Heaven, Earth, Me

Yasenia rubbed the back of her head and looked at Kali with large blinking eyes. "Why did you smack me, Honey?" After looking around, she realized that everyone was giving her bewildered looks. "Hm? What happened? Is there something wrong?"

Looking at herself, she saw a few superficial burns on her body that were already healing and peeling off, revealing new, perfectly healthy skin. "Oh. And here I thought I felt an electrifying sensation because I managed to complete what I wanted."

Kali's lips twitched several times, and she almost smacked her again. Sighing, she asked again, her gaze and hands roaming Yasenia's healing body just in case there were any serious injuries. "So, love, why on Heaven's name did you get smitten this time around!? We are in a World with a dying Heaven! Unless it is a realm breakthrough, Heaven will not waste their energy on anyone."

Being clueless about what happened like everybody else, the dragoness spoke, not bothered at all about Kali's groping session. "Wait, Honey. I am as confused as you are. Let me look around my body and see if there have been any changes, okay? All I know is that I squeezed my soul and made it denser, nothing more." 

Kali nodded and stepped back. Then, Yasenia sat down cross-legged on the spot, closing her eyes and looking into herself. Her spiritual sense dove into her body, trying to spot any changes. She didn't need to look far into her own body, as several changes had occurred when she looked at herself.

First, her soul was not overflowing all over the place like before. Instead, it was tightly contained inside a surface with a very faint sheen that covered her silhouette. Looking at herself with her own spiritual sense made her look as if she were gently glowing. 

The second change she noticed immediately was her control over her soul. It had made a qualitative leap. As Yasenia looked around herself, she could clearly feel an illusory flow that wasn't there before or, more precisely, a flow that she couldn't see in the past. With it, controlling the soul was much smoother than the brutish way she used before. 

Thirdly, and the more glaring change, she said that the size of her soul had shrunk several times over. Yet even the general size was smaller. Once she peeked into her own soul, the world expanded like never before. 'Woah. My soul is at least five times larger than before while also being denser… the overall strength has skyrocketed. What happened? Are Transcendent Ranked pills that powerful?'

Yasenia knew that there were more changes than the ones she could superficially see. Yet, she would need a long period of meditation to spot all of them. That was a luxury that she currently could not afford. After all, she had a Transcendence Realm cultivator waiting for her. 

Still, she didn't rush and explained everything she had seen to Kali, Valeria, and the maids. After explaining what she had sensed, Valeria laughed, feeling incredulous. "You actually managed to start the Soul Cultivation Path without the assistance of a Cultivation Technique. That's honestly ridiculous. Even if your breakthrough was helped by a very particular mix of very particular events, it is an achievement that not even geniuses of the high-level worlds would be able to accomplish."

Yasenia hummed. "Well, even if I have managed to enter, I have no clue what to do or how to advance. Still, it has helped me a lot just to enter into the first level. Quite different from Body Cultivation, which it took a few realms to become noticeable."

Valeria smiled amusedly. "Perhaps you didn't notice, but your martial comprehension speed also skyrocketed after you entered the first realm of Body Cultivation. Your body control increased significantly as well. If not, even during the enlightenment, fighting Tatyana, Mirrory, and me to a standstill during your Martial Art creation would've been impossible."

Kali spluttered. "She did what now!? When!? Why was I unaware that my lover matched THREE ancient seniors!?"

Yasenia laughed. "If Tatyana was here, you would've been smacked~. Anyway, let's go to visit Lord… Gu!"

Alaia asked with a small laugh. "Did you almost forget his name?"

Yasenia coughed. "Of course not! Let's part!" While they moved, The dragoness remembered something and asked. "Speaking of Gu… Kali, have you dabbled in gu poisons? I heard about them in the past, but I am still clueless."

Kali decided not to insist on the other matter and answered. "Gu poison? Love, that's a parasite branch. They are parasites with different effects from usual. For example, there is a Gu poison that inhibits all pleasure of a person unless they do it with someone that the practitioner has marked."

Yasenia blinked. "Huh? How does that even work?"

Kali smiled. "Well, Gu poisons are somewhat sentient. In most cases, they also have two counterparts called mother and child. The mother gu is with the person who wants to control the child gu, and a mother gu can control several child gus. The poison I just mentioned works because the child gu in your victim's body won't allow pleasure to occur until it senses the presence of the mother gu."

Yasenia gasped. "That's honestly awesome."

Kali nodded. "The mother gu gives that type of parasite a very controllable edge, added to the ability of peculiar and obscure effects. Sadly, it comes with a big drawback."

"Which is?" 

Kali commented. "If another person manages to steal the mother gu from you, then they gain control over it. Mother gus are really easy to coax as long as you know what they like and dislike. Their intelligence is very, very, limited."

Yasenia tilted her head. "Can't these gu be used as medicine, then?"

"Of course!" Kali laughed. "Parasites are a powerful medicine. However, not many people would allow you to infest their body with little bugs when they can eat a pill or have an ointment rubbed on their wounds." 

Yasenia laughed. "Well, understandable." Then, she added. "Oh, if you ever have parasites that can heal or cure me or anyone in the family better than alchemy or traditional medicine, don't hold back, okay? Our family trusts each other!"

Kali smiled softly and hugged Yasenia's arms. "Thank you, love. I will."

Alaia coughed. "Are we included in that as well, Young Miss?"

The dragoness looked at her and asked. "Huh? Why? Do you have any problems with parasites?"

The dragon woman's lips twitched. "I do trust Madam Kali. However, Lady Tatyana has used them in the past to inflict torture, so I would like to ask you to be… careful. Some of our bodies might react violently toward them."

Kali pondered. "I guess Tatyana would not ignore parasite resistance training… I'll take it into account. When we are back, let's do a few tests to see how resistant each of you is."

Alaia and the other maids looked at Kali for a few seconds, but they eventually sighed and agreed. "Yes, Madam Kali."

After all, their madam did it with good faith and wanted to help them; how could they refuse?

After a relatively short walk, they all arrived at the place that Gu Chen told them. Yasenia looked at Kali and asked. "Are all your preparations ready?"

Kali nodded. "We should have no problem even if he wants to kill us." 

"Oh?" Yasenia smiled. "I like that confidence. Let's go inside."

Kali looked at Yasenia and asked, curious. "You won't ask?"

The dragoness hummed. "Well, the enemy might have ears around, so it is better not to ask here. I'll just trust your judgment."

Kali laughed. "Sure. However, it is much simpler than you think."

Once they knocked on the doors, a pulse of energy analyzed them, and then the gates leading into the enormous mansion opened. As one of the Four City Kings, Gu Chen's house was naturally enormous, spanning several square kilometers.

Once the gates opened, there was a woman with luxurious robes standing there, her chin high. "You are late, Yasenia Dravory. Is this the respect that you want to show Lord Gu!?" 

The dragoness looked at the woman once and then completely ignored her. She didn't even speak and continued walking forward with the rest of her people. 

The woman frowned and shouted, her tone getting higher. "You dare ignore me!? If you take a single step more, I'll call the guards!"

Yasenia continued walking as if that woman didn't even exist. "GUARDS! Stop her! There is an intruder!"

The dragoness didn't bother as some men approached and pointed their spears at her. She spoke softly to her maids. "Kill anyone who dares block my way. I am here to see Lord Gu, and no one else."

The guards paused when they heard Yasenia and looked at the woman again, their eyes looking hesitant. The woman stomped the ground and shouted. "As if she dares kill the City King's guards!? Stop her!"

The guards pondered and readied their weapons again. "Stop right there, Yasenia Dravory. We will attack if you continue walking!" 

Yasenia looked at him and spoke, her eyes pouring out with spiritual pressure and thick killing intent. "And I will kill you if you dare stop me. So, think it through before you act."

A relatively young guard who didn't have much experience couldn't wait to gain the favor of the fuming woman and rise in the ranks, so he shouted righteously. "How dare you disobey the Nineteenth Lady! If she tells us to move, we move! Attack!"

With a shout, he took a step forward. However, that's all he did as Doriel instantly appeared by his side and sliced his head off with her daggers, returning behind Yasenia in the next second. Her movements were like a shadow, leaving no one a way to react. 

The corpse of the man fell with a heavy thud in front of the dragoness, but even that didn't stop her strides. Her foot sunk into the corpse as golden flames burst out around it, vaporizing the corpse and blood without leaving a single stain on her clothes.

The guards that were about to follow that one froze in their steps, their eyes widening while the Nineteenth Lady looked on with stupefaction and disbelief. "Y-Y-You dare!? You arrived late, and now you dare to kill someone in Lord Gu Chen's territory!?"

Yasenia sneered and finally bothered answering. "Do you think Lord Gu isn't looking? If he didn't want me to kill that guard, he could've appeared at any moment. Now, scram before my maid's weapons sink into your body, nineteenth."

Before that woman exclaimed again, loud laughter reached them. "Hahahaha. Great! As expected of you, Yasenia."

The dragoness stopped this time around when a man flew down from the sky. She respectfully cupped her fists and bowed. "I am sorry for my late arrival, Lord Gu. I was tied down during a significant breakthrough and couldn't really stop it, or I would've risked a cultivation deviation."

Lord Gu rubbed his chin and looked closely at Yasenia. "I can sense that your soul has made tremendous improvements. It seems that you aren't lying."

Yasenia straightened and smiled. "How could I lie to a sixth realm cultivator? That's foolish, ignorant, and where the true disrespect would occur." Yasenia gave the Nineteenth Lady a side glance and looked back at Lord Gu.

Lord Gu smirked. "Indeed. Come inside. I have prepared a banquet before we start our conversation."

Yasenia acknowledged. "Understood, Lord Gu."