Yasenia felt someone looking at her and turned. It was a blonde woman with an extremely beautiful face. She had grey eyes and had 175cm in height. Her body was slim, with not many curves. However, her aura was profound.
A single thought filled Yasenia's mind. 'Strong.'
Those were the feelings Yasenia got from that woman. 'Is she the other one, apart from Jaxon, that I can't win against… I think she is….'
That woman approached Yasenia and spoke with a melodious voice, "My name is Isla. Nice to meet you, Yasenia."
Yasenia raised her eyebrow, "You know my name?"
The woman smiled and said, "Well, it is not difficult to know the "Heavenly Dragoness" of the tournament. Your beauty, strength, and talent are the best I've seen."
Yasenia smiled and said, "You praise me too much, senior sister. Compared to your strength, I'm still no match. I don't think I could last more than ten minutes fighting you."
Isla's smile widened and asked playfully, "That means you are confident in lasting at least ten minutes against me?"
Yasenia chuckled, "Although I haven't said that… I think I have a nice chance at accomplishing that."
Isla nodded and said, "Well, we will know shortly." Yasenia tilted her head, confused.
Isla took out one paper with Yasenia's name written on it. "It seems that you are my next opponent."
Yasenia frowned and asked, "Did you manipulate it? I thought this last phase was like a blind tournament, and we shouldn't know our next opponents."
Isla laughed and said, "It is, but I have some people delivering me who my next opponent will be, orders from the Heavenly Sect Master."
Yasenia approached her, bringing her the sweet floral scent, and whispered, "Isn't that illegal? Are you not afraid I would speak about it?"
Isla smelled Yasenia's scent, but her heart didn't move. She maintained her smile and said, "I trust you. Moreover, you are the daughter of that person. I don't think you would do something so lowly."
Yasenia asked, "Do you know my mother?" 'Maybe she knows something about her that I don't.'
Isla said, with a face full of reverence, "Of course, I know her! I saw her some months ago at a conference about the destruction of the demonic sect branch. She was like an Empress walking between her subjects! I've always adored her since then!"
Isla continued praising Tatyana, and Yasenia's eyebrow twitched. Surprised, Yasenia analyzed her own feelings, 'Am I… getting jealous? Interesting; why is that?'
The more Yasenia listened, the more the feeling grew. 'This is new, I hadn't felt jealousy even when people were blatantly confessing to my sweetheart, but I am with my mom?'
Yasenia cut Isla off, saying, "Mom, come here."
She didn't speak loudly, nor didn't even use a tool. Isla was confused, 'How will she even hear you?'
Those were her thoughts only for a second because Tatyana appeared beside Yasenia in a second. Tatyana asked with a smile, "What's wrong little treasure? I was bragging to the other sect masters about you when you called me!"
Yasenia burst into laughter, and all those feelings disappeared like smoke. She said honestly, not minding about Isla. "I don't know why, but I was feeling jealous hearing senior sister Isla here speak nicely about you. Therefore, I called you."
Isla was confused, and Tatyana raised her eyebrow, surprised, "Jealous? You didn't even get jealous of Ying Yue, with whom I actually had a relationship!"
Tatyana looked at Isla and said, "Oh, you are that asshole *Cough* The Heavenly Sect Master's personal disciple."
Isla's eye twitched as she felt Tatyana's image crumbling more and more by the second. "Yes, it is a pleasure meeting you, Lady Death Empress! Since I saw you that day, I have admired you, and I have asked Master about you. He speaks in great detail and is also waiting for you and Yasenia to come to our sect."
Yasenia didn't know why but she found Isla's reactions extremely satisfying. so she continued, "Mom, I still feel a little jea-"
Yasenia was cut off by Tatyana, who took out a couch, sat, and laid Yasenia's head on her lap in less than a second. Then, Tatyana started scratching under her chin with one hand and petting her head with the other hand. Yasenia half-closed her eyes and growled comfortably. Tatyana said, "Who is my most beautiful daughter?"
As an answer, Yasenia rubbed herself on Tatyana, growling louder, and Tatyana said, "That's right, you are~."
Isla felt something crack and then shatter into pieces. She spoke stiffly toward Yasenia, "I will see you in the coliseum, goodbye."
Yasenia was too far gone by her mother's caresses and was now a growling mess, so she didn't answer. Isla looked at Yasenia and thought, 'She is very cute, but… What is all this jealous thing? I like males. Moreover, I can't even imagine myself with Lady Death Empress.'
Tatyana changed places, carrying both to a more isolated location. They stayed together until the time of the next rounds was nearing. After some caresses, Tatyana patted the blob dragoness on her lap and said, "So, what's up with Isla."
Yasenia turned and hugged Tatyana's waist, burying her face in her belly. She said lazily, "I don't know~ I think it is because she is stronger than me, which made petty insecurities grow for a moment? What does mom think?"
Tatyana thought while petting her and said, "Maybe it is her bloodline? Do you know why Jaxon and Isla are direct disciples of the two strongest sect masters?"
Yasenia bit Tatyana's belly and growled, "Mom is the strongest!"
Tatyana chuckled and said, "But I'm not a sect master, right?"
Yasenia stopped biting and looked upwards. Then she snorted, "I'm sure mom has more secrets from me, and one of them is being the sect master of some secret organization that is much stronger than the Academy!"
Tatyana looked speechless at her daughter, "You truly have a lot of confidence in me, huh?"
To which Yasenia smirked and nodded.
Tatyana explained, "I think it was this. Since Isla knows more about me than you do, you felt jealous… You don't feel like that of overwhelmingly strong people, but you do with Isla because she is near your level of strength."
Tatyana lowered her head and kissed her forehead, "Little treasure, if you really want to know, I can tell you everything about me right now. I'm not telling you, mainly because I don't want you to consider many broad matters. I want you to advance on your own cultivation path, not following my footsteps but creating a new road."
Yasenia nodded and sat up, "I will continue my path then. However, the direction of it will always be toward you. So that, when I create my own road, the final destination will be you."
Tatyana smiled tenderly and sat on Yasenia's lap. She hooked her arms around Yasenia's neck and kissed her lovingly. Yasenia hugged Tatyana's waist and returned the kiss.
They shared a tender moment until Tatyana separated and said, "It's time, little treasure. Let's see if you can win against Isla. She is light, water, ice, and space attributed—an extremely rare quadruple attributed cultivator. Moreover, her bloodline is called [Profound Ocean Divine], which is related to the Divine race."
Yasenia and Tatyana stood up and left for the coliseum. Tatyana said, "I won't be the one that takes care of watching the participants from here on. But know that I'm always watching. I will be with the other five. Good luck, little treasure."
Tatyana then disappeared after leaving Yasenia in the middle of the participants. The person responsible saw that Yasenia appeared with a senior and was suspicious. However, he received a message, and everything cleared up.
The announcer appeared at the center of the coliseum. His handsome face made people from the stand whistle and scream for him. The man laughed, and his magnetic voice was heard, "We've reached the top 100! All the participants here have gained a second entry jade. They can do with them anything they want, sell it, break it, or even eat it."
The people laughed. Then, he continued, "From now on, all the battles will happen inside the coliseum! The participants will use the arenas in the middle to fight! As you can see, the arenas are now only four! The previous ten arenas of one square kilometer each have been divided. Now each of them has four square kilometers!"
He continued, "The battles will happen following a tournament tree! You can see it… there!"
He pointed at the sky, and a giant illusionary scroll unfurled in the sky atop the massive coliseum. They could see the names of the 126 participants and who they were against.
Yasenia looked at the sky and saw the ancient-looking scroll. She searched her name and spotted it on the far right. She was paired against Isla, 'So it is true… Let's focus. I must get the shield for my baby!'
The announcer said, "Let's begin the final section! Starting from the right pair to the left one! Let's welcome our first competitor, Isla! She is one of the favorites and hasn't broken a sweat to reach here! Her swordplay is beautiful and ethereal. Her quadruple attribute affinity has made her opponents unable to touch her robes. And her beauty is above most!"
The crowd cheered and shouted compliments. The noise more than two million people made was deafening!
The announcer exclaimed, "Isla's opponent isn't someone to scoff at. She is overwhelming; she is like an unstoppable force of nature; she uses Sun, Moon, and star attribute to make her opponents despair! The publicly crowned Heavenly Dragoness and the dark horse of the competition! The sole level one Mental Nourishing cultivator that made it this far! Yasenia!"
The crowd exploded again in cheers, and some banners with Yasenia's image and the word S.L.U.T could be seen.
Yasenia, who was walking toward the arena, calmly almost tripped. But she managed to maintain her composure. 'My dear fans, people might think you are insulting me without context!'
While the announcer presented the rest of the participants, Isla and Yasenia talked for a bit. Yasenia started by bowing and apologizing. "I'm sorry, senior-sister, I was jealous that senior-sister knows more about my mother than I do, and I was disrespectful."
Isla laughed softly and said, "Don't worry, you are still young, and those things happen. Even I got slightly jealous when I saw Lady Death Empress behave so gently with you. She is completely different than when she is in front of others."
Yasenia chuckled and nodded, "Thank you, senior sister."