*SCREECH!*
The absolutely terrifying howl of the Soul Hound reverberated across the whole mountain range after Yasenia blasted the formation into pieces.
The piercing sound was so harsh that a few juniors felt their eardrums pop, losing their hearing momentarily.
Thankfully, this kind of injury was quickly healed with a low-level pill.
"WHY!? WHY DIDN'T OUR AMBUSH WORK!? AHH!! YOU SHOULD ALL DIE FOR YOUR SINS!"
Elder Mao ignored the Soul Hound's laments and shouted. "Take the juniors and escape! We will hold back the Soul Hound until then!"
"HOLD ME BACK!? HAHAHA! SINCE OUR PLAN FAILED, YOU SHOULD ALL PERISH TOGETHER WITH ME!"
While the Soul Hound shrieked these words, all other plant creatures beside it lost their forms and fell dead one after another.
The real reason was the Formation's destruction. However, the reason all of them saw this happen was that the creature's body was inflating as threads of green energy rushed toward it from all around the mountain range.
At first, they didn't know what it was doing. However, after a few seconds, all those who understood had their changes twisted with horror.
*SCREECH!*
The giant monstrosity released an angry piercing screech and suddenly ballooned up.
Without maintaining her usual calmness, Elder Song screamed, horrified. "RUN! IT IS BLOWING UP!"
All seniors picked up their juniors and flashed away at their top speed, even using one-time-use treasures to create distance between them and the Soul Hound's inflating body.
Yasenia swooped down and gathered everyone while using her top speed with her still-enhanced [Sun Dragon Body] activated. She was like a flash of golden light as Andrea, Kali, Evelyn, and even Sierra were swept up by her.
Her limbs carried Sierra while the others were on her back. Although Sierra was an eight-meter-tall wolf, for the twenty-five-meter-tall dragoness, she was small.
Sierra's face was strange. 'I feel like a prey caught by a predator.'
Then, while she prepared to escape, she made a wild turn and swept into her initial crater, using her mouth to bite a large chunk of earth where Tatyana was.
Elder Mao and Elder Song were paying attention and were stunned at that last twist. Elder Song shouted. "LADY YASENIA! RUN FASTER!"
Yasenia nodded and used her top speed enhanced by her [Heavenly Constellation Steps].
Her speed was so fast that she shortened the distance between them and managed to fly right above their head when the explosion happened.
The Elders saw Yasenia's golden dragon body right above them as they escaped, reassuring them.
However, this reassurance only lasted until the explosion happened.
First, a tsunami of light drowned everything, robbing them of their sight.
Like the impact of a kilometric meteor onto the ground, the creature exploded in a nova of annihilation that moved at tremendous speeds. It was many times faster than the escaping people.
Yasenia felt her muscles tense as the feeling of death rushed behind her.
The explosion radius reached tens of kilometers as the heat wave set on fire hundreds of kilometers around it instantly.
Every tree, creature, and hair that wasn't protected by a good enough energy barrier caught fire because of the thermal pulse.
It was not that big of a problem for the escaping cultivators because the seniors' aura could protect them from this.
However, besides them, everything that could catch on fire in hundreds of kilometers in a radius was set on fire.
A second ago, there was a lush forest.
A second later, there was a burning forest.
The colossal explosion of the whole formation's energy exploding erased everything around it as if they were drops of water falling in a hot pan, sizzling away after just an instant.
This erased all clues and everything that happened during that combat, leaving behind an abyssal chasm where a mountain range stood previously.
Naturally, the shockwave of such an explosion was not to be trifled with.
It was so powerful that it was visible as it moved through the air and caught up with Yasenia and the others. 'MOM, YOU WENT TOO FAR!'
Tatyana was in Yasenia's mouth, but she could see everything outside after using some skills. 'Sorry, little treasure. Protect yourself well enough. Dying here would be too silly. Mommy is cheering on you!'
Yasenia cursed with all her soul. 'FUCK!'
The dragoness knew outrunning the shockwave was impossible, so she braced for impact.
First, she made a barrel roll mid-air and released Tatyana from her mouth.
As all her dears and Sierra floated mid-air, Yasenia used her giant wings to surround them all in a protective cocoon created by her body.
Then, Yasenia used [Draconic Full Moon] and [Day and Night: Sky Prison] together with each one of her body-strengthening skills to create a silver sphere around her.
Yasenia's draconic eyes saw the wall of pure pressure arriving, and her pupils thinned to slits.
*BAAAANG!*
Her shields acted like fragile glass after meeting with a hammer, bursting into pieces. Then, the shockwave landed on her body as if a gigantic hand made of pure steel slapped her body.
Her internal organs constricted, her bones shrieked as they cracked, and her skin and scales split apart.
The dragoness could also feel her wing bones snapping.
While spitting blood, Yasenia's golden draconic body fell like a shooting star into the ground, leaving a golden trail behind.
The giant dragon wrapped in a ball to protect those between her wings smashed into the ground, creating a massive explosion.
Everyone else was thrown around like a cloth during a hurricane, and the loud sound of the explosion reached them right after.
It was like a thunderclap in the night but a thousand times more sonorous.
Yasenia felt her head spinning and heard a few voices calling her name. 'Ugh, I feel so dizzy. What happened?'
Then, the memory of the explosion hit her like a truck as the voices became clearer.
"Yasenia! Can you hear us? Wuwu, Yasenia."
"Love, why aren't you answering? You've been unconscious for a few seconds already. Isn't it time to wake up?" The voice had a calm tone, but the urge and restlessness in those words were impossible not to hear.
"Girls, relax. Her heart is still beating. I'm already healing her. She should already be awake. However, she is too dizzy to answer."
"Oy, Tatyana. I mean, I understand the pushing to the limits. But you almost killed her!"
"Can you all not exaggerate so much? It is just a concussion and a few broken bones and ruptured organs. It's not as if she is dying or damaged her dantian."
Yasenia blinked twice and felt dirt in her eyes, making her frown and blink a few more times until her vision cleared.
The first thing that entered her eyes was the brown dirt. She then looked down between her wings and arms and saw a free-of-dirt space where Sierra, Evelyn, Kali, Angel, Andrea, and Tatyana looked up at her with different expressions.
Yasenia coughed and tried to speak. "I'm okay, dears."
Kali's eyebrow twitched, and she glared at Yasenia. The impact has been so harsh that her veil was blown apart.
The Celestial Dragon flinched when those verdant green eyes pinned her down. "Sorry. I'm not okay. I feel like my body is falling apart. Honey, can you give me something to heal me quickly?"
Kali's expression relaxed. "It's good that you are honest."
Yasenia nodded quickly, making dirt fall from the sides of her face. Andrea laughed. "Well, if she is like this, there isn't anything to worry about."
Valeria appeared and used a few skills together with Kali to heal Yasenia.
The broken wings, scales, and bones began regenerating quickly. The sensation was very uncomfortable and itchy. 'Well, at least it is better than the burning and electrifying pain from having the entire body broken.'
Tatyana commented while Yasenia was being healed. "Well, now, girls. It is time to take the poison Kali gave you."
They all nodded and took. Evelyn asked. "Wouldn't it have been better to take it before the impact?"
Tatyana smiled sweetly, and all of them stiffened. "Oh, don't worry. The poison makes your skin frail, so a small beating can fix that problem."
All of them had a chill going up their spines.
Angel used her ultimate attack, puppy eyes, against Tatyana. "Mommy Tatyana, I don't like pain."
However, the opponent was not a good choice.
The experienced senior answered. "I don't care."
And thus, Yasenia was forced to watch her lovers fleeing from their mother-in-law as they received such a beating that blood splattered all around her stomach.
'Why do I feel like Mom wanted to do this for a while?'
Tatyana "cleaned" her forehead of non-existent sweat with her bloody hands and sighed with a smile. "I feel so refreshed."
Yasenia's eyebrow twitched wildly at Tatyana's face, which was smeared with blood that didn't come from her. 'Yup, it is confirmed. She wanted to do this at some point.'
"Wuwuwu, Mommy Tatyana, it hurts a lot." Cried Angel.
"Ugh, did you have to punch my stomach this hard? I can't stand up…" Complained Andrea.
"Even my tails? Did you have to make even my tails bloody?" Whined Kali.
"Why did you hit me? I could go inside Evelyn…." Asked a twitching giant white wolf.
"What is this tingling? A new awakening? Ha… Ha…" Said… Well, whatever.
Tatyana smiled. "Well, this is good enough. Little treasure, you can climb to the surface."
Yasenia nodded and moved her partially regenerated body. She still looked very mangled on the outside, but her insides were much better.
Yasenia slowly made her way up and was stunned as she realized she was pretty deep in the ground.
The rest of the girls followed behind dragon mole Yasenia and finally made it outside.
Their eyes widened as only a razed and charred forest was left behind. No matter where they looked, only annihilation was left.
Andrea asked seriously. "Tatyana, Which level should the cultivator reach to create an attack of this magnitude?"
Tatyana got thoughtful. "Depends on the talent… Well, for a genius cultivator, reaching the second level of the Dantian Spiritualization Realm should be enough."
Kali's eyes widened. "So, any cultivator in the Epoch Core Body Realm can do an attack like this?"
Tatyana nodded. "Pretty much. The scale of a Unification Realm strength hovers around destroying a mountain or a large city with one attack. But Dantian Spiritualization Realm cultivators can sink large islands or raze mountain ranges."
Andrea asked again. "What about Transcendent Realm Cultivators? Their attacks were powerful back in the Phoenix Demon war, but it wasn't that exaggerated."
Tatyana rolled her eyes. "They were flying high up in the sky. Even then, one of the attacks almost erased an eight-thousand-KILOMETER mountain. Do you understand that that mountain is equivalent to a small planet?"
Their faces became constipated. 'Planets?'
They looked around at the desolate scene created by a few tens of kilometers of destruction, and reality sank in on how large the strength gap was with the top powers of this continent.
Yasenia commented as if she didn't hear anything. "Such power. If that explosion had hit me directly, it would have vaporized me."
Below Yasenia's body, Angel and the others were lying on the ground while bleeding heavily because of the recent beating with constipated faces because of the facts they just learned.
Kali muttered. "Don't you care about what you just heard, love?"
Yasenia was confused. "Why would I? Can I do something about it before I reach those strengths? If we have the bad luck to face one of them, let's just use everything at our disposal and fight with no regrets left."
They all blinked twice and smiled. "Right. It's no use to worry about it."
Tatyana nodded with a smile. "People will start emerging from the ground, act injured, girls."
Evelyn muttered. "We are injured. What is there to act?"
Tatyana waved her fist as her lips arched in a sweet smile, making Evelyn shudder.
They all fell onto the ground, Sierra included, and they slowed down their breathing.
A few other mounds of dirt burst open, and the cultivators buried below the aftermath of the explosion began surfacing.
*********************************************************
Tatyana: This chapter was intense, eh?
Yasenia: Huh? Where are we?
Andrea: Yasenia, girls, stay close. I will protect you.
Yasenia: Aahn~, Darling, you are so charming!
Cecile: Hm? Why are you here, my love?
Evelyn: Woah, this place looks fancy~. Are we floating in space?
Kali: Should we enter a battle-ready mode, mother-in-law?
Author: Welcome to a new section sponsored by the darlings subscribed to P... Well, that page.
Tatyana: We don't want to get censored, eh?
Evelyn: Who is that? And why do they not have a face or gender!?
Author: Tsk, whatever. Evelyn, commenting on other people's appearances is rude!
Yasenia: If you speak like that to her again, I'll kill you.
Author: Cough, Sorry.
Angel: Mommy Tatyana, where are we? This person hasn't explained anything yet.
Tatyana: Well, let me do the honors.
Author: Sure, go ahead.
Tatyana: Dear readers, welcome to the [Celestial Theater]! A small section at the end of the chapters where we answer your questions~. To participate, you have to be a P.... subscriptor!
Author: I told you, Ao3 and WN do not like direct promotions.
Tatyana: Tsk, so annoying.
Author: Well, let's read the first Question! Ho, ho? It comes from someone who wants to remain anonymous. Well, then question marks it is.
?????: Did the celestial calamity that struck the celestial continent have repercussions on the other worlds or only on the celestial continent? I want Tatyana to answer me.
Author: The favoritism from the readers appears even here, Tatyana.
Tatyana: Ho ho ho~. As expected. Being a MILF gives me that cutting edge in popularity. I'm loved everywhere I go~.
Author: …
The rest of the girls: …
Tatyana: Well, there are a few errors in the question, so let's correct those as I answer.
Tatyana: The Heavenly Calamity that happened one million years ago did not only occur in the Sky continent. It happened everywhere.
Tatyana: The Heavenly Calamity was an event that killed most Gods and Immortals. However, there are a few alive and still recuperating from the wounds. Moreover, it is normal for new gods and immortals to ascend across the million years since then.
Tatyana: So... Keep your eyes open for the future, dear readers~.
Author: Very nice~. Things are quite interesting, and there is a lot yet to discover, right?
All the girls: Sure…
Author: The enthusiasm is… Well, whatever.
Author: And this was all for the first [Celestial Theater]! See you tomorrow~.
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Trivia Question: First person to answer will have a chance to participate in the [Celestial Theater]!
"What did Yasenia give as a way of thanks to the person she used to test the Heaven, Earth, Mortal, and Waste gates that led into Lost Town in the secret realm?"
Answered!