Yan Baimei didn't know how to answer without sounding suspicious. As she got tangled in her thoughts, she started imagining the worst situation and could already see herself being purified or something. 'Ah… I am so young… Why do I need to die like this? I just celebrated my 18,406th birthday a few months ago.'
Yasenia patted Taytana's belly gently while hugging her from behind and asked. "Is it really that bad?"
Tatyana laughed. "Not at all. Have I ever said that it was bad? I just summarized the functionality of the structure."
The dragoness sighed with a smile and looked at the Undead. "Well, explain to me why you are building this thing and what effects it will have on the living people."
Yan Baimei saw a ray of light when Yasenia asked. She felt as if she was going to continue to be the good kind of "dead" and not become really dead. 'Ah… My corpse status won't be a confirmed one! What a joy!'
Thinking that Yasenia was her final grasping straw, she quickly explained. "The [Soul Path Conversion Altar] is a structure that can absorb a small part of the energy from the souls of dead people. Then, with that soul power, we can create a new conscious undead. It is a non-confrontational way of making more of ourselves. Moreover, it doesn't hurt the souls! The altar is very gentle, I swear!"
The dragoness hummed and asked. "What about that large land of pure Death Energy that's near Koran City?"
Yasenia remembered the place where she summoned Tatyana long ago was inundated by Death Energy, which could probably become a resource for these Undead.
Yan Baimei nodded. "Our altar will also slowly clear that, since it absorbs Death Energy as well and releases it in a more natural and purified way around it."
A Divine intervened. "Then, wouldn't those mountains become a Death Energy biome?"
Yan Baimei nodded. "That's right. What's wrong?"
The Divine snorted. "What's wrong? What about all the creatures that live there? They will die because of you!"
Yan Baimei was a bit shy with Yasenia and Tatyana because she knew that she was inferior to them, but that didn't mean that she was a pushover.
When the Divine spoke as such, her entire aura became several times colder, and pure and concentrated Death Energy spilled from her. "Divine, I don't poke my finger in whatever you are doing in your territory, right? Why are you in mine? We are going to exchange living creatures for natural unlife. We are not doing anything extreme but creating an environment proper for unlife to thrive. The mountain ranges we chose are almost uninhabited, with one or two trees here and there and a few weak, small animals. By the time we are done with the place, the environment will be thriving with new death-attributed unlife. The surroundings will eventually reach a balance as well, making the place a mix and creating a proper life and unlife cycle."
The Divine was relatively weak compared to Yan Baimei and was suppressed, making him unable to talk back because of the intimidating aura around Yan Baimei.
Selioranis broke the tension and spoke. "No need to get angry. You know that Undead are not well received almost everywhere."
Yan Baimei laughed coldly once. "That's because people like him exist. They don't understand that unlife will appear regardless of whether someone wants to or not. Balance is the most important quality of our universe, and life without death is nothing. Unlife is just a way that nature has managed to adapt to make use of that opposite force to live, yet we are treated like filth and pests everywhere we go."
Selioranis smiled. "If your race didn't try to change everything they touched, then they wouldn't be so hated."
Yan Baimei commented. "Oh, yeah? Then why do living people start purifying our lands of natural Death Energy whenever they arrive?"
Auriel frowned. "That's poison for us. We will, of course, cleanse it! Undead don't usually have trouble living between people like you are."
Yan Baimei retorted. "And do you think that this environment is not poisonous for us? Do you think we are wearing these robes just to hide our appearance or something? They are robes that naturally change the life energy around us into death energy before we get a chance to get affected by it. Without these robes, we would not fare any better than you!"
Yasenia interrupted and looked at the divines. "Enough. The Undead have even bothered to come to us and ask, which shows their intentions are not evil. If not, they could've just done it and created an army before you or I noticed."
Yan Baimei, who began to regret coming here more and more, couldn't help but look at the dragon woman with surprised eyes. Wu Rongyao whispered. 'I told you~.'
The female undead nodded a few times, fidgeting with her fingers. 'You really didn't lie… Hehe.'
Yasenia was honestly not knowledgeable about how natural undead lived. So, she asked Tatyana. "What do you think, Mom?"
This time, it was An Meiling who blurted. "Mom?"
The dragoness said as if it were bothersome. "Yes, I know it is strange in other people's eyes. Yes, she is my mom. Yes, we are a romantic couple. Now, let her speak about this?"
An Meiling and the other humans opened and closed their mouths, but eventually, nobody said anything.
Tatyana commented. "I don't see the disadvantageous side of this. That patch of Death Energy that… someone created would be slowly cleaned together with many other similar places. If this altar is fully built, it could create a focused biome of Death energy while making the rest of the world more habitable for living creatures. The damage to souls, as they've said, is minimal."
Tatyana commented. "The most significant disadvantage is that most Death energy will be focused here. So, death attribute practitioners would eventually rely on that place to grow at a relatively high pace. Not only Death energy, but most Yin-attributed energies will gather more around there, eventually making those lands a paradise for those with Yin bodies."
Yasenia asked. "Will it affect us?"
Tatyana shook her head. "Not at all. They are relatively close as well, so it will benefit us. Our installations for those types of practitioners can't be affected by the [Soul Path Conversion Altar]. It is too weak. So, the only real disadvantage for us is that we'll have a relatively new and strong power led by Undead, who are not usually liked a lot."
The dragoness hummed. "Okay, we accept. You can continue with it."
Everyone in the room who was not on Yasenia's side was stunned. Auriel asked, confused. "Why did you accept, Yasenia? Isn't it dangerous to live near the Undead? If anything goes wrong, between all top powers, you are the one to be affected the most."
Yasenia smiled. "If they don't behave, I'll just make them behave. There is no other reason."
Yan Baimei blinked a few times and then realized that Yasenia had agreed. "R-Rongyao! She accepted!"
Wu Rongyao and the other undead were quite sure that Yasenia would accept, so they weren't that surprised. Still, hearing the confirmation made them quite happy.
The dragoness looked at the humans and asked. "Well, with the Undead sorted out, it's now your turn."
An Meiling laughed. "Are you doing it by order of arrival?"
Yasenia smirked. "Any problem with that? It's just a simple solution."
Auriel pouted. "We were here before they arrived."
The dragoness deadpanned. "Hidden in the shadows like a bunch of stalkers. Just wait for your turn."
Auriel couldn't retort that, so she pouted. While Divines were prideful and had this mighty-and-better-than-thou way of thinking, the dragoness has proven herself to be quite a talented and incredible dragoness, making them not mind talking with her as an equal.
An Meiling's smile disappeared and straightened, looking at Yasenia with an extremely profound gaze. "Yasenia Dravory, what are your plans for humankind in this world?"
Yasenia answered without breaking eye contact. "My power accepts everyone. As I said, I come from a human-dominated world. I have lived with humans, and my mother is also something like a human."
Tatyana blinked. "Hey, what do you mean with 'something like a human'? Your mother was born from a human female and a human male! I am human…" She extended the last word, and Yasenia asked with a smile. "Human…?"
Tatyana finished her sentence with a pout. "..ish."
The dragoness nodded and kissed her pouty lips once. "Hm. Like expected. My mother is human-ish. Hahaha."
The dragoness turned toward An Meling and said, without holding anything back. "Currently, there are around 12,000 humans living in my sect. Of them, 90% are females. We've started accepting males lately as things are becoming more and more secure for them. In that human group, a few thousand are females from my original world who created a fan club for me. They are all very important to me, and I've managed to rehabilitate all of them but 2."
The dragoness paused, thinking of those two fan club members she had to kill. The memory felt fresh, but she quickly moved on. "For local humans, there is a human called Luna that's leading them. She was a, being blunt, sexual toy for beast humans since she was… very little. During recent years, she has shown growth both mentally and cultivation-wise. Nowadays, she is a changed woman who strives to do better and helps plenty of traumatized female and male humans victims of sexual abuse."
Yasenia extended her hand, summoning a stack of papers, and threw them at An Meiling. The woman caught the stack perfectly and started looking. "These are the rehabilitation programs for all types of trauma, be it physical or mental. The only ones we can't help fully are those beyond salvation that had been influenced by heart demons too much."
The dragoness sighed. "I know that Tang Xian has probably made me look like a monster or something, but if you doubt my words, you can always go to the human part of the sect, which we have."
Ou Junwei asked. "Why separate humans and the rest?"
Yasenia said seriously. "The discrimination level against humans in this world is deep-rooted, Ou Junwei. Do you realize that until ten years ago, meaning before I arrived, humans were not even considered animals? Some farm animals had more protection than humans. The only reason humans have not gone extinct are those revolting breeding facilities that you've probably destroyed a few of."
Ou Junwei's face became a bit ugly remembering those places.
Yasenia commented sincerely. "I don't want a constant racial war to continue on this continent because my children will be both human and non-human. They deserve to live in a world where they can go outside together as brothers and not be looked down on by others. My objective is a total mental reform of the planet to make cohabitation a reality. Even if I can't do it outside as quickly as I can inside the Astral Sky Sect and the affiliates, this will be a reality soon."
The dragoness said with a vicious tone. "Those who disagree will just be purged, human, demon, divine, beast human, or ghost. My children, regardless of race, will be proud to say their brothers and sisters are their family."
An Meiling raised her eyes from the documents and saw the thinned golden slit eyes, which provoked her lips to arch. 'I should've spoken with her earlier, huh? So many wasted resources in that retarded woman.'
"Yasenia Dravory, your intentions have been clearly stated. As the main representative of humans, I accept becoming your ally."
The dragoness's facial expression relaxed, and a smile appeared on her lips. "Don't be so hasty. Go and see how humans are living in our sect. Then, you'll come here with even more conviction."
An Meiling laughed. "Good! I'll do so." She stood up and said to the others. "Come with me."
When the humans left the room, the dragoness turned toward the Divines and asked. "State your demands. I have a few questions as well."
The Divines pondered and started talking.