Shadow of the Abyss

Chapter 435 Lesson in Greed

"I did it!" Altair yelped, throwing his arms into the air. Despite the burning vessels of his meridians, he could not help the childlike smile from playing at his lips. He was as happy as a pig in shit, or whatever the hell they enjoyed. He certainly did feel like a pig slopping about in its waste.

There had been so much fluid pouring out of Ashara that it was near impossible to find a comfortable spot that wasn't wet. Of course, he was quite proud of such things, not able to keep the smile off his lips.

Between the one ass cheek still red from where he'd spanked her like a riding prop or her neck, he'd practically drained of blood; he wasn't sure which he enjoyed more. Though he could not say, the Vale King would not approve. He had left him with a body that could barely move. Well, that wasn't his problem.

Ashara was barely conscious, but she would recover soon, as she always did. A body designed to enjoy all the pleasures of the Myriad Heavens was not something to make light of. Too weak to do much, he pulled himself out of the woman and threw his head against his wet pillow. It took a bit of an effort to invoke a cleansing spell to rid himself and Tasha of all fluids they might have excreted.

Life was good. A snap and a pulse were all it took for Vale Qi to surge through the room, devouring anything he deemed filth.

"I'm at the peak of the Sixth Circle!" He said again. He wanted to celebrate. It was a minor accomplishment, but he rarely celebrated anything. Between ruling, training, scheming, and killing, he rarely had time to celebrate accomplishments. In a few days, Lilith Snow would be announcing part of his identity or all of it. He could not tell which. He didn't even want to know.

Peaceful times were already rare, and now they'll become ancient. He was fine with that, but what good was power if one couldn't enjoy the little things? What was the point of reaching the peak if there was no enjoyment in life?

Recalling the first time he sensed mana, he wanted to laugh at how euphoric it felt. He could slap his younger self. The foul thing had betrayed him, had burned him within the Lake of Rot. It was different now that his Mana had been tainted by the Vale, but Altair no longer felt the euphoric feeling of warmth it once held. Vale Qi was different. It didn't have such properties. If anything, it didn't have any properties he could understand or sense yet.

No, he wanted to celebrate, to eat good food, steal a kiss or a hug from Reina and Syris, just to seek their angrily flushed expressions.

"A life of training just to train more is utterly foolish,"

"Greed~" Altair heard Ashara mutter. It looked as if she was still in the middle of a climax. A good one based on the sound of her lewd voice. "Master~is~becoming~greedy. Just~Like~She~Who~Ate~The Sun~"

"She who ate the sun?" who eats a sun? "What is this nonsense?"

Ashara lifted her head, which was buried in the sheets, and tilted those azure blue eyes to him. Her elven feature complimented her quite well in the moonlight. She looked like quite the snack. "Aurelia Morningstar Snow, She Who Ate The Sun, is what some called her. When she was young, barely out of infancy, embracing the Sin of Greed. Her intrusive thoughts convinced her it was smart to devour an entire sun. All of the Fallen sat and watched as she condensed the entire ball of flames, powering the entire solar system into a sizeable cookie to eat."

Altair blinked. "What?"

"She enjoyed it so much that she made herself as big as an entire star and ate another sun like a jawbreaker. Quite a few people died. When The Silver Devil asked why she did it, she said, 'Aurelia wanted a star, so she took said star.'"

"Madness!"

"Greed. Those who follow greed tend to let their intrusive desires guide them."

"But a sun?" Altair said incredulously.

"She really likes dwarf stars and Frozen ones. I never had one, but they became popular amongst the noble elite. Apparently, it's quite the delicacy." She shrugged languidly, rolling herself over to display that devilish body that made his mind woozy. He certainly wanted another go.

"So I'll just do things randomly?"

Ashara's pearly laughter reached out. "No, you have the sin of Sloth. I think it'll start as a random thought and then be divided into a plot of sorts. Those with the Sin of Sloth can never sit still. At least those that follow the True Sin of Sloth. The false notion of Sloth being lazy is quite the misnomer. He who carries the Sin of Sloth makes everyone else slow."

Altair laughed; he was indeed doing that. Tera had changed so much that he couldn't wait to look at how much he had accomplished. If it wasn't such a bad idea, he would have had the entire world run by technology. Unfortunately, he didn't want his people to be less innovative than everyone else.

"Ashara, when can you break into Transcendent?"

Despite her trembling body, the Lilm propped herself up with a taken-back expression. "You're allowing me to break through?!"

Those naughty elven features left him harder than ever before. Slightly wincing at his sudden pang of pain, he pushed down the Sin of Lust and said, "Allowing? What the hell are you on? Why wouldn't I let you break through? I always thought you were solidifying your cultivation."

Ashara hastily nodded. "I was! I was! It's just that it's forbidden for Slaves to break through without their Master's permission. I—"

Altair flicked her, "You're not a slave," at least when they were not roleplaying. "I—" Thrown into the Realm of Madness before he could continue, his gaze crossed with the Vale King.

****

"I'm back!" The Vale King snapped. "Damn that bastard for fucking so hard he made my body all useless." He growled, a little proud of himself, or at least his other self. At least the bastard was doing something right.

"And you, what the hell is this about a Slave? You're my Sword Maid! You've by the end of this bloody year to break through into Transcendent."

The woman gave him a startled look, but for the life of the Vale King, he couldn't understand why, not that he cared much, too. What he was really interested in was the Lilm's ability to metamorph into whatever she wanted, so long as she had seen them before.

It would take a few hours to recover all his mobility, but it would definitely be worth it to Dual Cultivate with Ashara. Perhaps she could turn into a half-dragon for him.

Ashara blinked, then laughed into her palms. Her pearly laughter rang through the chamber. "Master, you know if I do become a Transcendent, then we can't have sex?'

"Excuse me?"

She laughed even harder. "The Absolute limit of one's Mana Attribute is one thousand. No one is exempted, at least as far as I know. It is already difficult trying not to accidentally injure you during; if I do become a Transcendent, then the chances of me killing you by accident is—"

"Then seal yourself up. Problem solved. You aren't getting away from me, Ashara. Even if that is the case, it would still be worth it. That just means I'll have a Sugar Mommy taking care of me. Yes, please."

If Ashra was taken back before, she was gobsmacked now. "Your Grace, wouldn't this shame you?"

The Vale King and Altair blinked as one. "Shame me? Tasha—" he didn't like calling her by that, but he sensed something. "—Are you insane? There are hundreds of things that could shame me, but sleeping with a woman stronger than me is definitely not one of them. I ain't no little bitch. For hell's sake, even as a god, I would have no problem learning from a Mortal. Mama didn't raise no bitch."

Despite what he said, the Vale King could hear his mother's laughter in the back of his head. She would definitely be proud of what he said. That had oddly made him happy.

'If Mother is proud, then so am I,' Altair said in the back of his mind.

Shutting out the weak man, he stared at Ashara, finding her excited stare all the more enjoyable. "Well, we can talk about breaking through later," He looked up at the ceiling and flicked his finger, shooting out a black bar of vale Qi so sharp it seemed like a sword piercing through the ceiling. A low grunting echo sounded as blood oozed from the quarter-sized hole onto his cheek.

He frowned, smearing the blood away. It was only on his skin for a little bit, but it burned like fire—well, a lesser fire. Disdain cut across his eye as Ashara lept off the bed into the air, piercing her hand through the ceiling, tearing the man out from where he was hidden.

There was a quarter-sized hole in his neck where the Vale Kings Vale Qi had struck, but the man was very much alive. If only barely gargling on his blood.

He gave a bit of thought and grinned. "Since I can't move. Make him scream. Show me how good my Devil truly is at torture.