'Ding!'

Suddenly, Asher felt a ping sensation go off inside his body. He heard an actual noise go off this time, and it sounded like a ping his phone would get.

Afterward, a stream of cooling energy infused into Asher's body.

A wave of freshness cooled off Asher's strenuous exhausted body. Asher didn't let it show on his face, but he could tell he had just now completed that System's mission!

He had actually given Elsa a happy moment.

Although when staring into Elsa's face, her expression still remained indifferent. But deep within her eyes, Asher could only vaguely tell there was something different there.

'Hehe~, perfect! Now take your chance Asher and grab her hand! Don't wait or ask at all!' Yuki suddenly said, and Asher's body was already moving on its own.

He couldn't even process what was happening to him besides going along with his instinctive reaction.

When Elsa was just about to respond to him, Asher had already got close to her, reached out his hand, and grabbed her hands.

Elsa's eyes slightly widened. But there was no further reaction from her, only silence.

Asher couldn't tell why he suddenly did this, and frankly, as it already happened, he didn't care why.

This just felt instinctively right to him.

All times in the past, Asher indeed did have secret desires and feelings about Elsa. Yet, he never acted upon it as he was genuinely focused on his own training and was unsure in many ways on how to approach Elsa.

But now, it was like Yuki just unleashed the floodgates for him.

When grasping Elsa's hand, it wasn't like a friendly handshake or anything like that.

Asher relied on his instinct again. His hand began to gently caress Elsa's soft small hands in an intimate fashion. Almost like how a boyfriend would do when wanting to show affection towards his girlfriend.

The electrifying jolting sensations he feels whenever he stares at Elsa have now multiplied by ten folds.

For this very moment, Asher had put out the knocked Kang Gang goons from his mind, put out any family troubles from his mind, and let himself swim along without worries.

All his mind was focused on now was the Lightning tingles wrapping his body from caressing Elsa's hand.

Although there was one slightly worrying thought that permeated in his head. Asher knew in the back of his mind that perhaps this move could ruin the friendship he had slowly built over the years.

But there was just something that Yuki did that got Asher to release some of his inhibitions at this moment.

And a couple seconds already went by, yet Elsa didn't try to take her hand away, nor did Asher feel any strangeness coming from her.

Her seemingly accepting reaction only fueled Asher's mind in believing this choice was correct.

Asher stared into Elsa's beautiful face, feeling a bit of heat on his cheek. But just going along with his instincts, Asher gave one of his best charming smiles, hiding any embarrassment he felt at this moment.

Elsa, on the other hand, was in the same genuine entranced state as Asher.

No matter how much she wants to bury the deeper and more complex emotions inside her chest, it nearly couldn't hold now with Asher's sudden bold move.

The way he was intimately caressing her hand in an affectionate manner gave Elsa's tingles she never felt before in her life.

Elsa met many boys and men in her life. But just from this moment, it was slowly coming clear to her that Asher would be the only guy she knows that she'll allow to touch her like this.

Elsa herself couldn't pinpoint precisely why. She thought it was because of the numerous years they've know each other for.

But when thinking like that, Elsa felt like that answer was severely lacking.

However, Elsa felt a burst of butterflies in her stomach when considering other reasons. She wanted to fully grasp Asher's hand, feel more of the electrifying tingles he was sending down her spine.

But Elsa didn't know how to express any of that, and she felt her heartbeat pick up over such indecent thoughts.

So she tried her best to keep up her neutral gaze and even tone as she said, "Asher….your hand…. it's warm."

Try as she might, Elsa couldn't hide that slight embarrassed and awkward tone in her voice.

After everything they've been through, Asher could see that ice-cold shell of her emotions cracked for the first time.

'Hehe~! Look at you, so proud over something you could've done long, so long ago! Luckily, you now have me on your side before it was too late.' Yuki's words came out like a backhanded insult to Asher and praise to herself.

Asher had to just ignore what Yuki said as he felt his instinct roaring again to speak. Since there was evident embarrassment and awkwardness in Elsa's tone, Asher pushed down any of that in his voice as he began to say,

"Elsa, like I said before. Even though you are stronger than me. Way stronger than me that my support may seem trivial. But, just like with that monster, you can now fully rely on me to have your back. From now own today, this isn't just empty words anymore."

Elsa felt an intense jolting sensation shock through her entire body.

This electrifying sensation tingles her to her very core, completely surpassing anything she had felt before from Asher. Her rising heartbeat was now undergoing turbulent waves.

These simple words of Asher all were having a much more profound effect on her. Ever since Asher's Ceremony, everything she felt towards him hidden deep inside was slowly starting to intensify.

The most surprising moment came when Elsa actually felt a heat rise on her cheek.

Asher was trying to keep his cool, but he couldn't stop legitimate awe from swirling in his eyes.

On Elsa's beautiful face, one that would typically be clear no matter what, now had a prominent yet slight red hue stretched across her cheek.

Asher was nearly bewildered by this.

For so many years, he never got a reaction out of Elsa. But now, all because of Yuki, he was daring enough to intimately touch her, directly flirt with her, and even got her to blush!

While Asher is someone who's focused on achieving his goals. It didn't mean he lacked what other hot-blooded young men have at his age.

And seeing Elsa actually blush showed off another beautiful side to her he had never seen before, fueling Asher with a burst of desire.

But Asher still remained steady fast and didn't dare to push Elsa too far.

And as he expected, Elsa had quickly let go of his hand. She almost went fast as lightning when she turned her back to him.

"I need to get home. Goodnight, Asher." Elsa said with a slight edge to her tone.

Without even letting Asher have a chance to respond, she briskly walked out of the Decrypted Woods, almost like she was escaping this meeting.

Left alone, Asher took a look over of the whole scene.

Looking at the Kang Gang boy, after all of this time, they had eventually lost consciousness. Asher was a little happy because he really didn't want anyone else to watch that scene.

Sighing a mix of emotion, Asher asked Yuki, 'Just….what was that. It's odd….I certainly don't regret anything I did. But I had never done that before.' Asher spoke his true feelings on this subject.

'Hehe~! Don't worry about it for now. It'll be too anticlimactic if I tell you now, right? Soon, you'll know all about it~.' Yuki spoke in a sing-song voice, making Asher furrowed his eyebrows.

He had some thoughts about what was possibly going. But if it was before, he would think it would never be true.

However, after all that happened today, it would be hard to still deny those ideas. With no clear-cut answer, Asher just shook his head and prepared to head home.

….

Inside Asher's bedroom, Asher was sitting cross-legged upon his bed.

His eyes were closed as he sat utterly still. Currently, Asher is undergoing a long, arduous process that nearly everyone around the world has to do.

This process would increase his power and energy reserve capabilities. He poured all of his mental focus into his Aura Sense in an attempt to perceive a mystical energy.

It's an energy only known as Spirit Mana.

Being a Spirit Tier 1 cultivator, it's what Asher and other Spirit Tier 1 cultivators have to sense while using their Aura Sense.

And though Asher was referring to Aura Sense as just this all of this time, he knows the actual term for it at this level was Spirit Aura Sense.

As far as Asher knows, Spirit Mana is just one of the many forms of energy seemingly permeating every inch of the whole world at an indefinite rate.

And at higher Tier ranks comes the different and more powerful forms of energy.

For now, Asher's Spirit Aura Sense only allows him to perceive Spirit Mana. If he could fully perceive Spirit Mana, Asher would then be able to absorb within his body and boost his System's soul stats along with increasing his energy reserves.

Asher had been at this process for several long hours already.

He already took some medicines to clear up his previous injuries and went straight towards trying to perceive Spirit Mana after.

And finally, after all these long and drawn-out hours, Asher's eyebrows began to furrow. In his Aura Sense, he let his mind fall into an entirely relaxed state, attempting to pick out any speck of Spirit Mana energy in the air.

And then, Asher believed he had finally found it.

He touched upon another form of energy that was entirely different from his Aura energy and Ghost Lightning energy.

It felt almost refreshing in a way. Like he was dipping his toes in a nice fresh, warm bath.

But when Asher tried to perceive this other form of energy is when things got confusing. Asher knew this was Spirit Mana, but it was confusing to tell in his mental scape space.

All that Asher felt in his mind was a jumbled up mix of sensations. And all he saw in his mental scape space was a messy mix of bright colors.

As Asher attempted to comprehend the jumbled mix of Spirit Mana, he felt a jolt from his soul.

Directing his attention from the jumbled mix of Spirit Mana energy, Asher said, 'System.'

A new mission had appeared, and its description was, 'Hug someone to generate happy feelings. Rewards: Positive energy.'

Asher had to look over his System's soul stats, but there wasn't any change towards it. Even as he completed the earlier mission, his Positive Aura stat still stayed at '1'.

However, Asher was sure he felt something about the Positive Aura stat increased, even if it didn't display it.

Asher took his attention off of this and on to the new mission. His eyebrows quirked a bit as this one was far more intimate than the previous.

'Say Yuki….you've been quiet for a while. I'm amusing you were going out of your way to give me this mission. But this is….rather odd.'

As he called for her, Yuki, who's been deathly silent for hours, immediately responded to Asher. 'Don't sweat the contents. I mean, it's just an innocent hug you can share with a good friend, right?'

Asher raised an eyebrow, but he didn't question further than that. It wasn't like it was a challenging mission to complete anyways.

He returned his focus back on trying to perceive this mumble mash of Spirit Mana energy in his mental scape space.

For a few more hours, Asher remained focused, staying up to the dead hours of the night. Asher always had a keen and analytical mind, being able to pick up on new subjects matters rather quickly.

And from constant battles in the Decrypted Wood, he learned to always be ready to adapt to an ever-changing situation.

It's why from focusing the hardest he ever did in his life, Asher felt the jumbled-up mix of Spirit Mana energy become clearer for him.

In his mental scape space, he was genuinely starting to perceive Spirit Mana!

Right then, Asher experienced a great power surge out in his mental scape space.

Previously, all Asher could feel from Spirit Mana was jumbled sensations.

But now, the power of Spirit Mana had finally blurted out as Asher's perception of this energy slowly increased.

The jumbled-up mix of colors in his mental scape space slowly began to turn into a blurry, fuzzy image. That blurry, fuzzy image….Asher realized that whatever it was, it's Spirit Mana's proper form!

Asher attempted to use his Aura Sense to bring out Spirit Mana from his mental scape space and absorb it into his body.

However, Asher could only absorb a mere speck of Spirit Mana energies before it vanished from his mental scape space.

Asher snapped his eyes back open, feeling a heavy wave of exhaustion. 'Fuuu….so that's why they called this a snail race, huh. After so many hours, I can only see a blurry trace of Spirit Mana….'

'Oh Asher, don't worry about your pace too much. You will only gradually get better, and we have missions to directly increase every aspect of our abilities rather quickly. Now then, get some rest already! You still have a day to go through tomorrow.' Yuki explained to him.

Asher was just about to compile the sleeping request, but he had one more question that's been on his mind all day.

'Say, Yuki, I know how to surge my Ghost Lightning powers. But….what about just my Ghost Powers? How do I use that?'

'Oooh, that? That's beyond your level as of now. We'll need to toughen you up a lot to use that power. So, for now, just focus on Spirit Mana control and increasing your Ghost Lightning powers. Any more questions before you head off to bed?'

'Well….no, that's all I have. I guess I am pretty tired now. Goodnight, Yuki.' Asher began stretching his arms, cracking out any stiff kinks before going to bed.

'Goodnight, Asher~.' Yuki's voice almost came out as perfectly hypnotic.

Just hearing her tone made Asher's drowsiness increase by tenfold. But Asher didn't resist the sleep and prepared to get a long-needed rest.