Tatyana sat on her throne, her legs crossed and her face resting on her fist. As she was spacing out, her red eyes flashed. "Oh? They've arrived at this Heavenly Layer."
She turned to the side, glancing at the four maids that Yasenia took from the Blue Pearl World. "You four, get ready to get reunited with Yasenia."
"Yes, Lady Tatyana!"
The four bowed with perfect courtesy. Cai Xue, Star Forge, Tai Qingzhe, and Mo Yun had been through hellish training and even had to give up part of their cultivation to complete the course.
They had been thoroughly reborn by Tatyana's personal guidance and gained tremendous talent, strength, and skill. Tatyana asked, smiling. "So, what do you think of that cultivation technique?"
Star Forge spoke. "If I may be blunt… it is reckless and unstable. It's an all-or-nothing type of cultivation technique."
The reason all the maids could materialize and develop their talent rapidly without losing or falling behind Yasenia was something they had wondered. Even if all 300 were talented, it didn't make much sense that they could keep up with Yasenia's monstrous advancement speed.
However, after going through the hellish training and also learning the Cultivation technique, the four of them understood. This technique was one that linked you to a single individual. A crazy, demonic cultivation technique that gave up self-strength and bet entirely on someone.
Tai Qingzhe spoke with a little snort. "Honestly, it is not that I wanted to do this. But whatever. I guess I need at least this much if I want to follow her."
Star Forge looked at her amusedly. "You were the most excited and motivated when it came to learning about it. What are you putting on airs about now?"
Tai Qingzhe's face turned red, but then she snorted. "What excited? I just wanted to be done with it. Don't misunderstand me."
Mo Yun giggled. "You are not honest~, hahaha."
Cai Xue, meanwhile, looked at Tatyana and asked. "Lady Tatyana, is it true that Young Miss has started deepening intimacy?"
Tatyana glanced at her and nodded. Cai Xue's lips arched perversely for a while, a slurping sound escaping her. 'Hehehe. Finally, slurp. I can finally savor that absolutely gorgeous woman's body! All the hell I went through was worth it! Slurp, hehehehehe.'
The other three deadpanned. Cai Xue was usually silent, but she was probably the most mentally active. When facing their Heart Demons in one of the trials, they saw that one of Cai Xue's Heart Demons was sitting by the side and being ignored by Yasenia while Yasenia did perverted things with other maids.
At that time, the woman almost broke into tears, clawing the air as if she was seeing her own lover being stolen away by someone.
Since then, they made a silent agreement to never peek again at Cai Xue's trials.
Tatyana, connected with her Secondary Body, muttered. "They've chosen that direction? Hm… Interesting."
Tatyana had been in this Heavenly Layer for the longest time in her entire life. Therefore, she knew the general power layout of the most prominent worlds. The direction Yasenia had chosen was one of the right high-tiered worlds.
'It's also a world where Divines and Demons are fighting quite actively. I guess it's a good place, quite a lot of chaos~.'
Her lips arched faintly, making the four maids by her side tremble reflexively. That faint smile of amusement they saw so often during the training could cause nightmares. Tatyana looked sideways and spoke. "Alright, you four, go to this world and wait for Yasenia to arrive. She should notice your auras when she is nearby. If not her, the maids will notice."
The four of them nodded and bowed one last time. "Thank you for your guidance, Lady Tatyana."
Then, they stepped onto their swords and shot skyward, all four of them wearing specially designed maid outfits and with their shared ring on their fingers. That ring had several resources that the maids needed and used depending on their specialty.
Cai Xue, Star Forge, Tai Qingzhe, and Mo Yun were all fight-specialized maids with no professional training. They fell in the same category as Eira and the rest.
***
Yasenia was flying through the Heavenly Layer as well, her direction decided at random. As for which world she would enter, Yasenia was still not sure.
As she moved through space, her senses picked up a few people following her trail. In the cosmos, her senses lost to absolutely no one. "We are being followed?"
Tatyana blinked and turned back, spreading her Spiritual Sense backward. "...Ah. Dragon Hunters. It seems that you caught their attention when moving across the Heaven Converging City."
Dragon Hunters were a prominent group in almost all layers. Their existence began appearing more and more as you climbed up the layers. Similar to Demons and Divines. There were other, more hidden powers, such as Abyssal Hunters. But the most involved with the cultivation world were those three.
Yasenia hummed. "Do they hunt all dragons without caring about their affiliation?"
She had learned about them from Tatyana's books. Nevertheless, the knowledge about their hunting habits was quite vague. Not because people didn't know, but because it varied tremendously from branch to branch.
Yasenia commented. "They are not weak at all."
From her senses, Yasenia could tell that there was at least one Level Nine Transcendence Realm powerhouse. The rest were weaker, but not by that much. If she asked herself whether they could win or not… Yasenia was not too sure.
Tatyana asked. "What do you want to do?"
She would respect her decision. It was not like this was the first time she fought or encountered Dragon Hunters. Yasenia pondered for a few moments. "Let's… try to lose them. First… Angel, love, can you create a formation to target them and send something to them?"
Angel didn't agree straight away. Instead, she asked. "Yasenia, won't they think that us telling them to each go our way is a sign of weakness?"
Yasenia sighed, feeling that it was quite possible. Still, she was not annoyed. In a sense, she felt somewhat excited. 'This is what it feels like to be in a proper Heavenly Layer.'
Enemies that were strong, but not despairingly strong. People who could face her and make her nervous. In the previous Heavenly Layer, Yasenia felt as if she were a supreme being and everything was crushed under her strength. Here, though, that was no longer the case.
Honestly, her heart was beating and telling her to turn around and face them head-on. If she did that, she would be no different from a mindless beast, though. Yasenia allowed her instincts to take over from time to time, but that didn't mean they controlled her.
All her effort during her mortal realms had not gone to waste. "Let's see… How about I make them realize that I am not an easy prey first? Since they are high level, they won't risk their lives stupidly."
Valeria spoke softly. "For a dragon like Yasenia, they might risk their lives. If they detect little Aster, even more so."
Yasenia didn't deny it. "If that's the case, we will just fight."
Yasenia had 300 maids and her core group of 14 with her. They were able to form six second-level [Immortal Big Dipper Battle Formations]. Compared to the Abyssal Human, these people were literally not that big of a threat.
"Let's see what they want. Perhaps they are not here to fight."
Yasenia slowed down, but she didn't stop completely. She just allowed the group following them to catch up.
It didn't take long before they closed the distance enough for both sides to detect each other. Yasenia sent a voice energy wave. "We do not want to fight, Dragon Hunters. Leave before you regret it."
The leader of the group was a middle-aged woman with a gorgeous white dress adorned with black dragon scales. At her waist, a sword made of dragon bones hung loosely, and deep red, fang-shaped earrings adorned her soft and rounded earlobes.
"Hmph. You speak well beast. Do you think you are our match?"
"I do." Yasenia looked back while flying forward slowly. "Do you believe I would've slowed down if I didn't believe I could beat you?"
The woman spoke with a faint smile. "Arrogant, like all of your kind. Still, you are quite large even among those of your kind. If you promise to become my mount, I might not transform your scales into my armor. Those starlit blue scales are truly gorgeous."
Yasenia was not the one who answered. Instead, it was the red-eyed empress. "Ha… I didn't want to involve myself with this, but you've crossed the line."
Tatyana stood up and spoke in Yasenia's stead. "Prepare to kill all of them. This one's brain won't work until you beat sense into her… but since we are beating sense, how about we beat them until they permanently stop breathing?"
The girls had also been annoyed at them, so they stood up together with the maids. Tatyana spoke. "Yasenia, don't fight this time. Stay behind with Feixue and Aster."
Yasenia nodded. "Sure, have fun."
Tatyana chuckled, and together with the girls and maids, they all moved out.
The Dragon Hunters deployed their Intent domains. They were a group of twenty. One of them was a Level Nine Transcendence Realm cultivator, four of them Level Seven, and the rest ranged between Level Five and Six.
Still, only super geniuses could maintain their Intent Domain Level at a level equal to their cultivation level. Usually, it could lag behind as much as three levels, while the average was two levels lower.
Therefore, when the Dragon Hunters deployed their domains, the highest-level Intent Domain was a Level Seven one, which came from the Level Nine Transcendence Realm cultivator.
Level Seven was very strong, but not despairing so. 'At that level, I can influence the battle.'
Yasenia smiled coldly, and her wings spread out, her energy taking over the battlefield. "Since that's the case… you've truly made a big mistake. [Celestial Intent Domain], [Tyrant Warlord Intent Domain]."
Yasenia's domains were not only good for strengthening herself. Both of them derived from support-type Intents. So, when she chanted, the cosmos around them fell under Yasenia's influence, while the Tyrant Warlord Intent Domain strengthened the maids and girls.
The Level Nine Transcendence Cultivator frowned for a moment. 'This might be more troublesome than I thought.'
When she first noticed Yasenia, she was somewhat doubtful. After all, dragons usually didn't have any dragon parts when transformed into humanoids. So, she followed silently for a bit.
Once she saw Yasenia transform and leave, she was mesmerized by Yasenia's majestic and beautiful form. Her desire to obtain her became unstoppable, and she hastily gathered some people to stop the few hundred Level Four, Five, and Six Transcendence Realm cultivators in her group.
With her Ninth Level strength, a few Level Seven, and others to support them, beating this group would've usually been easy enough. Only… they made a big mistake.
The group they were fighting was not a normal one, but one made of super geniuses. From top to bottom, there was not a single normal individual.