or consciousness and obeyed every command that he issued without question, regardless of whether it was directly or indirectly related to combat purposes or otherwise.
However, they remained perceptive enough so that, if necessary, they would act according to their own judgment.
Once created, Asher began giving orders one after another. The shadow clones started moving about randomly as if they were searching for something unknown, which confused him somewhat until he realized it must have been a part of his control ability being unstable due to him still learning how to use it properly. He continued directing them nonetheless.
Within no time, the dark shadow clones began forming a circle around him, covering his entire field of vision while moving in sync without stopping at any moment.
Now, it truly looked like there were numerous copies of Asher moving about everywhere simultaneously. Asher felt proud and happy as he saw the number increase rapidly by the second as his mastery over the skill increased with every passing moment.
But soon, Asher frowned because he suddenly felt drained and out of breath, as if he had been running for hours straight without pause. The spirit essence inside his Dantian seemed to be almost exhausted; he knew that using many shadow clones at once consumed a great deal of his accumulated spirit essence.
If this continued any further and he exhausted all of his spirit essence, then he would take the risk of his cultivation dropping.
As such, he decided it would be better not to push too far with his experiments. After putting away his clones, he sighed slightly in relief. He hadn\'t expected that being able to summon so many identical versions of himself simultaneously would require that much effort. Nevertheless, he found it exciting.
\'If I can manage to strengthen my control over my skill further in the near future, then maybe I could create enough of my clone army to wipe out hundreds or even thousands of enemies at once without any risk involved whatsoever!\' Asher grinned while thinking about this, as he planned to practice all of his skills after recovering his spirit essence again.
In order for his cultivation base to reach greater heights quickly, Asher had decided that he would spend the majority of his free time cultivating in this Mystic Starry Realm. Of course, he also intended to take regular breaks whenever he felt tired and wanted to relax before returning here. Otherwise, he feared he might end up falling into despair instead of reaching enlightenment.
Besides, it was essential for cultivators to maintain positive mental states in general if they wished to achieve breakthroughs.