Dastan and the others were taken aback.
Dastan could not help but scrutinize the three women even more thoroughly.
These three ladies are in disguise? Did Leyvi give them Anda's face-changing cream? Why would they need it? Hmph, this country bumpkin must have played the hero saving damsels in distress, so now they have to hide their identities. And now they are all over Leyvi.
That was the conclusion he arrived at in his mind.
Anda took one step closer to them.
"No need to be surprised by this. I experimented extensively with face-changing alchemy products not long ago, so the tiny details that most people cannot see, I can see them easily." Anda paused, her smile confident and knowing.
Rose blinked. Is she an alchemist?
Anda continued. "Furthermore, you can't hide the various scents of your makeup materials from me. I can even tell what most of them originated from."
Rose blinked again. Is she a dog? No, no. She is a panda, obviously. She even brought her entire family together.
Rose's gaze drifted briefly to the seven pandas running around, chasing each other, going in and out of the rooms in the long hallway connected to the main hall.
"Madam Anda certainly has remarkable observation. I am impressed," Rose replied politely.
"Indeed, my maids and I are currently in disguise, as you said. But please do not misunderstand. We are merely doing this to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Therefore, please give us some time to change into our original appearances so that we can introduce ourselves properly." She requested formally.
Leyvi was left speechless. Why is she talking so formally all of a sudden? Even her body language is different. Is she trying to impress Anda or something?
Anda nodded, seeming quietly amused by this. "You may use any of the rooms on this side to change. They are unoccupied." She gestured toward a row of empty chambers nearby.
Rose offered a slight, respectful bow and entered the nearest room with Lily and Liyan following closely behind.
After they entered the room, the crowd gathered in the spacious main hall began chatting and gossiping among themselves, speculating about the identities of the three mysterious women based on the clues they had just heard.
"Hmph, must be some spoiled, clueless young lady. Acting so mysterious just for attention?" Seraphina mocked under her breath.
"You just described yourself," Viola replied nonchalantly.
"You! Are you picking a fight?" Seraphina fumed, her cheeks flushing.
Cempaka silently moved between them to prevent the situation from escalating further.
"Ava, who are they?" Barbara asked curiously, hugging her best friend's arm. She was relieved to see Ava return safely.
Ava simply rolled her eyes. "You will find out soon enough. I don't want to talk about people I don't like."
"Really? But when it was just the two of us back then, you talked a lot about a certain sex fiend," Barbara teased with a mischievous grin.
"Cough! Cough!" Ava choked slightly on her own saliva upon hearing that.
"Hehehe," Barbara giggled in amusement.
"Hmm... that's right. I can't just focus on my digging technique alone. I need to develop the skill to discern a person, especially a woman, accurately. Otherwise, your future harem will be filled with women of ill intent. I can't let that happen." Tamina muttered thoughtfully next to Dastan.
Dastan was momentarily dumbfounded.
That was right. He had nearly forgotten that Tamina wanted to build a large harem for him. He instinctively glanced at Leyvi. Ugh, what a hassle. He complained inwardly, already dreading how many people he would have to treat politely in the future.
Meanwhile, Anda's expression shifted slightly as she sent Leyvi a private sound transmission.
"Husband, why does that woman have your karmic scent on her? That should not have happened even if you had been intimate with her."
"No, no, no, I didn't have sex with her," Leyvi explained hastily through the same sound transmission method.
"I know you didn't have sex with her. I couldn't detect any of your essence in her at all, and I am a little disappointed." Anda said, finishing with a soft, theatrical sigh.
Leyvi rolled his eyes. Did this panda really want him to seed every lady he met or something?
"First of all, what have you discovered from their scents? Are you not worried that they might be assassins?" Leyvi asked, steering the conversation back to practicality.
"These ladies are quite the sinister individuals. There's not much blood on them, but somehow their scents feel more terrifying than many murderers I have encountered. I wonder why? As for the assassin part, I would have found out right away if they were."
Leyvi nodded, trusting her judgment implicitly.
She continued, her tone shifting to a more instructional one. "Also, Dastan can now detect assassins through their soul fluctuations. As long as there is no assassin in the Nascent Soul Realm who can also hide their soul signature, no one can approach him unnoticed. So he is safe for now."
"Is that so? Nascent Soul Realm experts really get many extraordinary abilities, huh. The gap with Core Formation Realm is so big." Leyvi complained, the memory of his repeated sparring defeats against Dastan was still fresh.
"Hehe. I learned this from Tamina. Apparently, the Qi Refining Realm, Foundation Building Realm, and Core Formation Realm are much closer and more related to one another. They are considered a single related group."
"Then, the Nascent Soul Realm, Soul Formation Realm, and Soul Transformation Realm form the next related group. That is why the leap from Core Formation to Nascent Soul is so vast."
"And after that comes the Dao Manifestation Realm. The gap between Soul Transformation and Dao Manifestation is proven to be equally immense. They possess powers that can suppress a Soul Transformation expert as easily as you experienced going against a Nascent Soul cultivator."
Leyvi nodded, the cosmology clicking into place. "I see. Going by this pattern, there should be another two realms considered in one group with the Dao Manifestation Realm, right?"
"That is what scholars have speculated as well, but there is no way to know for certain. It seems that even in the Protogaea Continent, none of the Dao Manifestation Realm powerhouses have come close to the peak of their realm. So it will remain a mystery for a long time."
"Well, at least for others. We have already met Alita. She is someone from out there. Lilian also met with a goddess. So there are definitely higher levels of cultivation," Anda concluded.
Leyvi nodded again. His own encounter with the enlightened spiritual imprint had shown him glimpses of those staggering heights.
Thinking of Lilian, he could not help but chuckle inwardly. At first, he had not believed her story about becoming a goddess's apprentice, thinking she had hallucinated the whole thing. But after persistent, wide-eyed retellings and, more convincingly, after witnessing her startling new abilities firsthand, he had finally been forced to accept it as truth.
Hmm? Leyvi realized something.
"Anda, I think we got sidetracked again," he told her, scratching his head sheepishly.
"Hehehe... you just realized? I did not want to interrupt your learning session, so I went along with it," Anda giggled softly. "Now you can continue where you left off."
"Hahaha!" Leyvi laughed as well, appreciating her patience.
After that, he told Anda everything that had happened between him and Rose.
At first, Anda's killing intent flared out naturally, but it quickly subsided. Leyvi had expected this kind of reaction from his wife.
"Hmm... what a complicated situation. No wonder she carries your karmic scent with her. I am not sure how I should feel about her now. I hate her for trying to harm my husband, but at the same time, she could become our biggest asset in the Protogaea Continent in the future." Anda's expression grew thoughtful, her mind already turning over possibilities.
Asset? Oi, panda, what are you planning now? First Dastan and Tamina, now Rose. But Leyvi did not ask directly. He was almost afraid to hear "world domination" come out of her mouth.
"The biggest trouble is your body instinctively protecting her. This could be dangerous if exposed. What if she were attacked from far away? Like from her own continent? Would you have to fly across the ocean?" Anda asked, her tone serious and analytical.
"Hahaha! That's what I thought at first. But not exactly. As long as my body is unaware of the danger, it wouldn't react like that. Ava and I did a few experiments to confirm it. It truly acts on pure instinct alone," Leyvi explained.
"Hmm... that is less troubling. However, this could still be used against you. Keep this secret tight," Anda advised.
It seemed that even if she wanted to kill Rose for harming her husband, doing so would be impossible with Leyvi nearby. So the only practical choice was to treat her as a chess piece. She was devoted to her husband anyway, however artificially.
A few minutes later, Rose, Lily, and Liyan came out of the room in their true appearances. This time, however, their outfits were more modest than usual, a conscious choice perhaps for this formal introduction.
"Pink... Pink Enchantress! Damn it, Leyvi! Are you crazy? Of all the women you could hook up with, why her? Kill her! Kill her with fire! We men are in danger!"
Dastan was extremely shocked. And not just him, everyone who knew of the Pink Enchantress Rose was similarly stunned into silence, their eyes wide with disbelief.