The people from the Assassin Sect saw the majestic dragon return with injuries all across its body. But seeing her injuries made them feel fearful instead of happy; after all, their Sect Leader was not here. Moreover, [Celestial Dragon Breath] had actually scared the grand majority of the spectating people, and they were trembling while the giant dragon swam toward them.
They all began murmuring between each other with frowns.
"Did that dragon win?"
"How can a dragon be so strong? Weren't they a low-level beast?"
"Right? It's impossible for a dragon to surmount so many levels and fight equally. Any other dragon would've been dead in the first exchange."
"Well, she is bigger than any beast I've ever seen. Although she still can't compare with those creatures from the depths."
One of the elders frowned and shouted. "Silence! Prepare for battle!"
Once Yasenia joined her own group, she asked while looking at the thousands of cultivators preparing for battle. "Did you stop them from joining the battle?"
Alaia bowed and looked up. "Yes, Young Miss."
The enormous dragon nodded, and Kali approached with a worried look. "Open your mouth, love."
Kali was even smaller than Yasenia's eyeball, so the sight of such a small creature ordering the enormous being was quite a sight. Still, our lovely dragoness docilely obeyed her and opened her maw.
Kali had to swim backward to avoid being sucked in by the water entering Yasenia's mouth. Still, she managed to throw two green pills in the meantime. The pills followed the water, and after Yasenia gulped a mouthful of water with the two pills, she closed her giant mouth.
Yasenia instantly felt the healing effects as the healing waves unraveled and traveled through her veins and meridians.
In the meantime, one of the elders from the Assassin sect spoke aloud. "Dragon, you've already taken your revenge. Do you really want to fight us until the end?"
Yasenia turned her large dragon head in their direction and fixed her eyes on the mermaid holding two short swords. 'Her strength is similar to the merman.'
Her nose twitched, being sharp enough even to discern scents underwater, and she was able to pick up the merman's scent from her body. 'Hm? Are they a couple?'
The mermaid was normal-human sized, so she was a bit doubtful of how she would pair up with a five-meter-tall merman, a creature three times the average height of a human. 'Well, whatever.'
Yasenia looked at Kaleina, looking up at her with sparkling eyes together with Angel, Flame, and Soluna. Remembering how they wanted to steal her baby, the rational mind that told her to move to negotiations felt momentarily clouded with rage.
Still, she closed her eyes for a second and kept in that rage. However, she wasn't going to deal with them as usual. The punishment for attacking her little baby would be harsh, even if she had vented some of her anger in her recent fight.
"Mermaid, we'll kill all of you."
The mermaid's eyes cooled down, ready to attack, but Yasenia continued.
"However, I'll give you one chance and only one."
The mermaid and everyone else listened closely.
Yasenia looked at them, her wings leisurely moving to keep her dense body afloat. If she didn't move, she would sink down. "Surrender to me. Naturally, those who surrender will only be able to do so after taking a restrictive Heavenly oath. However, if more than 30% of each group is averse to surrendering, then we'll have to fight."
Yasenia squinted. "Don't think that you can buy time and wait for the mermaid race to come. That's the worst you can do. If they really arrive, they will take my side." Yasenia saw skeptical looks, so she added. "Whether you believe it or not, that's the truth."
Yasenia's ethereal voice reverberated around, like Heaven's ultimatum.
"Choose."
Then, as if to increase the sense of oppression brought by a small-mountain-sized dragon, all the maids behind Yasenia flashed around her and released their auras unhinged.
With a muted explosion, even space cracked as the powerful aura of the high-level maids twisted the world around them. The tempestuous energy vortex resulting from their aura release was enough to force the tens of thousands of beings to take a step back.
Soluna found it interesting, so she also stepped forward and joined the maids. The Spirits naturally wouldn't let their own princess on their own, so they all released their auras.
Then, the world almost collapsed.
The six peak-level Fifth Realm spirits were like concentrations of their elements that suddenly awakened. The water around them combined with their wills, gaining several forms and shapes.
The water around Embera began to boil, the one around the water spirit began to come under her control, etc.
With everything combined, it felt as if Immortals had descended in front of them.
Yasenia first spoke to the maids. "We will swallow them and rename them to [Astral Sky Abyss Sect]. They will be our first step to solidify our underwater foundations."
Then, added as she began moving toward the group accompanied by her maids and the spirits. "Surrender or perish! Those who surrender will be accepted under our banner. Those who resist will be eliminated!"
Most people saw the dragon rushing at them, accompanied by another sixty equally terrifying beings, and utterly scared from her previous show of might, they all began surrendering.
"I surrender!"
"Please, don't kill me!"
"I give up, I give up!"
"I never was even fond of this sect anyway! I give up!"
After a few cowardly people shouted aloud their current feelings, it was like a chain reaction. The elders and sect members who wanted to fight could only see helplessly how the grand majority of people turned and fled toward the sect, separating from the group.
By the time Yasenia arrived in front of them, the group had reduced to a pitiful 700 cultivators. Yasenia squinted and lifted her arm, a clear sign of the order she was about to give.
The seven hundred people had around seven high-level Epoch Core cultivators in their ranks, a far cry from the initial 35. Those seven could clearly feel that more than ten people on the other side had cultivation levels above theirs, which could only mean that there were more than ten peak-level Epoch Cores in front of them.
Still, these seven hundred were loyal, and one of them, the mermaid, shouted. "This is our sect! Regardless of how our end will only be an honorable one! If you want to swallow us, we'll make sure to at least peel one layer of your skin!"
Yasenia sneered with her eyes filled with killing intent. "A bunch of bastards that aim to kidnap a child have no right to an honorable death. Use the suppressing formation and capture as many as you can. They'll make good materials for future experiments."
Then, her arm fell.
The fifty maids, seven spirits, Cecile, Andrea, Ebirah, Evelyn, Sierra, Kali, and Angel, rushed forward. Yasenia stayed back together with Tatyana, Kaleina, and Flame.
However, she didn't stay back for nothing. Her [War Intent] spread like a tide, instantly enveloping the entire battlefield, and her [Monarch Intent] followed right after, making every ally feel her authority.
With [Cosmos Dragon Imperial Suppression] enhancing both intents and her presence, Yasenia controlled the entire battlefield and began conducting a perfectly coordinated attack.
Every single ally moved as if they were part of a single organism, moving between the 700 people like tigers in a herd of sheep.
Death, after death, after death followed Yasenia's commands, shaving the 700 people down to 400 in less than a minute.
Moreover, between those 400, only 200 were able to continue to fight.
The people resisting became pale as not even one of them had been able to land a significant blow on anyone.
It was a complete and utter massacre.
When three minutes passed, Yasenia stopped using her intent and stopped commanding. The battle was over, leaving the seven high-level Epoch Cores alive, and eliminating about 80% of the peak-level Ethereal Soul cultivators.
The ones fighting snapped out of the battle trance induced by the dragon and blinked in wonder. 'That was an experience.'
The girls had never been really commanded as they did today. The feeling of being connected to other people as they danced through the battlefield, dodging even before they sensed the attack, attacking places where there was nothing but suddenly a person appeared because of the battlefield changes, or coordinating with someone in a coordinated assault that left them helpless left an extremely satisfying aftertaste.
Evelyn exclaimed after shouting, her violet eyes shining as she launched herself to hug the snout of the giant dragon. "UOO! THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!"
Even the spirits couldn't help but look back at the majestic creature slowly moving her sky-shrouding wings. 'She managed to influence us enough to make us obey her?'
Of course, they didn't resist too much other than their instinctual resistance. But even then, Yasenia was able to not only influence them but also coordinate them with people they had never fought with before and create a seamless battle without major mistakes.
The worst injury any of them received was a punch or a kick that they blocked with their bodies, creating a small reddish patch of skin that had healed by now.
Meanwhile, Yasenia became cross-eyed as she looked at the tiny human hugging her nose and smiled. The girls, looking from the sides, burst into a peal of loud laughter at the silly image. 'Why is our dragoness so cute? Hahaha.'
After that, Yasenia moved toward the front of the sect and looked at one of the elders. "Open the defensive formation."
The elder approached with cold sweat falling through his back and coughed. "Sorry, Lady Dragon, only the sect master can activate and deactivate the formation."
Yasenia nodded and looked at Angel. "Open it, Baby."
Angel nodded and approached.
Twenty minutes later, the elders had shocked faces as they guided everyone into the sect. '2-20 minutes to unravel one of the strongest defensive formations in the continent?'
After that, it was a complete take-over.
However, it didn't take longer than two days to suppress the entire sect.
It was still not in a usable state, but the groundwork for assimilation after participating in the summit was done.
Naturally, a battle of that scale did not go unnoticed, and a few people from the mermaid clan arrived to see what was going on.
After knowing that Yasenia was the one causing it, the Mermaid Queen arrived in person, which is why they could assimilate the entire first-rated sect so quickly.
When the elders of the assassin sect saw that the Mermaid Queen truly took Yasenia's side, they were grateful in their minds that they decided to surrender.
The connections Yasenia cultivated during her over 10-year stay on the Continent came in handy at a time like this. Many clan leaders sent a few people congratulating Yasenia on "setting up" a new sect. Nobody commented that Yasenia stole it because the situation was quite clearly the Assassin Sect's fault.
So, they all closed one eye and left the other open as they saw Yasenia swallow an entire first-rated aquatic sect.
By the time everything was finished, only 10 hours were left before the start of the summit.
Kaleina had been in an extremely good mood because she could see her Mommy fight and also saw how she ate a first-rate sect at record speeds.
Soluna and the spirits also got to know Yasenia again, looking in awe during those two days as Yasenia meticulously and systematically broke down and absorbed the sect.
Yasenia called a few of the non-maid elders and stationed them in the now new sect called [Astral Sky Abyss Sect] to take care of things until then.
She also made sure to send Ghana a letter to inform her about it and coordinate with the elders here to link and reform their laws to theirs.
It would take around one and a half years without the Mermaid Queen's help, but with her, it would probably be done in just a few months.
Having everything set up, Yasenia could forget about it and focus on the upcoming summit.