Yasenia closed the door behind her silently and placed a security measure so that it could only be opened from the inside. After doing so, she stretched her body with a satisfied smile. "That was nice~." Then, pondering, Yasenia muttered. "Should I visit my other dears now or later? Hmm."
The dragoness moved through the complex halls of the previous sect created for assassins, looking around as her feet lightly landed on the marble-like floor. She was currently wearing no shoes, just her innate blue dress. The dress's revealing nature made it feel as if you could see when you couldn't, giving that tempting edge to those who spotted the seductive woman.
Yasenia approached a wall and pushed a tile in, activating some sort of non-energy mechanism that opened a secret passage. While looking at it, she sighed, feeling exasperated. "These halls have so many secret routes and other hidden features… it's quite annoying." Then she smiled. "Thankfully, we could do something about it."
When they took over the sect, they left behind a few formation masters with plans from Angel and other high-ranking formation masters. Then, while Yasenia and the rest fought on the summit during the last months, they slowly overwrote the defensive formation and changed it.
When they arrived this time, Angel, Selena, and many others used their work to rewrite it altogether. This was done not only to make it much safer and more secure but also to give it extra abilities, like the power to control and see the entire sect.
The day after they managed to do it, Yasenia activated it and gave a look at what was hidden. The dragoness remembered that time, making her lips twitch. 'While I knew that there were hidden rooms, I didn't expect that more than seventy percent of the sect was made out of hidden passages. Moreover, while I expected a few hidden people from the previous sect, I didn't expect to find an entire nest of hiding rats.'
Yasenia passed her hand through her hair as she remembered, feeling the tiredness of that time. 'Annoying bunch, who hides more than thirty thousand people in the sect? Moreover, there were a few Epoch Cores mixed in! It wasn't that difficult to hunt them down after the formation activated. They were nothing but caged birds surrounded by lethal swords. But that's not the problem.'
While people hiding was annoying, it was quick work with the mighty maids and the loyal sect members participating in the hunt. It ended in no longer than 2 hours. The problem was that Yasenia didn't know with how many people those hidden had been in contact with.
Hiding in the open was a common strategy when infiltrating places. With these people being trained assassins, finding who was loyal and who was not was the actual headache.
This is what had her so busy during the days. Still, Yasenia smiled with satisfaction. 'It should be done at any moment now~.'
As she thought so, Alaia appeared by her side, bowing respectfully once before informing her what Yasenia expected. "Everything has been cleared."
Yasenia smirked and nodded as she walked without stopping. "Perfect. Prepare to return to the Astral Sky Sect. Also, begin the reconstruction plan. I don't want my sect to be a labyrinth. Reorganize everything, tear down walls, and fill others." Yasenia threw a scroll to the side, and Alaia, who was walking a few steps behind, used her energy to catch it and grab it. "I've done some basic structure design. This place is inside quite a sturdy cliff. Sadly, Half-step Dantian Spiritualization Realms and others of similar strength will be able to breach through with enough strikes regardless of how much we reinforce the cliffs with mediocre formations. Hence, build an outer shell so that, even if the natural defense is breached, we have an actual wall protecting us from people entering from where we don't want to."
Yasenia added. "Also, regarding the defensive formation, do not do a strong shield formation but a trap formation as we planned. The shield should be strong enough to deter fourth-realm cultivators and below. That way, we can focus the rest of the formation core in traps that can deal with the strong Dantian Spiritualization Realm level cultivators."
Yasenia gave a few fundamental steps to follow. "Use the first 15% of the sect as a trap-ridden place. That way, we can also avoid people secretly leaving the sect when we don't want to. This sect is meant to be much more organized than the Astral Sky Sect, maintaining the assassin theme while training normal but war-like cultivators. The Ocean is much more brutal than land, as population, dangers, and resources are more abundant. Hence, we must be much stricter with our sect members so that they don't die here and there." Yasenia snorted. "Their death would be a waste of resources."
Alaia nodded. "Understood. How much manpower do we spend on this?"
Yasenia pondered. "Leave all 400 cultivators that we took from the Astral Sky Sect. After the summit, all 400 of them are relatively trustworthy. However, just them doesn't sit right with me, so let's leave twelve maids behind, three of whom are in the half-step Dantian Spiritualization realm. The rest will return with me to the sect. Once those here who are from the Astral Sky Sect are done rebuilding, they will return to the main sect, leaving behind a new leader they will choose. Alaia, you also stay behind as one of the three half-steps."
Alaia nodded and asked. "Do we have permission to train the leaders?"
Yasenia gave her a side eye, the corner of her mouth arching because she understood the meaning behind these words. "You can do as you please~." Yasenia sighed dramatically. "Accidental deaths while training are bound to happen; such is life."
Alaia smirked as her eyes followed the dragoness's charmingly swishing tail. "They are, indeed, unfortunate." Alaia chuckled. "Thankfully, those who don't die show much more loyalty than ever before."
Yasenia nodded and waved her hand. "Good. Go work~. I'm going to keep answering questions until I travel toward… Hmm…" Yasenia pondered where to go and commented. "I'll go visit Kaleina."
Alaia nodded and left, sending an energy pulse toward all the maids so that they knew Yasenia was free to answer. Thus, as Yasenia elegantly walked toward Kaleina's playing area, a few maids appeared one after another with questions.
The dragoness never stopped walking, listening to the reports and answering those that needed answers.
When she was about to reach, one of them appeared and commented. "Young Miss, we have yet to find the previous Sect Master of this sect. He has disappeared, and Doriel and the other trained assassin maids have too little information to search the oceans and find him."
Yasenia paused her steps, turning to look at the maid. "Not even Clara can catch his tracks?"
The maid shook her head. "No, while we had a small clue before, the Assassin Sect Master wasn't a Sect Master for nothing. He has managed to hide his track and disappear into the ocean."
The dragoness titled her head. "It's annoying having that latent threat poking at my back… Hm…. Have you talked with the Sun Engulfing Ore Lobster Queen and the Ocean Swallowing Mermaid Queen?"
The maid nodded and explained. "We managed to get our hands on some maps, but we have nothing to start with. Even the last spot we think we have certainty that he was there is of no use. If we could spread his face and hope for someone spotting him, it would be best." Yasenia laughed dryly, making the maid smile wryly. "We know that asking for a high-level Epoch Core to be spotted by mortals is like asking for a mortal chicken to find a needle in a haystack. However, we really have no better options."
Yasenia actually agreed. Her laugh was more directed toward their situation. "Well, it's better than nothing. Some people think of themselves as very clever and use the method 'The safest place is right below my enemy's nose.' Sometimes it works, but people forget that if you hide below someone's nose, sniffing your tracks becomes quite easy."
The maid nodded Yasenia said after a pause. "Although it is a stretch that even then we can discover him, trying doesn't cost us anything. Go with those plans. Also, if you ever find him, send Doriel. I don't want to have him roaming around or escaping because we didn't use our entire strength to deal with him."
The maid agreed with her and discussed a few other things before leaving. Yasenia looked at the maid's retreating back while some thoughts swirled in her head, but ultimately, she just sighed. 'We can't do much more.' The dragoness clicked her tongue. 'I didn't expect him to be that decisive in fleeing when fighting me. I made a mistake because I got excited that I could finally fight a high-level Epoch Core at a relatively equal level.'
While Yasenia had tremendous control of her dragon instincts, she was not perfect by any means, and sometimes they surfaced. Thankfully, the most troublesome one, lust, was entirely controlled by her dears. 'Although I feel a bit pent up even after releasing with Angel...'
Tatyana told her that her lust would be felt the most in the fifth realm before she brought everything under control in the Transcendence Realm. Yasenia looked into the initial section of her tail where the organ that created her bodily fluids was. 'It already full…'
Thankfully, the fullness wasn't what drove her lust but the accumulation of Yin and Yang energies. 'Well, let's worry about this in the future. While my lust grows, my dears have also become experts at satisfying me, so I shouldn't have any problems… Oh? I'm here~.'
She looked at the doors with a sign above that read [Astral Sky Playground].
It was an open area they had already reformed for children to train, play, and learn. It was reinforced, but the wall touching the cliff-side from the inside was built so that they could look outside and for natural light to enter.
The extensive, transparent wall made the sunbeams look ethereal as they fell in and illuminated the large area. Yasenia understood that what kept sects alive through the eras was not only an influential leader but also the training of new generations. If the foundation of a society crumbles, those above won't be able to live comfortably for long.
Two reasons were given for this to be made first. First, Yasenia wanted to give Kaleina a place to play, and second, setting everything up was quick and easy. They just needed to follow Astral Sky Sect's blueprint and retouch a few details because this place was underwater.
Once she arrived, she quickly spotted Kaleina and Flame training under the supervision of Flora, Valeria, and Kali. Seeing the two darlings move through the obstacles with agility and familiarity made Yasenia feel happy. 'All the training they are doing today will become their strength later. I really hope that I will be able to prepare and raise you strong enough for when you go on your own adventures.'
Yasenia waited until they finished before approaching.