Yasenia arrived at the sect's entrance and saw all the girls, spirits, and maids who were going to return with her already waiting. Alaia was also there to say goodbye to all the maids who were not leaving. Alaia took a step forward and bowed respectfully. "Young Miss, have a safe trip."
Yasenia chuckled. "Well, with the flying boat, we'll have no problems reaching safely." Yasenia poked Alaia's forehead and smiled. "Remember to tell me when you are going to return so that I can send someone with the boat to pick everyone up."
Alaia shook her head, her voice firm. "I prefer if we return by ourselves, Young Miss." Then, Alaia added while looking into Yasenia's eyes with a secret glint. "I want to prove our strength and independence."
Yasenia blinked, confused for a moment. "Prove what? You don't need to…" Then, she realized. "Oh!"
Yasenia laughed and said with interest in her golden eyes. "Then, go on and prove yourselves, Alaia."
Internally, though, Yasenia asked. 'Do you want to see if you get ambushed?'
Alaia nodded with a slight smile. "Thank you, Young Miss. We will not disappoint you."
Still, Alaia mentally added, 'We can do another deeper clean-up if that happens. So, don't worry about transport. I want to use ourselves as bait.'
Yasenia gave Alaia a hug and said sincerely. "Be careful."
Alaia chuckled and hugged her back. "Of course. We've just started properly serving you, Young Miss. None of us has the intention of perishing so soon."
Yasenia nodded and walked toward the open area before the sect. It was in the Abyss that she had fought the previous Sect Master, which made Yasenia recall that fight. 'It was dangerous. Also, I didn't expect him to be so cautious as to retreat at the slightest sign of inconvenience.'
The dragoness waved her hand as she remembered those memories, energy gathering in front of her and connecting with the spatial ring's inner space. Then, with a small spatial warp, the enormous ship manifested in front of her. Because it didn't have the anti-water defenses on, it was inundated quickly, but it was not a problem at all.
Yasenia connected her consciousness with it and boarded on the deck. The rest followed behind her, and soon everybody was on board. Just to be sure, Yasenia checked again if they'd left anyone behind. 'Everyone is here. Perfect. Let's go.'
The shields around the warship activated, and a bubble pushed all the water away from the insides of the structure. After just one second, the area around the boat was completely filled with air, and everyone inside had been dried by the formations.
Yasenia used the coordinates to lock onto the Astral Sky Sect and activated the warship at it's maximum speed. Yasenia smirked. "Let's go."
BOOM!
The people watching blinked and saw a void where the flying boat had previously stood. They followed the void and saw an open path the boat had left behind, which was quickly closed as the water collapsed.
The tremendous pressure of the deep ocean water created an effect similar to a cavitation bubble, unleashing a chain explosion that echoed like a firecracker but many times more powerful and leaving a trail of bubbles that slowly floated upward.
"What kind of transportation method does Sect Master have!?"
"That's honestly ridiculous. I actually blinked at the wrong timing and couldn't see what happened."
"Don't worry. I had my eyes wide open the whole time, and I still couldn't see what happened. I just saw the boat flicker, and then, puff, it was gone. I'm a high-level Unification Realm expert and couldn't even see its shadow!"
Alaia clapped once, using her profound cultivation, spreading a soundwave that echoed in the beings of everyone present. "Enough. Return to what you were doing first, and then you can gossip as you want. However, remember to complete your tasks if you have any first."
Everyone obeyed, knowing that the yellow- and azure-scaled dragon woman was a peak-level being. While the cultivation of most maids was still a mystery, Alaia was the head maid and thus representative of the group.
After the summit, Alaia stopped bothering to hide her cultivation realm, allowing everyone to feel her strength at a superficial level. The way people looked at Yasenia after publicly revealing herself was one of horror. After all, Eira's performance had been terrifying, and yet Eira was a Level Six Dantian Spiritualization Realm.
People could only imagine what kind of absolute monster Alaia was.
Meanwhile, Yasenia's group sliced through the skies, moving at a ridiculous speed. Angel looked around and asked. "When are we arriving?"
Yasenia didn't answer for three seconds, making Angel look up with doubt. Then, the dragoness smiled. "Now."
Angel blinked, and the boat came to an abrupt stop. The cute blonde girl approached the railing and looked down, her eyes widening. "Wow, that's our sect!"
Yasenia turned around and spoke. "Let's go through the entrance. We've had an excellent run in the summit for the group we sent, so doing a bit of morale-uplifting will be possible."
The dragoness floated upward, and the rest followed behind her.
Meanwhile, the guards saw a group suddenly appear on a floating ship above the sect and got scared. "Are we being attacked!? Senior, we have to-" Slap! "Guaha!"
A man slapped the back of his head, forcing a strange sound out of his mouth. "What attack!? That's the Sect Master's boat! Go to inform Lady Ghana!"
The sound of flapping wings was heard above them, and when they looked up, they saw a naked, brown-feathered harpy landing softly. "No need to call me. I'm here."
Nobody dared to look at her lustfully. For the last months, Ghana had led the entire Astral Sky Sect by herself. While she didn't do anything groundbreaking, everything continued working as before, making it appear as if their Sect Master had never left.
This surprised many people because, although their Sect Master was very young, her capabilities were ridiculous. Everyone had already stopped treating Yasenia as a junior, and her every word and decision was taken extremely seriously.
Ghana looked up, her eyes shining with admiration toward the descending dragoness. This experience allowed her to deeply feel what Yasenia took care of every day with relative ease.
The workload, deep plans, careful thinking, and accurate predictions in all the documents written by Yasenia were incredibly detailed, to the point that Ghana felt lacking compared to her.
If Yasenia was already someone like this at around 50 to 60 years old, she didn't want to imagine what heights she would reach when adding one or two zeroes to that age.
Behind Ghana, there were hundreds of beings, all administrators and high-level elders, who took care of some core matters while the main group was away.
They all held their breath as the goddess-like woman descended from the sky as if she was leaving the heavens to live with mortals. Her beauty, temperament, aura, and strength were all profound and combined into her natural charisma and presence.
As she slowly descended, her beautiful blue dress and long black hair trailed behind her like a cloud, giving her an immortal and unsullied vibe, even when her body was nothing but the manifestation of the carnal sin of lust.
When Yasenia's feet touched the ground, they all bowed at once, shouting loud and clear.
"Welcome back, Sect Master! We congratulate you on managing to score in the top 64!"
Yasenia looked up, her draconic golden eyes examining them one by one. "I've received and read all the reports." Yasenia's lips thinly rose up. "Well done. You've all managed to bear the weight of a newly established sect that has spread its arms all around. And yet, you didn't falter and could even make progress in our situation."
Yasenia slowly walked forward, traversing the path left in the middle by all the people who had come to welcome her. Her hips sashayed seductively at the rhythm of the gentle swishing of her extensive and thick dragon tail. "While there are many things left to polish, it is above what I expected. As such, I'll give some of you a promotion, allowing you to continue in your current positions. Also, there will be a bonus of 10% in your pay for the next year."
They all spoke again at once. "Thank you, Sect Master!"
Yasenia nodded, and as soon as she passed them, she said. "Get up and follow me. There is a war incoming and too much work to do. I'll organize the rewards the following month and send them to your quarters when they are ready. If they are not there by the end of the month, go to the treasury manager and speak with them."
Ghana hastened her steps a bit and passed a document she had brought with her. "Sect Master, we've discovered these places thanks to the assassin group's growth in mastery. Also, our production is increasing day by day, making us almost self-sufficient without the aid of your family's products. We still lack a bit, though. The Astral Sky Merchant group is doing its best to spread our products around the continent. Yet there has been a lot of interference everywhere."
Yasenia commented. "I guess that other than our usual enemies, the local powers weren't happy when the popular Astral Sky Sect set up a shop in their places. Am I wrong?"
Ghana smiled with admiration and shook her head. "No, you've hit the nail right on the head. That's the most pressing matter. However, we are already quite saturated, so I didn't take any action and decided to wait and play on the defensive until you returned."
Yasenia looked at her and asked with a smirk. "And if I didn't return?"
Ghana paused, looking at Yasenia with a confused expression. "Why would that happen?"
Yasenia shrugged as she walked across the Astral Sect's Streets. The disciples all around looked at her with admiration, infatuation, and adoration. She expected it after her performance at the summit, so she didn't pay much attention.
"Why wouldn't it happen?" Yasenia answered. "Accidents are really easy to occur in a cultivation society. Everyone is after everyone's heads, so losing it when you least expect it is a common occurrence."
Ghana coughed. "Sorry, Sect Master. It never occurred to me that Sect Master never returned, and hence, I didn't make any plans for that situation."
Yasenia nodded. "Good enough. Speaking honestly is best. Don't worry. I also never expected it, but I was confirming if you did so." Yasenia continued. "How are the preparations for that?"
Ghana tilted her head until she remembered. "Oh! I've already set up everything. You just need to tell me the day, and we'll close it for your family to break through comfortably and safely. We'll also return most cultivators from the outside, just in case we need protection."
Yasenia shook her head. "No need to call back anyone. It's not like they will be able to help if anything happens. Just make sure that during those days, there is an emergency area for people that really need to break through."
Ghana nodded. "Understood."