Yasenia walked down the stone path with heavy steps, her mood radiating an intense "I am sad" aura. Seeing the dragon woman walk as if her feet weighed down on her entire being, the treasures couldn't help but find her amusing.
Draheart spoke softly, her usually indifferent tone layered with almost imperceptible amusement. "Why are you so depressed? You are more than able to fight off those plants if you are serious."
Yasenia grumbled. "I know… The problem is not getting them."
Dramel giggled. "Then, what's wrong?"
"Concoction!" Yasenia blurted, her tail whipping the floor with loud slapping sounds. "To concoct, extract, and then craft a pill with a million-year-old spiritual herb is not something I've ever practiced! I used half a million plants in the past thanks to Valeria and Kali. However, I have absolutely no idea how to do it with these!"
"Oh." The treasures stopped feeling amusing, Yasenia's worries spreading over to them like an infectious disease.
Sui Xing asked, confused. "Then, what are you planning to do?"
Yasenia sighed as she looked around and checked the mental map. "I will gather not only the spiritual herbs I need, but others as well. While I don't want to waste one-million-year-old herbs, I want even less to lose this garden after so many years stuck inside."
The others nodded, accepting Yasenia's words. It was a shame to waste precious resources, but they couldn't really gamble. After Yasenia arrived at the location where the [Endless Temptation Flower] was located, she stepped off the stone path.
The reason she chose this location was that she was immune to the plant's pollen. That effectively negated over half of the plant's attacking power. The second she stepped outside, Yasenia saw hundreds of vines shooting from all around her. Draheart flashed, cutting down all of them.
"I can feel it." Yasenia hummed, her eyes slightly more serious. When she cut the weaker plants, Draheart could slice through almost without effort. A light movement of her wrist was enough to divide tens or hundreds of vines.
Now, though, she could feel some resistance. Clearly, the strength and durability of the vines were more than phenomenal.
"Hehe, Draheart, are you tired? Your edge is faltering~."
Draheart snorted at Dramel's tease. Then, Yasenia felt her energy draining for a bit as Draheart's sword shape changed minutely. From a distance, it looked the same. However, when she looked closer, she could sense that the weight had spread towards the center as the edges sharpened. The overall balance remained similar, but her cutting power increased.
In the next wave of attacks, Yasenia moved Draheart and noticed much less resistance when cutting down the vines. "Ho? Why do you not use this shape usually?"
Draheart replied back. "Feel the balance."
At first, Yasenia didn't feel anything off. However, when she began using skills and such, she squinted her eyes. "Aha. I understand now. This balance is good for cutting but makes my movements stiffer in complex motions."
With a sharper sword, her exploration speed accelerated. It was when she was rather confident that Yasenia felt the ground below her feet tremble slightly, and a silent, slippery vine shot up, latching onto her leg and shooting towards the middle of her legs.
"Huh?"
Even before she registered it, her own tail slashed down, cutting it. Even then, the vine's momentum managed to reach up and tap her panties once.
"Hyan! W-Wha?" Yasenia, utterly baffled, asked aloud. "Why was the plant aiming there!?"
Dramel and the others were silent, no less bewildered than our dragoness. Sui Xing coughed. "That… Perhaps the plant sensed your fertility and…"
"They are plants!" Yasenia retorted, her face crumpled. "Do they want to do some strange tentacle play or something!?"
Sui Xing answered awkwardly. "Actually, not all plants…"
"Ah! Stop! I don't want to know!" Yasenia grumbled as she stomped the ground, annoyed. "Who would've thought that my… defenses were almost pierced by a plant?"
With a light jump, her body floated above the ground a few meters, not going over the canopy. This way, she would have much more time to react to those attacks again.
As she flew, Yasenia tilted her head and looked sideways. "Hm… What is that aura? It doesn't feel like someone is fighting."
From a distance, Yasenia could sense messy energy fluctuations, but none were violent clashes of energy. "Should I go check?"
Soluna muttered. "Perhaps someone got trapped by those vines…"
"..."
Everyone became silent, and even Yasenia felt a pang of empathy as a woman. "Let's check at least… If the plant is distracted, we can harvest it with less trouble."
So, hiding her presence, Yasenia moved alongside the shadows of the trees and arrived near the location. Once she reached it, her face crumpled slightly.
Soluna exclaimed. "Wao! There are three victims! One man and two women!"
Yasenia sighed and ignored the moans of frustration mixed with other tones, asking Sui Xing. "So… is that the [Endless Temptation Flower]?"
"Indeed. The plant, although it is mainly used for permanent increase in appearance and beauty, is considered an aphrodisiac plant."
Dramel suddenly asked, confused. "Hey, Yasenia. Isn't that woman the one following the woman who entered with you into the garden?"
"Huh?" Yasenia blinked and squinted. The woman, entangled in dozens of slimy vines and drenched in slimy liquids, was in her birthday suit, making her difficult to distinguish at first. However, now that she looked closer, she instantly distinguished her. "That's indeed the alchemist who was with Feng Shaotian. Did she fall into the trap of the Endless Temptation Flower?"
Looking at the other two, she recognized the man as another person from Feng Shaotian's group, while the last woman was unknown to Yasenia.
In the middle, the alchemist shouted, full of annoyance. "W-When are you going to stop, you stupidly horny plaAahnt!"
The man sighed at the side, his lower half also covered with vines. "Give up. I can feel that what this plant wants isn't your pregnancy, but to absorb our Yin and Yang Essence to grow stronger."
Yasenia blinked at their conversation. 'As expected, Transcendence Realm cultivators won't despair just because they fall into a lewd trap! Impressive!'
The treasures: "..."
Since saving them didn't seem urgent, Yasenia looked around carefully and quickly spotted the main body of the plant. It was a twenty-meter-tall herb with large petals that rose up and opened. In the middle of the flower, a bluish-green pillar stood tall, emitting pollen all around. 'There is so much pollen that it looks like a mist… How do I uproot it?'
The size was not too large, but Yasenia didn't know how deep she needed to dig in order to scoop up the spiritual herb. If she destroyed the wrong roots, the effectiveness of the herb would decrease significantly.
"Hm…"
After devising a plan, she took action.
Meanwhile, the three trapped people felt a slight energy fluctuation. Even in their current state, their senses were sharp and alert. Or, it was better to say that their senses were sharp because they were in their current situation.
The Endless Temptation Flower also seemed to notice something, and it paused for a second, that pause clearly felt by the three people connected to it. The man spoke aloud. "Hey, plant! I am ready for the next round. Or are you an impotent little plant that can't squeeze a man how it is proper?"
His mocking tone was quickly caught by the other two, and they followed his lead. "Hmph. As expected, you can't even make a woman moan properly. Hey, move faster and deeper; I can't feel it!"
"Right? Here I thought that, since you dared to capture us, you could at least make us submit. It seems I was confused."
The plant, having very low spiritual intelligence compared to a human, felt instantly provoked and summoned more vines, attacking the three people and filling all holes available. Their expression crumbled, but they didn't complain and tried to go along with the plant.
When the Endless Temptation Flower started feeling fulfilled, its danger senses flared up like crazy.
BOOM!
Just a few hundred meters from its body, a pillar of energy pierced the sky as Yasenia's figure, covered in a mantle, appeared not far away.
Then, using Pegasus Gallop and her powerful sword techniques, Yasenia sliced the ground below it almost a hundred times over.
The Endless Temptation Flower screeched as its connection with its main roots was severed. Then, the dragon woman appeared atop its pollen pillar and pulled skyward.
RRRIPPP!
The entire flower rose to the sky, together with a large chunk of the first it was clutching. The brute strength of the dragon woman made it impossible for the Endless Temptation Flower to resist.
As the spiritual herb flew, Yasenia used her spiritual pressure to knock away its consciousness and absorbed it into her spatial ring.
As it disappeared, all the vines latching onto the three people also disappeared, and they fell into the crater Yasenia created with loud thumps.
"Ah…! Freedom!" The alchemist sighed loudly and sprawled on the ground. Having recovered control of her body, she used it to cleanse herself inside and out. The other two did the same as well.
Yasenia landed lightly on the ground and looked at them once before turning around.
"H-Hey! Wait!"
Yasenia paused and looked back, her dark mantle covering her expression. "What's wrong?"
The alchemist smiled awkwardly and spoke lightly. "That… Sorry. I was a bit rude all those years ago. I will remember this grace."
Yasenia didn't care about that. She nodded lightly and prepared to leave.
"Wait!"
"...What now?"
A hint of annoyance appeared on Yasenia's face, but she answered either way. The alchemist looked around and asked softly. "That… Can you help us find our spatial rings? The plant ate them, but we don't know where they are. Without them, we are dead since we have no treasures to protect ourselves."
Yasenia paused. '...Since I saved them, I guess I must go all the way? Tsk, I was intending to steal their rings as compensation.' Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind.
"I don't know where they are. However, I have a few treasures here that might help you."
With a wave of her hand, Yasenia retrieved the weapons and armors of the people she killed in the secret realm and gave some of them to the three cultivators. They were all Transcendence-ranked treasures, so they couldn't complain.
After leaving a few treasures behind, the dragoness turned and left for real.
"Ah!" The three cultivators exclaimed, but Yasenia was already gone.
Looking at the clothes and weapons on the ground, they sighed and nodded. "At least she didn't leave us behind."
"...Right."
Meanwhile, the dragon woman looked at the three rings in her hands with glittering eyes. 'Treasures! I hope there are some million-year-old plants!'