The place they arrived at was not too far away, around 200 kiloters away. However, this distance was not enough to escape the devastating aftereffects of their battle, leading to many collapsed and crumbling structures.
The reefs were split as if an underwater earthquake had just occurred, while most of the creatures living here were nowhere to be seen. Evelyn comnted. "The scale of a battle between beings of that strength is truly large."
Andrea's voice was filled with intrigue. "I wonder how much ti they had been fighting before we spotted them?"
Cecile guessed in her usual cold tone. "I guess quite a lot. After all, they were both clearly exhausted."
Yasenia continued to guide the ship through the semi-destroyed reefs until Valeria pointed at a place with a large hole. "Over there."
The dragoness steered the boat and arrived before an enormous chasm. "Do we go down?"
Valeria nodded, so Yasenia operated the warship to sink. The vessel moved at a decent speed as they descended, and after a relatively long dive, they arrived at a semi-collapsed entrance to a large cave big enough to let that mountain-sized jellyfish enter.
Evelyn smirked. "Quite a remote nest. Do all creatures have their nests this hidden?"
Cecile was quite knowledgeable in beast behavior, so she answered. "Yes. Every beast or living being is like that. Aren't we doing sothing similar?"
Evelyn blinked and realized. "We are building a power big and influential enough so that we can have our children grow safely." Evelyn looked at Yasenia and laughed as she found her adorable. "Love, is the Astral Sky Sect just a nest for you?"
The dragoness blinked twice. "If not? Why would I need to do sothing so complicated? I could've just created a second-rate sect in a more remote zone if I just wanted to practice building my own power from scratch. There has never been a need to fight the entire continent, as we could've moved to isolated places with enough resources. I just want to make a shield big enough so that nobody bothers us."
The girls chuckled, finding her adorable. She was fighting an entire world so that she could create a place where her children could grow without any care.
Tatyana smirked. "Dragon mothers are usually very protective by instinct, but Yasenia is a bit more protective than usual."
Andrea asked, curious. "How is she more protective?"
Tatyana pointed out, "Female Dragons usually take one zone and make it a 'no people allowed' zone where they fight anything that approaches or enters. Yasenia has chosen to do the opposite. She is baring her fangs to the entire world and telling people not to ss with her."
Valeria comnted, interrupting the conversation. "We arrived."
The girls looked at Yasenia with amused smiles for a while before focusing on what appeared before them.
It was a semi-collapsed cave. The walls were fractured in many places, and large pieces of the ceiling had fallen onto mushy things. It was very easy to see that the things that had been crushed were eggs.
The fluids and remains of them could be seen staining the rocks, making it quite a tragic sight. Kali sighed, looking at the crushed eggs with pity. "The battle took more than two lives, it seems."
Yasenia nodded and flew down from the ship. The rest of the girls followed behind her, and seeing that, the sect mbers and spirits also did so.
"Huh?"
An elder from the Astral Sky Sect made a surprised sound, making people follow his gaze toward Embera and the rest of the spirits. This elder asked, curious. "Lady Embera, don't you feel uncomfortable?"
Embera looked over and nodded. "Well, it is indeed a bit uncomfortable, but I can perfectly manage, thanks to a pill Kali made for . Once you return and they place everything they've gotten on the market, they should be on sale at your Astral Sky Shop."
The Astral Sky Sect elder nodded thoughtfully. "Such a powerful pill, to even let a creature such as yourself roam the ocean freely."
Embera agreed. "She is a very skilled alchemist, that's for sure."
Soluna approached Yasenia while looking around curiously. "Do we need to search for a survivor?"
Yasenia nodded. "The Jellyfish honestly showed really good potential while being decently strong. Beasts usually fight with things that feel natural to learn, so every jellyfish at that one's level should be around the sa strength. I want to raise and breed them as purchasable mounts in the underwater sect while also purifying their bloodline."
Soluna exclaid. "Ohh! Mounts!"
Yasenia smiled. "Usually, this kind of action would be seen as a bit unethical, as beasts can also gain deep intelligence. However, even that jellyfish at the peak of the mortal realms was not an intelligent being. This makes believe that while they are strong, they lack actual ans of gaining intelligence unless there is a mutation."
Cecile and Kali agreed with Yasenia's speculation. Kali comnted. "Honestly, using them as mounts for the Astral Sky Abyss Sect is quite a fitting place. Their race will be taken care of, nurtured, and evolved while we will benefit our disciples with strong companions to explore the ocean."
Yasenia nodded while Soluna got thoughtful. "Yasenia…"
The dragoness looked at the Empyrean spirit and asked. "What's wrong?"
Soluna blinked her exotic eyes and asked. "Do you have sothing similar? A mount or companion?"
The dragoness paused and shook her head. "I don't… Well, Draheart can count as one."
Soluna tilted her head. "Draheart?"
Yasenia extended her hand, and her giant broadsword was summoned. "[Draconic Heart], my weapon."
The Empyrean spirit exclaid. "Oh!"
The dragoness looked at her sword fondly and comnted. "However, Draheart is my weapon, hahaha. I don't have a companion like Sierra, Ebirah, Mirrory, or Valeria." Her lips arched in a wry smile as her tail flicked a rock soaring. "I honestly feel like I will leave behind whatever companion I make, so I'm just putting it off until I find the correct one," Yasenia added. "Plus, I'm a beast, so I can't really bond with other beasts like Andrea or Evelyn did. Hence, I'm curious about what kind of being can beco sothing like that for ."
Soluna's eyes flashed as she got thoughtful. "I see."
Tatyana and Valeria looked at her with interest in their eyes.
anwhile, Angel comnted. "Yasenia, I found an intact egg!"
Turning sideways, the blonde girl was swimming their way while holding an egg bigger than half her height. It was transparent and showed a miniature-sized jellyfish quite different from the one they saw. There were veins and other things connected to it, clearly feeding it as it grew.
Kaleina was coiled around Yasenia's torso, and she licked her lips at the tempting aura they released. "Mommy, can I eat it?"
Yasenia scratched her chin. "You can't, Baby. These are not food but little friends that will grow up to beco our allies. Did you hear what Mommy said right before?"
Kaleina nodded cutely, and Yasenia kissed her snout as a reward. She looked to her left, where she was holding Fla's hand as they wandered. "How are you feeling, Fla?"
Fla showed a pretty smile. "Don't worry, Aunty Yasenia. I feel nice." She added shyly. "Having you lead by the hand is also very… um… reassuring."
Yasenia chuckled and lowered her body to kiss her forehead. "Good. If you feel anything uncomfortable, tell right away."
Fla nodded energetically. "I will!"
The dragoness looked at Angel, who was looking at her with her pretty blue eyes and used her tail to pat her head. "Well done, love. Try to find more. The more, the better."
Evelyn, clueless about them, asked. "How do they reproduce? Are there female and male jellyfish?"
Yasenia pondered. "I think they can do both. However, if they reproduce asexually, they need a source of Yin and Yang to trigger their reproductive system."
Cecile nodded. "You are right. However, they can also find a creature from another race and use their sperm to get fertilized. Still, as default, jellyfish can be considered an only female race."
Other sect mbers began finding so intact eggs, and they all carried them toward Yasenia. The dragoness smiled. "Well, it's an egg hunt. Each intact egg will be rewarded with 10,000 Astral Sky Points, and damaged eggs that are still alive will receive 1,000 each. Good luck!"
The sect mbers got excited, and they separated and rushed around. Evelyn laughed. "Throwing money at the problem so that you don't need to search?"
Yasenia shrugged. "I ca here just for one of them, so I don't really care about the rest. Moreover, it can beco a fun activity. Speaking of which, where is it, Valeria?"
Valeria laughed. "I thought you would never ask. Co, it's this way."
The girls followed Yasenia while leaving a few of the maids to count the eggs. After going through a few passages, they arrived at one room that was a bit sturdier than the others. Every room and passage were naturally giant-jellyfish-sized, so they looked like ants floating through tunnels excavated by an enormous worm.
Yasenia looked around and saw that around 60% of the eggs were intact. Andrea muttered. "There should be around 300 of them."
Evelyn nodded and said with a doubtful expression. "Are the babies here of a higher quality than the others? I can very faintly sense a difference in bloodline."
Kali nodded. "I can feel it quite clearly that the ones here are a notch above. Also, while the ones outside were created from asexual reproduction, these ones have been sexually created."
Evelyn lifted her eyebrow. "For a creature of that scale to find a worthy partner, these little ones must have a strong bloodline!"
Ebirah poked one of them and nodded. "They have a bloodline almost as strong as mine!"
However, the girls and spirits stopped speculating when they saw Soluna and Yasenia looking toward the sa place, with their eyes filled with interest. Angel followed her gaze and saw an egg that was slightly different from the rest. "Is it that one, Yasenia?"
Yasenia walked forward and nodded. "It is." She looked at Valeria and smirked. "No wonder you told to co. This one has a cosmos-related bloodline. It will probably have either star, moon, or sun energy affinities… Perhaps more than one. I wonder what the na is."
Tatyana approached and nodded. "Little Treasure."
"Hm?"
Tatyana smirked. "How about you bring this one up with our child? She can have a companion since birth."
Yasenia's eyes flashed with many ideas. "That… interesting." Looking at the egg, Yasenia nodded. "I think we can do sothing like that. But… How can we raise it on land?"
Tatyana chuckled. "Don't worry about sothing like that. It's not like there are no aquatic creatures living in our sect. We can just rebuild a small place of our very large ho to give it a ho where this little one can take care of it." Tatyana placed a hand on her navel, and thinking about it, Yasenia found it quite viable.
"Good. Then, let's bring this one out while we leave the rest in the Astral Sky Abyss Sect."
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