Yasenia looked around as she flew, her gaze and spiritual sense covering hundreds of kilometers around her. The Secret Realm was peculiar, something Yasenia had never really experienced. Instead of being one piece of land, it was one giant ocean world with islands, large beaches, and most likely underwater caves to explore.
While she flew, her large dragon wings moving her body forward, the dragoness was thoughtful. "No wonder there are still many secrets. Oceans are difficult to explore. It is like being in space, but the viscosity and pressure of the water could be quite annoying compared to the vacuum of space. Moreover, spreading spiritual sense is more difficult. After all, water acts as an obstacle, unlike space."
While she flew around one kilometer above the surface, her spiritual sense could spread to a depth of nearly 100,000 meters. Even then, she could rarely see the bottom of the ocean unless she was near islands.
'These oceans are probably the deepest I've ever seen… Well, I don't know how deep Blue Pearl World's oceans are.'
As she pondered, she felt a giant shadow shoot from the depths, swimming up and jumping from the water with its giant maw wide open. Yasenia stopped where she was, her flight manipulation far surpassing what the creature that jumped had calculated.
The dragoness observed as the fish, larger than average mountains, chomped nothing while its eye looked at her.
"That's… An interesting way to catch prey." Yasenia observed, her eyes full of curiosity.
As the fish fell down, waves and columns of water shot skyward, much smaller than one would think. It felt as if its body was made to not create splashes when falling back down into the water.
"Strangely, the beasts of this place don't follow the rules entirely… That fish was a Second Level Mythical Core Realm Beast. I wonder if there are stronger creatures?"
Seeing the shadow dive deep down, far beyond her sensing range, Yasenia pondered what to do. 'Should I fly higher or lower?'
While she thought, she caught a few presences flying far behind her. Her straight eyebrows gathered in a faint frown, and she quickly changed locations, getting out of their general direction.
Nevertheless, when she did so, those people also changed directions toward her. This made Yasenia's frowning face transform into a cold and murderous one.
Two people approached her from a distance, a man and a woman. The man looked handsome and muscular, his body naturally perfected due to the Transcendence Realm transformation. The woman was similarly incomparable to any mortal beauty, possessing black hair and dark eyes that sucked you in. Nevertheless, she was many levels below Yasenia's looks.
The man spoke with a smile. "Fellow Immortal, we've felt the aura of a powerful creature in this direction. Could you tell us what happened?"
Yasenia looked at them indifferently and answered with two words. "No. Leave."
The woman's beautiful, curved eyebrows furrowed. "Rudeness will gain you enemies, fellow Immortal. You shouldn't be too cold-hearted."
Yasenia's lips arched in a mocking sneer. "I will be rude towards those who smell like they've bathed in dragon blood. Now, leave. I am not someone you can hunt, and I don't want to lose any time."
The amicable man and woman turned cold instantly and took out their weapons. "Since you can't understand your position, you shouldn't speak. [Dragon Pierce]!"
His spear manifested and shone with ridiculous spiritual energies. Yasenia could feel a strange, suppressing strength coming out of it. Nevertheless, it didn't affect her. Looking at the incoming spear, Yasenia could tell that these two were suppressed cultivators. Clearly, they were someone with at least fourth or fifth level Transcendence Realm strength.
Seeing Yasenia not react with her body while her eyes followed the approaching spear, both of them had different reactions. The man became confident, thinking that the suppression had worked. So, mounting on that confidence, he placed more momentum behind the spear thrust.
Meanwhile, the woman noticed the odd calmness emanating from Yasenia's very core. This dragon woman's eyes easily followed the attack's trajectory, and her energy didn't seem affected by the suppression. "Brother Hao, be careful!"
It was too late, though.
Yasenia activated Cosmic Air from her Grand Cosmos Martial art sequence, her body and energy easily deflecting the spear thrust to her side. Then, she took a step forward, her body appearing so close to the man that he could almost feel her breath. "[Seven Cosmos Martial Smite]."
Body Energy gathered around her body, enhanced by her other three paths, and enveloped her right arm. Then, as the other side lunged forward from the spear's momentum, Yasenia's fist flashed forward like a meteor, striking right into his stomach.
BOOM!!
The shockwave from the impact created a depression in the ocean below them. But that was not the end of it. As if the punch she had released had multiplied, six more identical strikes exploded against his body.
A total of seven of Yasenia's punches landed on his stomach before he even had time to start flying backward. By the time his body absorbed all the impact, his internal organs had ruptured, and his stomach's muscles were pierced and leaking blood everywhere.
Then, the forces acted, and he transformed into a streak of light.
The woman's eyes turned wide. "W-What was that?"
"That was me venting my annoyance. That attack should've shattered all his internal organs." Yasenia's voice came from behind her, prompting the woman to quickly unleash her sword and turn around.
Sadly, her arms were quickly entangled by Yasenia's extremely long dragon tail. Then, Yasenia grabbed her by the hair with her left hand. "Dragon Hunters… You all smell horribly. Have you become so comfortable hunting us that you've forgotten to clean yourself of the remnants that our species leaves behind when dying?"
The woman's eyes quivered as she muttered with fear. "P-Please, mercy. We wouldn't have attacked if you didn't reveal our identities!"
Yasenia sniffed her neck as her left hand released her hair. Then, she looked coldly at her, not a hint of mercy in her draconic eyes. "You stink. You smell of lies and deceit." Then, she punched her face.
BANG!
The woman's head whiplashed backward, and when it came back forward, Yasenia punched her again.
BANG!
And again.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The shockwaves of each punch spread around until one of the punches finally shattered her face and dug into her skull.
Seeing her current state, Yasenia snorted and threw the woman sideways. "Disgusting."
"Now. I should kill you both. Right?" Her spiritual sense stretched and picked up the two people, placing them above the water.
The man came to himself, recovering his consciousness much quicker than the woman.
"Stay still if you don't want your woman being killed."
The man snapped out of his daze and quickly checked his surroundings. "Y-You!" Seeing the woman's state, he snarled angrily. "Do you know who we are!? If you dare kill us, you will be marked by our sect! I dare you to try and finish us off! Either you ask for forgiveness, or you flee for eternity from us once we are outside!"
Yasenia chuckled. "That's very interesting. I was guessing that you would have something like that, so I didn't finish you two off straight away. This confirmation is delightful and a warning for my future actions!"
The man snorted, hiding the pained grunt that his ruptured organs forced out. "Since you know that, let us go right this instant."
The dragoness's smile turned cold. "That would be something you'll have to ask the fish. Fish Food should ask the fish to let them go."
A shadow launched from the bottom of the ocean, opening its maws wide and surrounding both of them. His face changed from arrogant to fearful as Yasenia's smirking face disappeared beyond the maws of the giant fish.
CHOMP!
Yasenia observed as the fish fell back down to the water again and swam into the depths of the ocean. "Getting their treasures would be nice. But I really can't risk getting hunted in this Heavenly Layer." She sighed ruefully. "Well, Mom always said that excessive greed killed the dragon. I need to rein it in now that I don't have my dears to hold me back."
Looking around one last time, Yasenia flapped her wings and left the place, going deeper into the Secret Realm. "From what I understand, this is a planar Secret Realm. Meaning, everything is a flat terrain that stretches indefinitely from the entrance point." Now that she was in the Sixth Realm, she would soon be able to create her own Secret Realms as well. Inside her ring, Yasenia had plenty of information written by Tatyana, Valeria, and Mirrory.
"They told me to only check it after I become a mid-level Sixth Realm. Meaning, when I reach the Fourth Stage. So, I will leave that aside for now."
Her nose suddenly twitched when she approached an island in the distance, and her eyes shone. "Oh, there should be a few treasures on that island."
Her flight path changed, landing on the shores of the giant island. "While I call it an island, it is really as large as an average continent in a spherical rocky world—a few thousand kilometers across."
She took a step forward with a smile. "Time to explo—"
Whoosh!
Yasenia quickly jumped backward as a circular mouth full of sharp teeth chomped the place where she stood before. Her eyebrows twitched. "Really, you can't relax your guard even for a second when exploring these places. [Celestial Sunder]."
Draheart shone with gorgeous energies, slicing the creature in half with a single sword strike. Looking at the monster that attacked her, Yasenia was unsure as to what it was. "Worm? No… Sea cucumber? Hm… Whatever, I'll store it and see if I can make a dish out of it. It looks a bit chewy, though. I should find a way to make the meat more tender and also wash off some of that slimy liquid."
After storing the new ingredient, Yasenia walked through the shore and into the jungle. "Quite a large beach; I wonder why it is so large? Although if monsters like the one I killed live there, I guess it makes sense."
Looking around and sniffing the air, Yasenia prepared an extra spatial ring on her middle finger. This ring would be given to the sect later. "For now, let's fill it with medical herbs, blacksmithing materials, and perhaps good wood and other items I find."
So, while moving through the jungle, Yasenia ignored all mortal beasts and focused on collecting herbs that had grown here for who knows how long. She didn't really look at what she harvested unless it was a plant that needed special attention. "One for me… one for the sect… two for me… three for me… one for the sect… four for me…"
The way she divided it was a bit uneven, just a tad bit. Nevertheless, having accompanied Kali for many years as her assistant in alchemy, she also had learned techniques to pick spiritual herbs without damaging them. So, she was efficient. This made it so that, even with her completely fair way of "dividing" the spoils, there were more than plenty of treasures for the sect.
With no obstacles in her way, Yasenia moved deeper into the island in the direction of the treasure she smelled, of course.