Yasenia and the other five Transcendence Realm cultivators made quick work of the three Transcendence Realm Abyssal cultivators. What they didn’t expect was that Yasenia would quickly deal with her enemy in less than a few minutes. Usually, battles at their level lasted hours or even days.
Mo Yun approached Yasenia with glittering eyes. “You are so strong! Didn’t the elders say that you were a Level One Transcendence Realm cultivator who only just understood an Intent Domain?”
Yasenia looked at the pretty girl with a flowy yellow dress and politely smiled. “Those elders did tell you quite a lot of things.”
Mo Yun paused and her expression became somewhat awkward. “That… Well. They wanted us to keep you safe.”
Chen Jizhen spoke up at this moment. “Mo Yun!” His tone was stern, warning the girl and telling her to shut up. Mo Yun pressed her lips tightly and looked sideways.
Yasenia glanced at her and the rest and sighed. ‘Now I understand that this team was probably assembled as either my judges or my protectors. It is most likely the former. They might even be here to prevent me from leaving during the expedition.’
She didn’t expect the sect to have this little trust in her.
While she thought that, this was somewhat of a misunderstanding. The high-ranked Sect Elders wanted to keep Yasenia somewhat safe without appearing like they wanted to control her. Therefore, her group had Level Two and Three Transcendence Realm people. However, the half-explanation from Mo Yun didn’t help at all. It would’ve been better for Chen Jizhen to just blurt out everything, but he didn’t know Yasenia’s personality much.
Yasenia ignored this for the moment. ‘Since I’ve joined, I guess I’ll just bear with it until I have no reason to remain in this sect.’ Either way, she wanted to explore the world to find the way to move between Heavenly Layers. This attitude made it easier to sever karmic ties with this sect.
Instead of mulling over things that she couldn’t do anything about for now, Yasenia focused on the task ahead. Her opponents were [Abyss]-related monsters, something very far from being an easy opponent. After she approached the corpses, Yasenia frowned. “How did they manage to cultivate the Abyss Energy without completely losing their forms and minds?”
The dragoness understood that the Abyssal Monsters were not mindless beasts. Some of them had intelligence that was overshadowed by their bloodthirsty instincts.
“The [Abyssal Worshiper Sect] has techniques and ways to accustom their cultivators to the Abyss’ energy. This method is something polished for hundreds of thousands of years, added to some ancient teaching from before the [Heavenly Cataclysm].”
Hearing Yasenia’s confusion, Chen Jizhen spoke up, explaining what he knew. His green robe fluttered as he spoke while looking at the corpse remains in front of them. “As you know, once the Abyss monsters cross the Sixth Realm in strength, they transform from [Abyssal Horror] to [Abyssal Cosmic Horror]. This sect doesn’t deal with Chaos or Nether monsters, so we can focus on Abyssal Horror-related countermeasures.”
Yasenia knew about this and added. “Once they reach the Sixth Realm and beyond, the Abyssal Cosmic Horror releases an aura around them that can corrupt everything, right?”
“You are correct.” Chen Jizhen added. “The methods I explained earlier are related to those energy emissions. What do you think will happen if you gradually let someone be exposed to that energy since childbirth?”
Yasenia thought about it and answered with certainty. “They’d be dead or become mindless horrors. There is no way of adapting to something that corrupts Heavenly Energies. We are not made for that.”
“Correct.” Chen Jizhen smiled faintly. “But what if we do it after the Fourth Realm? What if all the previous realms and growth had been done with the intent to eventually try to wield Abyssal Energies?”
Yasenia frowned deeply and asked. “But… That’s ridiculous. The lifespan of anyone who does this will be reduced by a tenth. Reaching beyond the few early levels of the Transcendence Realm is their limit, and then they will be consumed by it and become mindless monsters suffering until they are killed.” She commented. “Not to mention, the damage that this energy does to the soul would drive anyone insane.”
Chen Jizhen agreed with her. “That’s why they are considered demonic practices. Moreover, it’s not like it is hard to get ahold of orphaned children in a world where high-level destructive techniques are used from time to time. If you take those children, brainwash them, and point all evil toward normal cultivators, you can easily replenish the numbers of Abyss Cult followers.”
A sigh escaped Chen Jizhen. “Unless we destroy their methods from the roots, they will never truly be eradicated.”
Yasenia pondered about it and acknowledged that their methods were foolproof. No person could enter the cult as well without being exposed to the [Abyss] energy and eventually corrupted as well, so destroying them from the inside was almost out of the question. ‘Thankfully, my Celestial Energy seems to be able to destroy Abyss energies.’
Once they finished speaking with each other, Yasenia and the rest resumed their journey toward the Abyssal Worshiper Sect. In the meantime, Yasenia had already read and memorized all the information about them. ‘They have 17 Transcendence Realm cultivators. The strongest is the Sect Leader at the Third Level. There are 4 at the Second Level, and the rest are First Level Transcendence Realm cultivators. Now, we’ve eliminated four of them, leaving 1 Level Three, 3 Level Two, and 9 Level One Transcendence Realm cultivators.’
Yasenia thought. ‘How should they deal with this? Do they ambush their people and eliminate them gradually? Why did they only send six of them in the first place? They are outnumbered three to one.’
Gao Yan spoke up at this time, his tone amused. “Still, they took the bait. It shows that their intelligence network is really limited.”
‘Bait?’ Yasenia blinked and spoke. “What bait?”
Gao Yang revealed candidly. “The enemy thought that only two Transcendence Realm cultivators were coming. That’s why their ambush was four of them with a bunch of lower-level ones to clean up the others.”
“Oh.” Yasenia smiled, but her eyes didn’t carry a smile. “When were you intending to tell me? Should I read your minds about the orders you’ve received? What if I make your plans crumble with decisions that go against the plan?”
Gao Yan, who wanted to lighten the mood, stepped on another landmine, and his expression became stiff. Chen Jizhen sent a glare at him before he answered. “We were unaware that your combat power was this high. So, we never told you. There had been no opportunity since we discovered your strength to explain in detail. That’s all.”
“I see. A Transcendence Realm cultivator can’t explain something that takes a few minutes to me because he is super busy looking at the clouds.” Yasenia laughed twice sarcastically and returned to the carriage.
Mo Yun followed Yasenia and spoke from the outside. “Yasenia, can I enter?”
“No.” The dragoness answered lazily. She had given up on communicating with these people. “Until I receive all the information that I need to know, I won’t continue participating in the assault, by the way.”
Jilang Qin spoke, his tone stern. “Junior Yasenia, you shouldn’t be this selfish.”
“Selfish? I am sorry, but I refuse to become your bait to attract the Abyssal monsters. I have not lived enough yet, so I am terrified of dying. Unless I know what you guys are planning, I’d fear being stabbed in the back at a critical moment.”
Chen Jizhen sighed and waved his sleeve, throwing a jade into the carriage. Inside, Yasenia caught it and checked the contents. She quickly noticed the discrepancies between the information she received and the information Chen Jizhen had. ‘I was unaware of both the escort mission and the bait mission, and also the fact that these people want to use large-scale unstable energy treasures to blow up their entire place.’
Thankfully, the rest of the operation seemed to be similar to what she had heard before. While she didn’t completely trust them, she could live with a bit of peace of mind. Of course, living with peace of mind and wanting to participate in it were two different matters.
Yasenia threw back the information jade and continued speaking lazily, with no intention of moving from the carriage. “You guys go do that, then. I’ll wait here. Your jade clearly has taken me as a burden in the mission; if I don’t participate, everything will go much more smoothly.”
Yaenia hated the [Abyss], but she hated being taken as a fool for others or put at risk while keeping things in the dark as much. Was she supposed to accept the deceit going on? That was not something Yasenia was willing to do! They were lucky that Yasenia had developed a decent relationship with Star Forge and Tai Qingzhe. If not, she would’ve probably left the sect with Feixue as soon as she came back.
Chen Jizhen’s face sank. As the leader of the group, he could naturally enforce his rank on those in the mission. “Yasenia Dravory, if you continue behaving against your superior’s orders, you’ll be expelled from the Sect.”
Without a single heartbeat of hesitation, the dragoness answered languidly. “Expel me then.”
“You—!” Chen Jizhen calmed down, taking a deep breath. “Yasenia, now is not the time to act childish.”
“Ha!” Yasenia finally stepped out and smiled mockingly at him. “Good, from now on, we’ll change roles then. You’ll take the mission that was supposed to be my responsibility, and I’ll take yours.”
The man was speechless. After a few seconds, he sighed and looked at the others. “See? I told you that we shouldn’t trust a Dragon. She is selfish and can’t see the bigger picture.”
Yasenia’s smile turned from mocking to cold. Her eyes revealed a faint trace of killing intent. However, instead of being bothered by him and answering, she turned toward the rest and waited for their answers. ‘Let’s see. Was it because the leader of the mission was an arrogant and self-important asshole, or are they all of the same mind?’
Mo Zifei finally spoke up and looked up with a slightly disappointed expression. “Brother Chen, you are too headstrong.”
Chen Jizhen’s eyebrows furrowed, and Gao Yan spoke. “Brother Chen, we followed your words because we thought that Yasenia was just a pretty vase as well. After all, she just understood her [Intent Domain]. Now, though, hasn’t she proved herself enough? She killed one of the Transcendence Realm Abyssal Worshipers alone. Not only that, she killed the strongest one among the four.”
Yasenia’s cold expression relaxed a bit, and she glanced at the Chen-surname man with confusion. ‘Did he have some past experience with dragons that made him hate me? Or is he someone who believes that humanity is number one and the rest are beneath him? Or perhaps… Is he jealous of something?’
As both sides began discussing, Mo Yun’s words finally enlightened Yasenia. “Brother Chen, even if Senior Chen told you that Yasenia might become the next Sect Master, why must you make things difficult for her?” The woman frowned prettily. “You are being a bit too headstrong in your testing ways!”
The dragoness became flabbergasted. ‘Huh? What Sect Master? Are these people living in a parallel world to mine?’