The sight of the entire sea of people being deterred by fifty people was majestic. It was to the point that if someone recounted it, few would believe it.
One of the elders from the Garuda Clan spoke, his voice still carrying a hint of fear from the recent battle against the maids. He was one of the few that was lucky to survive after being hit. "Lady Yasenia, now that the Patriarch is dead, we have no reason to continue fighting! Please, recall these fairies and tell them to stop!"
Yasenia and the maids heard him, so Alaia turned to look at her Young Miss to ask. "What do we do with them, Young Miss?"
Yasenia pondered and looked at the high-level beast humans.
When her golden eyes landed on them, they felt as if death was looking straight at them. 'What should I do? Even a rabbit bites when cornered, not to mention 30 million people. Some of them should have life-saving treasures on them… Well, the formation Mom, Selena, and Angel created is still functioning, so they can't reach into their spatial rings. However, some might have taken out the treasures before the formation spread. In short, attacking them is quite risky.'
After a few seconds of weighing her options, Yasenia decided.
"I can let you leave."
Her words were like the light at the end of the tunnel, making most of the people eagerly wait for Yasenia's words.
"But…"
When Yasenia purposely trailed her words after saying "but," those who saw hope felt their stomach sinking. 'Can you speak all at one!? Why are you extending our suffering!'
The dragoness continued. "You must tell me who planned this and why. Then, I'll consider letting everyone go." Yasenia squinted. "Of course, if you lie to me, I'll have to reduce the World's population by a notch."
Hearing her words, many sighed in relief. Although the second part of her statement was quite frightening, since these people had suffered and were focused on surviving, they decided that leaving this place was the most important thing.
One of the wolf elders stepped forward and hastily kneeled, blurting everything he knew. "Lady Yasenia, please forgive us! We were ignorant and couldn't see-."
Yasenia interrupted. "Get to the point. Pointless flattery annoys me."
The wolf elder stuttered. "Y-Yes. Patriarch Fu Lang Zu planned it, with the support of the Ocean Chasm Empire, to measure Lady Yasenia's faction strength and influence. There are a few long-range observation formations in place that have been transmitting what happened on this battlefield to a few high-level people. However, after Lady Yasenia's group deployed the formation, I felt the connection with those formations was cut off."
Yasenia nodded, feeling that it was normal. Usually, long-range observing formations use spatial measures to increase the range to shocking distances. Since Tatyana's spatial formation was a type of space-sealing and solidifying array, there was no chance for those low-level formations to spy on them.
While Yasenia thought of this, he said something that caught her attention.
"Other than that, this was also used for misdirecting Lady Yasenia's focus."
The dragoness showed confusion and interest. "Misdirect my attention?"
The Wolf Elder nodded and continued. "Patriarch Fu Lang Zu is about to break through, so he didn't want any distractions."
Yasenia looked at him strangely. "Then, why did he attack me at first? If he had never attacked me, I probably would've ignored him."
The Wolf Elder coughed, his face awkward. "He thought you wouldn't have the means to retaliate as a new power. His first attacks against your power were also made as a distraction, but the plan failed when you decisively counterattacked with the plague." The Wolf Elder added. "Initially, he believed that even if 30 million troops weren't enough to defeat you, at least you would take a few years to fend them off. However…"
The Wolf elder looked at the cowering army, feeling helpless. 'Who would've thought that we weren't dealing with people but with monsters in a beast human skin?'
The dragoness was still confused, but Fu Lang Zu probably had deeper thoughts that she wasn't aware of. However, those thoughts probably crumbled like a stack of paper cards when she acted with enough strength and momentum to crush everyone.
The dragoness paused as something flashed in her mind, and she looked at him while squinting. "Wait, but I severed two of his limbs. Breaking through before healing them is stupidity in itself."
To heal a cultivator's limb, a person must consume a mighty treasure and slowly regrow the body's meridians among all the complicated nerve systems and everything else.
While healing the limbs without a treasure was possible, the after-effects were detrimental for the cultivator.
When reconstructing a severed limb, a cultivator used their soul-memory as a mold to help guide the body's reconstruction. Soul memory was not needed when something of the arm remained. The body had those parts as a "backup" and could slowly be reconstructed from there.
But if the entire arm were gone, the body would not know where to start rebuilding, and instead, it would create a stump to close the wound. OF course, all of this was true until a cultivator crossed the mortal realms. After that, regrowing severed limbs was not complicated as long as the soul remained intact.
Now, what happens if someone breaks through while their limbs are gone? Well, when someone breaks through, the soul's memory is renewed.
Not entirely, but there was a degree of "reset."
Otherwise, imagine if a cultivator became more handsome because of a pill or something. When breaking through, the body would revert the changes while using the soul-memory.
This was one of the reasons healing pills didn't work on Kali. After that terrible thing happened to her, she closed herself off and began cultivating, relentlessly breaking through many levels. Add to it that the poison she was afflicted with affected the soul. So, by now, her soul-memory was her scarred body.
Even if Kali sliced her arm off and regrew it, it would regrow with the scars.
In conclusion, breaking through while having severed limbs increased the difficulty of recovery of said limbs tenfold. The only exceptions were creatures with strong innate healing capabilities like phoenixes, undead, vermillion birds, dragons, nature foxes (Kali still wasn't one when she gained her scars), three-legged crows, hydras, and other beings related to such legendary creatures.
As a wolf-related creature, Fu Lang Zu didn't have regenerative powers that would aid recovery while breaking through.
If Yasenia could think of all of this, there was no reason Fu Lang Zu wouldn't.
The Wolf Elder acknowledged her words, and he commented. "Patriarch Fu Lang Zu has a powerful Dual Cultivation Technique, and since the marriage of Patriarch and Lady Zephyrith is going to be in less than ten years, he would be able to make a complete recovery while breaking through. There is no risk for after effects as long as he consummates his marriage with her."
The dragoness realized and nodded thoughtfully. She smiled wryly in her head. 'Thankfully, Sierra is not here, or she might have stormed to his territory to kidnap Zephyrith away.'
Yasenia thought of something and asked. "Did they already dual cultivate?"
The Wolf Elder shook his head. "Lady Zephyrith won't accept him until the Patriarch has a 100% chance of a breakthrough. With the limb problem, the Patriarch needs to do some preparations before breaking through. That's why the wedding is in ten years or so. If not, it would've happened before the summit four years from now."
Yasenia nodded, feeling a bit relieved. 'If they had already dual cultivated, Sierra would've felt heartbroken. Although being pure isn't extremely important, being the first of your partner is always a memorable thing.'
The dragoness didn't really care much. She wouldn't have accepted Andrea, Kali, and Tatyana if she did.
'What should I do with this? Now that I've broken another of his plans, he will probably be unable to stay still, right?'
Then, after thinking for a moment, she spoke toward her maids. "Doriel, contact Zephyrith to see how she is before news of the defeat here spread. I fear that Fu Lang Zu will resort to drastic methods if he learns about what happened here. He might force Zephyrith, with his authority as the Patriarch, to break through quicker. Zephyrith won't be safe at that time, regardless of her strength."
Doriel nodded and took out a talisman, breaking it.
After a refined and complex spatial fluctuation, she disappeared. While the formation stopped spatial movement, it wasn't difficult to make exceptions.
Yasenia looked at the rest of the army and decided not to kill them.
Slaughtering these 30 million people would gain her nothing but a few treasures.
The dragoness paused. 'Not a few, quite a few treasures. The high-level people must have many things in their rings.'
Her eyes moved toward the rings with a greedy look, and she spoke righteously. "Cough. Okay, you've fulfilled my conditions. I'm not someone who goes back in her words. I can let you leave with your lives, but you must leave your spatial rings behind."
Angel, Kali, Tatyana, Mirrory, and Valeria almost burst into laughter. 'Greedy Dragon.'
Meanwhile, Tengliu and the others looked at the materialistic look in the previously imposing dragon and felt their lips twitch. 'Should I give her an expensive gift to make friends with her?'
Of course, many were not willing. After all, a few of them had their precious things in their spatial rings.
Yasenia was confused. 'You came to a war with important things in your rings?'
Well, our dear dragoness was here with her spatial ring filled to the brim with many important items, but let's forget that momentarily. After all, the dragoness was confident that escaping was not difficult, even if she couldn't win.
What do you say? This logic can also apply to the people who came with an army of 30 million people to deal with a few thousand?
That's beside the point. But alas, let's not let pesky logic get in the way of a good story, shall we?
Anyway, Yasenia could see the reluctance on the faces of these people and commented. "This entire place is spatially locked. Even if you want to, you can't leave. Of course, you can choose to flee in all directions. However, if you try to flee, we will attack. So, place your spatial rings on the ground and leave, or flee and try your luck at who lives and who dies."
The leaders and people in the army were speechless. 'A bandit! She is a bandit!'
Yasenia felt their gazes and coughed, looking sideways. "They made me lose time. Can't I have them pay me?"
'Pay with the entire accumulated fortunes of 30 million people? Shameless!'
As Yasenia forced them to do something many disagreed with, hostility began brewing in their eyes.
However, when that happened, the sky above the army was suddenly filled with a black cloud, and countless lightning bolts started raining on the ocean of people for three seconds.
After those lightning bolts stopped, 100,000 people died, all having the strength in the Ethereal Soul realm.
Alaia's voice spread around. "If someone dares look at Young Miss with hostility again, you know the outcome. Now, leave your rings behind or die."
Only now did the people remember the despairingly powerful dragon woman standing respectfully behind Yasenia.
With that, many began throwing their spatial rings to the ground, and even the Epoch Core people did so. Some tried to be clever and wanted to take a ring stealthily while leaving, but before such thoughts even completely formed, they were squashed when the spatial rings disappeared as soon as they let go of them.
Most people were confused about why the spatial rings vanished, but after looking at Tatyana's group, they saw a pile of rings stacked in a single place. Moreover, the pile of rings was growing by the second.
The spatial formation Tatyana and the others set up was transferring the rings after they were outside the influence of the cultivator, transporting all rings toward them.
Yasenia smiled when she saw the large pile of rings stacking up and waved her hand. "You can leave. I've already asked them to undo the spatial locking formation."
The army of 30 million looked at the small mountain of treasures for a single moment, thinking if it was worth it to attack to recover that. Still, after looking at the hovering yellow-scaled dragon woman holding the spear, they resentfully looked away and left.
Yasenia ignored them and landed with sparkling eyes before the large pile of treasures. There were at least 19 cubic meters of spatial rings in the pile. "I'm rich! Hahaha!"
The girls exchanged glances. They didn't know whether to laugh or cry at her money-grubber expression.
************************************************************
Kali: The war is over.
Yasenia: This was more of a skirmish than a full-blown War.
Andrea: Well, it is one of the biggest we've participated in.
Yasenia: That's true.
Author: I summon you!
Randomplant: Hello!
Angel: Hello~.
Randomplant: Well, do cultivators produce energy or absorb it from the environment? And what happens if a high-level cultivator (transcendental or higher) spends a long time in a young world where that level of power is not yet possible? What happens to the world or the cultivator?
Valeria: Let's answer one by one. For the first, it is both. Cultivators produce energy in their Dantians at a certain rate, but they can also absorb the surrounding energy and purify it to refill themselves. So, if two cultivators fight in a barred land or in a land filled with energy, they will be able to fight for a longer period and use stronger skills in the place with the most energy.
Randomplant: I see.
Valeria: Then, a cultivator can actually fall in level. If they are locked away in a place where there is no energy, their bodies will be unable to keep up with all the processes, and they will eventually fall to a lower cultivation level. However, this doesn't mean that they lose the foundation they laid out.
Valeria: If that cultivator goes to an energy-rich place, they would regain their previous strength after a certain amount of time. Even if they have fallen to the Body Modification Realm and they were a Unification Realm, they won't need to overcome tribulations again.
Randomplant: Oh? That's interesting.
Valeria: Finally, the Heavens won't allow a high-level cultivator to live in a low-level world unless they are sealed or in a formation to deceive the world.
Valeria: If the high-level cultivator decides to come either way, they must fight the Heavens until either side dies. And, well, surprise, the Heavens very rarely lose. Even if they lose, the cultivator doesn't win since they are cursed for killing a Heavens. Other heavens will attack if they appear in any World with an existing Heaven without disguising themselves after gaining the curse.
Valeria: Worlds without Heavens exist, but they are pretty rare, and they are usually the Universe's trash dump, where the evilest of all gather. For ordinary cultivators, they are extremely dangerous.
Randomplant: Hahaha, I see. Thanks for answering!
Valeria: No problems, child.
Author: And that's all for today! Bye-bye~.