After laying Feixue down on a bed from her ring, Yasenia sighed softly. "What a day…"
First of all, the travel through the Heavenly Layers was anything but pleasant. The bumpy ride was filled with energy fluctuations that made her dizzy. Eventually, she even lost consciousness for a second when her body passed through the membrane separating the spatial tunnel and the world. It was like an internal shock, which is why she fell to the ground like a meteor.
Yasenia thought that she would have to search for a way to camouflage herself next. So, the second she saw a rather weak woman looking down at her with wide eyes, the dragoness set eyes on her. The woman was malnourished even when she was a cultivator, so she instantly understood that mentally, the girl was very fragile.
With a bit of work, Yasenia managed to enter into Luan Feixue's life and gain a hiding spot. She was successful before high-level people spotted her, and using Luan Feixue as camouflage for her own aura, they managed to flee to the woman's inn.
"This girl is somewhat naive…" Yasenia glanced at the sleeping woman and sighed softly. "If I were a bad guy trying to take you over, wouldn't you have been eaten whole by now?"
Still, her first step to blending in with the current Heavenly Layer was done. "The second step is harmonizing my energy. Any cultivator near my level or stronger than me will be able to easily tell that I am not native to this Heavenly Layer. That's a problem."
Each Heavenly Layer allowed up to a certain cultivation realm, and therefore, the energy inside each Heaven was slightly different. After all, if a Seventh Realm cultivator went and absorbed ambient energy in a low-level world, they would suck it dry quicker than Heaven could recover and adapt to the new consumption.
So, Yasenia went to the middle of the room and sat down cross-legged. Then, she relaxed her muscles and allowed everything around her to mix. Her energy escaped through her pores, while she breathed the world's energy and digested it with her [Primordial Energy Core]. After half an hour, Yasenia opened her eyes with a troubled look. "It seems that I'll need to be by Feixue's side for a bit longer than expected. At my current pace, I'll need around two years to completely harmonize without creating a commotion."
Her energy reserves were so large that mortal cultivation times had become rather insignificant in comparison. "Now. Let's go over the changes in my inner workings."
Yasenia was quite excited for this part. She had been putting it off, somewhat against her will, because she wanted to spend her last few weeks with her family. She knew that the second she started looking into it, she would become fully engrossed and potentially ignore her dear ones for much longer than planned.
"Let's see… While I harmonize, I could go and see what happened with my skills. Which ones can I still use?"
To do that, Yasenia would rotate the usual meridian path for the skill activation without completely going through with it. If there was a blockade, that would show her which ones had been compromised. "Hm… Let's start."
And so, during the next four hours, Yasenia slowly manipulated her energy and tested her skills. By the end of it, her face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. "... so many are unusable? I don't believe it. Why?"
To say that listing those that worked was faster would be a hint at how many skills had trouble being used. "All skills that could be used with Sun, Moon, or Star individually have problems. Soul and Body skills are also very awkward to activate. The only ones that I can seemingly use are those that could go 'celestial' and only in their 'celestial' form."
The dragoness stopped her meditation, and her tail began tapping against the wooden floor while she thought. "That's not right. Skills should be able to be used one way but not another. There must be a reason for this…"
Thankfully, her Intents were still working fine, and she had [Shattering The Heavens], [Heavenly Constellation Steps], [Heavenly Firmament Sanctuary], and her Innate Skills available for use. Her golden eyes flashed. "Right. My Innate Skills are also of the triple attribute type. Like my Sun/Moon/Star Dragon Breath."
Thinking of that, she tried those skills very slowly to see what they were doing differently from her usual skills. Being Innate Skills, there was an instinctive understanding of how to use those skills. So, with their help, she should be able to understand the cause. "Still, before I start exploring the causes of those skills, there is one thing with much higher priority." She closed her eyes and frowned. "Where in Heaven's name is my [Soul Palace]!"
To say that the [Soul Palace] was an essential part of the Soul Path was an understatement. Of course, it wasn't always usable straightaway. The cultivator needed to understand its secrets and truths before that. But, at least, it should appear in her soul for her to comprehend said truths!
Our dragoness explored her soul in and out, but the only thing inside her soul other than her Dantian was the [Primordial Palace]. As Yasenia looked at the massive and ancient structure, she asked herself with a strange expression. "... Are you my [Soul Palace]?"
It should be impossible since Yasenia could see and explore this thing before the Soul King Palace Realm. However, her cultivation path had become so skewed that she was wondering if the [Primordial Palace] had either swallowed or become her innate [Soul Palace]. "You are an inheritance from those two. So, you've been with me since I was born… No, even before that. You are, in the end, what they hoped to attain and investigate after regaining a new life."
The mysteries in this item were no fewer than those surrounding most of the things in her possession. Yasenia rubbed her forehead and mumbled. "Why are the mysteries not decreasing as I become stronger? I feel that I'll have a thousand unanswered questions by the time I reach the Eighth Realm!"
After pondering for a while, Yasenia looked at Luan Feixue. "Hm… She will wake up in thirty more minutes. I guess I can check it the following night. In the meantime, I should use this time to continue investigating why my Dragon Breath can still work."
Half an hour was not much. But with her current processing speed, Yasenia's mind went through many thoughts and calculations. Eventually, she came to a conclusion that left her rather speechless. "So, I can do the Dragon Breath because the skill was initially based on my Celestial Energy. My Innate Skill is [Celestial Dragon Breath], which can be separated into the lower versions by changing the Celestial Energy into a more basic energy. That simpler energy will become a substitute for Sun Energy, releasing the [Sun Dragon Breath] as an effect." She muttered in awe. "I've been doing this subconsciously? No wonder my dragon breath has always been so destructive and tiresome compared to my other skills."
With the reason in her mind, Yasenia knew what she could do. "But… I have too many skills. So, I should combine strikes, etc., and use different paths' energies as one. Before, it was too difficult… Now…"
Dramel spoke with a giggle. "I chose nicely what to become, eh~? You can thank me by playing music with my body later~. You've stopped playing for a while already!"
Yasenia laughed. As her adorable Pipa was saying, her four cultivation paths were now tightly linked. This gave her many advantages. The first and most glaring was that, when cultivating, she would be able to feed the other paths as well. "This makes the sole weakness of the Beast Path disappear."
The number of resources she had consumed so that the Beast Path could keep up with the other paths was honestly too large to admit. Hundreds of Beast Cores from peak-mortal realm beasts, tens of thousands of high-level ones. And for lower than that,Yasenia sometimes ate them like candies, so she lost count. Without all those resources, she would never be able to keep all four paths at the same level.
"With that link, when I cultivate, I use my powerful [Celestial Black Hole Star] to feed everything. So, using energies from different paths at the same time will similarly become much easier and more natural. Instead of recreating all my skills as they were, I should just combine them." Yasenia blinked. "How do I name them, though? Is a combination of the names good enough?"
Yasenia muttered. "[Celestial Sunrise Shattering Strike]..." The dragoness blinked twice and smiled. "Sounds cool~. Well, we'll see what I do in the future. But, at least, I have a short-term plan…"
"Mm… Yawn~."
Yasenia looked sideways and blinked. "... Now, for the long-term plans."
Luan Feixue opened her eyes and looked around. At first, she was somewhat confused. "I… slept?" While at her level, she couldn't completely forgo sleep, but going without sleeping for weeks or months, while painful, was possible. Because of her depression and other mental problems, sleeping had become a luxury. So, waking up felt as if her entire body was doused in a calming presence.
"Where am I?" The comfortable bed under her was too out of place compared to the rundown room that entered her eyes. Slowly, her mind processed this surreal scene, and what happened the day before gradually became clear in her mind. "I went to the forest and then…" Her eyes slowly widened, and she quickly looked around the room.
Her heart was in her throat and about to burst out. If what happened yesterday was a dream, she might start crying like a little girl. Thankfully, before she lost control of her emotions, she spotted the gorgeous white-dressed dragon woman looking at her with a smile. The woman who felt like the incarnation of Beauty and Seductiveness felt utterly out of place in the rundown room. Still, her presence greatly soothed Luan Feixue's tumultuous feelings.
"Good morning, little girl. How was sleeping after a long while~?"
The mischievous smile Feixue had seen a few times made her pout. "Are you going to start teasing me in the morning?" A hint of childishness showed after yesterday's little adventure. Feixue's trust toward Yasenia had greatly increased, even if some doubts still remained in her heart.
Yasenia laughed at her words and slowly stood up, her bouncy mountains jiggling with her motions. Then, while being stared at, she sat on the bed and patted her head. "There, there. I won't bother you much today. We need to have a serious conversation, after all~."
Feixue's facial expression relaxed at the soothing touch on her head. Her words, though, made her tense. Her face serious, Luan Feixue asked. "What do you want to talk about?"
The dragoness smiled, her tail resting on her lap. "Future plans~."