The lottery finished, and everyone started getting ready to be transported.
Tengliu looked at Yasenia from a distance with a frown and mentally asked. 'Are you really going to be alright? You should've already realized which group is the "leader" of the eighth area, right?'
Yasenia turned to look at the silver harpy and nodded. 'They are the [Nine Silent Fang Assassin Sect], right?'
Coraline joined the mental conversation. 'There are plenty of groups who will avoid offending them, and to do so, quite a few will probably not hesitate to group up on you. Unlike normally, you don't have the backing of seniors inside. Even with Eira's strength, there are limits.'
Yasenia smiled at them. 'I know. Don't worry. It is supposedly prohibited from attacking after a call for surrender, right? While I don't trust that mechanism too much, the formation automatically disqualifies anyone who attacks those who had surrendered. After being disqualified, you can't pick up any more treasures, and if you insist on disrupting the event, the killing formation activates. So, the chances of many groups taking this risk are really not that high. Even then, I would just surrender and leave the event.'
Yasenia shrugged. 'We are not participating to win, but to hone ourselves. While there are risks, they fall into the acceptable risks section.'
The seniors looked at the nonchalant dragon with worry, but they didn't insist.
Lornerat, the host, concluded. "Now that everything is in place, let's transport all our participants to their corresponding areas!"
Soluna approached Yasenia and smiled shyly. "Good luck, Yasenia. If we see each other inside, please take care of me."
Yasenia looked down at her with a smile and stepped forward to hug her. Soluna's hair flared up, but her arms obediently went around the soft dragoness's body. "Be careful, Soluna."
Soluna, buried in Yasenia's soft flesh, nodded and spoke in a whisper. "Yes…"
Then, Andrea, Cecile, Kali, Yasenia, and Eira stepped toward their own transportation circle. Before stepping onto it, the dragoness looked around, but she didn't feel any gazes directed at her.
Looking down, she could read the formation lines to discern the nature of the circle. 'The last thing I want is for this thing to have any tricks.'
However, after looking at it closely for five minutes, she couldn't see any problems. Moreover, if there was anything odd, Angel, Tatyana, or any of the maids proficient in formations would've told her.
Andrea knew how cautious her love was, so she asked, knowing why they were waiting in front of the circle. "Everything in place?"
Yasenia nodded. "I can't see anything odd."
Kali chuckled. "Then, let's go."
With a synchronous step, the five of them stepped into the circular formation.
Yasenia's eyesight was filled with white for a moment, and her vision flickered.
Then, when her vision returned to her, the dragoness found herself in the middle of a swamp, knee-deep in muddy water.
Looking up, she saw a rocky ceiling, around 5000 meters upward. 'Hm… Flying stealthily in my dragon form will be tricky. There are no clouds at all. It's just a rocky ceiling.'
By now, Yasenia was 500 meters long without counting the tail and around 200 meters in height while standing on all fours. Her wing span was similar to her body's length, at 600 meters. If one counted the tail, her length was approaching 1000 meters.
Her growth was such that even Cecile, who was the closest to her size-wise, had started becoming a bit small.
Cecile's proportions were 600 meters wing span and around 200 meters tall when standing on her talons. Her three Phoenix tails would stretch behind her majestically for 300 meters. While being enormous, her size lost in volume to a dragon of a similar size.
Meanwhile, Kali's fox form was an entire weight class below Yasenia. She was currently 300 meters long without counting her tails and around 550 if you counted them. Her height was noticeably smaller than Yasenia's, at around 150 meters. She would reach slightly below her shoulders if they were aligned side by side.
However, the three were majestic beasts of massive sizes, rare to see in places like Distancia. If they decided to transform, they would shock many people.
Yasenia, Cecile, Andrea, and Kali looked around attentively while Eira stayed faithfully by their side. Andrea pointed northward from where they were. "There is the pillar to climb to the next area."
Yasenia and the rest looked over and began moving while expanding their spiritual sense.
Their bodies flashed through the swamp, their steps quick enough for them to be running over the water. The surface tension created by their quick steps was more than enough for our girls to feel as if the water was solid ground.
Cecile spoke. "At our pace, we'll take two days to arrive at the pillar."
Kali blinked. "Isn't it a bit unfair for those who appear near it?"
Yasenia titled her head. "I guess? However, we should focus more on our surroundings than on reaching out as soon as possible. We are sharing an area with an assassin group and many other powers that might want to suck up to them. Assassin sects are double-edged because most powers would want them gone as soon as one appears."
Yasenia continued. "However, if an assassin sect manages to reach the top of a continent, that means that its reputation, strength, and influence are deep enough not to be shaken by such things. They are the perfect power to deliver missions to deal with your enemies since, more often than not, as long as you have money, assassin sects that have reached certain heights will aim at anyone. Many low-level struggles use this large assassin powers to tilt wars to their favor."
The girls nodded, understanding the logic behind her words.
Yasenia sighed. "In short, to gain a favor from them, many sects participating will attack us. After all, if they attack us, they will probably be able to request the sect to eliminate [That] annoying enemy."
Kali asked, unsure. "But, wouldn't they be doing enemies out of us?"
Yasenia smiled. "Remember that we are far from being known worldwide. We are just a new power. While we've mingled with the top of Distancia, the middle to low levels still are very ignorant of us."
Kali realized. "That is one of the aims you talked about, right?"
Yasenia nodded. "That's right, honey. We should show our strength without holding anything back this time."
Kali blinked. "So, do I call Valeria from the start?"
Yasenia chuckled. "Only when we are in a pinch. But you can ask Valeria to use a few auras on our level. Treat her as a superior general of your army. If either Valeria or Eira feel that they need to involve themselves, they are more than welcome."
Kali nodded. "Have you heard, Valeria?"
Valeria's nature-like gentle voice echoed in their minds. "I've heard, Kali. Use me at will, as you are my master."
While they zoomed through the swamp, Yasenia's pupils thinned as she sent a mental message to her girls. With seamless coordination, all of them slowed down and hid their auras as best as possible.
Not caring about the muddy water, they all crouched down and submerged their bodies in a particularly deep area. There were a few plants and animals that attacked them from time to time, but a single aura burst incapacitated all of them.
Yasenia commented. "That group seems to be waiting for something. They also failed to discover us thanks to our stealthiness."
They didn't run without any care in the world. They were using a method to hide their aura while running. This kind of stealth method was basic, and almost all cultivators knew some, but it was an art profound enough that Yasenia and the other girls had yet to master the one they were learning.
The better one's proficiency, the stronger the stealth effects. Almost all mortal cultivators would be unable to detect them if they used the technique at the maximum level unless they were close enough to be seen by their eyes.
Cecile asked, her blue eyes shining. "Should we engage?"
Yasenia patted her underwater with her tail. "Not so fast, sweetheart. Let's wait for a few seconds. Remember that our objective is arriving at the pillar."
Cecile snorted. "Aren't we here to hone our skills?"
Yasenia rolled her eyes. "Only the top 1024 groups that arrive at the top are able to participate in the following tournament. There are only five floors, so we'll be late if we engage with every group we see."
Cecile pouted, making Kali and Andrea chuckle.
Yasenia turned to look at them thoughtfully. "Let's try to move around them."
With her order, all five of them moved relatively slowly, using their maximum speed without losing any stealth.
They used around 5 minutes to circle them, and only 10 minutes later, they spotted another group standing still around 5,000 meters from them. Yasenia squinted, feeling something amiss. "Wait. This is strange."
Andrea agreed. "One group being still is possible, but two of them is very improbable."
Kali asked. "Why?"
Andrea explained. "We've just entered the event. Do you think any of the mid-level Epoch Cores need time to rest?"
Kali realized while Cecile commented. "There is another group 30 kilometers in that direction."
Yasenia looked over and made a mental map in her head. Then, she asked. "Sweetheart, can you spot all groups in a radius of 50 kilometers?"
Cecile nodded. "Give me 25 minutes."
Then, Cecile's body flickered in and out of existence as she used her Spatial skills to move by herself.
Yasenia wasn't worried. Cecile was the one spending the most time outside the sect fighting, hunting, and doing similar other activities.
Remember that Cecile's strength was far from being enough to walk unhinged around the forests surrounding the Astral Sky Sect, as wild beasts reaching mid-levels of the Legendary Core Beast realm roamed around densely packed.
Yasenia also asked Kali to summon a few plant creatures and send them looking around and cleaning small monsters.
Around 30 minutes later, Cecile returned. "Here is the map, my love."
Yasenia used energy to clean her hands and grabbed the parchment made out of animal skin. "Hm…"
Seeing their dear frown, Andrea asked. "Is it aimed at us, after all?"
The dragoness titled her head. "But… How did they know where we would land and how to surround the area so quickly? They are close enough that if we engage with any of the groups, the energy waves of the battle will alert the other groups."
Kali asked with a grumble. "Did they do something shady?"
Yasenia nodded. "Without a doubt. The formation we crossed probably wasn't that random, after all. Was it modified to detect our landing spot?"
Andrea blinked. "But, for that, they would need to know which formation we were going to use and even our number, right?"
The dragoness laughed helplessly. "Who knows how they did it? There are 1000 different ways. But it is a fact that we are probably ankles deep in some kind of trap."
Yasenia looked at the map again and spoke. "If we continue forward, it might become hard. Let's go left for a few hours and then continue toward the tower. I don't believe that all groups here are from the same alliance or something. If we feel a fight somewhere, that means that the people there are probably not related to this. When we discover that, let's walk in that direction and take a route toward the central pillar."
The other four nodded, and they backtracked for 30 minutes before circling around the area infested with several groups.
Yasenia was confident in facing two and, with some luck, three average groups at once. Of course, if the mid-level Epoch Cores were above average, facing one group was close to their limits for Kali, Andrea, Cecile, and Yasenia.
After running for two hours, they finally heard the sounds of battle.
Seeing the enormous shockwaves and large explosions in the distance, Yasenia nodded. "Perfect, let's stop and aim toward the pillar again. If we start being surrounded one more time, that means that the problem is with us."
With her words, Yasenia's group tried approaching again.
***************************************************************
Tatyana: Oh? It's been a while.
Yasenia: Indeed.
Evelyn: Isn't it normal for fewer questions to come if the Author takes a while to answer them?
Author: … I'm doing my best, okay? The other novels take a while to write!
Evelyn: Excuses.
Author: … Whatever. I summon you!
Fightnguru: Hello~.
Kali: Welcome. What's your question?
Fightnguru: Well, a chapter pushed my curiosity, and I wanted to ask each of you about what kind of drunk everyone is.
Angel: Drunk? Like, do we like milk or water more? Oh, I like Yasenia's breastmilk the most!
Fightnguru: Not in that way… Also, really? Is it that delicious?
Angel: Yes! Sweet and savory with a perfect consistency that slides down your throat, leaving a relaxing afterstate~.
Fightnguru: I see…
Tatyana: They haven't become drunk ever, Fightnguru.
Fightnguru: Really?
Tatyana: Would I lie? Remember that Alcohol, more known as wine in cultivation backgrounds, is something that an average cultivator doesn't really know about. They might like strong drinks, but to intoxicate a cultivator, you need very strong substances. Even a whiff of a low-level Spiritual Rank wine would kill a mortal. After all, alcohol is a kind of poison.
Fightnguru: I never thought about it like that…
Tatyana: Hence, they are unaware… Well, maybe Andrea has experience?
Andrea: Haha, well, I know what you are talking about, at least, but I've never been drunk.
Fightnguru: Well, it will be interesting to see in the future.
Tatyana: That's for sure, haha.
Author: And that's all for today~. Bye-bye, dears.