Before entering, Lan Shuyao respectfully bowed to Lady First and the others. After all, they were top powerhouses that she had to look up to.
They nodded lightly, not interacting much with her. Ao Xianlan and Lady First had lived long enough to know when to act and when to stay in the background so that their presence wouldn't destroy the atmosphere.
Tatyana had no problem interacting with Lan Shuyao, as she had previously exchanged some words with the woman. Of course, Lan Shuyao didn't know how strong Tatyana was back then, which allowed for such an exchange to happen.
After bowing to them, Lan Shuyao hugged Yasenia's arm with a smile. "Let's go inside."
Tatyana hugged Yasenia's other arm and snorted. "You are quite shameless."
Lan Shuyao joked back. "Lady Tatyana, I am trying to become your daughter-in-law. Please, give me some face."
Tatyana snorted. "Trying to cuckold me and you say it to my face? The gall of this woman!"
Yasenia chuckled at their antics and asked Lan Shuyao a few things. She wanted to make sure that the Star Immortal Sect people had not caused trouble.
"Actually," Lan Shuyao spoke, her icy blue eyes pondering. "There were a few people who came to find them during your tournament. Thankfully, I had found most of them by then. Have you offended someone during the tournament, Yasenia?"
"Did you watch it?"
Lan Shuyao nodded, and Yasenia smiled helplessly. "You saw how I basically stomped their top geniuses, probably giving a few of them Heart Demons. Isn't your question a bit redundant?"
Lan Shuyao was silent, sighing and patting her arm. "It's not your fault that everyone else is trash compared to you. I don't understand if you fell in some kind of Heavenly Soup when you were little, or what you did to grow to your current heights so quickly."
"More like I was smoked by Heaven and cooked inside out. Sometimes charred to the point I couldn't move."
Yasenia chuckled, while Lan Shuyao looked up and sighed softly. "You suffered, child."
The dragoness teased, lightening the mood. "You call me child, and you still want my descendants? I didn't know your taste was this heavy, Lan Family Head."
Lan Shuyao was not ashamed and even jumped into the joke. "With children like you, one can only say that age is just a number."
Yasenia almost choked.
It was Tatyana who answered with another sigh. "You are right. Age is just a number. Also, the Underworld is just a place as well. Isn't that right, Lan Shuyao?"
The red-haired woman smiled, sweat dripping down the side of her head. "Right, right. Lady Death Empress is right."
While joking and laughing together, Yasenia's group of six finally arrived at the place where the people from the Star Immortal Sect had gathered.
It was a large and spacious garden, with some stone benches and trees planted quite beautifully. At the side, there was a lake with colorful fish swimming and jumping from time to time to catch little bugs flying on the water.
Overall, it was quite a pleasant location.
Yasenia observed those gathered and nodded. 'There are around 3,000 people here. Many more than I initially expected. I guess I owe Lan Shuyao a favor.'
As her gaze swept them, they also looked at her.
Yasenia had not worn anything special this time. She was draped in her usual blue-colored revealing dress, her long black hair gently gathered in a low-hanging ponytail behind her.
When she appeared, having controlled her charm to a degree, she managed to capture their attention without disrupting those weak juniors in their midst.
Yasenia quickly spotted Xing Tianlan, Star Forge, Tai Qingzhe, Mo Yun, and Mo Zifei in the group.
Xing Tianlan was the Sect Master, while the others didn't need much presentation.
Everyone else, Yasenia took as an acquaintance, but no one was worth paying attention to.
Lan Shuyao had long separated, standing formally by Yasenia's side. "As I said previously, it was Yasenia Dravory who asked me to search and find all of you. Those of you who are here chose to believe us, while those who didn't are outside and their fates left to chance."
Her voice was cold and noble, a far sight compared to when she spoke with Yasenia. Her icy blue eyes swept over everyone as she spoke once more. "After today, I will send all of you out of our Lan residence. As for what you will do next, that's up to you. My transaction with Yasenia Dravory ends now."
She spoke as such on purpose. That way, there won't be any shameless ones that try to use their connection with Yasenia to latch onto the Lan Family. If everything was just a transaction, it would mean the Lan Family was not trying to curry favor with Yasenia or build deep connections, but was just exchanging actions for profit.
Yasenia naturally understood what Lan Shuyao was doing, and she took half a step forward. "When I was at my most vulnerable, the Star Immortal Sect accepted me. While you were not altruistic, as you made sure to use my strength to your advantage, I've never resented you. I just treated those things as transactions. Basically, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. So, today, I've repaid all my debts to the Star Immortal Sect."
Xing Tianlan took a step forward, and he spoke. "Yasenia Dravory, I am not someone who is ungrateful. However, your words are too much."
Yasenia looked over calmly. This was a reaction she expected.
Xing Tianlan spoke, his voice cold. "You, using our sect, attended a Secret Realm. Back then, we asked you not to cause trouble, to get things according to your capabilities. However, instead of staying put, you vied for the treasures the top sects were trying to get. As a result, our Star Immortal Sect was disbanded."
Yasenia didn't interrupt. After all, what he was saying was correct. Because she was greedy for treasures, she provoked top powerhouses and caused the entirety of the Star Immortal Sect to be in jeopardy. More than that, because of her, the sect needed to be disbanded, ending with just a few actions, the inheritance of several ancestors.
Xing Tianlan continued. "If you think that asking the Lan Family to save us from those who wanted to use us to corner you is enough to repay your debts, you are sorely mistaken. In the future, when we erect our sect once more, you'll be our enemy. If you think that we will be a thorn in your flesh in the future, you are welcome to kill all of us now and get rid of future problems."
Star Forge and the others frowned, but they didn't interrupt. This was not their place to speak up, as the forces involved this time around were too overbearing.
Meanwhile, Yasenia listened to Xing Tianlan's voice without a change in her expression. Her golden eyes were calm, the slit pupils relaxed. "Xing Tianlan, your words are the truth. Because I wanted to get powerful treasures, I put your sect in danger. However, you are wrong about many assumptions."
Yasenia stated. "First of all, I fought for treasures that I believed I could keep. And, as I believed back then, those treasures are now in my possession, proven in front of the entire Blue Pearl World, leaving people unable to say otherwise. Not even the ancestors of the Demons, Divines, or Dragons can say otherwise."
Xing Tianlan frowned deeply, but Yasenia was not done.
"Second, I didn't disband your Star Immortal Sect. I just took preventive measures and informed Star Forge about possible disasters. After all, to me, your Star Immortal Sect was never something I cherished. Were it not for Star Forge, Tai Qingzhe, Mo Yun, and Luan Feixue being part of it, I wouldn't have bothered paying what I have to hire the Lan Family!"
Her voice was now cold and indifferent.
Xing Tianlan wanted to pin on her back the weakness of their sect? Yasenia would not allow it!
Did the sect get disbanded because of her?
Wrong!
It disbanded because when Star Forge gave them her warning, they all scurried out instead of defending their so-called cherished sect to the death!
Did Yasenia need to pay back any debt by the time she left the Secret Realm?
She did not!
Yasenia fought against forces from the [Abyss], risking dying without a chance to enter the reincarnation cycle, all in order to pay her due debts. From the second she erased that cancer from the world, Yasenia had already paid back the Star Immortal Sect whatever she owed.
Hence! Xing Tianlan's words, while partly truthful, were not only caused by her. If Yasenia had not appeared to get rid of the sect from the Abyss, the Star Immortal Sect would've disappeared either way.
The growth rate of such a sect was terrifying, and it would've swallowed their continent and much more before being stopped by the top powerhouses of the Blue Pearl World.
Yasenia looked at Xing Tianlan's face and stated. "Xing Tianlan, let me be very clear. I don't care if you treat me as an enemy. I don't care if you want me to become your beast of burden and carry all the 'sins" that made your sect collapse. However, if you ever dare act on it… If you ever dare attempt to 'erase' the so-called enemy, I won't be merciful. My conscience is clear, and I've taken each step of the way the way I should've."
Xing Tianlan snorted. "Once, we received a prophecy that a dragon would make our sect prosper once more. That was the only reason we even accepted you. However, it seems that we were wrong."
Yasenia laughed mockingly. "Prophecies? I am sorry, Xing Tianlan. There is no prophecy under Heaven that can predict what I, Yasenia Dravory, will do in the future!"
Her voice boomed out, her aura spreading far and wide like an endless starry sky.
"No vision, no destiny, and no fate guides me, as I am the master of my own future! All I achieve, all I lose, all I become, will be because of no other influence besides my own actions!"
After she said that, she looked at Star Forge and the others and ordered them. "Come with me. I guess you three want to talk to me."
Then, without giving them a chance to refuse, she turned toward one of the buildings at the side and entered it. As she left, she spoke to Lan Shuyao. "Let those people leave first, Lady Lan. There is nothing else to talk about between us."
Lan Shuyao nodded faintly and guided everyone outside.
Meanwhile, Star Forge and the other two followed with complicated expressions. However, when they entered, thinking Yasenia would act arrogantly toward them as well, they saw her turn around with a smile and speak softly. "I am glad you three are fine. I was worried."
That smile instantly soothed many of their worries, making them release a sigh they didn't know they were holding.