บท 43: Chapter 43. Finding the mastermind.

...The final thing he heard was the sonic boom that reached after his killer decapitated him.

Ten or so minutes before this happened, Yasenia was running in the direction that the men were giving through the jade communicator. When she saw some cultivators before her she directly overtook them with her astounding speed.

These cultivators could only see a silvery and golden shadow passing them and disappearing between the exuberant cloud forest vegetation. Moreover, Yasenia was running almost parallel to the ground using her tail as a counterweight so that it was harder to spot her.

After sprinting for some minutes, she reached a ravine and ran through it, at the entrance she saw some [Glass nodes] so she knew that she was near.

She continued sprinting through it, but there weren't more directions from here on. Yasenia thought 'It seems that they haven't reached here yet.'

Yasenia slowed down and searched for clues. After a little time, she suddenly sniffed the air and smelled blood. She went towards it, and lowered her head only to see a piece of cultivation robes smeared with blood, she also knew whose blood was this!

Yasenia sniffed the air and after picking the correct direction she shot forward! The red in Yasenia's eyes started eating the golden almost completely, little by little until all it was left were red irises with golden cracks. After that, instead of running normally, she started running on all fours, propelling herself with her hands, legs, and tail.

When she arrived at the end of the ravine, she looked in the distance and saw that a man was about to kick Angel. Yasenia felt that she won't reach in time before he kicks her, thus she overextended herself. Her leg muscles inflated and her tail changed into the sword shape, then it all happened in slow motion.

Her feet stomped on the ground and started pushing, her inflated leg muscles were tearing while straightening her legs little by little pushing her forwards. The harder-than-metal cloud under her feet sank because of her leg strength and the world around her was stretching preparing her vision for the acceleration. Her pupils turned into thin lines only leaving Angel and the man in her sight. Then… *BOOM!*

She reached beside Angel's side in an instant and while passing at such ridiculous speed, she used her tail and decapitated the bastard that was about to kick Angel. Then, she planted her feet and tail on the ground and started decelerating while protecting Angel with her energy.

She slid more than 300 meters leaving a deep mark on the hard cloud ground and stopped. After decapitating him, the others heard the explosion made by the jump of the dragoness. They looked in the direction of the explosion, only to see a gale coming from there.

They turned towards the other side and saw the long trail in the cloud. They looked towards the end of it and they saw a female carrying Angel. That female's legs were bleeding a little but the wounds were healing at a visible rate under that silver and golden glow.

Yasenia looked down at the beaten-down Angel and felt her heart hurt. 'I feel distressed even if she feels sleepy, and these bastards! HOW DARE THESE BASTARDS HURT HER LIKE THIS!'

She turned her crimson gaze with golden cracks towards them and said with a rumbling growl in her voice, "Don't you dare leave while I treat her, didn't you bastards capture her to bait me here? Good, here I am. Now call all your bastard companions and let them come, I won't leave, I promise."

Then, she turned back and looked at Angel, who has already opened her previously closed eyes.

Angel, at first, felt something charging at her, so she closed her eyes instinctively. Then, a sweet floral scent surrounded her making her smile. She opened her eyes and as expected Yasenia's enraged face was there. When she heard the terrifying growl, she felt warmth instead of fear. 'Even if she was the furthest away from me, she reached me first…'

When Yasenia turned, Angel saw a distressed pair of crimson slit eyes with golden cracks. Angel spoke, but because her mouth was a little swelled, her words sounded muffled and tired, "Your eyes are really beautiful… I like them the most…"

The other people were completely petrified out of fear. They reacted only after Yasenia turned her gaze away from them. While she was looking at them, they felt as if a primordial creature locked them in place and they couldn't move a muscle.

One female cultivator turned and tried to flee *BANG!* Only for a stone to fall in front of her feet! She looked back and saw Yasenia's tail moving back from a throwing motion. They didn't dare take another step.

Yasenia ignored them and lowered her head to kiss Angel softly on her unharmed forehead. She continued to spread medicine softly on her wounds and gave her gentle caresses. One guy thought of attacking now that she was distracted, so he shot forwards silently!

Yasenia didn't pay attention to him and continued treating Angel. When his sword was nearing her back, her golden tail glowed and slashed upwards using [Sunrise]. The guy was bisected and Yasenia continued her treatment after avoiding the blood splash smoothly.

The rest saw how easily he was killed and they stayed in their places obediently waiting for their companions. Five minutes later, people started arriving. When they saw that both their objectives were here, they looked at the five people at the side looking doubtful.

The leader of the group that arrived spoke, "What a surprise that you are already here! Better for us, since you are here, don't blame us for being merciless and killing both of you!"

Yasenia laughed "Hahaha, merciful? You were going to kill both of us no matter the situation and you are speaking about being merciful? How can someone be so shameless!?"

Yasenia finished smearing the healing salve and took out a guarding formation. This formation is able to protect a small area with a very strong defensive dome, but the people inside also won't be able to attack the outside. The biggest downside is that it is quite easy to remove, so it is only used to protect people unrelated to the fight. It was invented by Elder Linda.

After setting down Angel, she turned her crimson eyes towards them, "Are you all of the people? I told those five that I will wait obediently for all of you to gather. Especially the head of your bastard group."

Yasenia asked with a smile, "By the way, I don't even know why am I being targeted! Can you at least answer this little doubt of mine before I slaughter you lot?"

The head of that group said, "Who and why? A dead person walking isn't worthy of knowing, and since you are so confident fighting all of us together, We would be rude if we don't take the chance and wait for them to come. Well, some of them are hindering Cecile's group, so they won't be able to come."

Yasenia grinned, "Well, they are very lucky then, they will be able to live another day. Why won't you answer? Are they so scared of a "Dying" person? All of you are a disgrace! Can't you see that you are being manipulated? I don't even know how have you reached this cultivation level without being killed!"

The head of the group stayed silent and the others also didn't answer. Yasenia sneered, "Even when you are one against 30 you are still this cowardly. Are any of you Academy students? Pathetic."

After that Yasenia didn't bother anymore. If she can't get answers, she will kill them and end this farce. She may be able to leave some half-dead and exhort answers from them. 'The problem is that they have the jades to escape. I hope my skill blocks teleportation.'

After a while, almost 80 people gathered. Yasenia looked around to see if she could see any obvious leader. However, they didn't seem to be here. She looked at the surroundings and tried to see if she could find them outside the group, but everything was surrounded by cloud trees or normal trees. It should be impossible for them to see Yasenia, not to mention Yasenia seeing them.

Yasenia looked at them and said, "Are you all gathered already? I wanted to kill more but it seems that-"

She was cut by a *Bang!* and a group of four appeared from the vegetation. They were Cecile, Evelyn, Oliver, and Gustav. They had different grades of damage, but not a single life-threatening one.

Cecile and the others went towards Yasenia's side before anyone reacted. They saw Angel in the back, seated inside a formation with injuries. They were about to ask, when Yasenia spoke, "Go inside that formation. I will take care of the rest."

Cecile and the rest nodded and Yasenia looked towards the new group to see if she could identify someone, 'Isn't that… The young master that flirted with me at the entrance exam? There is no way that he is that vengeful… Who was he normally with inside the academy? I had an impression of him, so I spotted him from time to time. He talked a lot with… The silver-haired woman. Was Lucia her name? Is it possible that the girl is that petty? Well, let's try.'

Yasenia focused her sight and smiled, "So that's how it is! One of the assholes that set this up is Lucia!"

With her thinned red slit eyes, she saw some people flinch! 'Bingo! I got one. There must be more people, this amount of high-level cultivators shouldn't be able to be gathered by that girl.'

The same guy from before sneered, "Wrong! You truly want to try to fish trouble, do you know who Lucia is? She is the daughter of one of the dukes from the Sun empire!"

Yasenia laughed and said, "Oh nice to know, I'm the only daughter of Countess Tatyana from the Moon empire. Good to know all of you."

Some people's eyes widen. 'They weren't told about this!' "W-wait you are the-"

Yasenia cut that person's speech unfurling some of her aura *Boom!* "I will let you guys have one more chance to live, tell me who the people that planned this are, and why did they do this. I will spare all of you if you tell the truth."

One person this time wanted to get out of here! He was a noble of the Moon Empire, and of course, he knew about the Crazy Countess Tatyana! She killed the whole house of a count because they aimed for her only daughter. The worst part is that the royal family didn't do anything! Not even a perfunctory punishment! So, he spoke faster than anyone could stop him, "It is Alysa!" *Bang!*

Someone punched him but it was already too late! Yasenia's smile became face splitting! "Hahaha, finally a name! Hahaha."

Her countenance transformed into a wrathful expression. She also released her whole spiritual pressure and roared! "RRAALYSAA!! I SWEAR THAT I WILL KILL YOU SO SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY THAT YOU WILL REGRET BEING BORN UNDER THIS HEAVEN!!"

Some low leveled cultivators got pushed back by her voice strength! Yasenia turned towards them and said, "Since I already have a name, I don't need any of you anymore. Don't think that I will forgive you just because of this!"

The person that spoke became horrified and screamed, "You said that you will forgive us!"

Yasenia smiled showing her fangs and said, "I lied!"

All of the cultivators unfurled their aura sending spiritual pressure towards Yasenia! Yasenia closed her eyes and then her voice resounded around as if coming directly from the firmament! "[Absorption of Celestial light: Day and night cycle]"

Yasenia's energy release became completely out of this world! *BOOM!* Her aura spread around like a tide and the sky turned black five hundred meters around her! When she opened her eyes, the irises were completely silver.