Chapter 256: Chapter 256. Giving up the scroll and the Impossible Monolith.
Sarah's heart jumped, and she almost shouted. She didn't expect the dragoness to approach behind her stealthily. With a somewhat stiff expression, Sarah turned and looked at the smiling tall dragoness behind her. "W-When did you appear behind me? You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Yasenia chuckled and asked again, "So, is that thing valuable?"
Yasenia knew that Sarah had all her rights to keep her secrets, but this didn't mean that she would let something that could help her dears go easily. There weren't things like fairness when competing for supremacy in this world.
Yasenia didn't mind taking it from Sarah if she could get another powerful treasure. Of course, she won't be too forceful in her approach, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't try to take it.
Sarah said, her voice somewhat nervous. "N-No, I just wanted to look at it. I'm actually surprised that broken things like these could enter the place where we should be getting rewards."
Yasenia walked around Sarah as she listened to her. Sarah saw Yasenia reaching for it with her tail, then lifting it from the ground and placing it on her hand. Yasenia used the whole extent of her dragon instincts to find some value in it. 'I can't feel anything… Was she truly looking at it for curiosity?'
Sarah was looking at Yasenia nervously as she asked the system, 'W-Will she be able to see anything, system?'
[Host, don't worry. No matter how heaven-defying her strength is, she is still young and inexperienced. She won't be able to feel anything from it. Not even a high-bloodline dragon within the Transcendence Realm would be able to feel its value.]
And the system was right; Yasenia couldn't sense anything coming from it. However, a quick side glance made Yasenia aware of Sarah's current nervousness as she held it. 'Since I'm not able to see anything coming from it… It must have been the thing possessing her that told her. Maybe it is even more precious than a Transcendence ranked item… But I find that too far-fetched… Why would the creator place something so powerful in this place?'
What Yasenia didn't know is that the ancient high-level cultivators and even many in this time and era loved leaving powerful treasures in their inheritances and leaving everything to Fate or Destiny. In their opinion, only those that have a connection with the item would be able to gain them.
Yasenia frowned, but something flashed inside her mind. She remembered her sword. Then, it suddenly didn't seem that impossible. 'Should I steal it and bet I'm right? There are other treasures I want for Cecile and Andrea, thought, and I don't know how many times I will be able to enter the treasury….'
Yasenia decided to take the most direct approach. Rather than play mind games, she rather bet on Sarah's nativity. Therefore, she looked directly into Sarah's honey-colored eyes with her goldens and asked, "Is this item powerful?"
Sarah looked sideways for an instant and then said with a smile, "It shouldn't be, right? It is just a tattered scroll. What is there to be valuable?"
Yasenia was silent for five seconds and then smiled, "Then, if I take it, you wouldn't mind, right?"
Kali and Angel looked from the side, wanting to see what Sarah would say. They caught something wrong as soon as Yasenia began following Sarah stealthily after entering the Waste Gate Treasure room.
They were also focused on the scroll in Yasenia's hand, unable to feel anything from it. It looked like normal papyrus used in common scrolls.
Even if her face remained calm, Sarah began sweating under Yasenia's penetrating slit eyes. She truly felt naked when those golden dragon eyes locked onto her.
The system saw that they might lose it at this pace, so it told Sarah.
[Host, that item isn't useful for them. It is a cultivation technique for people with five or more attributes, the only thing you still lack. Your cultivation will take thousands of years if you let it fall into her hands. I must remind you that you could only reach your current level thanks to a Heaven-Defying treasure.]
Sarah was internally shocked, 'Thousands of Years!? I can't let it fall in Yasenia's hands.'
She steeled herself and said, "Y-Yasenia, in truth, it isn't a normal item. But it won't be useful for people like you."
Yasenia hummed and flipped the scroll around, "Why is it useful to you and not to me? Don't get me wrong, I don't like stealing things from acquaintances, but powerful items are really important and, most importantly, rare in a cultivator's path. I can confidently say that sixty to seventy percent of a cultivator's strength comes from items like cultivation methods, movement techniques, and so on. Therefore, I wouldn't like to lose one."
Yasenia locked eyes with Sarah and said, "You've maybe heard that dragons are hoarders of treasures, and well, those rumors aren't wrong. I rather take all items that may help me in the future. So, I would ask you, Sarah, to tell me why this item is not useful for me, but it is for you."
Yasenia looked at Sarah and said, "Moreover, there is one strange thing. Not even my dragon-sense can detect value from this scroll that you are saying that it is powerful. This only means that it is not an ordinary powerful item, but an extraordinary one."
Sarah was somewhat cowered but kept being insistent. Even if she really liked Yasenia and wanted to be lovers with her, she couldn't sacrifice taking thousands of years to cultivate. Therefore, she said. "This item is only useful for five-attributed cultivators like me. That is why it can't be of use to you. No matter if you keep it forever, it will never be of use to you."
Yasenia asked with a raised eyebrow, "How do you know? You are naïve, innocent, and ignorant of most basic things in our world, yet you are strangely sure of this thing."
Sarah was now visibly sweating. 'I-I didn't know that Yasenia's image of me was that bad...'
Yasenia, of course, didn't want the thing possessing her to become suspicious, so she decided to give up for fear that this item would be something important to them. Therefore, she didn't let Sarah answer and said honestly, "Well, it doesn't matter. Take it, but I hope that you didn't lie to me about this when its value shines in the future, Sarah."
Yasenia turned and said, "I will be brutally honest with you. I'm not letting you be beside me out of complete goodwill. Your strength and not scheming nature are why I'm letting you be beside me. If any of these two things changes… We will have to go separate ways, Sarah."
Sarah gulped, 'S-System, I really don't want to get on her bad side. What you said is true, right?'
[Host, I can't be completely sure. But I'm certain that what you said isn't a lie.]
Sarah wasn't too convinced by its answer, but she could only sigh and nod. "Don't worry, Yasenia. I wouldn't lie to you."
Yasenia threw the scroll above her, and it made a perfect arc, landing before Sarah.
Sarah caught it, and then they moved toward the Heaven Treasury.
Yasenia sniffed around and found middle-level Heaven-ranked robes for Life-attributed cultivators. "Kali dear, your robes are only on the Earth rank, right? Here are some good ones you may like."
Kali went to them and picked them up. She really liked the feeling coming from them. "I will pick this [Spring Blossom Robes]. Thanks for finding it, Yasenia." Yasenia smiled and patted her with her tail.
She continued moving around and found a 10 000 cubic meter ring. "Baby, if you don't find anything useful, this ring can come in handy."
Angel looked at it but said, "Hmm… I don't need a bigger ring. I also found interesting earrings over there. They seemed to aid my cultivation speed when wearing them."
Yasenia nodded and searched for something that Andrea would need, 'Darling has everything and of high rank too… Ugh, why is she so rich? I don't know what to take for her!'
Yasenia chuckled as she remembered a funny thing Tatyana had told her.
"Little Treasure, if you weren't my daughter. Andrea could totally become your sugar mama."
"Hm? Sugar mama? What is that?"
"A rich woman that keeps you well fed in all the meanings of the word~."
Yasenia was still somewhat confused, so Tatyana explained it with some examples. After Yasenia heard the explanation, she completely agreed with it and even teased Andrea with that term from time to time every time Andrea bought something for Yasenia.
Yasenia chuckled and refocused. She continued sniffing around until she saw a big bucket. 'What is this? Wow, It is high-level Heaven-ranked…'
Yasenia saw that it was similar to what she saw within Elder Irina's smithy, but she couldn't clearly remember as she just glanced at it. "Angel, Kali, do you know what this is?"
They looked at the big wooden bucket and shook their heads.
"I don't know..."
"I've never seen it before…."
Sarah said, "Isn't it one of those buckets to hold water? I've seen it in the tele- *Cough* Books before. It is used to keep water to cool down the hot materials while smithing."
Yasenia remembered, "Right! Thanks, Sarah." Sarah smiled and nodded, happy to be able to help.
Angel suddenly remembered something, "Didn't Andrea say that she needed one of these?"
Yasenia nodded with a happy smile, "Yes, she did. The previous one was broken after a failed attempt; I think it literally exploded into pieces. Since I've never used them as I was taught to use my Moon energy to do what this is supposed to do, it totally went over my head for a second."
Yasenia picked that for Andrea and kept it in her ring. Then, they disappeared from there.
After exiting the Monolith, they decided to rest a bit before going toward the next one.
The next Monolith wasn't very complicated, not harder than this one, and they managed to complete it easily, in total, gaining 8,750 Trial points. However, flawlessly doing the 5,000 Monolith was almost impossible.
They needed to avoid being scratched when fighting against invisible creatures. Even if their senses were high, not even Angel, with her barriers, could complete it.
And finally, they arrived at the 100,000 Trial Points monolith. It was a tremendous one-hundred-meter-tall Monolith.
It was a structure that Yasenia had confused with a building before due to its height.
Yasenia saw that no one was challenging it and was confused. She approached it with her group and read the challenge. It wasn't something fancy or extremely complicated as they thought it would be.
What Yasenia read was a single sentence. "Beat your perfect self."
Yasenia's expression changed, and she said seriously, "We can't do this one. It is an unbeatable death trap."
Angel and Kali were surprised at Yasenia's instant negative toward this Monolith. Sarah asked, confused, "Why do you say that? It shouldn't be that difficult, right?"
Yasenia looked at Sarah and said, "It shouldn't be that difficult… Can you beat a perfect copy of yourself? Someone that can use everything you have but better?"
Sarah, Kali, and Angel thought about it. Yasenia looked at Kali and Angel and said, "Imagine if mom is controlling a copy of yourselves to fight against you. Can you beat her? Now, that copy is even stronger than Mom since it is literally your perfect self."
Angel and Kali got literal chills going up their spines with terror filling their hearts. A single word crossed their mind. 'Impossible!'
Yasenia saw their expression and said, "Correct, you can't, and so can't I. This Monolith will make us fight against a copy of ourselves that can perfectly use our bodies. If there wasn't a risk of dying, it would be the perfect training simulation. But there is. The copy will try to kill you without mercy, and I don't even know if there is an option to retreat once you accept the Monolith. Therefore, we can't enter this Monolith."
Yasenia looked at them and said, "Remember, being brave is not fearing challenging fights with small odds of winning. Charging against an unbeatable enemy is just stupidity and ignorance of your own capabilities."
While Yasenia was speaking, a group of three approached the Monolith. Yasenia saw that after reading the table, they spoke a bit and decided to enter.
Yasenia heard a sigh on the side coming from an old man, "Another three that won't come back… I haven't seen a single person beating this Monolith or even exiting it in my long life. It is just a mortal trap."
His wife answered, "Not only with this batch of cultivators. I've never seen anyone beating it or even exiting it."
The old man nodded, "We always try to advise the immortals, but they never listen. Well, they can do as they like. If they want to suicide, it is their own choice."
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