After getting to know Ao Jiuyao, Yasenia was pleasantly surprised. With Lataria's descriptions, she had feared that this wild dragon would start flirting with her without holding back. Therefore, she had been careful when communicating, trying to ignore him as much as she could. However, it seems that she was overthinking, since Ao Jiuyao didn't make a single move on her.
Lataria was even more surprised than Yasenia, and eventually, she couldn't hold back her curiosity. "Um… Granduncle, why are you so quiet around Yasenia? This is completely unlike you."
The handsome dragon man raised his sharp eyebrow and glanced at Lataria with his wine-red eyes. "You really don't know?" His lips arched faintly. "If you don't know, it seems that you and her were not that close after all."
Lataria's eyes widened in anger. "You stupid uncle! [Water Ball]!"
A water ball shot from Lataria's hand at a speed difficult to follow with the eyes and struck the man's head accurately.
BANG!
The man flipped sideways and complained. "Aya, grandniece. If you don't do something about that temper, you'll remain a virgin for another five thousand years."
"AH!" Lataria's wings unfurled in embarrassment and anger. "SHUT UP!"
Yasenia saw a torrent of water, large enough to hide mountains, surge up and almost cover the sky. 'Wow. Any desert can turn into an ocean if Lataria becomes angry.'
The man broke through Lataria's attack rather effortlessly and chuckled. "If you continue acting like this, I won't tell you the reason. What will you do, little girl?"
Lataria snorted and looked between Yasenia and her annoying granduncle. "That… Ugh. I am too curious! You hit on everything that moves as long as they are beautiful enough, so I can't really tell this time around."
The man punched an Endless Mud Beast, exploding it and breaking its core with the same punch. Then, he looked at Yasenia. "Can I tell her? You have a few things that you don't want her to know, right?"
Yasenia smiled faintly, her eyes showing a bit of coldness. "You already know them and will have to tell them about those ancestors, am I wrong? What's the point of prohibiting you from saying it when you are going to move those useless mouthflaps either way?"
"M-Mouthflaps…" Ao Jiuyao was speechless. "That's the most insulting way to describe lips I've ever heard."
Lataria nodded and sighed. "Right? It just sounds so… wrong."
Yasenia observed the time left while the two family members mused about her wording. 'There are two hours left, and I am in first place with a comfortable lead of 50 points. Second place is Ao Jiuyao, while third place is… Someone I don't know. Lataria is actually sixth, below Astarea and another unknown person.'
Ao Jiuyao knew Astarea's aura, so he could tell which blue flame represented her and told Lataria about it.
While Yasenia pondered, Ao Jiuyao spoke about his reasons for not approaching Yasenia. "First of all, Yasenia is a brat. While I can sense that she has forced her body to mature with some kind of unknown method, I can bet my left wing that she is not even one thousand years old yet… And I don't say anything lower because I am looking at her cultivation level. Otherwise, I would not say that she was a brat, but a child."
The dragoness deadpanned at being called a child. However, she couldn't really deny it. In dragon terms, she was truly a child. '130 years of age is not that little… Tsk.'
Lataria, on the other side, looked at Yasenia with tearful eyes. "Y-You lied about your age! You told me you were over 1,000 years old!"
Yasenia smiled awkwardly. "Lataria, please think about how people would react if they knew that piece of information. You've already seen my strength, haven't you?"
Lataria became silent, unable to refute Yasenia's words. It was true that it was a ridiculous thing for Yasenia to be under 1,000 years old.
Ao Jiuyao continued speaking. "Second, and even more importantly. This brat is already marked. The second I got close, it felt like a punch of fresh scent striking my nose. If I dare mess with her, that person will probably come to dismember me limb by limb."
"Wah!?" Lataria was surprised again and looked at Yasenia with wide eyes. "You have a soulmate!?"
The dragoness nodded faintly, and Lataria threw herself to her knees, crying to the heavens as her blue wings spread open, following her arms. "Noooo! My dreams of getting close to you, little by little, and developing our feelings are now shattered! I also wanted to be a part-owner of the beautiful, motherly big sister dragon woman! Whhaaaa!!!"
'P-Part-owner?' Yasenia's eyebrows twitched, but she decided to ignore it.
Ao Jiuyao looked at Yasenia's stomach next, but when he did so, a terrifyingly cold killing intent chilled his limbs. Looking up, he saw Yasenia staring at him with thinned pupils. "If you speak about that, the oath won't have to explode your heart, because I will do so myself."
The threatening growl made Ao Jiuyao smile wryly. 'I hope I can convince those old fogies to let me keep the last secret… Although her body is basically emitting pheromones that females only secrete during pregnancy. So, it will be hard to hide from other ancient dragons.'
Lataria looked between the two people and wisely decided not to ask about the third secret. She coughed, trying to break the tense atmosphere. "Ahem… Should we continue hunting? Yasenia's lead has reduced to forty-six while we were delaying things here."
The two dragons stopped their glaring contest and returned to normal. "Let's go."
After two hours, the final scores were finally locked in. The aura flames representing Yasenia were firmly placed in the first position, while Ao Jiuyao ended up third. Another person actually surpassed him because he was forced to help Yasenia remain in first place.
Yasenia couldn't help but reevaluate the people she competed against. 'Without Ao Jiuyao's help, it would've been difficult to be first. Ao Jiuyao is stronger than I anticipated, and there are monsters who are not much weaker than him all around. At least, the Endless Mud Beast hunting speed is ridiculous for some people.'
She did not fear Ao Jiuyao's strength, but she was wary of it. Even if she used all her strength, it would be a bit difficult to overpower someone with over 70,000 years of experience behind his back and a similar cultivation base to hers. Only because of her multiple cultivation paths was Yasenia sure of winning. 'If I only had my beast path… I would struggle a lot against him. Perhaps, I wouldn't be his match.'
She was unsure about this assessment, though. After all, singling out her strength for just the beast path was too difficult.
"Congratulations. The top 100 will pass to the next test. The rest will be thrown out and crippled for 30 days. Those at the top ten will have a few advantages that only the people themselves will know."
Yasenia's body was filled with cold sweat. 'Thankfully, I chose not to give up. Otherwise, I would be in a terrifying position right now. After all, fifty days have passed, so those who were crippled from the first round have already recovered their strength. Without any backing, I would be thrown into a group of predators with no means of defending myself.'
Lataria frowned a bit. "This is a bit harsh of a punishment, isn't it?"
Ao Jiuyao shook his head. "This item is not supposed to be challenged in a wild environment. This is an item that is usually challenged in a controlled place like a sect. Those who go out crippled will be in no danger, and the punishment can be used as something to motivate others. After all, even a month of having no strength can be a way to temper the mind. Overall, the punishment is only harsh because it has become a wild treasure."
Lataria grumbled. "Shouldn't the creator have thought about it?"
Yasenia commented lightly. "Actually, the creator probably thought about it. If this item falls into the hands of someone who's not his sect, why would he need to care about what happens to the people who fail? On the contrary, the creator will be happy that those challenging his treasure without his permission die at the otherwise harmless mechanism behind the failure."
Lataria glanced between Yasenia and Ao Jiuyao and frowned. "Hey, are all dragons so clever like you two? I don't like it; it makes me feel inferior. Tsk, tsk. No wonder there are Dragon Hunters but not Human Hunters."
The two dragons felt their lips twitch at the blatant disrespect. While they spoke, a message arrived at Yasenia.
"You've placed first on the Second Trial. You will receive the option to take out items from the ring. Choose five of them."
Yasenia's eyebrows raised lightly, and then she frowned. 'Five items… I have Dramel, Draheart, and Soluna already out. Most of my strength is already out. What can I even choose?'
The dragoness's eyes sank into her spatial ring. '... Hm. Is it too much to take out those talismans?'
As she thought, her eyes couldn't help but land on something that had been placed in the corner of her ring for a long time. 'This [Black Doll] Mom gave me the first time I went into the secret realm… I still don't know what it is for. Should I take it out as well, just in case? What if it has some trigger option and it can't trigger because I don't have it out?'
Her dragon tail tapped the ground repeatedly as she pondered it. "Ugh… I guess I can't really hold back when I might die in the next test. Let's choose these five items."
Ao Jiuyao and Lataria suddenly felt the space around Yasenia shift as five items appeared before her. Their hearts thumped, and a feeling of danger unlike any other surged from the depths of their souls. It felt as if pure death was surrounding three of those items.
"W-What are those?"
Lataria's voice trembled as she looked at the two talismans and one black doll. Each of these items had the feeling of [Law] engraved in it, unavoidable and with immeasurable power.
Yasenia placed the two black and green talismans between her breasts without answering, while she stored the [Black Doll] in the pocket of her skirt. The last two items were two disks with golden and red formations engraved on them. They were items she received from Tatyana and Angel to protect herself: the [Defensive Death Crystal Array] and the [Slaughter Fate Bending Array].
Each of them had the power to deal with cultivators up to the sixth level of the Transcendence Realm and could be used five times. 'Others will probably have strong items as well, so I can't be greedy and save them from now on. As long as I feel a shred of threat towards my life, I must use them.'