Yasenia, Andrea, Angel, Evelyn, Kali, Cecile, Tatyana, Ebirah, Sierra, Valeria, and Mirrory waited until everyone else left before they thought of moving.
While waiting, Yasenia saw a few leaders entering and looking around, making her puzzled. 'Wasn't this only for low-level Epoch Core and below? Why are these high-level Epoch Cores here?'
One of the leaders flew forward and suddenly hit a strange barrier, making him recoil from the impact. Yasenia's eyes flashed with understanding. 'Oh, I see. This clearing is the true entrance that the portal leads to. The high-level people can't go beyond the first tree line.'
Not paying any more attention, she turned toward her girls and asked. "Which direction do we choose?"
Andrea spoke. "Let's go with your gut feeling. Your instincts are quite powerful, and since there are no landmarks or maps, let's test our luck."
The dragoness had nothing against that and decided to go northeast. Her energy circled inside her body, and then she pushed against the ground, shooting forward at a high speed.
She quickly broke the sound barrier, which created a sonic boom, and her figure disappeared into the forest like a blur. This explosive sound echoed ten more times because the girls that followed right after kept up with her speed.
If Yasenia stayed one or two hours more at the entrance, she would've realized that a person she knew quite well had entered, Tang Xian, followed by a group of disguised humans.
While agilely running through the forest and dodging trees and roots, Yasenia curiously looked around. The energy honestly didn't feel that good.
It was certainly better than the overall energy in Distancia, but it felt worse than the energy in their basin.
The few beasts they crossed with were relatively weak, and the Spiritual Herbs they found lying around were on the Magical Rank.
The girls were also using their spiritual sense while they ran deeper into the forest, and they weren't impressed. Also, after all these years, their spiritual sense grew to cover about a kilometer in radius or above ten square kilometers.
Yasenia decided to begin a conversation since it seemed that nothing interesting would happen. She asked Tatyana, Mirrory, and Valeria. "Can you calculate how long it will stay open now that we are inside? All the sources we checked said different time frames."
Yasenia had read the records left behind from previous explorations of this Secret Realm, but the experiences were quite different. However, there were a few facts that matched, and one of them was that the further inside you went, the stronger the creatures, opportunities, and treasures became.
Valeria followed leisurely and answered while looking around, and threads of green energy interlocked in her fingers. "The time frame is indefinite. It seems it needs a trigger to start closing. Everyone will probably know because of an event or something. After all, creating a secret realm that traps people inside is quite the opposite of their purpose."
Ebirah asked cutely. "What's the purpose, Valeria?"
Valeria answered with a smile. "It is to leave behind something people will remember you with or to leave behind an inheritance of some sort. It can also be done to strengthen a sect by leaving behind trials or many more things. They can also be naturally created after the death of a powerful cultivator. Ancient battlefields have quite a few interesting secret realms. Either way, the general motive is to strengthen the new generations by leaving behind your knowledge."
Ebirah nodded. "I see. That's very admirable!"
Yasenia's ears twitched, and she looked sideways, seeing a flash of light. Her sword materialized in her hand and slid sideways while placing the giant blade before herself.
CLANG!
BOOM!
The sound of metal was followed by an enormous explosion that made Yasenia's feet slide backward while she used her tail as an anchor. Her sword was trembling slightly because of the power behind that arrow.
The dragoness's eyes glowed, and her lips arched with bloodthirsty glee. "Haha! Someone attacked me~." Then, she put strength in her legs and shot in that direction fearlessly while an aura filled with battle intent surrounded her. "You are so brave! Now, fight me!"
The girls were stunned for a second and then became enraged, but they were a step too late as a massive explosion of dust engulfed them because of the enormous blast of Yasenia's leg strength when stomping the ground and launching herself forward.
A low-level Epoch Core from the Five Fang Serpent race squinted about ten kilometers away. 'She blocked my [Death Striker Arrow]? That arrow can kill average low-level Epoch cores if taken by surprise… Her strength is above what I got in the reports. Huh? Is she charging forward? Didn't the arrow scare her?'
However, the next second, his body erupted with chills as if a predator had placed their eyes on him. 'Tsk, monster.' He cursed in his mind and began firing arrows toward the approaching Yasenia.
The dragoness saw the barrage of arrows and laughed. It had been so long since someone tried to actually kill her besides that fight against the Abyssal Horror that she had forgotten the thrill of battle. "Little assassin, play with me, and don't break too fast! Hahaha! [Dance In The Firmament]!"
Her footwork became ethereal, and her body moved from side to side, dodging the constant stream of arrows.
She jumped, used her tail on a tree to abruptly change direction, used a branch to spike toward the ground, and then used her powerful legs to burst forward with enormous speed while dodging sideways and placing her tail before her right leg to block an arrow.
The swishing sound, heavy hits on her tail, and constant flashes of light made Yasenia's lips arch further as she decided to accelerate even further. "[Heavenly Constellation Steps, First Sky: Pegasus's Gallop]."
The flow of time appeared to slow down while the following events happened instantly.
From her body, fourteen head-sized white stars spread around her like the Pegasus constellation, with her body in the center of the square. White lines made of pure Star Energy connected those stars and made them glow beautifully.
Then, massive amounts of energy rushed toward her legs as the dragoness's pupils shrank to lines, and the landscape around her stretched to prepare herself for the acceleration.
A few moments earlier, the archer's face twitched as the extremely agile dragoness zoomed through the complicated forest like a fish in the water dodging or parrying his skills. 'So annoying, she has already crossed the five-kilometer mark. I'll begin moving backward when three kilometers are left. Well, the closer, the harder it will be for her to dodge.'
Suddenly, he saw a flash of white light appear around Yasenia, making him frown and blink once a bit longer than usual.
It was just a timeframe so small that usually, it wouldn't matter.
However, after that tiny flash of darkness from the blink, his face changed to one of horror as his objective's grinning face was nothing but a few hundred meters away while the giant sword pointed toward him. 'What in Distancia's name!?'
That distance was basically melee range for people of their level.
He hastily activated his movement technique and tried to run away.
But the dragoness wouldn't let her prey escape. "[Star Dragon Body], [Draconic Star Charge]."
A profound aura spread around faster than the zooming dragoness, making star energies gather in her and creating hundreds of lights that ballooned in the next instant.
Those stars rotated around the sword, and then Yasenia's speed further multiplied.
The man's survival instincts screamed at him, and he used his most powerful defensive skill. "[Emerald Hardening Body]!"
The sound of the tip of Yasenia's sword tip crashing into his chest was the only thing that was heard for an instant.
Then, the monstrous spiral of Stars and Star energy swallowed him and everything in a line behind him.
BOOM!
"ARGH!"
The twisting and powerful energies tried to rip his body apart as continuous explosions shook his body, and his back crashed through tens of trees.
Yasenia dragged the resisting Body Cultivator while constantly damaging him.
When she slowed down, the tip of the sword that only managed to pierce into the bone slightly dislodged, and the body of the Body cultivator spiraled backward. At the same time, the remaining stars bombarded the general area he was being thrown into, creating tens of white explosions.
Yasenia laughed. "You have such a hard body; let's see how long you can resist if I become stronger. [Celestial Cosmos Dress]."
Her blue dress became Empyrean as Sun, Moon, and Star energies rampaged around her, increasing her body strength, regenerating factor, speed, lethality, and every other aspect related to combat.
Her sharp golden eyes saw a shadow trying to escape, and she followed right after with her Pegasus' Gallop, catching up in no longer than ten seconds. "Since you've come to play, how about you remain here forever?"
The man turned around while his bow glowed with an extremely powerful-looking arrow. Yasenia chuckled. "[Draconic Sunset]."
A golden glow engulfed her sword as she lowered it to meet with the arrow at a melee range.
BANG!
Another explosion ensued, pushing Yasenia a few steps back and making the injured man break through another line of trees.
Without giving him a moment to catch his breath, she released a barrage of attacks while pushing him through the forest and destroying everything in her wake.
After three minutes, her smirk widened as her blood pumped through her veins. "[War Intent Level Two]."
Her grin turned even more bloodthirsty as a drop of red tainted her irises.
The man quickly unleashed [Wind Intent Level Three] and tried to accelerate his feeling speed, but War Intent was not a typical intent. It was an amalgamation of many concepts into one.
After the Wars against the Five Shadow Fang sect and the others, the War Intent broke through and now was stronger than ever.
Together with her monstrous speed, Yasenia not only caught up but appeared in front of him while swinging her sword with a brilliant golden glow around it.
The man blocked with his bow, and that was his final mistake.
Yasenia's [Draconic Heart] was already at the peak of the Heaven Rank, almost touching the quasi-transcendent rank.
Like a stick clashing with a shard sword, the bow snapped, and Yasenia's sword landed on his chest, barely slowed down.
SLASH!
A bloody gash opened diagonally while the powerful Sun energy exploded, scorching his body with powerful golden flames.
Without any mercy whatsoever, The dragoness lifted her sword and gathered a hurricane of Sun energy. Then, she used her attacking skill to change the accumulated sun energy into moon energy [Draconic Dusk].
As her sword descended, the air around her cooled down, and her grinning face became indifferent while pure Moon Energy gushed into her.
[Draconic Dusk] shot forward like a massive crescent hundreds of meters long, appearing like an attack that could slice a mountain in half.
The body cultivator fumblingly stood up and saw this massive attack come his way, and his stomach dropped. 'High-level Ethereal Soul? Fuck them, her strength is near Middle-level Epoch Realm…'
BOOOM!
His eyes widened in pain, and he spat blood while the harsh energies shredded his body, creating a bloody trail where he tumbled.
Yasenia jumped upward and stopped above the man, pointing her sword toward him.
The Five Fang Serpent Elder could only look up while a silver glow illuminated the sky, and hundreds of stars surrounded his objective.
In his last moments, he couldn't help but sigh. 'Such a beautiful scenery.'
"[Draconic Midnight: Falling Sky]."
Seemingly bringing the weight of the Moon with her, Yasenia descended like a silver meteor. At the same time, the stars fell even quicker than her, creating a barrage of white explosions that were then swallowed by Midnight's powerful silver energy eruption.
BOOOM!
The floor rippled near the impact area as a gigantic crater was dug by the dragoness's power.
The girls arrived and looked in the middle of the crater as Yasenia spun her sword once to clean all the dirt and blood and store it.
Her energy relaxed, and her dress changed back to its previous blue and revealing design.
Below her, the corpse of the elder was destroyed beyond recognition.
Knowing that Yasenia still had a lot of skills left to strengthen herself, yet she managed to create so much destruction and kill a low-level Epoch Core in less than six minutes while barely taking any damage, they couldn't help but swallow their saliva.
************************************************************
Evelyn: Wow!
Andrea: Wow, indeed.
Kali: Compared with her aggressiveness in our spars, it feels like Day and Night.
Evelyn: Hehehe, I see what you did there~.
Author: Let's welcome today's dear. I summon you!
Luke Groskreutz: Hello!
Angel: Oh! It has been a while since a new person appeared~. Hello~.
Luke Groskreutz: Hello, little Angel.
Yasenia: So, what is your question?
Luke Groskereutz: Well, Yasenia, we recently learned about the types of natural treasures that can be gained, but something didn't click, and my question is, I thought that your celestial pearl was a natural treasure… Is it something else?
Yasenia: No, you are correct. The Celestial Pearl is a Natural Treasure. However, it doesn't fit in the normal qualifications. As you've recently read, the ones I've explained are the most… "Common" ones, even though Natural Treasures are not common at all, hahaha.
Luke Groskereutz: I see, so what kind of Natural Treasure is it?
Yasenia: Well… It's quite strange, to be honest. However, it seems to have a connection with the Celestial Energy. That means that it might be a Unique Natural Treasure. We still don't know exactly what it is, though. It's a very mysterious thing that now has become my Soul Core.
Luke Groskereutz: Not even the seniors know?
Tatyana: I'm not ashamed to say that I don't know exactly what it is besides knowing it is a Natural Treasure!
Mirrory: Hmm, maybe its form is not yet completely revealed because Yasenia is too weak, so I'm still unsure.
Valeria: I haven't heard about a Celestial Pearl, to be honest. It might go by a different name in the past, so now we can't really determine what it is.
Author: And that's that. Thank you for reading~.
Luke Groskereutz: Bye-bye!