Tengliu and other leaders approached when Yasenia was finishing her storytelling. The maids became alert, just in case, but overall, the leaders had no problems approaching.
"Little Yasenia! How is everything going? Did you have trouble?"
The dragoness turned and laughed. "Some, but overall, it was a nice experience."
Tengliu nodded with a smile. "Good. Did you see my girls? They came out a bit earlier than you."
The dragoness nodded. "We saw each other but didn't cross paths."
Tengliu nodded while crossing her arms. "I see."
Coraline approached Andrea and tip-toed to pat her head. "How was everything, Andrea? Where you hurt?"
Andrea shook her head with a shy smile. Since Coraline took a liking to her, she treated her like her own child, making our tall and strong heroic woman feel a bit shy. "Don't worry. I'm perfectly fine."
Coraline smiled. "Good."
Their groups began talking with each other and exchanging a few opinions.
In that manner, one day passed, then two, and finally three.
Yasenia looked at one of the maids guarding the situation down below and asked. "How many groups have exited?"
The maid answered respectfully. "Young Miss, because we are unsure of how many appeared after you left, our numbers are a bit inaccurate. But it should be between 900 and 920."
Yasenia nodded thoughtfully. "That's quite a few." The maid smiled and approached. "Are you worried about Soluna, Young Miss?"
The dragoness nodded. "The fourth floor was honestly a bit scary. I don't know if spirits know formations, and without them, that place is a complete deathtrap."
The maid looked at Yasenia for a few moments, making Yasenia aware of her gaze. The dragoness turned and asked with a smile. "Ask away. Is there something in your mind?"
The human maid struggled for a second and finally asked. "Young Miss, although I shouldn't ask this… What are your intentions toward that spirit?"
Yasenia blinked. "Who? Soluna?"
The maid nodded, making the dragoness turn her head. "What do you mean? We get along quite nicely because I can touch her, and our energies somehow resonate. There are no strange feelings between us."
The maid nodded, thoughtful. Yasenia smirked. "If you are asking it is because you've seen a sign of something being wrong. Can you tell me?"
The maid shook her head. "I'll refrain for now, Young Miss. I don't want to confuse you with uncertain guesses."
Yasenia nodded. "Well, that's understandable."
Right as they finished speaking, they saw Cecile slowly walking from the distance. It was currently quite late, and the moon and stars could be seen from the hole in the top of the mountain.
Their light softly shone through, illuminating the place they were in. In that picturesque landscape, the Moon Phoenix's small walk was mesmerizing.
The elegant white and blue dress flowed with her steps. Two pairs of large silver wings similarly danced with her dress, and her platinum blonde hair slowly swung to the tune of the night. Similarly, her three phoenix tails were visible as she walked, appearing and disappearing from sight as they gently swung in harmony behind her.
The maid smiled. "Young Miss, Lady Cecile is really beautiful."
Yasenia chuckled lowly. "She is. Like an unsullied goddess walking among mortals."
The maid chuckled. "Her face is honestly peerless. Such defined, sharp, yet beautiful facial features are rare."
Cecile arrived and lifted an eyebrow. "Had enough praising me?"
Yasenia laughed and stepped forward, hugging her. "Never enough. Why did you come, sweetheart?"
Cecile smiled softly and spoke. "Soluna is out. I thought you would like to know."
Yasenia lifted her eyebrow and moved with Cecile after saying goodbye to the maid.
They arrived at the spot where they could look down and saw a perfectly intact Soluna stepping out leisurely. However, her current self was highly different from the usual cute and happy Soluna.
A freezing mist surrounded her body; her face was completely cold, and her hair was mostly silver. However, in the coldness, hints of solar fire could be seen, creating a strange burning silver ice phenomenon in which the ice not only did not melt but got colder as the flames burned.
The aura radiating from her was also terrifying to the point that even Yasenia became solemn. The air around Soluna swirled as it was utterly under her control, and even the energy flowed as if trying to entangle with her.
With just a glance, all the groups gathered there took a few steps back, not daring to come close to her.
Andrea and the rest of the girls have been here since the beginning. Once they saw the current majestic and imposing Soluna, Andrea sighed. "She is really strong."
Evelyn blinked, stunned. "That energy control… It's insane."
Angel nodded with an unusually serious expression. "She is well above me in energy control."
Mirrory commented. "Her energy control alone accounts for something of similar strength to a Level 6 intent. Honestly, all of you but Angel, Kali, and Yasenia have very little chance, if any, to win against her."
Kali blinked. "Me?"
Mirrory commented. "You have Valeria, so of course. You can win without a fight; just let Valeria release her spirit aura, and she will kneel down in reverence without any control."
Kali nodded. "I see."
Cecile asked. "Do I really have no chance of winning?"
Mirrory looked at her and told her to close all your subjective thoughts and look at her objectively. Imagine a fight with her.
Cecile nodded and turned, looking at her intensely. Cultivators had good instincts, so even if they didn't know the depths of the other side, it wasn't that complicated to make a general good assessment as long as they bothered doing them.
Of course, this instinct differed from person to person, and many completely ignored them out of inflated ego, arrogance, or anything else.
Speaking of arrogance, many cultivators were arrogant because they felt they were gaining strength. If someone who had previously been unable to lift a cow could now slap mountains to smithereens, their ego would naturally grow.
Living beings are very self-centered, many times ignoring that others are just like them and making heavy mistakes.
Cecile simulated a battle in her mind, taking into account that she had seen around 20% of Soluna's depth, and tried fighting her in her mind.
The girls saw the usual expressionless Cecile begin to frown as cold sweat built up. After 5 minutes, Cecile opened her eyes and took in a deep breath.
Knowing her friend, Evelyn asked with a smirk. "How are your chances of winning, Cecile?"
Cecile pondered and answered honestly. "Less than 10%... It can be lower if the strength I guessed she has is wrong."
Evelyn whistled. "What a little monster."
Mirrory nodded. "That's a fair assessment. I won't tell you the real odds. But just know that Soluna would be almost unmatched at the same level. Of course, you girls can face her being at a lower level, but that would be impossible if all of you weren't amazingly well-geared for your level and didn't have extraordinary cultivation techniques to aid you.
As they discussed, they saw Soluna's body release a visible ripple of energy, spread outwards at an unstoppable pace. The leaders of other races frowned, but nobody stopped it because, first of all, they didn't know how to. Second of all, the energy ripple felt ethereal and untouchable.
When that energy crossed through them and landed on Yasenia, the cold and emotionless spirit changed like a coinflip, becoming excited as she looked upward. With her exotic double voice, Soluna shouted. "Yasenia!"
The girls burst into laughter as Soluna waved frantically their way, looking nothing like the threatening Empyrean Spirit she was.
The rest of the spirits who had listened to Yasenia's story secretly sighed in relief. To say that they weren't worried was a lie, as the things Yasenia described were honestly a bit annoying.
Of all of them, they were curious as to how Soluna managed to pass the boulder trial.
Once Soluna flew up and landed on their shared platform, Yasenia stepped out and opened her arms.
Soluna's face heated up as she dove into her arms. "Yasenia~."
The dragoness asked, slowly caressing her silver and golden hair. "How was it? Difficult?"
Soluna shook her head as she looked up with her exotic Sun and Moon pupils. "It was a bit boring, and some people were really stupid and attacked me."
Yasenia laughed. "Well, they maybe thought that since you were alone, you were easy prey."
Soluna titled her head. "Isn't it the opposite? If I'm alone, it means I'm quite strong, right?"
Yasenia smiled wryly. "Touché."
Yasenia guided her toward the others, and Soluna spoke to the other Spirits. "I'm back!"
Embera scolded playfully. "Are we now less important than Yasenia? You completely ignored us!"
Soluna blushed, her hair going up in flames. "Y-You… Um…"
Embera's smile stiffened. "Don't answer."
Soluna coughed, looking away guiltily.
The water spirit asked, curious. "How did you pass the boulder trial, Soluna?"
Soluna frowned. "So annoying. I had to melt it because it was so heavy."
Andrea chocked. "Y-You, cough, you managed to melt that?"
Soluna nodded innocently. "It took a bit of time, only eight days."
Yasenia realized. "No wonder we didn't see each other."
Soluna nodded. "I was in a bad mood for the rest of the journey."
Kali asked. "What about the formations of the fourth floor?"
Soluna blinked. "What formations?"
Yasenia commented. "Um, the ones in the Ruined City?"
Soluna tilted her head again. "Ruined city? Wasn't the fourth floor a prairie?"
The dragoness's lips twitched. "What about the traps?"
Soluna blinked. "What traps?"
Yasenia gave up. "How was the fourth floor, Soluna?"
Soluna shrugged. "Easy. There were some silly explosions from time to time, but they were made of pure energy, so they couldn't really hurt me."
The spirits, having listened to Yasenia's tale, became speechless. 'Princess, you were deceived by the trial!'
The girls also guessed what had happened and looked at Soluna with wry smiles.
Remembering something, Yasenia asked. "So, what number are you?"
Soluna answered with a wide smile. "987!"
Yasenia nodded. "So, we are almost done…"
While thinking as such, Yasenia felt the presence of someone appearing behind her back at a safe distance. However, Yasenia frowned because she felt it was only because the other party allowed her to. 'Since when was he there?'
Looking at her maids stealthily, she saw that all of them had their hands on their weapons, ready to strike, while also playing the fool as if they couldn't detect him.
The man surrounded by shadows said. "Act as if I'm not here and answer. Where are the people of my sect?"
Yasenia turned around and walked slowly toward the sofa, ignoring his words. "Why should I answer? No, what tells you that I should know the answer? You know our relationship; we don't get along."
The man surrounded by shadows frowned. "You are currently within the reach of my sword. If you really want to test your luck, go ahead."
The dragoness smirked as she crossed her legs and sat without any care. "Well, I've been quite lucky since birth. Go ahead and try it."
The assassin sect leader frowned deeper and then retreated.
After he left, all the maids stealthily stopped holding their weapons. He hadn't sensed it, but the second he appeared, many eyes landed on him.