Kali sighed and was a bit bothered. "I hoped we could be done with it earlier than the three days, to be honest. The rewards are not that attractive, after all."
Yasenia chuckled. "Well, now it looks like we have to stay here until the end of the tournament."
Kali leaned on her side and sighed. "You are right, love. I'll have to wait until the third day even to participate."
Elder Mu asked curiously. "Do you have something to do back at Koran City? Why do you want to return so quickly?"
Kali calmly shook her head as she played with one of Yasenia's hands. "No, I've left everything prepared, but I was in the middle of creating a new interesting Alchemy pill, so I feel like this interrupted my flow. Moreover, I don't want the ingredients to die or escape."
They all blinked twice and found her words a bit strange. 'Hmm? Something is wrong-. Ah! Right, die or escape?'
Our girls felt their skin crawling and gulped. 'Escape!? Will her little squirming creatures escape? That would be quite a disaster, to be honest.'
Angel asked cautiously. "They haven't escaped, right?"
Kali chuckled and patted her with her tail. "Don't worry, Angel."
Elder Mu blinked and asked. "Escape? How can they escape?"
Kali would not say she is using parasites. That's one of her trump cards not even the harpies working under her know. The only ones with this knowledge are her family members.
Therefore, she commented. "Hm? Well, one of the ingredients can escape if I'm not careful enough."
"How is that possible?" Asked a disciple.
Kali lifted an eyebrow and asked. "You haven't worked with sentient plants?"
Elder Mu commented. "Sentient Plants? What kind of sentience level are you speaking about?"
Kali waved her hand and summoned a yellow and purple thirty-centimeter-meter tall plant. It had a small head and sturdy stalks.
Then, the second it appeared, the plant uprooted itself and used those roots to wobble away as if it were escaping.
They all speechlessly looked at the flower move slowly while dropping a few seeds from time to time.
Kali chuckled. "Escape like that. I have a few of these planted. This one is very juvenile, so its running speed is very slow."
Angel laughed and followed behind the flower, taking the seeds. "Little flowers, you are so clumsy~. You are dropping so many seeds."
Kali smiled, summoned a vine to entangle it, and yanked it back to her hand. Then, without delay, she stored it in her ring.
Angel returned to her side with a smile and gave Kali all the dropped seeds.
Elder Mu had never seen something like that and asked with deep curiosity. "What was that?"
Kali commented. "Well, the name is quite literal. [Walking Dandelion Spirt Grass]. It is one of the ingredients for a pill I'm developing. I found one of them a few years ago, and I've been planting them since then."
In truth, she got a plant from the secret area where she broke through in the lake area where Valeria took many plant spirits.
Elder Song thought the plant had intelligence, so she frowned and chided. "Using living beings as alchemy products is a bit deranged, Lady Kali. They have intelligence, right?"
Kali calmly smiled and shook her head. "It doesn't have a conscience. It's similar to plants that explode their seeds to spread them into the distance. These plants have mutated in a way that they will run like that once uprooted and move around aimlessly, dropping their seeds until they die. Not all the seeds will be able to take root, but a few of them can, efficiently spreading them around. It's fascinating, to be honest."
Elder Mu asked. "You said this one is juvenile? Are they faster the older they get? Do you have one of those at hand?"
Kali nodded and shook her head. "Yes, the fully matured ones can outpace someone like her."
Kali pointed at one disciple in the low level of the Spirit King Body Realm, equivalent to the Mental nourishing realm.
"However, I don't have any adult ones with me."
Everyone was impressed and kept asking questions about other strange plants.
Kali's knowledge theory-wise was leagues ahead of most alchemist present, so she could name a few exciting plants she had discovered that existed in Distancia Continent's Flora Encyclopedias she had read.
Yasenia asked her other dears in the meantime, and they all nodded calmly.
Finally, Evelyn's turn to go down arrived. Yasenia hugged Evelyn from behind and whispered. "Please, be careful, dear. Have your life-saving treasures always prepared, okay?"
Evelyn felt soft by Yasenia's whispers. Then, she nodded.
Yasenia smiled and patted her butt. "Go, love."
Evelyn jumped down on the solid arena floor. It wasn't sandy but made of solid and even stone slabs. There were thousands of desks with similar tailoring tools.
"Welcome to the Tailoring Competition, juniors. I'm the person in charge of supervising all of you. The point rewards have been explained previously. However, not the individual rewards. The first place will be able to get a pair of threading needles of the Heaven Grade. The second place will be able to get a needle of the Heaven Grade. The third place will get a Heaven grade Needle Pouch..."
He said the rewards until the twentieth position and then commented that the rest would just win points. Besides the first three, the rest were Earth-rank items.
Yasenia was honestly impressed at the high grade of the rewards compared to what she heard until now.
Elder Song commented. "The Top powers usually give one item to make it more interesting for the juniors. My sect gave a Heaven-grade zither."
Yasenia understood. 'Right. I found it strange for a city like this one to be able to produce so many treasures.'
"Please, pick a table before I explain the rules-."
However, he was interrupted by a loud female voice. "Huh? This person here is a human!"
Evelyn, who thought she was hidden, rolled her eyes. 'Is a human's aura that distinctive? They literally sniffed me out like dogs.'
Sierra chuckled. 'It appears like so. I also could easily tell you were human back then. Moreover, the one who discovered you is not a dog but a bunny.'
Evelyn was confused. 'How is it that easy?'
Sierra commented. 'Probably an instinct born from a human's ability to contract beasts. It must be like a newborn animal recognizing a predator or its parents. Beast-humans have a substantial part of their bloodline shared with beasts, after all.'
"Oy, are you listening, human? I'm speaking to you!" The bunny woman approached Evelyn with wide steps as she shouted.
Evelyn heard her shout right beside her ear and frowned. She turned around and snorted. "I'm not deaf, woman! Can you stop shouting? You will hurt the sensitive-eared beast-humans with that shrill shout of yours."
The bunny woman that spoke to Evelyn was stunned on the spot.
Not to mention her, even the people in the stands were stunned.
"That human is too arrogant!"
"A slave talking back? She needs disciple!"
Yasenia looked around coldly in the stands, but she still didn't intervene. Even then, all her muscles were tensed to the limits as her energy rotated around her.
With just a thought, Yasenia would be able to enter combat mode in an instant.
The bunny woman stepped out of her daze, and her face changed to anger. "You, mere human slave, dares speak back to me!? Die!"
The bunny woman gathered strength in her arm and slapped against Evelyn's chest at full force.
Evelyn saw the hand coming and was speechless. 'She wants to kill me because of that? This woman is crazy.'
Yasenia's face chilled so much that even her aura gathered snow crystals around her.
Her eyes were fixed on that arm approaching Evelyn, and she really wanted to jump and rip that arm and the person belonging to that body part to shreds.
Evelyn thought for a moment, and Sierra commented. 'How about dodging it?'
'Yeah, her attack is really slow. I was thinking whether to retaliate or not.'
'Are you silly? Attacking a beast-human is only a recipe for disaster.'
'Well, I was just considering it. I mean, look at Yasenia's face. I wanted to vent a little for her.'
'Woah… Yasenia is furious.'
'Right? She looks so beautiful~. If she could spank me with that expression, I would probably be able to orgasm with each slap~.'
Sierra didn't know what to say. She had seen how wild Evelyn got at night, so she knew her master wasn't exaggerating.
Evelyn stepped to the side and easily dodged the attack.
Then, she looked at the stumbling bunny woman and commented. "Miss, it is not prohibited to participate as a human. What are you fussing about? How fragile your ego can be to be provoked by a slave?"
However, more than her words, the fact that she could dodge was what made most spectators' eyes widen like saucers.
"She could dodge that slap!?"
"That's the daughter of a powerful family. At sixty-five years old, she is already at the mid-level of the Spirit King level! A mighty genius cultivator!"
"Impossible. How could a human dodge a Spirit King cultivator? Did her family fake her strength?"
"Maybe. Regardless, they've used her achievements to boost their influence, so they'll be in trouble if it is fake."
The people beside Yasenia's group, except Jorey, who was previously summited to Andrea's pressure, were also surprised.
Elder Mao commented. "Hoh, Evelyn has some strength."
Elder Song lifted an eyebrow. "Impressive. I could see that she even had time to think. Her movements were minimal and quick."
Yasenia took a deep breath and nodded, trying to relax her aura. However, her voice was still cold. "Naturally. I would be down there if she couldn't protect herself. Although she is a human, those who are part of my power are protected, and no one can bully them."
Joey commented with a smirk. "So… The rumor that you offended the City Lord's son because of a human is true? I thought it was about an item, but with your current reaction, I can say with certainty that it was truly because of a human."
Yasenia snorted. "It was my daughter who almost offended them. I also punished her for it. However, I'm proud of her decisions. Young Master Fu wanted MY people, so she denied it."
The Elder with Young Master Fu at that time was present and felt a bit ashamed. "Sorry for my ignorance back then, Lady Yasenia."
Yasenia waved her hand. "Protecting the Junior of your power is normal, especially if they are talented. My daughter resolved it peacefully, so I don't blame you."
Then, they returned their attention to the arena one more time.