While they walked, Tatyana asked. "By the way, Tengliu. You should've discovered if this secret realm inspects the soul or the body. Which one is it?"
Tengliu commented. "It measures the body, like all secret realms I know of. Have you ever entered one that measures the soul?"
Tatyana nodded. "Usually, high-level Secret Realms do that. If it measures the body, then it should ignore Valeria, Mirrory, and even my own soul levels."
Angel trotted to her side and grabbed her hand. "What would you have done if it measured the soul, Mommy Tatyana?"
Tatyana smiled. "Well, I have been preparing a few formations to fool it. Secret realms that appear in this continent should not be too high-level. After all, a secret realm can be created after reaching the Transcendence Realm."
Tengliu asked, curious. "Transcendence is the realm after Epoch Core, right?"
Tatyana shook her head. "For Body Cultivators, it is called Undying Monarch Body."
Tengliu rubbed her chin. "That sounds better."
Coraline also joined. "I think Transcendence sounds better, to be honest. Which one do you prefer, darling?"
Ebirah tilted her head cutely. "I don't know… Both sound really nice."
Suddenly, they heard a voice from the side. "Transcendence? I haven't heard of that before."
The female voice was mysterious and calm, with a hint of ethereal presence.
Coraline and Tengliu frowned, looking annoyed but with a wary look hidden in their eyes.
After following their gaze, our girls met with an albino wolfkin with beautiful and rare red eyes and silver hair. Her beauty was strangely transcendental, and the vibe around her was similar to Tengliu's, riddled with mystery and mystique.
Tatyana's eyes flashed with interest. 'it's rare to find others with red eyes.'
It was Coraline who called, her voice sounding cold. "Zephyrith."
The albino silver wolf smiled, her red-colored eyes flashing with deep intelligence. "Coraline, you have interesting guests." She then looked at Ebirah, and one of her silvery eyebrows rose. "Oh? Little girl, you've grown quite a lot. Far beyond… my expectations."
The strange tone in that last sentence was a clear indication that she had planned or foreseen other things. Zephyrith then looked at Yasenia's group and squinted. "It's probably because of you…"
The playful look in her eyes seemed to disappear as a strange aura flowed around her. 'Can you still hold against my Fate skills when I'm here in person~?'
Tatyana squinted and snapped her fingers. 'This cub is being a bit rude.'
With a hiss of pain, Zephyrith frowned and became startled. 'Huh? Someone snapped my Fate reading? Tengliu's fate attribute is strong, but it's still below mine, so it couldn't be her. Who was it!?'
Tengliu smirked. "Hey, Zephyrith, have you already opened your legs for Fu Lang Zu? You are in your mid-one-thousands and still a virgin."
Zephyrith looked calm and gave her a side-eye. "At least I don't open my legs to everyone I find pleasing to the eyes like a prostitute. Oh wait, you are worse than one since they, at least, get paid."
The girls looked at Tengliu, and their lips twitched while holding their laughter.
Tatyana laughed. "A bit more, and we'll have cooked chicken for dinner."
Tengliu rolled her eyes and complained. "So what if I have sex with people I find pleasing to the eye? I, at least, enjoy life."
Zephyrith looked at Tatyana and lifted her silvery eyebrow. "You are pretty gutsy for a human."
Tengliu's eyes flashed and sent a message to Yasenia mentally. Yasenia rolled her eyes, but she nodded.
Tengliu's lips arched and answered. "Right? How about you attack her and put her in place? She has been too arrogant lately."
Tatyana instantly knew what she was aiming at and became speechless. 'Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for your silly schemes?'
The white harpy knew, but she was just having a bit of fun.
Zephyrith shook her head, something she expected. "Since you've said so, it seems that I can't underestimate her. Human, what is your name?"
Tatyana crossed her arms and answered flatly. "And why should I tell you my name?"
Zephyrith blinked, not expecting such a response. She asked, confused. "Do you know who I am?"
Tatyana answered. "The right-hand woman of Fu Lang Zu, the Patriarch of the [Steel Back Wolf] clan. Moreover, you are the strongest seer in this Continent. Not to mention, you are the second most coveted woman in the continent, right behind the Mermaid Queen."
Zephyrith's mind spun quickly, and her red eyes clashed with Tatyana's red eyes. "If you know that and you still dare to speak like that, you are truly not simple."
Tatyana smiled mockingly. "Isn't it obvious, child?"
Zephyrith squinted. "Even if you are not simple, the aura you give is that of a high-level Ethereal Soul realm."
With a mocking laugh and eyes filled with disdain, the Death Empress stated. "Then, try me."
Since there was no need to hide anymore, Tatyana started taking a more active role. She wouldn't just allow people to call her slave, look down on her, or offend her anymore to train and educate Yasenia.
Before, she would just let Yasenia deal with it and teach her while keeping a low profile. But those times were over.
Zephyrith frowned after she saw that nobody stopped her, making alarms ring in her head. 'Let's not provoke her for now.'
Then, the red eyes of the wolf woman moved toward Yasenia.
She couldn't help but pause a second to appreciate her beauty.
Yasenia nodded in greetings, not interested in exchanging words with her. "Hello."
'They are underestimating me too much… Should I give her a small scare?' Zephyrith took a step forward, using her strength to try and appear right before Yasenia using her maximum speed.
Yasenia blinked and saw her disappear. However, the next instant, she appeared in the middle point between them, frozen stiff because of the situation she found herself in.
All the high-level maids had surrounded her.
Alaia's spear was pointing at her heart, Leila's halberd's ax blade was resting above her shoulder, Flora had summoned roots below her, Clara was holding a bow and pointing at her forehead, Selena's sword was resting on her waist, and Doriel's two daggers were touching her neck shrouded in a malevolent black fog.
In just an instant, Zephyrith had "died" six times. 'W-What?' Her mind was startled for a second, unable to process the situation she was in.
Doriel's black eyes locked on the trembling eyes of the wolf-kin and stated coldly, her voice having a strange phantasmal undertone. "If you dare approach our Young Miss like that again, your head will fly off from your shoulders."
Zephyrith looked around her calmly, but inside, she was horrified. 'Who are these six? I couldn't react!'
Tengliu and Coraline at the side also became solemn, their eyes trying to analyze the strength of the maids, only to be blocked by the high-level formations and equipment.
They knew that fifty mysterious white-clothed people appeared around Yasenia, but they thought they were just maids because, well, they acted as such.
Even in the battle between the Five Shadow Fang sect and Astral Sky Sect, the strength they displayed was not that high. After all, just Coraline or Tengliu was enough to flatten the Five Shadow Fang sect, but the participating maids took a while because Yasenia ordered them to hold back.
Yasenia ordered calmly. "Come back."
The six disappeared and returned behind Yasenia with enough speed to feel like a blur, even for the top-level powerhouses present here.
Then, they stood obediently behind Yasenia and in front of the rest of the maids with an apparent submissive attitude.
Only now did the people looking realize that the aura coming from the more than thirty white-wearing women was extraordinary.
Zephyrith's muscles were still tense, looking at Yasenia deeply and trying to analyze something about her Fate. Still, even without Tatyana's interference, she could read nothing, as if a fog surrounded her, making her even more mysterious and dangerous in the Fate Wolf's eyes. "You should be…"
Yasenia's lips slightly arched as her golden eyes looked at Zephyrith calmly. The dragoness's slightly low and mellow, alluring voice spread around. "This is the first time I've appeared before the many leaders of so many powers, so let me introduce myself. I'm Yasenia Dravory, a Pure dragon of a Progenitor Bloodline and the lead of the Astral Sky Sect."
Looking around fearlessly, she stated. "Besides that, I'm a new First-rate power that has appeared in Distancia. I hope that in the future, I'm treated as such."
The announcement was like a bomb exploding, making people stunned.
After all, a "first-rate" power didn't just appear out of nothingness.
Yasenia felt many presences appearing around them, more than thirty of them, and all of them were high-level Epoch Core people.
One of them, a man with snake-features, spoke. "Girl, you are too young and weak to name your power first ranked. You are, at most, a very strong second-rate."
Yasenia looked over and smiled. "Patriarch of the seventh most powerful clan in the Thirty-Three clans group, [Five Fang Serpent Clan], the condition to become a first-rate power is having a high-level Epoch Core cultivator and another fifty Epoch Core cultivators. I must inform you that my power fulfills those conditions, and therefore, your words make no sense."
The man's slit eyes thinned, and he stated coldly. "The requirement is for the Leader of the power to be High-level Epoch Core. With your pitiful cultivation of a high-level Ethereal Soul, you are not qualified."
Yasenia squinted and smiled. "Are you afraid, Patriarch? Afraid that my power will become something that will topple you?"
"BOLD!"
He was angered and shouted, his aura flowing toward Yasenia with enough strength to heavily injure her.
Yasenia felt a sense of deja vu. 'Something similar happened when those elders came to my sect's front door, right?' The dragoness's eyes flashed with murderous intentions. 'Now that I've settled everything and don't need a more positive reputation for my sect, I can answer the way I like it the most.'
She was about to command Alaia to beat the Patriarch black and blue, but Tengliu appeared before her with a cold expression, her aura bursting against the man's incoming aura.
BOOM!
A massive hurricane of gales erupted, blowing Yasenia's with the gales and all the people weak enough to block it.
The dragoness blinked, not expecting this. 'Is she so decisive in protecting me?'
Tengliu stated coldly. "Who do you think you are to attack her, old man? Even if she is not a first-ranked power, you are forgetting who she is allied with."
Coraline appeared beside Tengliu, her expression indifferent. "Attacking a junior in such a manner, if little Yasenia was normal, wouldn't that aura burst crippled her?"
Suddenly, Coraline felt leaking killing intent coming from the red-eyed Empress and the white-wearing maids and spoke. "I'm going to give you one piece of advice: apologize to her before you regret it."
The Patriarch sneered, his aura rising like and pressuring everything as if a mountain was descending. "Regret it? Why? Will you two attack me? If so, I more than welcome you. I might not be able to win, but I can fight for a hundred rounds before you defeat me!"
Yasenia interrupted, her voice cold. "They won't interfere, but we will. Do you think you can threaten my life and be done with it?"
Tengliu asked mentally, worried. 'Do you want my help?'
Yasenia denied it and even answered aloud. "No need for help. For just one Patriarch, we are enough…" The dragoness looked around and added. "…Unless others will step forward and bully the weak with numbers?"
The rest of the leaders present didn't answer and stood in their places, waiting to see how deep this new Astral Sky Sect's strength went.
However, Zephyrith suddenly spoke after she felt a strange premonition. "You will lose."
Everyone looked where she was looking, and to their surprise, her eyes were clearly locked on the Serpent Patriarch.
The man frowned, and he began reevaluating. He didn't act this way just because. He acted this way after a mental conversation with other leaders to test how deep the Astral Sky Sect waters were. Of course, his anger was real since Yasenia's disrespect was not something he would easily swallow.
While he pondered, Tatyana took a step forward, and her tone was chilling. "I wouldn't have cared if your attack was regulated, but you clearly wanted to cripple my little treasure."
Her cultivation aura was incomparable to every other person, with just an Ethereal Soul realm cultivation.
Yet, after a single moment, that changed.
Tatyana waved the long sleeve of her black dress, and the ground around her was covered with a massive linear formation that connected Tatyana, the maids, and the man.
All leaders were stunned as the intricate lines, runes, and energies flowing within the formation were something they'd never seen before.
Angel's extremely powerful memory about formations remembered a few combinations. 'This was part of Mommy Tatyana's summoning formation.' Angel pondered for a second. 'Hm… Oh, I remember Mommy Tatyana said that this was to allow a portion of her soul to descend… Wait.'
And thus, it descended.
Above the formation, a tiny thread of a blackish-green something appeared no longer than a finger. It was a minuscule strand of Tatyana's vast soul.
However…
BANG!
When Tatyana's soul strand appeared, the Patriarch's legs bent as if his bones had disappeared, and he slammed face-first onto the ground in a similar position as to how a subject would prostrate before a Sovereign.
The people around were stunned at the sudden events.
They couldn't sense anything because of the formation's isolating qualities, but the look of horror on the Patriarch's face was enough for them to imagine what kind of pressure he was bearing.
Tatyana asked Yasenia, her red eyes flashing with an inquiring and expectant light. "What will you do?"
Yasenia looked at the Patriarch coldly and sneered. "An eye for an eye."
Tatyana nodded, satisfied. "Good. Flora."
Flora appeared and kneeled before her. "At your command, Lady Tatyana."
"Give me the [Meridian Rotting Poison Pill]."
Flora gave the pill jar to her and then returned to her position.
Tatyana walked forward, her elegant black dress flowing around her ethereal being. "Listen here, you muddled-headed leaders."
A few scowled, but no one interrupted. "The quick raise of the Astral Sky Clan has made your alarms ring. However, there are three things you should know before you decide on doing something stupid."
Tatyana's steps were neither hurried nor slow, adding to her elegant bearing. "First, we are not a group that likes conquering or political power."
Tatyana's face was cold and indifferent, similar to her voice. "Second, even if you wanted to, stopping our rise to prominence is impossible."
Tatyana's voice was like a ruler stating a decree, inviolable and full of strength. "Third, the thing our power hates the most is disrespecting the Sect Master."
Her clicking high-heels were the only sound around besides her voice. Even at a low cultivation level, the innate aura of the Death Empress was vast and transcendental.
Tatyana arrived before the man kneeling on the ground and unable to stand up because of the strand of Tatyana's soul hovering above. "This is a warning to all of you."
She leaned down and lifted the chin of the man. They realized that his eyes were full of fear and desperation, as if he was about to fall into something worse than hell.
Without any mercy, Tatyana forcefully fed him the pill and released his chin, allowing the pressure to slam him again against the ground.
Tatyana looked around, and finally, her eyes landed on Zephyrith. The silver-furred wolf was looking at her with horror, her body shivering even if she didn't want to. Unlike others, her deep connection with Fate allowed this silver wolfkin to feel a sliver of Tatyana's true self. But even this minuscule part of Tatyana was enough to make the millennial wolf tremble in fear.
Without saying anything more, Tatyana returned to Yasenia's side, and the formation disappeared. Tatyana sighed in her mind. 'Sigh, it's a bit of a waste since I only have two of these… Well, I'll make more after the Secret Realm.'
While Tatyana's thoughts drifted, the fact that this fearsome woman returned to Yasenia's side and stood there formally made the rest feel as if Yasenia's true self had hidden behind a veil of mystery.
Even Coraline and Tengliu had their understanding turned upside down. The Patriarch who was suppressed so severely was not much weaker than them.
The Patriarch stood up and quickly flew away toward his camp. Then, they all saw the defensive formation activating, which made his actions look like he was running from the most horrifying predator.
Yasenia looked around one last time and smiled. "Nice to meet you."
Everyone's faces turned black, but nobody retorted.
After that event, nobody dared to mess with the Astral Sky Sect, and a few leaders came to make alliances and other deals.
The days were busy but calm. Then, after two weeks, Yasenia's group received an unexpected visit.