Heaven, Earth, Me

Author Note: Remember that it is daylight saving for you dears in the US but not where I live. That's why there is a change in the uploading hour! <3

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The World Lord had no choice but to accept. After all, the dragon woman in front of him had enough strength to face him even without relying on those people behind her. Moreover, what she just showed when punishing his right-hand woman made his entire body feel cold. Taking a hidden deep breath to hide his emotions, Velamir spoke up. “Lady Yasenia, I was going to accept your demands if they were reasonable. Your actions toward my people feel unnecessary.”

Yasenia looked at him coldly and snorted. “It seems that I have not made myself too clear. I am not asking if you agree with my actions or not. It is honestly quite a simple question, one that can be answered with a yes or a no. So, which one will it be? Answer before I lose all my thinning patience.”

The menace in her words forced the World Lord's last remnants of pride to collapse. Under the pressuring golden eyes of the dragon woman, he really couldn’t muster any resistance. A complicated expression appeared on his face, but eventually, he answered with a big sigh. “Understood. Yes. I will lend you whatever you need. However, I ask for compassion from Lady Yasenia. If my house collapses, this world will go into an endless cycle of conflict, so please, have mercy.”

Yasenia nodded and sighed. “Was it that hard to answer? You are clearly in a disadvantageous position, so you should accommodate those who are stronger than you. It’s not like I am cutting your lifeline in any way.” She stood up, the other girls imitating her actions. Then, she waved her hand and stored the chairs. “Guide me to your treasury.”

Velamir accepted his fate and sighed. Standing up, he walked around his large desk and walked past Yasenia and the others. The dragon woman walked by his side, and the others followed closely behind.

As they walked across the massive mansion, Yasenia looked around, uninterested. None of the items in the house had spiritual auras, meaning they were utterly worthless. And yet, she noticed that the strength of some materials were quite durable.

As they walked down a large passageway, Yasenia waved her hand and took a large disc that was hung on the wall. The World Lord looked at it, and his eyebrow twitched once. “Um. Lady Yasenia, why did you take that disk of Interium?”

“Interium?” Yasenia blinked. “What’s that?”

“Interium is one of the most expensive materials in our society. It is an extremely rare combination of basic elemental particles using a fusion reactor to create a matter that can work within the quantum computation. That disk you are holding has enough value to buy this entire state manor.” 

Yasenia looked at the man and spoke. “I understood nothing of what you said. It seems that your technology is far too different from ours. Is this material valuable for its hardness or energy conductivity?”

“Both.” The man explained. “If you spread it thinly around one of those mechas you say outside, it can add a layer of self-regenerating protection. With the right technology, achieving a force-field is not completely out of the question. The technology is still in its infant stages, though.”

Yasenia hummed and used a bit of strength. The harsh sound of metal bending echoed in the hallways, grabbing everyone’s attention. When Velamir looked over, he saw that the metal disc that wouldn’t even show traces when a fission rifle hit it directly had been utterly deformed. “...Ha?”

Yasenia frowned and threw it to the side as if it were trash. “Useless.”

Andrea chuckled. “You are too strong, love. We shouldn’t really base our perception on that, right?”

Yasenia shook her head. “I restricted my strength to the beginning of the fourth realm when I did that. There was barely any resistance. If I used my current strength, crumpling it like paper wouldn’t be a problem.”

Andrea blinked and muttered. “If that’s the case, the ‘useless’ label is not too far off.”

Velamir didn’t know how to react to their conversation. He took a deep breath and, since he was about to be robbed by these people, he tried squeezing a bit of information from them. “Lady Yasenia, I’ve heard that you call things different from us. Could you enlighten me with your knowledge?”

Yasenia didn’t even glance at him as she answered. “No.”

“Eh?”

Velamir truly didn’t expect this. His eyes widened faintly as he gazed at the indifferent woman by his side. Yasenia glanced back at him and asked. “Why should I explain things? Just guide us toward your treasures, and we’ll leave.”

Tatyana coughed, trying to hold back her laughter. Meanwhile, Kali decided to be a bit compassionate and took a step forward, hugging Yasenia’s arm and placing herself in the middle. “Mister Velamir, our dragoness is not really in the mood to explain things. However, I can tell you a few things myself.” 

Velamir blinked twice and relaxed a bit. He nodded and politely asked Kali things. “What things do you think you can tell me about? I am honestly curious about how you ladies achieved such astounding strength.”

Kali smiled faintly. “Well, without Yasenia, our current strength would have been nothing similar. Some of us might not have made it alive in certain situations…” She shook her head and smiled. “Regardless, what we practice is called ‘Cultivation,’ and we use Heavenly Energy for it.”

Velamir nodded, his gaze thoughtful. “Lady Yasenia said that she had exploded Bella’s meridians. What does she mean by that? I have never heard of meridians.”

Even the emotionless Yasenia reacted, looking at Velamir with a strange expression. Kali asked, baffled. “Um. Before I answer that, how did you achieve your current strength? It is clear that cultivating is not something you people do in the orthodox way.”

Velamir didn’t really have anything to hide, so he spoke about their practices. “For our strength and soul, we bathe in the waters of the sacred spring.”

Evelyn propped up a question. “Is that the Nascent Spring we’ve heard about?” 

Velamir acknowledged it. “Indeed. The sacred spring goes by many names. However, we have decided to call it [Nascent Spring] officially because it is the beginning in the path of anyone who wants to gain soul strength.” He continued. “I’ll explain it superficially, and if you want more details, ask about them. Once you bathe in the [Nascent Spring], the body absorbs a strange lifeforce that stimulates the soul inside us. Bathing in it, you accumulate that soul energy slowly, and then, you reach a bottleneck.” 

The girls listened with strange expressions. Tatyana asked, confused. “You know what the Dantian is, at least, right?”

“Dantian?” Velamir shook his head. “I have no idea.”

Tatyana rubbed her forehead. “That’s impossible. The Soul Cultivation Manual we got from Garel clearly had information about meridians, Heaven, and Dantian written in it. Moreover, according to him, it was the most basic of them all.” 

Evelyn pondered and commented. “Let me ask you a few questions. How do you call the place where you store your Soul Energy?”

Velamir answered confusedly. “Um. The Soul?”

The girls felt their lips twitching. Evelyn asked once more. “When you use your soul energy to manifest strange phenomena, don’t you need to move your soul strength through some strange channels around your body? How do you call those?”

Velamir shook his head again. “We don’t need to do that. You can directly shape the Soul Power and use it.”

Evelyn asked again, her tone someone incredulous. “Then… What happens after you overcome those bottlenecks you spoke about? Do you go through a Heavenly Tribulation?”

“We don’t.” Velamir denied it again. “Once we go past the bottleneck, our soul grows in size at a very fast pace until it stabilizes. Then, it stops, and we need to bathe more in the [Nascent Spring].”

Tatyana’s lips were twitching wildly. “Incredible. Is this what happens when a world without a Heaven tries their hand at cultivating? No wonder their bodies are this weak.”

Andrea nodded, her face filled with wonder. “They basically neglect all the basics and forcefully push through the realms, throwing resources at the problems until they are resolved.”

Evelyn reasoned. “The reason there are so few powerhouses and that the entire population doesn’t practice it is not so much because they lack methods, but more because the lack of heaven leaves them with no choice but to use the spring as their energy source. Additionally, it must be something they can’t use as much as they want and recharges a certain amount in a year. Hence, the quotas and all those other regulations.”

The more the girls learned through a high-ranking’s words, the more they understood why the cultivators in this place were so weak when a super treasure like the [Nascent Spring] was here.

Velamir listened to their words, and his face was strange. ‘The way they talk about us is like discussing cows that have been using gold to eat the hay.’

Yasenia interrupted their ruminations. “Are we there yet?”

Velamir snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. “Yes. Right ahead is the treasury.”

They didn’t take long to arrive there. Then, Velamir went through a few security checks until the final vault door was opened. The girls could’ve stomped everything and opened it forcefully, but they waited patiently. 

When the final vault door was opened, the girls entered a rather dull space where tall cabinets could be seen as far as the eye met. The massive underground storage area was several square kilometers wide. Yasenia didn’t waste time and spread her spiritual sense around the massive warehouse. 

Velamir commented. “This is my treasury. We store all of our valuables here, and they are ordered alphabetically. If you want something, you can name it, and I will take you there.”

As he was speaking, he suddenly saw Yasenia wave her hand as a gale spread outward. Velamir was confused and looked around. Then, after a few moments, he saw many boxes fly over, landing in front of them. Yasenia looked at them and nodded. “I’ll take all of these.”

Velamir’s mouth spasmed. ‘What did she just do?’