Heaven, Earth, Me-Chapter 1504. Mysterious Dragon.

While Yasenia wanted to continue swimming down into the Starlit Molting Pool’s depths, the sheer pressure on her scales and body had become too absurd. So, Yasenia had no other choice but to give up for the moment.

Yasenia muttered as she stopped, relaxing her body. "I am already in the central area. However... I can feel that there is another extra layer deep down. What is there?"

She, understanding her current position, very much wanted to ignore whatever was down there and complete her five years of training. However, her curiosity had already been piqued. ’Ugh... I hope I don’t mess up anything.’

Yasenia sighed and looked around with her golden dragon eyes. "I can’t see anything."

It was natural, as she was very deep down into the Starlit Molting Pool. However, what surprised her was not her lack of visual information, but how constricted her Spiritual Sense was.

Yasenia pondered and closed her eyes. While she absorbed and transformed her own scales with the energy of the Starlit Molting Pool, she also tried to spread out her Spiritual Sense.

Similar to that time when the flower was disturbing and holding back her Spiritual Sense, Yasenia found herself unable to push out. ’I am using the same tactic as back then, but clearly, it is not working.’

A sense of doubt appeared in her mind. ’What might be the next step in developing the Spiritual Sense? Previously, I managed to use a resonance with the surroundings for it. Now... should I develop a way to harmonize my Spiritual Sense in some kind of manner?’

Yasenia, while cultivating, pondered this matter deeply.

And just as she pondered in a dark place without a single thing to tell her whether it was day or night, time flew by in a flash. After 7 months, the pressure around Yasenia diminished greatly.

Yasenia opened her golden eyes, her Spiritual Sense as stuck as before. Nevertheless, her scales had clearly become much sturdier. Even her own flesh was stronger than before.

Curious, she used one of her sharp claws to try to pierce her scales. She found tremendous resistance before she was able to crack them and draw some blood. ’Wow.’

Before, Yasenia could swear that her scales were the weakest part of her body. While she refined them with her body cultivation technique and beast core, the energy was more prone to perfect the overall shape than just the outer layer.

This didn’t mean that her scales were weak, just somewhat less sturdy compared to the rest of her body.

"Now, things are different. They had truly become... quite outrageous. My defense has gone up again."

If her past opponents heard her, they would probably cough out a mouthful of blood out of anger and scream at her: ’How about you change your race to turtle dragon, you monster!?’

With her scales clearly able to bear the burden of this area, Yasenia swam downwards again. As she did, she encountered a very high-level dragon. The creature was hiding his strength, so Yasenia couldn’t pinpoint how strong he was.

As Yasenia approached, the dragon opened his eyes, puzzled, as if he had not expected to find another Dragon at this depth. His amber-colored eyes moved, and when he saw the new arrival, the dragon almost choked on the Starlit Molting Pool’s water. "J-Junior! What are you doing here? Do you want to die!?"

The roar almost left Yasenia deaf. She frowned her scaly eyebrows and answered. "Senior, don’t shout. Aren’t I by your side? I can hear you properly."

The senior, who was anxious that this young dragon was intending to send herself to the afterlife early, relaxed when he heard the clear and not-at-all strenuous tone. The dragon blinked, looking at the large dragon, but still smaller than himself.

"You... are you hiding your Beast Realm?"

Yasenia blinked and asked back, curious. "You can hide your beast rank?"

"..."

"..."

Both sides stared at each other, the male Dragon becoming more and more weirded out. He muttered. "Have I been down here for too long? Perhaps, fantasizing about such a beautiful junior dragon suddenly descended like a fairy is a sign that I need to go out...."

Yasenia’s eyebrow twitched. ’This senior is somewhat eccentric.’

"Senior, I won’t disturb you further. I still want to go down."

Yasenia was about to swim past, but as she did, the male dragon reacted and grabbed Yasenia’s tail out of reflex to stop her.

As if he had hit a switch, Yasenia’s face turned ferocious as she quickly turned and snapped down her jaws onto the hand.

CHOMP!

"ARGH! You! Little Dragon, don’t bite this hard! You are going to crack my old scales!"

Yasenia growled. "Release my tail!"

The senior quickly did so, and Yasenia’s ferocious expression lightened up a little. She looked at him grumpily. "Senior, please don’t take advantage of Junior. Only Junior’s lovers can grab my tail as you did."

The dragon felt a bit embarrassed. This was like grabbing someone’s butt to prevent them from leaving. He cleared his throat and spoke. "Sorry, it was a reflexive reaction. You can’t go down there, junior."

Yasenia, already calmed down, showed a confused look. "Why not?"

"Because, if you don’t have the Sovereign Aura from the trial, that area will react adversely."

Yasenia glanced at the dragon with a deadpan. "Senior."

"No, I told you that you can’t go. I won’t let a talented little girl like you go down."

"Senior, listen—"

"Sigh, why are youngsters so stubborn nowadays?"

Yasenia’s veins bulged in annoyance, and a second later, she let out all her auras as she roared at him. "LISTEN TO ME, YOU OLD DRAGON!"

The poor dragon was so taken by surprise by the barreling combined suppression that his mind went blank for a good minute. After he reacted, his amber dragon eyes widened, looking at Yasenia with undissguished stupefaction.

"Sovereign aura... immortal bloodline... progenitor queen... constitution of who knows what rank..." As he analyzed more and more, the old dragon burst into pleasant laughter. "My Dragon race is on the rise! Hahaha!"

Yasenia was exasperated with this dragon. Still, she guessed that he was someone with quite a bit of authority. So, she decided to be patient. ’Who knows, he might give me a treasure.’

After happily laughing for a bit, the Dragon looked at Yasenia with a satisfied smile. "Alright, since that’s the case, follow me."

The dragon, over 10 times larger than Yasenia, swam down, and Yasenia finally made out that he was an eastern-type dragon.

The dragoness followed, curious. However, as they descended, a realization struck her. ’Huh? Didn’t he just say that only those with Sovereign auras can go down?’

Her eyes, looking at the dragon, became slightly serious. However, she was a bit too weak to distinguish any aura from him. Unless he wanted to show her, she would be like a blind cat trying to look for a mouse.

As they descended, Yasenia felt the pressure escalate once again, her eyebrows becoming increasingly furrowed. ’How deep have we traveled?’

While she understood that the Blue Pearl World was a Realm Type world, this was still baffling to her. Realm Type worlds were considered "flat" worlds. Endless expanses of land that stretched beyond measure in all directions.

Noticing Yasenia’s state, the dragon stopped swimming and waited. "Let’s rest here. Once you get used to it, we can continue diving deeper."

Yasenia, while feeling pressured, didn’t think that this was her limit. "We can go a bit deeper, Senior."

"It’s no use." The dragon spoke. "More is not always better. The pressure you are currently feeling will help you adapt much quicker. While you’ll have to move more often, the progress in the long run will be much faster."

Yasenia knew better than to doubt someone as peculiar as this dragon. Nevertheless, she spoke up. "Senior, I am rather special. Are you sure that your principles apply to me as well?"

"Hm? Special how?"

Yasenia pondered and decided to reveal some of it. After all, she didn’t believe that someone who was so happy to see a talented junior would endanger her for being even more talented.

"I can practice the human paths of spirit, soul, and body as well. Therefore, my absorption and adaptation are much better."

The dragon was startled when he heard and then swam over. As he arrived by Yasenia’s side, he asked. "Can I scan your body? I won’t try to pry into your Dantian at all while checking the surface of your soul."

Yasenia nodded, and the giant dragon placed his claw on Yasenia’s back, right between her wings. Yasenia felt a pulse of energy bounce around her body before retreating.

The dragon moved its claw back, and Yasenia looked up at it. The amber eyes of the dragon were full of strangeness and bewilderment. "Are you Heaven’s child or something? What kind of indestructible body have you attained? Not to mention, your soul is... gargantuan. Stupidly large even for someone who practices all paths like yourself."

Yasenia snorted. "If I am, Heaven is my deadbeat father. I hate them!"

The dragon looked up, as if waiting for lightning to strike Yasenia for her insolence, but nothing happened. "... You definitely are its child."

Yasenia was too lazy to explain herself and then asked. "So, here or deeper?"

"Deeper." The dragon sighed. "Truly, the young surpass the old. Aish, how many hundreds of thousands of years have passed since I entered retreat?"

Yasenia followed him, resisting the pressure more and more until it became difficult to move forward. The dragon told her to acclimate there.

As Yasenia cultivated, she spoke with the dragon. "So... Senior, who are you?"

"Hm..." The Dragon pondered and sighed. "Probably someone important, but no one worth mentioning at the same time."

The dragoness, already forged by Tatyana’s way of leaving her always hanging, didn’t overreact to his vagueness. "I see. What is your name, senior?"

"Ao... Ao..." The dragon paused, as if he was trying very hard to squeeze his brain. "Ao. Just call me Ao."

Yasenia, once again, nodded. Still, her eyes became slightly subtle as she glanced at him. ’Ao... too old to even recall his name... However, was this place...?’

As ideas flashed in her mind one after another, she focused on strengthening her scales further.

"By the way, Senior, how can I evolve my Spiritual Sense so that I can see through the Starlit Molting Pool’s water?"

"Hahaha. You are an ambitious young girl! Unless you can improve your Spiritual Sense to the [Big Improvement] realm, you won’t be able to. Someone like you probably has a Mortal Perfection Spiritual Sense, right?"

Yasenia blinked. "I don’t know. Help me check."

Her Spiritual Sense surged out, trying hard to push against the Starlit Molting Pool’s water. The Dragon, looking at it, felt his teeth aching again. "Why is your Spiritual Sense at the peak of the [Initial Achievement] Realm, little girl? Are you messing with me while hiding your cultivation and age!? I’ll tell you, once I reveal your true realm, I won’t be kind and understanding!"

Yasenia chuckled and then waited for the old dragon to speak.