After the formation was activated, Yasenia decided to check on how Feixue was doing. Her spiritual sense expanded as she quickly covered an extremely large area of the mountain range. It took her a few minutes to finally find the energy signal of the girl. “Found her.”

Star Forge glanced at her and smiled. “You found Xuefei? Which direction?”

Yasenia commented. “Let me guide your Spiritual Sense.”

“Huh?” Star Forge blinked, but suddenly, she felt a strange sensation enveloping her senses. The Spiritual Sense that passively moved around her twisted, bent, and then stretched under Yasenia’s influence. In less than a second, Star Forge gained an aerial viewpoint of Luan Feixue. 

“There she is.”

Yasenia smiled as she saw Feixue running away from the beasts that were pursuing her. These beasts were peak-level Third Realm beasts, so fighting them was dangerous for her. Star Forge looked at Yasenia strangely and opened her mouth, only to close it later. 

‘Manipulation of Spiritual Sense? Isn’t that a technique that only Seventh Realm cultivators can do?’ 

Star Forge wouldn’t know that Tatyana, Mirrory, and Valeria had trained the girls in many similar arts to give them extra advantages. With how quickly our dragoness learned techniques, and with the energy-sensing technique as a foundation, Yasenia was able to influence the spiritual sense of others around her to a certain extent. 

Of course, the use was still very limited. If the other side resisted, she would have trouble creating similar results. 

Yasenia hummed as Feixue finally managed to find a place to hide and escape the beast’s pursuit. “She could’ve tried to hunt them and get some points instead of fleeing. But, I guess that with an entire month's worth of time, she has chosen to take it easy.”

Star Forge agreed. “Even then, your assessment is right. Xuefei lost a good chance of getting ahead. In a long-form competition, each second counts. After all, those who are consistent will win much more than those who try to do everything during the last few moments. Even then, she was quite lucky.”

“Right.” Yasenia chuckled. “Who knew that she would find a peak-level Earth-Ranked treasure at the end of the cave? Lucky girl.” 

Qingzhe spoke with curiosity. Even if she didn’t like Yasenia much inside, her feelings were much calmer after the previous conversation. “I see that you are paying quite a lot of attention to that girl named Xuefei. Is she very talented?”

“Not at all.” Yasenia chuckled. “I just know her personally, so I decided to give her a bit more attention. I’ve personally trained her as well, so I am quite excited to see her progress.” 

Tai Qingzhe crossed her arms and kept an eye on her as well while looking out for her disciples. 

As the competition advanced, someone wearing black robes emerged from the shadows and approached the Sect Master. Yasenia glanced at the person who appeared with a squint, sensing quite a profound and powerful aura. ‘That person smells like Doriel… An assassin?’

After the words left that person’s lips, Xing Tianlan, the Sect Master, frowned deeply. Crossing his perfectly muscular arms, the man looked into the distance and spoke aloud. “We have company. It seems that those bastards from the [Seven Mystery Immortal Sect] want to make some trouble.”

Yasenia squinted. She had gone to the library a few times to get a basic understanding of the world around them, so she knew who these people were. The world she was in was divided into Righteous and Demonic sects, not in the sense of race but in attitude. The Star Immortal Sect was a Righteous Sect and was in an extremely good location. Therefore, there were many Demonic Sects that were aiming for their lands. 

One of the strongest enemies was this [Seven Mystery Immortal Sect]. They were a sect that had mastered illusion arts and also used the Star Attribute as the main recruiting standard. This placed them in straight opposition with the [Star Immortal Sect]. 

Star Forge’s nonchalant face turned serious as well as she asked. “Did they really think they could deal a blow to our disciples without us noticing? Where are they?” 

Yasenia suddenly spoke aloud. “I found a few. I am going to deal with them. [Constellation Steps, First Sky: Pegasus Gallop].” She couldn’t say more since the other side was actually attacking Shen Miao and those who were with her.  

The second Yasenia activated the skill, Star Energy stirred around Yasenia, and quickly transformed into a complex constellation representing [Pegasus]. When Yasenia stepped forward, it gave the illusion of two massive, white, feathered wings bursting out of her back as her body zoomed into the distance with a deafening, explosive sound. 

BOOM!!!

Everyone’s face changed as they tried to keep up with Yasenia’s burst of acceleration. Star Forge’s lips arched in an incredulous smile. “Haha… She wasn’t joking back then.” 

She still remembered how Yasenia said that she had confidence in escaping if she wanted to. Now, she believed it. 

Meanwhile, a few moments before, Shen Miao was with a group of five other disciples attacking a beast. They were taking turns and gradually weakening it to deliver the final blow. 

Shen Miao shouted. “A bit more! Keep it distracted!” She stepped around, gripping her sword tightly. As she focused, she noticed the beast stumbling. Not losing a single moment, Shen Miao raised her sword and shouted. “Now!”

However, when she was going to take a step forward, a shadow burst from the side, pointing a curved and sharp dagger at her neck. Shen Miao’s eyes widened as she was unable to move or defend against the quick attack. ‘Who would dare…!?’ 

However, before she fell to the ambush, a gust of wind passed by her side, followed by a blur slamming the shadow against the ground. 

BOOM!

The shockwave burst the dust cloud straight away, making it easy to see what happened. Someone shouted. “Elder Dravory!” 

Shen Miao fell on her butt as she looked at the tall and gorgeous dragon woman stomping on the person who almost stole her life. “W-What is happening?” Her voice was trembling as she looked back and forth between them.

Yasenia frowned and didn’t answer as she looked around with her Spiritual Sense. She could see other elders moving around and protecting the disciples here and there. ‘Feixue is okay. But how could they enter this deep into the Star Immortal Sect Territory before they were detected?’

Honestly, it just didn’t make sense in Yasenia’s mind. Moreover, the person she had knocked out was a middle-level Fifth Realm cultivator. This kind of cultivator could be popped like a cherry with just a thought from almost any Sixth Realm cultivator. 

A communication reached Yasenia through her [Star Jade Communication Talisman]. “Apprehend the evildoers if possible. The hunt will continue as planned. Don’t make the disciples retire from it for such a small matter.” 

Yasenia's frown further deepened. ‘This… smells fishy.’ Her eyes scanned the people who had been captured, and as she expected, most of them were mortal cultivators. Star Forge and Xing Tianlan had dealt with all the low-level Transcendence Realm cultivators, which left the attack’s victims at an abysmal zero deaths and a few injured from the shockwaves.

Looking at the startled disciples and the trembling beast, Yasenia smiled at the disciples. “Don’t worry about it. The hunt will continue as usual. The elders will deal with these pesky rats.” Looking at Shen Miao, she winked. “Congratulations on getting a Dao Companion. Xuefei told me.” 

Shen Miao’s face became red, but before she could answer, the dragoness left. She had grabbed the person she caught by the neck with her tail as she returned to the gathering point where they were before. 

Once there, she looked around at the group of dead or injured people and heard the Sect Master speak. “Such a shameful attack during our most important yearly event! We will not remain silent in the face of this transgression! Send a war notice to the [Seven Mystery Immortal Sect]!” 

The dragoness looked at this, and her hand moved quickly, piercing the captive’s forehead. Then, she used a soul-reading technique. The person in her grasp started flailing around like a fish out of the water as her throat made gargling noises. The pain from what Yasenia was doing to him was beyond any torture. 

Star Forge noticed and asked aloud. “Yasenia, what are you doing?”

Yasenia didn’t answer straight away before letting the corpse fall to the ground with a thoughtful expression. 

“Yasenia Dravory! Why did you kill him?”

Star Forge, somewhat annoyed at being ignored, raised her tone. The dragoness blinked twice, snapping out of her daze before smiling awkwardly. “Sorry, my instincts overcame me. I was too angry at this person for attacking our disciples and ended up killing him.” 

Star Forge was somewhat suspicious, but she nodded. “Don’t do that again. These people are precious evidence of the crime, so we can’t let them die.”

“Of course.” Yasenia smiled somewhat oddly. “You can’t let the proof die.”

An elder spoke up at this time, his thoughts probably mirroring many. “Isn’t this odd?” The man pondered. “Why would they send so many low-level people to such a delicate place only to attack a few disciples? Moreover, instead of causing wide-area destruction, they tried to assassinate the disciples. As if…”

Yasenia chuckled and smiled to herself, answering in her mind. ‘As if they were confident that they wouldn’t be caught. Or, as if they purposely gave us the chance to react~.’

However, she didn’t say it aloud. She just joined these old monsters, so poking her nose in their schemes was not something that she wanted to do. Who knew if she’d step on the wrong tail and have a bunch of rabid old monsters trying to bite her back? 

Meanwhile, the Sect Master and the others began preaching righteous principles and other loud messages against injustice. ‘I came at quite a sensitive moment… Well, as long as I don’t get too tangled in whatever mess is going on, I’ll be okay.’

Seeing Yasenia not participating in the group antics, Star Forge gave her a side-glance and walked to her side. She asked with a faint smile. “Not chanting in tune with the rest?”

The dragoness smiled back. “I am still not too familiar with chanting the same tune without messing it up. So, I would rather listen and learn the first few times.” 

Star Forge’s eyebrow raised. “Oh? That’s an interesting mindset.”

“Perhaps.” Yasenia looked toward the forest as she glanced over at Feixue. “I just prefer not to meddle too deeply before I am sure of a few things. The mysteries of the stars are profound, and one needs time to unravel them.” 

“Perhaps too profound.” Star Forge looked at the blue sky above them. “Perhaps too deeply hidden to find out in a single lifetime.”

“Thankfully,” Yasenia added softly. “My affinity with stars has always been good.” 

Neither woman spoke anymore, as if their conversation had been just a mirage. Instead, they refocused on the competition and discussed the participants with each other. 

At the side, Tai Qingzhe looked at the two women and squinted slightly, her mind thoughtful.