Yasenia felt a bit more relaxed after solving everything. With that in mind, she asked out of courtesy. "Do you want to walk with us and look around?"
Tengliu had also become calmer and realized something. "Oy, little girl. Now that I know your age, you should act with respect in front of me. I'm one thousand years old your senior!"
Yasenia smiled mischievously. "And yet, I managed to corner you."
Tengliu rolled her eyes. "If it wasn't because of that formation your mother created, do you really think you had the advantage?"
Yasenia laughed. "I don't. Anyway, I'll follow your wish and call you with respect, old Tengliu."
Tengliu really wanted to slap her. "Who are you calling old!? Senior, use senior!"
She answered seriously. "They are basically synonyms~. Also, I'm calling old to a thousand-year-old woman."
Tengliu suddenly remembered and smiled. "Oh? Then, are you calling your mother old too?"
Yasenia's lips twitched, and she looked to the side. Her body broke into a cold sweat when she saw Tatyana smiling and looking at her. "Not at all, senior Tengliu."
The matriarch laughed. "That's what I thought."
"Oy, Tengliu, can you stop bullying the child?"
"Cough. I'll stop."
Yasenia laughed aloud. "Excuse me. I wanted to get back a little for your behavior."
"You won't let it rest, will you?"
Yasenia smiled widely. "Not until I can give you a beating in combat. As I said, you almost forced yourself on me, and that's one of the things I despise the most. To be honest, inside, I'm still angry with you to an unreasonable degree. However, I understand that getting back to you for something that didn't happen would not be beneficial in any way."
Tengliu blinked. "That bad?"
Yasenia's eyes flashed with disdain as she smiled. "I really think you are scum. Having that skill refined to such a high level means you use it often. But, as long as you do not use it again on somebody close to me, I'll ignore that defect in your personality. After all, we are going to enter an alliance."
Tengliu shrugged. "Whatever, little girl. I'm going now. Besides looking for you, I came here to speak with the City Lord about Ghana's situation. She is someone I appreciate, after all."
Yasenia looked at Ghana and suggested. "You can go with her. I can do without you today."
Ghana nodded. "I'll be in your care, Matriarch Tengliu."
Tengliu nodded, and both of them left the room.
Cecile waited until they left to punch a wall almost without holding back.
*BANG!*
Thankfully, the original formations in the room were enough to block the sound and vibrations.
"I want to kill that woman."
Cecile's voice was so cold that things around her gained a layer of frost.
Yasenia sighed and stepped forward to gather her in a hug. "We shouldn't, love."
Cecile frowned and got angry at Yasenia for real this time. "If she did that to us, you would want to kill her in the most painful way possible. Why if they do things to you, it is okay, and when they do things to us, it is not okay?"
Yasenia opened her mouth, but Cecile interrupted. "Do you think that we have a big heart and can forgive things like this graciously? What do you think of our love for you, Yasenia?"
Cecile knew that it was situational and that Yasenia had dealt with it in the best way possible. However, seeing her soulmate being seduced by another right before her eyes felt like someone was digging out her heart from her chest and squeezing it.
It felt extremely uncomfortable.
Yasenia sighed and understood her rage.
She pondered while caressing her hair. "I guess it is my selfishness, sweetheart."
Yasenia looked at Cecile's cold eyes, and she didn't lose her tenderness. "My reasons were completely reasonable. However, creating a harem was just one of the options. Maybe Mom thought I wouldn't think about it with that idea in mind, but couldn't I have just used my dual cultivation technique without creating bonds?"
Cecile paused and looked at Yasenia.
Tatyana at the side sighed. "I thought you didn't realize that option."
Yasenia laughed. "How couldn't I think of that? I could have sex with someone who had a higher cultivation level as a transaction to quench my lust. There were no reasons to create lovers. Moreover, I understood since the beginning that Tatyana didn't care about my body but my heart."
Cecile asked. "Then… Why did you choose this path?"
Yasenia smiled and pecked her lips. "Didn't you hear? It is my selfishness. I wanted to, if I had sex with someone, at least for them to be someone important to me. Hence, I chose a small group of talented women to be fed by dual cultivation technique."
Cecile nodded. "But… it hurts."
Yasenia smiled. "I know. But I hope that, if this happens again in the future, you continue being angry, becoming distressed, and wanting to kill these people."
"I don't want all of you to become accustomed to it, but I don't want all of you to retaliate. I'll protect myself the best I can and discuss these situations in detail with all of you. However, I hope you let me handle the consequences of what happens to me."
Cecile frowned. "That's…"
Yasenia nodded. "I know. Sorry, dearest. But you know my attractiveness. If we really react wildly to everyone who wants to touch me when we are weak, there will be consequences we won't be able to bear."
Cecile blinked. "When we are weak?"
Yasenia smiled. "Of course. Did you think I would stop you if we weren't this weak? What do you think will happen if the whole harpy race assaults us? The scenarios I suggested are feasible, but that's one scenario. There are plenty of… bad endings."
Cecile nodded and said. "I'll continue being angry."
Yasenia smiled softly. "And I'll soothe you with my love every time."
Cecile pushed forward. "I'll want and try to kill those that are within our strength bracket if they have thoughts or act on you."
Yasenia kissed her lips. "And, unless it is not proper because of the situation, I'll hold them down for you to slaughter them as you want."
Cecile's blue eyes shone, and she spoke again. "I'm very jealous. I don't like that idea you have of using the maids as mothers."
Yasenia nodded. "My desire is to spread my bloodline, but until you have a few children of your own and you come to terms with the idea, I'll not implement it."
Cecile smiled. "I-I want to know your every movement and thought through our connection."
Yasenia laughed. "Have I ever closed our soul connection unless I'm with the other girls at night?"
Cecile hugged Yasenia closely and buried her face in her neck, sniffing her with an obsessive light in her eyes. "I love you too much."
Yasenia, similar to the past and as it will ever happen, accepted her love with open arms. "And I love your deep love for me. I love your ability not to feel deep jealousy for the other girls. I love how you always think of me. I love how protective you are of me. I love every single feather in your body. Your coldness, your warmth, your anger, your serenity, your sadness, your happiness, I love everything, Cecile."
Yasenia cupped her smiling face and kissed her lips. "So, remember that I don't mind bearing things that don't cross the line completely. However, her actions on me are certainly something I would kill for if it happened to any of you. But I can bear it."
Tatyana leaned on a wall and spoke. "Little Treasure. It would be best if you chose your opponent in the future better. Tengliu was out of your league since the very beginning. You had many chances to separate by using us. Going to a private room was only safe because I'm here."
Yasenia nodded. "I didn't expect her to use charm-related skills. Those need the soul to be used. It was out of my expectation."
Tatyana pondered. "In short, even when you overestimated her in your mind, she still went above your imagination."
Yasenia nodded without shame. "Yes. It was my mistake. Sorry, Mom."
Tatyana commented. "Will you kill her when you gain strength?"
Yasenia kept hugging Cecile and using her scent and pats to calm her down. "I probably won't unless she does something similar again."
Cecile bit Yasenia's neck in protest. Yasenia smiled softly and patted her back. "Sorry for being selfish, love."
Cecile stopped biting after she left a red mark on her skin and separated with a snort. "I already understand your working methods, my love. Let's go out."
Yasenia followed Cecile honestly and grabbed her hand. However, she could feel that Cecile's anger was gone entirely, and a sweet feeling was reaching her like a warm spring through the connection.
"By the way… Carbira."
"Y-Yes!"
Yasenia smiled apologetically. "Swear to the heavens that you won't communicate directly or indirectly anything about what happened here today."
Carbira understood and nodded, saying the oath solemnly.
After she said it, the four of them walked out of the room.
"Yes. You don't need to worry. Guide us to see the interesting items so that we sign up for them."
The dragoness used the card Ghana created and used it in the interesting things that she found.
There were sixty-seven body cultivation manuals between the items for the second day. Of them, only three looked interesting.
Yasenia intended to bid for all of them.
If there was an alchemy recipe, blacksmithing book, tailoring manual, or formation knowledge she didn't know about, she used the communication device to call her dears and ask if they wanted it.
Yasenia placed Ghana's name on one hundred and fifty-seven items.
The four women then walked toward their room and entered it. After Tengliu's situation, Yasenia was a bit tired, and she didn't want to socialize a whole lot.
Throwing her body onto the comfortable couch and feeling her body sinking into it, our dragoness sighed.
Cecile seemed still a bit affected, and instead of sitting beside her, she straddled Yasenia and hugged her with her large silver wings while burying her face in her neck and sniffing her sweet floral scent.
Her three phoenix tails were dancing happily, making Yasenia laugh and use her hands to caress them.
Unlike her tail, Cecile's weren't erogenous, so these caresses only gave a feeling of comfort to Cecile.
There were only ten screens today. The reason was that the number of items for auction was much lower.
Carbira was curious and asked. "Why do you want Body Cultivation Manuals?"
Yasenia grabbed one of Tatyana's hands and played with it. "I like collecting them almost as much as I like to collect human slaves."
This statement which would be outrageous in modern society, was accepted by Carbira readily. She was surprised but for the wrong reason. "That's it? You like collecting them?"
"That's it. What other reason is there to be interested in so many methods? It's not like I can learn them all."
"W-Well, maybe to use them in your subordinates?"
Yasenia shrugged. "If they are useful, why not? But I like collecting them."
Carbira's vertical eyes crossed. "I see."
I'm surprised Yasenia won't kill her even when she's able to. I have a feeling Tengliu will mess up again though
The following chapters will feel a bit uncomfortable, hahaha. :3
"We shouldn't love."
Maybe a comma between shouldn't and love?
TFTC
I love this cast of characters so much, but SO much that for the first time in almost two decades i decided to leave my comment here.
Look, the writing in this novel is wonderful, so is the universe and obviously the main characters. But out of every piece of entertainment i've ever read, watched or played, it is also by far the most frustrating.
Yasenia is simply not a protagonist. This work currently does not have one. Regardless of how you as the author envisioned her to be, from her very birth, she was written in a way that gave the readers the idea that Yasenia was leagues above others and it did not end there. With Tatyana's teachings and the way she was raised, to every single power up she got along the novel, she was supposed to be strong, overpowered even. But you do not allow it to happen. Her hardwork feels useless, her progress, inexistent.
Now, this next part i understand that is more of my opinion but bare with me; what is the problem with making a protagonist truly overpowered? There's a reason why overpowered protagonists have been becoming more popular in this last half decade - weak or hardworking but just slightly talented protagonists are over-saturated, although they have their charm, at the end of the day, we all know that regardless of what happens, they will succeed and overcome the difficulties, that's why the tense moments don't really feel as such anymore. A impossible to beat enemy in front of the hero? So what? He won't die because the story would end. Everyone knows that. Of course, the 'how' is important and i'm not disregarding them. But that is why overpowered protagonists are so novelty now, it is still new.
The problem is that in web novels, the authors are too close and are connected to the readers too closely, having instant feedback after every chapter. And what they don't realize is - only the VERY minority of the readers actually bother to comment, and those that do, tend to whine a lot about 'giving too much power' to the protagonist; which in turn makes authors hold themselves back counciously or otherwise, or straight up nerfing the protagonist.
And that is what i feel you've been doing. It is already over five hundred chapters, and it's simply extremely unrewarding that after this long, Yasenia is still such a weakling even in a backwards world like this one, not to mention their main world...it's sad to put so much time reading the novel and even after this long, this many chapters, we still must see Yasenia getting helplessly humiliated...
Tbh i feel that there's a timeskip coming soon and that might be why i've decided to post this here, in hopes that at least the timeskip will not be as worthless as all the other powerups felt.
Anyway, truly, as an author you have an insane potential and is already very talented, this is just my two cents for you and i know i don't matter much, i just wanted to make justice for our Yasenia and hope that you can finally let her fly freely. Tatyana deserves someone to stand by her side and i believe it's been enough time to let her do so.
P.S. I recommend you to read My Three Wives are Beautiful Vampires and actively compare Tatyana to Scathach as they are very similar. I believe it should help you out immensely.
Hmmm. I feel like the problems you see are not actually problems. Yasenia is one of multiple protagonists in this story, working together with the others of the cast to progress the story. Yes Yasenia might seem to be growing slowly, but I don't see that as a failing of the story but one of its greatest features. Yasenia has, since chapter 1, been growing. Mortrexo has been very consistent in pushing the story forwards and growing the characters in an organic and reasonable way. Yasenia has no plot armor in this book. None of the main cast do (except maybe Tatyana what with controlling Fate and all). Yasenia is talented; is well-trained; is strong, but Yasenia does not rush. She takes every step one at a time securing her foothold before taking another.
Could Yasenia be multiple stages higher right now, maybe even being a Trancendent? Sure! But she hasn't. She has chosen to restrain herself, to hold back, to spread her interests and talents out wide so that she can stay with the ones she loves and work with them to progress. It is only now that Yasenia has done so that she is facing the consequences of her actions.
Yasenia has finally met someone who she cannot beat alone. Someone charismatic enough to have serious connections. Someone strong enough she cannot use force. Someone perceptive enough her tricks fall shy. Someone forceful enough to push the issue and try and take control or bend Yasenia to her will.
If you want to read a story where the main character instantly gains power and is never truly challenged, go ahead; It is not this story. This is the most realistic, consistent, cultivation-style novel I have ever read. I love it for what it is.
@Mortrexo Thank you for the wonderful story. Characters in this novel have depth and earn their power. They may have fortunate circumstances, but the only things that are truly out of place are obvious jokes that I find absolutely hilarious. Keep telling the story at your own pace and don't feel rushed to make things faster or slower.
P.S. On a side note, I think this novel is actually one of the faster cultivation novels I've read when you take into account that you get the progress of 6 characters instead of the progress of 1 with the rest being very summarized. (I am not counting Tatyana since she is kind of so powerful her progression isn't noticeable with respect to the other characters)
@Bekicot Considering how much Yasenia loves Tatyana, how does it make sense that even though she could easily get stronger to be side by side with her mother, she doesn't? Being stronger than her lovers does not equal abandoning them. She should know that although Tatyana is strong, she is not by any means invincible and the people that pose risks to her have even already showed up. So the reason for her not doing so being that she wants to wait for the others simply does not match the love she portrays for Tatyana. And not only that but even the others, because from the very beginning when they came to this new world it was crystal clear in how much danger her loved ones are and yet, she still doesn't wake up.
The term plot armor disgusts me, this isn't a documentary, of course there is and should be plot armor to any proper fantasy story. No matter how ordinary a protagonist is, he is the protagonist, period. Without him there is no story and pretending otherwise is insulting to everyone involved.
Just because what you so call plot armor isn't as used in the battles it does not mean it isn't used in other ways like making Yasenia do certain actions like for example facing the 9 elders way back then or the 7 epoch cultivators without acting all submissive. Or even now with the harpy matriarch. If that was realistic with not plot armor she'd be dead or enslaved alongside everyone else. Which is i assume as readers at least me wouldn't want that. Therefore proving my point, plot armor is good, necessary and completely acceptable.
Tis one thing to disagree with some of the points i make but completely disregard some like you have is detrimental to the author themself. Even more considering that if you've read a few of the author's comments, you'd know that they already said that things are indeed to slow, so saying it is the fastest progress you've seen is...well, just trying to snub me for no reason, as all i've said was in good faith.
@LRiviere @Bekicot I've read both of your comments, and they are fantastic.
I agree with points on both sides, and naturally, there are things I find disagreeable. However, this has opened a lot of insight into how my readers are absorbing the story.
@LRiviere has guessed that the time skip is coming soon and that things will start to accelerate. Then, the start of actual conflict will begin. Also, Yasenia is actually quite young, even if mature, and she will continue committing mistakes.
Most of the ideas you both are juggling are being written and will be attended to in due time. I hope you all like how the story develops and will eventually write comments on how you feel about the story.
Thanks a lot, really. It means the world for someone to take time and write these extensive comments. It shows the care and love for the novel.
With much love and hugs,
Mortrexo.
@Mortrexo I'm glad that you took it well. Keep up the good work!
@LRiviere I think we have different perspectives on what plot armor is. I agree with your comment that every good fantasy story should have a protagonist that has some advantage. Whether that is favorable situations or some ability or perspective that the character has is irrelevant. I like to view a story as a sneak peek into a character's life within a world. Obviously, we only look at the most interesting and impactful individuals so it is natural that we would have some unlikely circumstances and/or development that is new/unique/exciting.
That is not what I consider plot armor. I consider plot armor as unlikely or abnormal events that stretch the plausibility of the story. A powerful knight fighting a dragon and blocking its blow, story. An average commoner with a brand new shield blocking that same blow, stretching it. That commoner blocking the blow with their body, then getting up to slay the dragon using that magic spell scroll they saw in the treasure hoard, then walking away from the battle perfectly fine, that's plot armor.
In short, I see plot armor as events in a story that have no reasonable in-world reason for why they are possible. Many improbable events following a character is not plot armor, it's good storytelling. Many unrealistic improbable events following a character is most definitely plot armor.
As for the rest of your comment, I was actually being quite serious when I was talking about the speed of the story. Many cultivation novels might seem to have faster progress, but they tend to focus on a single character and maybe 1-2 side characters. The rest of the cast matters little to the actual story. This novel gives really good personification and progression along interesting paths for the entire cast of 6+ characters. When you add in that this story has unique, gripping plot arcs and that the Author is willing to use time skips in appropriate places, this story is faster than average in my opinion. Maybe I just read too many long winded dense cultivation novels...
You are welcome to disagree and I'm glad that we can discuss our opinions in a friendly manner.
Thanks for responding to my comment and Happy Reading!
@Mortrexo Same. Thanks for writing all this!