Alice turned around and looked in our direction. Seeing mother leaning herself against my chest, for a moment, her ecstatic expression crumbled. But she hid the unknown feeling bubbling inside her and got close to her mother, expressing her joy for getting a breakthrough.
"Mother, I did it. I formed a connection with the constellation. And now I feel myself surging with a new energy."
Mother separated from me and touched Alice's forehead using her right hand's index finger. She closed her eyes and scrutinised Alice for some time. Afterwards, she shifted her hand to the top of Alice's head and started stroking her head. She smiled contently and said.
"You have done well, my daughter. Your nucleus is one of the highest quality and is among the leagues of the best practitioners I have known before. Tell me, how many layers have you crossed?"
Alice tilted her head a little and pressed her lips together. After a few moments of pondering, she replied.
"I was able to cross 8 layers before linking with my constellation. And the constellation was in the shape of a lotus which was blooming inside flames."
Alice excitedly described the shape of the constellation, and she even drew the structure of a lotus that was standing tall with wisps of flame surrounding it on the ground. Mother looked at her drawing and asked Alice in a serious tone.
"And what were the attributes related to it? Did you resonate with it or forced to link with the constellation?"
Alice stopped giving the final touches to her drawing and answered worriedly after detecting the seriousness in mother's tone.
"The attribute is related to fire generation and manipulation. And it strongly resonated with me, which compelled me to form a link with it.… Mom, i-is there something wrong?"
Alice became downhearted, thinking that she had missed a chance to link with a better constellation. But mother pinched Alice's puffy cheeks and giggled.
"Silly girl, what are you getting sad for? Linking with a constellation from the 9th layer for the first time is the best start possible. And it seems like you have a talent in alchemy as your 'Lotus of Purple Flame' constellation is the most suitable constellation for alchemists, and many will die to get a chance to form a link with that constellation. But not only are you linked with it, you also have a great affinity with the constellation."
Although she felt embarrassed by mother treating her like a kid, Alice was beaming at getting praised. Mother continued to play with her cheeks and added.
"I have used all my energy, and it will take a whole day before I recover it through natural absorption. So, tomorrow will be Lucas's turn to form his nucleus. I will teach you your new cultivation technique in the meantime. The technique is called 'Nine Revolving Origins'."
Alice obediently took the position for cultivation and followed mother's instructions word by word.
According to the instructions, Alice had to split her star-like nucleus and create 9 more smaller stars that would revolve around the remaining bigger star. This whole system of 9 revolving stars around a central star will be the new structure of her nucleus. The stellar energy absorbed by her will be divided into these 10 stars, resulting in an increase in their sizes.
Gradually, the central star will grow bigger and engulf the other smaller stars, resulting in a rise in her cultivation level. The process will repeat for further increments in cultivation. According to mother, this method focuses on the meticulous control of energy flow as well as the differentiation and assimilation of the attributes.
For now, Alice can individually delegate the various fire-related attributes to each one of the revolving stars and can make different combinations of those attributes to give a unique characteristic to her externalised energy.
After my sister got a good grasp on her new cultivation technique, we started going back to our home. Being giddy about her accomplishment, Alice wanted to hold my hand and tried to close the distance between us. But mother, who was walking by my side, leaned on me and hugged my arm. She looked at me with puppy eyes and pleaded.
"I am still feeling weak. Can you carry me back to the house, my dear son?"
Two maids emerged from the thin air like phantoms and landed near us. It seemed that they wanted to support their mistress. But mother glared at them, which made them vanish just as soon as they appeared.
I looked at mother, whose eyes had turned back to the earlier piteous gaze. Even though I knew that she was acting, I couldn't deny her request. I crouched down and put my arms behind my back.
"Okay, mom. I will carry you. Now, hop on my back."
She climbed up using my hands as ladders and wrapped her hands around my neck. I tried to hold her thighs and lifted her higher to get a good grip. And my mother pressed onto me after being fully seated on her piggyback ride.
After I had stopped drinking her milk, the skinship between my mother and me decreased a lot except for her occasional hugs and the cuddles during our sleep. But it was never so intense before. Right now, her whole body was sticking close to me. And even with our clothes between us, it felt like rubbing our bare skins together.
Moreover, the plumpness of her thighs which were different from the springiness of Alice's and the soft boobs of hers, which were larger than the perky breasts of Alice pressing onto my back, made my mouth turn dry.
I drove out the various thoughts popping in my head and continued to walk with my mother on my back. But my mother was not having it and nibbled my ear. I felt goosebumps all over my body, and my face heat up. Seeing me get flushed, she smiled playfully and, after glancing a little in Alice's direction, spoke.
"Ohhh, look at you turning red as a tomato. Are you getting embarrassed for being so close with your mother or…. Perhaps a little excited?"
Her last words were almost a whisper, but with her enhanced hearing capabilities, I was pretty sure that Alice heard her words.
And yes, Alice instantly turned her head in our direction. Her eyes were glowing in frustration and anger. She looked at me angrily. I felt a little guilty and couldn't look directly at her eyes. I avoided her reproachful gaze and continued on our way downhill.
Mother didn't create any other ripples for the rest of the walk, but she had an enigmatic smile etched on her face.
After returning home, I put mother on her bed to rest and went to look for Alice. But she had started practising her newly learnt cultivation technique, so I decided to leave the talk for later and went to my room to continue my studies and experiments on poisons.
With the help of Anais, I had gotten many books regarding poisons. Before the start of training, I had studied most of the books either during the journey or in my free time. But I had left them untouched in the last few years of unceasing training. A had prepared many concoctions by combining the different types of poisons in search of a more lethal and deadly poison. And now, it was time to test them out.
I experimented with the thousands of concocted poisons stored in small vials for the whole night, and by the following day, I had found two suitable candidates for further study.
One was a transparent poison that was odourless and tasteless, with the capability to paralyse anyone with Nucleus Formation Realm within a few seconds. It can easily vaporise and affect a large area. Only the liquid poison could be detected as it glitters in sunlight. I named the paralysing poison as 'Drunken Melody'.
The other poison was a slow-acting lethal poison. I could only study its effect on Blood Beasts, and there was a high probability that it could affect the practitioner with a cultivation realm higher than Star Formation. It was a rainbow-coloured pellet that hid the malicious nature of the poison very well. I named the poison as 'Darling's Embrace'.
I continued to study the remaining books and experiment more with the poisons to either enhance their effect or add new effects to them.
I only left the room in the evening when Alice knocked on my door to fetch me. She was not as sullen as the day before, but she didn't let me speak and dragged me to mother's room.
Then, we all climbed up the same mountain peak as yesterday for my breakthrough into the Nucleus Formation Realm.