Long Tianyi felt extremely awkward meeting Yasenia once again. When the World Destroying Tribulation Soldier blasted the Secret Realm open, Tianyi and the rest were forcefully ejected from the spatial distortion. Mortal cultivators received severe wounds from the shockwave of the attack, but Sixth Realm cultivators were able to resist the aftershock and remain fairly unscathed. After more than ten years that Yasenia spent breaking through, all those wounds healed, leaving behind no traces.
Then, hearing her rather curt tone, she felt somewhat hurt. Still, she could understand. "So…" Tianyi tried to start a conversation. "How are you feeling? That tribulation was truly dangerous."
Yasenia smiled politely. "I am feeling great. Reaching the Sixth Realm is truly an eye-opening experience that allows you to understand how different it is from being a mortal cultivator."
Long Tianyi nodded. "Indeed. As a mortal cultivator, you make use of the energy inside of you. You try to force out your powers using your body and energy as a catalyst. However, as a Sixth Realm being, you manipulate the world around you as if you are part of it. It is just not comparable."
Cecile glanced at Long Tianyi and asked quite bluntly. "What's your objective, Long Tianyi? Your Ancestor Long got what he wanted, and we also got a few benefits from it. The transaction between our clans is over."
Long Tianyi looked at Cecile and could easily see that she was Yasenia's [Interlocked Soul]. A bout of envy filled her heart when she felt Yasenia's aura and scent coming out from the Phoenix Woman's body. Still, she restrained the feeling. "Well, Yasenia and I have fought together and also gotten quite close. So I was just saying hello to my friend."
Cecile's cold facial expression didn't ease up. "Sorry, Long Tianyi. But we really don't want anything else to do with your Long family. You deceived Yasenia and pushed her into a death trap without sharing all the information you had about the location. You and Yasenia are now strangers, acquaintances at most."
Long Tianyi was a good-tempered woman, even for a dragon. However, Cecile's direct words were angering, so she answered somewhat rudely. "Does Yasenia need a translator to talk? Why are you speaking up for her? If she didn't want to speak to me, she wouldn't have answered my greeting in the first place."
Yasenia patted Cecile's head and looked at Long Tianyi. "Long Tianyi, it is true that we had some moments, and we were close to becoming friends. However, you chose your Long family over that." She added with a smile. "Don't get me wrong. If I were in the same situation, I would've done the same. Choosing family over friendship is natural. However, once you've made that choice, you need to understand that our paths diverged the moment that happened. Not because we hate each other, but because we are just not compatible."
Seeing Yasenia's calm expression as she ruthlessly said that, Long Tianyi felt hurt. She frowned deeply and spoke. "That's too extreme. Why go to those lengths? Moreover, if what you said is the truth, then how would two people even become close?"
"By not having a divide on who is important and who cares about the other party," Yasenia answered easily. "If your Long family didn't use me like a tool and instead treated me like a trusting partner, things could've gone very differently. It gets as simple as that; you just need a little bit of trust."
Long Tianyi had nothing else to say. She sighed with frustration, giving Yasenia one last reluctant look. After a while of being silent, Long Tianyi nodded faintly and walked past them, leaving the shop. "Goodbye, Yasenia."
Yasenia answered calmly. "Goodbye, Tianyi."
Aurelia blinked and looked at her mother strangely. She knew of other people who had done much worse than what Tianyi had, and Yasenia forgave them and allowed them to become close. So, she didn't understand why she was so hell-bent on alienating this particular person.
Angel, seeing her daughter's confused expression, asked what was wrong. Aurelia answered, voicing her thoughts, and then asked, "It's a bit strange, no?"
Angel chuckled. "Is it? Say, love. What is the thing Yasenia lacks compared to those situations you've thought about?"
Aurelia crossed her arms, and Katarina at the side answered that question. "Big Sister Aurelia, Mommy lacks time."
Those words made everything click together. "Ah… It's not that Mommy doesn't want to forgive her, but more so that she can't develop a trusting relationship without sacrificing time with us…"
Yasenia's hand fell on Aurelia's head. "That's right, baby. So, let's move on! Now, everyone can buy one thing from the shop if they want to. Go, go, go!"
The children and their maids moved around, while Angel and the others stayed behind with Yasenia. This shop was very large, so even with 200 people, it was far from crowded. Yasenia looked at her lovers and asked, curious. "By the way, with all the catching up, I have not really asked about your tribulations other than if you are okay."
Evelyn laughed. "Only now do you realize. You came from that tribulation, made some short talk with us, and then threw us onto a bed to show us that, even after reaching Transcendence, we are far from being able to overcome your… Dragon!"
Andrea put on an exaggeratedly terrified face. "No way, Evelyn holding back her words!? Have you finally matured past adolescence!?"
Evelyn kicked Andrea's butt with a humph. "Our children are around! Of course I'll hold back."
The tall woman with a sculpted body didn't even flinch and just smirked. Meanwhile, Kali chuckled. "You didn't hold back much a few moments ago."
Yasenia laughed slightly. She was glad that even after many years of her absence, the girls still got along as well as in the past. Honestly, that was one thing she felt very lucky about. While all her lovers did not have similar likes and dislikes and had very different personalities, they could easily live together as a harmonious family. Moreover, it was far from forced. They just naturally got along together.
Of course, that was only possible because Yasenia never showed favoritism outside of pampering Angel excessively. Yet, even that didn't bother the others because they knew that, if they wanted it themselves, Yasenia would pamper them to the skies as much as they wanted.
In the end, while Yasenia didn't give herself much credit, it was she, as the powerful linking centerpiece, that kept everything harmonious. Like any family, every participant had a part in making the home feel like, well, "Home."
Yasenia chuckled. "Before we deviate once more. Have any of you kept any of your skills from your mortal realms?"
Cecile answered first. "I have changed my entire arsenal. The skills I used were strong, but they lacked the essence of a true immortal skill. The only things left from back then are my innate skills and my spiritual coating." Remembering the classes she took at the Rita Academy, she smiled. "The teachers back then were right in saying that, if developed nicely, the [Energy Coating] would be useful across your entire cultivation journey."
The rest of the girls agreed. Kali smiled. "That's right. To be fair, it feels like I've restarted my cultivation path once again." Kali looked behind her and chuckled. "I also unlocked my fifth tail, so I am quite happy with it."
Yasenia smiled at that. "Being able to unlock your fifth tail without my help is indeed a big step. Only four more to go, Honey!"
Kali rolled her eyes. "You say it as if it is something easy."
Yasenia chuckled and grabbed her hand. "What about the rest? Are you similar in that regard?"
Evelyn commented. "I am similar. However, the skills from my inheritance can still work perfectly well. So, I've been relying on those while I work on new, powerful skills." Evelyn sighed. "It is much more complicated now that we are in the Transcendence Realm, since the energy doesn't just need meridian movement and acupuncture activation. If it doesn't interact with your surroundings while stirring the very essence of energy, you are basically wasting the potential of your new abilities as an immortal cultivator."
Andrea agreed. "That's very true. We created skills very simply when we were mortals. I thought we'd have some problems when we broke through, but not many. I guess I was wrong. If I didn't have my own inheritance, I would be in trouble as well."
Cecile commented lightly. "All of you have some sort of inheritance. I am the only one who needs to create everything from scratch."
Yasenia chuckled. "Have you not created anything yet?"
Cecile smirked. "Of course I have. However, it is far from being versatile enough." She added. "I used Soluna's fighting as inspiration. She only has three skills, right? Even then, they are incredibly flexible, each focusing on one part of Soluna's offense and defense. I want to create something similar as well."
Yasenia looked at Tatyana. The red-eyed woman blinked. "What's wrong? You have not forgotten that I am not a real new immortal cultivator, right?"
Yasenia grinned. "No. I was curious about what level of strength you can use right now. Like, what Level of Intent Domain and so on?"
Tatyana smiled. "I am limited by the lower heaven. Similar to [Intents], [Intent Domains] don't rely as much on cultivation level as they do on comprehension. Right now, I can use Fate and Death Intent Domain at the fourth level. That's more than enough to make me basically unbeatable around here."
Yasenia hummed and glanced at Angel and Kali, who had not talked yet. Angel looked at Yasenia with her large, blue eyes. "Hm? What's wrong?"
Yasenia squished her pudding-like cheeks. "What about you, Baby?"
Angel answered, her words slurred. "I can ushe mah skilz with noh prophlem!"
The dragoness was slightly surprised. She stopped squishing her adorable face. "Oh? Can you really?"
Angel grinned. "Of course! Most of the skills I used were, at the end of the day, what Mirrory has been teaching me. We made some modifications together and they worked like a charm~." She added. "Still, I need to become a bit faster in my formation calculations if I want to create formations that can work at our current level during combat. Most of my formation-based abilities are now useless."
Yasenia looked at Kali. "Valeria must've helped you as well, no? Why have you given up on most of your skills?"
Kali chuckled. "My combat style doesn't work as well at our level. Summoning an army of relatively weak beings just doesn't cut it anymore. Therefore, I need to change how I develop my summons and focus on a few elite summons that can fight up to our level. My newest tail's skill should help me, though."
Yasenia hummed. "From first to fifth, they were the [Nature Fox First Tail: Nascent Life], [Nature Fox Second Tail: Blooming Life], [Nature Fox Third Tail: Developing Life], and [Nature Fox Fourth Tail: Transforming Life], right?"
Kali chuckled. "Well, it is a bit different. It has changed from "[Nature Fox] to [Origin Of Life Fox]. The rest is basically the same."
"Aha. So, for example, [Origin Of Life Fox First Tail: Nascent Life], right?"
"Yes." Kali smiled. "The Fifth Tail is quite interesting. It's called [Mature Life]. It gives those life-forms I've transformed a mature form, so to speak. The effects are quite deep, like the change from an adolescent Dragon to a Mature dragon. A few other details go into it as well, but we are not here to talk about that today, are we?"
Yasenia smiled. "Right. Even if you all tell me everything about your current skills, who knows how they will change by the time we meet again?"
The other girls smiled faintly, while Tatyana commented. "Don't worry, love. I won't take long to find you, I promise."
Yasenia looked at Tatyana gently and hugged her, kissing her forehead softly. "Don't rush it. Heaven is too vast to find a single creature among the stars. Still, I'll leave a few hints. Creating some shops with [Astral Sky] in them and things like that. If you ever catch the tail of one of those hints, you'll probably be able to follow the trail and find me rapidly."
Her children came back with a few things in their hands. "Mommy! We want to buy these!"
Yasenia smiled and nodded. "Sure. Let's buy those and roam around for a bit longer. When we return home, we'll have a chat about the Transcendence Realm, so you'll probably want to be there as well, right, babies?"
"Yes!"