After the wolves left, Yasenia turned to look at the rest. "Is there anything more that you want to say? I think I've made my position quite clear. The Demons want to dominate this world, the Divines are also similar, and the Beast group has also started having those intentions. Of the other three foreign groups, I've already talked with the Spirits; the humans have been doing their thing, and the Undead have been as silent as their dead heart."
Yasenia looked around where the Divines, humans, undead, and beasts were looking in this direction with curiosity, each within their own groups. "While I still don't know why all of you people arrived at Distancia so suddenly, I already expected to meet foreign groups eventually."
Then, she stated. "So, if you have nothing else to say or any other provocative comments to make, I would like to start preparing for the event."
Few people snorted and looked away, while others silently returned to their positions.
Yasenia looked at Tengliu and the others and nodded. "See you later."
They all nodded back and flew to their own platforms. The Mermaid Queen left a message before she flew upward. "Both portals for you and the spirits will appear on your platform. I've already changed it so that there aren't any problems with the spirits remaining by your side."
Yasenia acknowledged.
After that, there was nothing other than waiting for the start of the actual event.
As they waited, an exceedingly handsome man with long blonde hair and six soft-looking wings appeared in several places at the same time.
Our dragoness blinked and then realized that it was the work of the formations that were in place so that everyone could see the person speaking.
"Welcome to the [World Summit]. Your host this time will be I, Lornerat, the Sect Master from the first rated power, [Sunless Sect]."
Yasenia tried to recall with her powerful mind. 'The Sunless Sect is a relatively strong first-rated sect that had competed with Nine Sects in the past in several areas. They are located in the northwest of the continent and have at least three Main Cities, each with around 300 million inhabitants. Without us and my maids, the current Astral Sky Sect would be slightly weaker than them, but not by much.'
Lornerat, the man from a winged race, continued.
"We've gathered in the [Mountain of the Coast] for today's event, where all the top powers will fight for resources and supremacy. The participants are, as always, the top 550 powers, an extra 20,000 powers recommended by the top 200 powers from the past World Summit, and 29,450 more applicants who had to test their strength to participate, for a total of 50,000 powers."
Lornerat smiled handsomely. "The weakest participants this year are top-notch Second Rated Sects. Moreover, this year, there are many new and upcoming powers that can shake the foundations established for generations."
Lornerat gave a quick look to Yasenia and the rest of the foreign powers.
Yasenia hummed in her mind. 'No wonder people were so angry. Thanks to my connections, I've squeezed myself into the top 30 without much of a struggle. Even if I don't manage to win, I have the right to invite other powers allied to me for the next World Summit.'
Yasenia blinked. 'Not that it matters much, though. I'll probably be gone by the time the next World Summit happens. After all, World Summits happen every century at the earliest. From what I've read, there have been times when no World Summit was called after more than a millennium.'
The handsome man from the six-winged race continued a speech made to increase the prestige of the World Summit.
His clear yet deep voice, pleasant cadence while speaking, striking appearance, and adequate tone and gestures made the otherwise boring speech quite manageable.
Yasenia nodded. 'No wonder they chose him as a host. Even if he speaks gibberish, there would be people willing to listen.'
Yasenia felt a sudden pinch on her waist, and she turned to look at Tatyana with a puzzled expression. She whispered. "What's wrong?"
Tatyana asked. "Is he good-looking?"
Yasenia looked at the man and nodded, answering objectively. "Naturally."
The pinch got worse, making Yasenia almost gasp. "W-What's wrong, Mom?"
Tatyana snorted. "Nothing."
The dragoness's eyebrows twitched. 'Why is she so moody?'
Evelyn coughed. "Love, she is jealous."
The dragoness looked at Evelyn with an incredulous expression. "What are you talking about?"
The girls looked at their lover helplessly. Their lovely dragoness trusted them so much that the concept of actual jealousy was somewhat vague.
While Yasenia sometimes acted a bit jealous, it was more playful than anything else. So, when facing actual jealousy coming from them, the usual sharp dragoness was at a loss.
However, she wasn't silly. So, after answering Evelyn out of pure instinct, she turned to look at the calm-looking Tatyana with an amused expression. "Why would you be jealous?"
She hugged her tenderly from behind and placed her hands on her stomach, kissing her earlobe gently. "Isn't this little one enough proof of my love?"
Tatyana blushed and snorted. Contrary to her gesture, though, she turned around and snuggled in her arms, followed by taking in a greedy deep breath. "Don't look at good-looking people too much."
Yasenia nodded, and instead of looking at him, she continued listening while pampering not only Tatyana but the rest of her girls as well by using her tail to tickle, hug, or play with them.
After a long introduction that lasted almost 30 minutes, the man spoke.
"Without further ado, let me introduce the rules for the [Mountain Of The Coast World Summit]."
Lornerat waved his hand, and a giant scroll unfolded on top of all the platforms. Another scroll was unfolded below the floating platforms for the rest of the powers to see.
Unlike the top 550, the rest of the powers were in a large stadium-like place, separated into groups and looking upward as one.
With 400 people in each of the 49,450 powers, there were nearly 20 million people attending the summit. All of them were considered "Top powers" around the World, which revealed how vast a cultivation world truly was.
Remember that 75% of those people were all peak-level Ethereal Souls, with the rest all being inside the Epoch Core Realm.
Our girls looked at the scroll that was densely packed with letters, showing several rules.
Tengliu's message reached Yasenia. 'Use your spiritual sense and energy and send it into the scroll.'
Yasenia blinked and did so. All the information was directly imprinted in her mind after her spiritual sense and energy met with the scroll.
Her eyes became hazy for two seconds as her powerful mind organized everything, snapping out of her daze in the next instant. Things like prohibiting breaking through during the event, the maximum cultivation rank for participants being mid-level Epoch Core, the maximum number of participants being five, not being able to deliver lethal strikes maliciously after the other side surrendered, prohibiting the use of temporary enhancing/poison/harming artifacts with the exception of skills, prohibiting the use of outside help for your team, and many more nuances appeared in her mind.
Yasenia sent a message thanking Tengliu after revising everything.
Yasenia thought after internalizing the rules. 'Kali's alchemy is slightly restricted with the ban of poisons and temporary enhancement pills, but there are no major problems for us. Surprisingly, I can't find rules against humans competing. They probably never thought that a human would become strong enough to participate, or these rules were made long before Beast Humans took over Distancia.'
After a while, Yasenia realized that besides some of her treasures being restricted, she could participate almost without considering the rules. 'Beat people until they surrendered, easy.'
After a while, Lornerat spoke. "I hope you've internalized the rules. The competition will be divided into two phases. The first is in an elimination section, where all powers will fight in one large arena. The following event will be a five-against-five tournament with a point system."
"The group battle will be divided into seven fights, four 1 against 1, two 3 against 3, and one 5 against 5. It will be a best of seven, meaning the first group to score four points wins and will pass to the next battle."
Having explained the general phases, Lornerat went in-depth for the first part.
"The first all against all will start at the inner mountain's bottom area. Then, you will have to climb up to the top. To go from level to level, there are small tests, and in between the tests, you can find treasures that you can gather. They are all between low-level Earth and with some that can reach the Heaven Rank. The higher you climb, the better the treasures. Because of how infrequently we use the Summit Mountains, each time they accumulate enough naturally formed treasures to be considered a treasure trove."
Yasenia tilted her head and asked Coraline, who was relatively close to her, through a mental message. "Does nobody enter these mountains when there aren't summits?"
Coraline nodded. "All powers have agreed to protect them and use them as a way to divide everything and avoid conflict. One of the reasons for the lack of large conflicts is the World Summits. The positions of the Nine Sects, Three Empires, and Thirty-Three clans are decided here as well. Very rarely was a "named" top power thrown out of their position by force. After all, there is a certain level of connection and protection between all of us. Your arrival and involvement have stirred the World the most for the last thousands of years."
Yasenia nodded, not feeling apologetic for "stirring the pot."
While this continent looked stale and war-free, Yasenia had seen much higher levels of corruption than in war-engulfed worlds. Because of petty conflict, there were also many deaths, many of them quite worse than being killed at a war.
Naturally, death during the war could also be terrible if, for example, you were captured by the other side. So, neither situation was ideal.
For example, if Yasenia had been an average cultivator instead of who she was, there was no chance that she would have been able to lift the Astral Sky Sect to its current height. The oppression from the Fu Family back in Koran City would've probably ended in a tragic outcome.
Even remaining as a second-rate power would have been a problem without seeking aid from a top power.
Seeking for aid was not bad per se. The problem was that once you became a subordinate sect, the chances of surpassing that sect you'd become part of became increasingly small. After all, the larger sect would send people so that they would fill the positions of power.
This was something Yasenia recently did when assimilating the Assassin sect. While killing the "loyal" people, she also sent a few elders from her Sect to take over important positions.
Using this method, one must be careful of low-level cultivators that might harbor rancor.
After all, you would want to avoid a case of 200 years in the future being attacked by a small fry of the past that had grown exponentially because of some godly chance encounter.
Therefore, it was of utmost importance to improve the living conditions of the low-level cultivators while taking over a sect, even if it would slowly limit the benefits in the future. The important part was creating the "sensation" of being better than before.
This was not a problem for Yasenia, though. Even if she gave just 10% of the benefits that Astral Sky Sect's headquarters gave, she could satisfy this usually demanding condition.
Of course, if the person was a righteous prick who was lost in a delusion, it didn't matter what you did; you would fall into the "enemy" category regardless.