Heaven, Earth, Me

Now that she has the beast’s scent remembered, Yasenia sniffed the air and pointed southeast. “That way is this beast liar. Should we try our luck? There are some treasures in that direction too…”

Cecile thought and said, “Sped up, if it isn’t suitable or it has its mate guarding the liar, it will be dangerous to further delay setting up our camp.”

They went towards the liar, and when they reached, they used a talisman to see if anything strong was nearby. Cecile spoke “it seems that there isn’t anything dangerous beasts in there. Let’s enter, maintain your senses alert.”

They entered the cave, and apart from some bones, there was one half-eaten beast and one egg. Gustav approached it and said, “Lucky! This is an egg from that beast.”

Oliver asked, “Is it suitable for you with your sneaky fighting style? That beast was very bulky.”

Gustav said, “I can use it as a front liner so that I can attack stealthily when it distracts my opponents.”

Yasenia said, “Congrats, you have gotten a beast companion!”

Gustav nodded, then he asked, “Do any of you want a beast companion?”

Yasenia shook her head “It doesn’t make sense getting a companion that won’t keep up with my growing speed. I rather get one when I’m stronger so that I can rise a higher quality one.”

Angel, Cecile, and Evelyn gave similar reasons. Oliver said, “I would like one. To be honest, my cultivation speed is fast, but it is inside the normal fast spectrum. If I can get an ice or water beast on this trip, I would be happy.”

Yasenia patted his shoulder, “Let’s find you one then, Big bro!”

Oliver laughed and nodded. They set up the formations at the cave entrance and picked up some treasures that were around. After sorting everything out, Angel said in her silvery voice, “From this cave, we’ve got: two rank four herbs, some rank three and rank two metals, the cores of two rank two beasts, one spatial ring with some magic rank cultivation skills, and some rank one and rank two miscellaneous things.”

Angel looked at the thing with the highest energy signature, “There is also one unknown pill. However, it says in one of the notes, that a female must consume it. It will elevate their Yin energy and more…”

Angel smiled sarcastically, “Well, thank you for the details. Huh? It seems it can only be consumed by Body modification or Mental nourishing realm cultivators.”

Yasenia said, “We should save it for later if it enhances the Yin energy… The girl that takes it will become sexually aroused for a while. Moreover, who knows how much time we will need to absorb it. Although it can empower one of us… The risks are too high to use it now.”

Yasenia looked at Cecile and said, “I think Cecile should have it. With her [Extreme Yin body] it is like a pie falling from the sky for her.”

The others nodded and Cecile took it without reservations, “Thank you.”

At night, they took turns with two people in each turn. Yasenia was with Cecile and they were the last to do the guard turn. They sat in the entrance of the cave, shoulder to shoulder. Cecile asked softly, “Yasenia… Why do you want to start a relationship with me? I know that, although I’m beautiful, my… stoic personality is a problem.”

Yasenia didn’t lower her guard, but she used her tail to circle both their waists making them become very close. Cecile felt her soft body and her sweet floral fragrance surround her, making her nerves relax. “Cecile, the reason I told you about getting together is for various reasons. The first is…”

Yasenia chuckled, “That I like your stoic expression, I’m filled with warmth every time I see your expression do a small smile, your eyebrows loosen, when you speak in length or when you blush lightly. All those things that in other people are normal, I find them endearing on you.”

Yasenia continued looking around even if she felt Cecile’s gaze. “Moreover, you are an extremely talented cultivator. I know that if I got together with you, I won’t leave you behind, you will advance as fast as me. So, I can see a permanent companion in you. Even if you don’t accept me… I can accept it, because with your talent and cultivation speed, I know I won’t leave you behind… Like I will surely do with Oliver.”

Yasenia saw that nothing was around so she faced Cecile with a gentle smile, “Cecile, you are much more to me than you think, finding Angel, Evelyn, Andrea, and you, is, to be honest, something I didn’t expect. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to find anybody when I came to this academy. That my overwhelming cultivation speed will make people reluctant to cross that last line from friends to lovers.”

Cecile looked at those golden eyes and lost herself in them, she blurted out, “When we end this week… I will tell you my answer.”

Yasenia smiled and said, “No matter what you choose, know that you will always be important to me, Cecile. I really like you.”

Cecile blushed and lowered her head. She approached a little closer to Yasenia and put her head on her shoulder.

Yasenia looked around and sensed something strange. She stood up and said, “Cecile, I’m having bad vibes, but I don’t know exactly why.”

Cecile stood up and looked around. “I don’t sense anything, maybe it is just your imagination?”

Yasenia shook her head, “I rather believe it, and be cautious than think about it as my imagination and then regret it. Be alert, I am going to wake up the others.” Cecile nodded.

After a moment all of them woke up. Oliver asked, “What happened Little sis?”

Yasenia answered, “I’m getting bad vibes and I don’t know why… Pick up everything, we will move as soon as we get everything together.”

All of them nodded and Gustav said, “Are you sure you aren’t being paranoid?”

Yasenia said, “As I told Cecile. I rather am a little paranoid, and do a little more effort than let it slide and regret it later.” Gustav nodded and went to prepare.

On a hill to the group’s east, a green-haired woman was looking at them with a remote vision artifact. Seeing them stand and start to move, she cursed to the incompetence of the ‘rented’ subordinates. “Tsk, they can’t even put a formation around them without alerting them. Are they that incompetent? Worse, our early prepared ambushes were wasted because they didn’t follow the safest route like Cecile would do. Finding them has already been a pain, now they are startling them before we can do anything! Useless!”

She turned around and said, “Change of plans, move the beasts with the prepared bait and let them separate naturally, I hope that at least, that stupid human-beast gets separated trying to play hero. It would be better if we get that brainless big-boobed blonde. Either of them is fine and both would be perfect.”

While they were running, Yasenia’s instincts were still ringing! “Stay alert! Something is coming our way, do not get separated!”

The red in Yasenia’s eye was growing by the second. ‘This is 100% being plotted by someone! Who did I offend after entering the academy? The librarian wouldn’t have the guts, the boy I ignored in the library? Too far-fetched, there have been tons like him during this month. Admires from Andrea? They stopped bothering me after the duel! Who is it!? WHO DARES TARGET MY LOVED ONES TO HURT ME!?’

Yasenia felt a ton of beast thanks to her ever-growing dragon senses. She looked back with her half red, half golden eyes and gathered all her energy and aura on her throat then… “RROOOOAAAAARRR!!!!!”

Her dragon roar exploded out of her mouth sending her wrath and battle intent to all those approaching beasts! Sensing the high-level draconic bloodline half of the beasts stopped in their tracks and fled after that roar!

Her companions looked at her surprised and seeing her changing eyes they knew there was something very wrong with this situation. Cecile was guiding them with the help of the map, so it was Oliver that approached her without slowing down his running speed, “What’s wrong little sis?”

Yasenia’s voice carried a slight growl as she said, “Someone is setting this up to hurt me.”

Her voice relaxed and continued, “Remember, don’t separate, I also won’t unless the situation has no other way to get out of it. I can run faster alone and my [Lingering star step] is perfect to throw off pursuers.”

Angel and the others didn’t want to leave her alone, but looking behind and seeing at least 3 rank-three beasts at glance, they didn’t say anything. Angel’s face was completely cold, Yasenia was her reverse scale and someone was touching it!

After doing some turns, they saw that some beasts were coming from the front. Yasenia cursed in her mind and spoke, “We will see each other in the previous cave any of these days at sunset, we wait for one hour, and if nobody appears leave and come the next day. I have a lot of life-saving treasures so don’t worry about me.”

They gritted their teeth but nodded. Yasenia changed directions, then gathered her strength in her throat again and… “RROOAAAARR!!!!”

She challenged the beasts to follow her! Almost all of them followed Yasenia. Meanwhile, Cecile’s group was about to leave the encirclement in the next fork, but one cloud beast sneak attacked Evelyn’s back. Angel reacted by pushing her out of the way but this changed Angel’s running direction and, with the speed of her sprint, she couldn’t turn in time and separated!

Evelyn reacted fast and said, “Cecile! Angel separated in the last fork! Although there weren’t any beasts coming from there, if what Yasenia said is true there must be cultivators around! We have to get there fast!”

Cecile nodded and changed the route on her map. Then all four of them accelerated without another word. Meanwhile, the green-haired girl saw all of this and clapped, “Hahaha perfect, who sent that last beast? Reward him, his timing was completely on point! It seems that these subordinates are not so bad after all! Capture the blonde, almost all of them should have some life-saving treasures so proceed with caution.”

Then she remembered something, “That blonde also is rather good at formations so don’t get overconfident! The rest follow the beast woman. Are the things from Thousand poison valley prepared?”

Seeing them nod she laughed, “You guys will have a ton of fun with that voluptuous woman before her death! I’m letting everything to you, I will continue gathering points. Report to me when you kill them.”

After Yasenia separated, she coated her body with her [Celestial coat] and used the [Lingering star step] *Bang!* She shot forward at astonishing speed! ‘Once I lose these beasts I will go find them. I can’t run away much because I will also have to return to the cave entrance daily…”

She made a direction change motion and an afterimage was sent that way making a lot of beasts separate, without stopping she continued forward. ‘What a pain… If I had somehow discovered the perpetrator in that duel, these shitty things wouldn’t be happening. Well, at least Cecile and the rest are all together…’

Yasenia saw a cliff in the distance so she slowed down a bit and used her afterimage, then she accelerated overtaking the afterimage. She used it as cover, turned, and disappeared. Her afterimage continued forwards and disappeared after falling off the cliff.

With this last movement, she lost all the beasts that were pursuing her. ‘I have to be careful of these ‘cliffs’ I don’t even know if they have a bottom or they continue downwards across the cloud… If I fall, I die.’

After running in one direction for a while she used a pill to mask her scent and changed directions. Then, with some turns, and sending some afterimages to be sure, she started going back. She didn’t go full speed and used the cloud bushes as a cover to advance.

She looked around and tried to catch one of her human pursuers. Her half-red half-golden slit eyes glowed, ‘I will make you guys spit everything no matter the methods I need to use!’