Yasenia shouted, "Stop the carriage!"
Everyone was confused but followed her orders. This Guard Captain had already proved herself to be a force to reckon with, and they respected her orders.
Then, she gathered everyone and looked at their strength. No one was stronger than the seventh level of the Mental-Nourishing realm besides the carriage driver. Yasenia rubbed her chin and thought, 'Now then, are there any more spies besides the defective one?'
Yasenia walked in front of the eight guards and looked at them up and down. She didn't speak, but her expression was serious, and her eyes penetrating.
All of them subconsciously straightened. They didn't know if the dragoness was angry with them because of how they had handled the assassins until now, so their nervousness about suddenly being beaten down by Yasenia was quite high.
And this nervousness would prove to be the correct reaction as the next events followed.
Yasenia stopped in the middle of the seven guards and one carriage driver, five meters away from them, and directly used her [Dragon Strength] and her cultivation aura. The [Dragon Strength] wasn't only a strength buff but also made her presence extremely imposing.
*BANG!*
Together, they were like an enormous tide of pure pressure. The eight people couldn't even hold on for a second as their legs gave up, their bodies slamming onto the ground because of it.
The Queen and King looked stupefied at that scene.
Yasenia said, her voice terrifyingly calm in contrast to the situation. "We have little fleas hiding among us. Now I ask these insects, will you appear by yourselves so that I kill you swiftly and painlessly? Or will you try to struggle in vain until I kill you with the most agonizing of deaths?"
Yasenia was controlling her pressure enough so that they could lift their heads and look at her or speak whenever they felt like it. Since she had regulated it for the seventh-level Mental Nourishing guards, Yasenia knew that the driver was faking his current situation. 'Ho ho~, although his methods are defective, his acting skills are top-notch. I wouldn't have realized he was a spy with just this test.'
Yasenia waited for a moment and saw that the eight people had the same expressions of fear, yet no one spoke. She sighed dramatically. "I didn't want to go to those lengths, but you leave me without an option. I will warn you that I know who the spies are. As I'm feeling generous, I will give you five more seconds before we move to the next step."
After counting down to five, Yasenia shook her head, "What a pity."
Then, the dragoness took out a transparent vial filled with a green-red liquid and said, "This thing is called [Hundred Devouring Insects Poison]. As the name suggests, it will create one hundred devouring insect eggs inside you after a single sip. Then, these insects will secrete toxins that heighten a person's sensitivity and eat them inside out without letting them faint. They fed on not only flesh but meridians, energy, and internal organs too. Of course, their favorite food is the Dantian of the cultivators... Quite scary, to be honest."
Yasenia looked at that vial that was created by her little fox and couldn't help but marvel, 'I didn't know that she isn't only a medicine and alchemy genius. Her poison mastery is extremely high as well. I've truly picked up a treasure~.'
Meanwhile, the eight people were frightened out of their minds. This kind of poison won't kill you in one or two hours. Besides paralyzing you almost instantly, it will take at least a week for your life to get consumed by the insects.
They didn't have to hear anymore. All of them began pleading innocence at the same time with terrified voices.
"Guard Captain! I'm loyal to the Queen and King!"
"Please, Guard Captain, think this through!"
"I swear to the Heavens that I'm not a spy! Do not let me drink that!"
Yasenia looked at them and smiled, "Yes, yes, I know. All of you are innocent, you are super loyal to our monarchs, and you wouldn't even hesitate to give your lives for them, right?"
Yasenia's expression cooled as she exclaimed, "Wrong! For example, I know for sure that the carriage driver is a traitorous scum! And I also know who his allies are, so I will feed this poison to him and wait patiently for the others to show themselves. I'm sure that after seeing the effects of the poison, you will want to receive a swift death~."
The driver was terrified and stopped hiding his strength. His half-step cultivation exploded from his body, and he stood up quickly, running away with all his strength.
However, when he took one step, the driver felt his leg being grabbed by something, and he lost balance, falling face-first to the ground. He hastily looked down only to see Yasenia's golden tail coiling tightly around his leg and a shadow covering his body.
When he looked up with trembling eyes, he saw Yasenia looking at him with a charming smile. But it only gave the feeling of a terrifying predator looking at its prey at that moment. "Did you think you could run away from me? Little naive man, your fate was sealed when you decided not to expose yourself~."
Yasenia increased the pressure and immobilized the man. Then, she forcefully fed him a sip of the vial.
The man tried to cough it out, using his muscles to induce vomit. But it was futile; this liquid had the property of going inside the person once it touched saliva, so it was almost impossible to spit it out.
They all saw the person holding his throat with fear, and Yasenia looked at the other seven with the same smile and glowing golden eyes, "I will give you one hour to come out on your own. If you do that, I will kill you swiftly, without any pain. If you don't… Well."
Yasenia looked at the man, who was already writhing in pain on the floor calmly and said. "I will tie you together with him and won't kill you until we reach the Kingdom. Of course, I will also feed you a sip of the precious vial~. Now, what will you choose?"
After saying that sentence, Yasenia thought, 'One hour should be enough to let the effects of the poison appear fully on the Cultivator. His screams and pleas should weaken the will of the second spy, If there is one. Still, if this doesn't work, then I will just keep them away from the King and Queen until we reach the destination.'
"AAAAHHH!!!! PLEASE KILL ME!!!"
After only 20 minutes, the man was already wishing for his death. Yasenia knew that the insects had reached the dantian. For a cultivator, the dantian was an extremely sensitive organ. A single injury on it would hurt as if their bodies were splitting in two, not to mention the feeling and pain of it being eaten by bugs.
However, even hearing the agonizing screams, Yasenia's face was completely impassive as she looked at the man. Not everything that Tatyana had taught Yasenia were beautiful things. In her training, torture methods, mental torture, and many more immoral things had been taught.
Tatyana had been careful not to let those teachings affect Yasenia's psyche, teaching Yasenia that those that had sinned enough to receive their torture were not worthy of even a single shred of sympathy.
Since the training had begun when she was very little and still didn't have the mental age to feel empathy, Yasenia had grown not to feel a single thing as she tortured others. It didn't affect her in a good or bad way hearing the man's screams.
After witnessing the inhuman torture and Yasenia's indifferent face, the last spy hiding in the group couldn't hold on any longer. He sobbed and said, "P-Please, I don't want to suffer like that."
Yasenia looked toward him and lifted her eyebrow, "You finally come out. I was getting bored."
The man looked at Yasenia's reptilian eyes and mumbled with a trembling voice, "M-Monster."
Yasenia smirked and said, "Wrong. I'm a beast, a dragon, not a monster. Anyway, let's end this swiftly, as I promised."
The man slammed his forehead on the ground and said, tears dropping from his eyes. "Please don't kill me! Let me live, and I will be your dog. I will be your slave and do whatever you say! But please, I have a family and a recently born son. I don't want to die!"
Yasenia's eyes flashed with a calculative light. Then, she smiled, "Sure, come here. If the remaining spies appear, I will also spare them."
The man felt Yasenia's pressuring aura lifting, as if the wight of his worries disappeared. Then, he stood up and reached Yasenia's side.
Yasenia patted his head softly and said. "Good boy~, do you know if there are any more spies?"
The man tried to ignore the hoarse screams behind him and said, "N-Not that I'm aware of, Guard Captain."
Yasenia hummed and didn't say anything more. She turned to look at the other six, waiting for the others to say something.
Yasenia didn't see anyone move, so she said in her last attempt to find more spies. "Are you sure you want to keep hiding? Do you want to be like that?"
Yasenia pointed at the man that was clawing his face and bleeding. His eyes were completely maddened as the painful torture continued. Yasenia even said, "I even was somewhat merciful using one of the least devious poisons in me... If you don't come out now, I will use my other poisons on you~."
The image of one man rolling on the ground and the other being petted softly like some sort of pet beside the calm and attractive dragoness was unexpectedly terrifying.
Yasenia stopped pressuring them and stood up, "Good, don't regret it in the future. By the way, no one can approach twenty meters near the carriage, those that do… I will kill them. Am I clear?"
All of them nodded, and Yasenia's hand lowered through the man's hair to his nape. The man was feeling a convoluted pile of feelings, ranging from fear to comfort, confusing his heart even more. Yasenia's caresses were too comfortable, but the screams of the man were too terrifying.
However, he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with such messy feelings as he suddenly felt the hand on his nape tightening little by little. He looked toward Yasenia, confused.
Yasenia smiled and said, "Go painlessly, honest traitor."
*CRACK!*
Yasenia closed her hand and broke his neck like a rotten branch, making his head tilt in a direction a head shouldn't bend. Yasenia loosened her hand, and the man's body fell to the ground limply and dead.
Yasenia used her spear-tail to pierce the tortured man's dantian, heart, and head in three consecutive downward strikes. Then, she flickered it to clean the blood and used her golden flames to kill any parasites that might have latched onto her tail. As a precaution, she even took the antidote. Those little bugs were dangerous even for her, after all. "Let's go. We will need at least two hours to reach the Empire."
No one dared disobey. After taking care of the two spies, the rest of the mission was quite easy because they could avoid the previously planned ambushes.
Moreover, Yasenia could now leave the carriage to join the fight easily. There were two fights against powerful cultivators, but Yasenia could deal with them rather effortlessly without even using [Celestial Dress].
The other three also passed it rather easily.
Angel surrounded the King and Queen with shield formations and summoned her golems. Even if the driver wanted to do something, he couldn't because the shields only covered the insides of the carriage.
Kali had summoned her golden crown, and since the area was forest-like, nothing could escape Valeria's wide sensing range, making the ambushes completely ineffective. The two spies just had to give up misguiding them and sent the King and Queen to their Empire because the Guard Captain was too strong and never left the King's and Queen's side, summoning hordes of plant creatures to kill any assassins.
Sarah had the system with her, which told her that the affection values of the driver were very low, reaching a hostile level, making her suspect of them. With its help, she was able to get rid of the two spies and return to the Empire.
However, the first arrow damaged Sarah's Queen, almost killing her, because she wasn't alert since the beginning.
Kali and Angel had always followed their dragoness's advice to the letter, so they were alert from the first second and managed to block it with relative ease.
********************************************************************
Two important announcements so please bear with me and read.
Now that you delivered an illustration for each character, what's next?
Well, I have been speaking with Nassima Amir, the illustrator. First, I thought about doing Yasenia and Cecile justice. Their current illustrations are not bad, but compared to what Nassima delivers, they are really... Mediocre. So an illustration by Nassima about those two will be next. These illustrations will be P.A.T.R.E.O.N ONLY. I won't even put the partial image on the free pages.
Why? You may ask.
Well, a simple reason. I've already delivered an image for each character to the free users, so now you have already seen how each of our girls looks. From now on, the rest of the illustrations will only be available for P.a.t.r.e.o.ns since they are the ones that pay for them, basically.
If one of you has been a P.a.t.r.e.o.n in the past, you can ask me about new illustrations, and I will deliver a Partial image, full illustrations will continue being current P.a.t.r.e.o.n subscribers exclusive.
Of course, if the images get leaked even once, I will stop doing even that. Remember that this is a thing I'm willing to do for individuals that have previously been supporters of my novel. I place my trust in you that have been willing to support me in the past.
I know, I know. "Trusting the internet? You may as well trust a scam artist!"
However, I'm willing to give it a try since all of you readers have been awesome until now. Moreover, my novel is 18+, so I assume that most of you are already adults, so I hope you are polite to this novice author.
Let's refocus on the previous question. After finishing Cecile and Yasenia, I will contract Nassima to do a PROPER cover for the novel! Yay! After 300 chapters I will finally have a proper cover!... I think I should have focused on this first... Anyway!
Something I learned about Nassima is that she doesn't do NSFW illustrations \(T_T)/, so I will search for another illustrator to do those. Of course, I will use Nassima's drawn models for that, so... Well, it shouldn't go badly... I hope.
Also! Wattpad has reached out to me, and I'm about to sign a NON-EXCLUSIVE contract with them! I will keep uploading to the other pages for the moment. If, and only if, I become successful (It won't probably happen) on Wattpad, I may enter an exclusivity contract with them, but anyway, I will keep all of you updated on this matter.
To end my rant, I would like to thank YOU for supporting me, be it by silently reading the novel, leaving comments on the novel, or directly subscribing to my P.a.t.r.e.o.n.
Hoping for all of you to continue reading my novel,
your slowly growing author,
Mortrexo.
P.S. And yes, I wrote it in the chapter itself because some of you would have probably skipped the author note, hehehe _(:3 」∠)_