Chapter 1188. Core Area Rules.

After hearing those words, Yasenia’s gaze flickered, and she appeared in another place. She was still in her dragon form, and yet, the place was not nearly as cramped as she expected. Instead, she could look around.

“Y-Yasenia?”

Our dragoness moved her head and looked down. There, Long Tianyi and Long Aoshuang were standing together with other dragons in human form. They were all looking up at her figure with a wide-open mouth.

Yasenia blinked once and asked, her voice reverberating everywhere with an incredible presence. “How did you recognize me, Sister Tianyi?”

Realizing that the majestic being was really Yasenia, Long Tianyi’s face quickly gained an alluring red color. ‘Oh, Heavens. How can there be a Dragon as beautiful as her!? Gleaming scales that look like the night sky itself, images of gorgeous constellations strewn all over her body… Then, those golden colors… Ahh! She is just too beautiful!’

Yasenia transformed back into her human form and approached the group of dragons. The other dragons, seeing her human form, were even more stupefied.

A man cleared his throat and commented, his gaze somewhat haughty as his low-level Ancient Realm Bloodline gently poured out. “That dragon woman called you Yasenia? I am—”

Tianyi’s face turned extremely cold. “Scram! Do you think courtship is something you should be doing now!? Not to mention, Yasenia already has a family and a Soulmate!”

Yasenia chuckled faintly and hugged Tianyi’s arm, smiling sweetly at her. “Thank you, Big Sister Tianyi.”

“E-En. Don’t worry.” Tianyi’s face turned red, but she still tried to maintain an aloof expression to deter others. Thankfully, she didn’t have a dragon tail in her human form, or it would be wagging fast enough to create winds resembling a hurricane.

Aoshuang asked, curious. “Since you are here, does that mean that you beat your opponent?”

Tianyi and the other dragons also reacted. After all, Yasenia was clearly a mortal dragon. A female dragon that was somewhat jealous of Yasenia’s beauty snorted. “I didn’t expect you to be so lucky to chance upon another mortal dragon. I thought there weren’t any, but one popped out for you to win. Talk about being lucky.”

“Luck is also part of one’s strength.” After answering like that, Yasenia ignored that girl. She was extremely accustomed to receiving jealous remarks and looks. Instead, she looked at Tianyi and Aoshuang and asked. “What about the other two? Are they okay?”

Tianyi shook her head. “We don’t know.”

Aoshuang added. “This place is where the winners of the challenge gather. If they are not here, they probably failed against someone. Still, not all combats are done yet.”

Looking around, the dragoness couldn’t find any signal for Aoshuang’s words, so she asked about it. Aoshuang smiled. “Every five minutes, the voice of the Trial Master will echo, saying how many participants are left. From what I know, the Core area of the Dragon Temple is different from usual. It will be separated in Clawed Trials as well. However, these are somewhat beneficial for dragons, and you can only challenge them once.”

Yasenia paused. “You mean, one time only, counting all of us. Or do you mean one time per person?”

Aoshuang was about to speak when the man’s voice echoed.

“Reminder, fighting outside the challenges is strictly prohibited, and you will be expelled if you break the rules. There are 6 participants left. The Core area’s challenges can only be challenged once per batch. Choose wisely which challenges you fight. Challenges in the core area go from six-clawed trials to nine-clawed trials. There will be a queue of 30 minutes for nine-clawed trials, 1 hour for eight-clawed trials, 2 hours for seven-clawed trials, and 4 hours for six-clawed trials. During the queue, you can battle the person at the front for the right to take their place…”

While the voice was talking, another person appeared out of nowhere. He looked around confused, and then heard the rest of the message.

“... Each time you win a battle, you will be given 10 minutes of invulnerability to challenges. Queue timer does not take the time you spend during combat.”

Once the voice stopped talking, Yasenia understood the gist of it. Her face turned serious as she analyzed the numbers. ‘The most difficult trials won’t have many people challenge them. Therefore, it is normal for you only to have 30 minutes of waiting time. Meanwhile, the most popular trials will fall into the hands of the strong. Now, I need to be careful since I came here to challenge one of the trials. I can’t lose it while challenging other trials.’

The man who appeared spoke with a frown. “Hey, what else did that voice say? I feel that I’ve missed a big part of that speech.”

However, no one answered him. He looked at everyone’s faces of indifference, and he clicked his tongue. “Tsk, do you fear me this much? Heh, a bunch of cowards.”

A woman answered him in a cold tone. “Even a Dragon uses all its strength when hunting a snake. Why do you feel entitled for us to tell you the rules… snake?”

The man’s forehead veins bulged as he smiled in anger. “How about I beat your face into a pulp first?” He zoomed forward, readying his fist to smash that woman flying. However, the woman spat with derision. “Fool.”

A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, striking that person to the ground with terrifying power. “You’ve breached the rules. You will be expelled from the [Fleeting Cloud Dragon Temple].”

The half-burnt man then disappeared.

Yasenia couldn’t help but reevaluate her opponents. ‘It seems that they weren’t chosen at random. All the people here must have some talent. Taking advantage of the man’s lack of knowledge about fighting, this woman provoked him into action and managed to get rid of the competition without lifting a single finger. Very clever.’

The woman who made that person disappear glanced at Yasenia and smiled faintly. “You are lucky that I was stunned by your appearance. Otherwise, that would’ve been you.”

Yasenia smirked. “Pitiful attempt at provoking me, I must say. Are you a hit-or-miss person? Probably, that’s what made your face look like half a clown and half a beauty.” Yasenia sighed. “Ah, what a shame. Here, I thought I had found an interesting and intelligent person. It was just a lucky fool.”

The woman’s smile disappeared without a trace, glaring at Yasenia with cold eyes. The dragoness stepped forward, appearing right in front of her. “What’s with that disgusting look?” She smiled and gave her cheek to her, tilting her head sideways. “Wanna hit me? Go ahead? You’ve been looking extremely jealous of me since I’ve appeared. I mean, I can understand, with your mediocre face, seeing mine must provoke a deep sense of hatred, right?”

Yasenia looked down at her with mocking eyes. “A pitiful dragon that managed to break through thanks to sheer luck. Pathetic. I probably can defeat you even after cutting off my wings and tail.”

“You little…” The woman’s arm flinched, but she managed to control her emotions in time. After taking a deep breath, she glared at Yasenia. “Watch out for what trials you choose. I might take a fancy to all of them.”

Then, she turned around and stopped looking at Yasenia.

Yasenia chuckled and returned to her position. Tianyi was looking at her with shock in her eyes. “Why did you do that, Yasenia? At that distance, she could’ve struck you before the trial reacted!”

“That’s the point.” Yasenia smiled coldly. “If I am at no risk, how can I tempt her? Sadly, she didn’t fall into my trap.”

Aoshuang looked sideways and sighed. “Scary woman.”

“You tried flirting with me without knowing that? Tsk, tsk. Thankfully, I wasn’t in the mood to agree, or you would’ve become mama’s boy~.”

Aoshuang rolled his eyes and then shook his head. “I give up. Okay? Stop teasing me.”

Tianyi laughed faintly. “This is the first time I’ve seen Big Brother Aoshuang so flustered.”

“Flustered?” Yasenia blinked. “He looks annoyed more than flustered.”

Tianyi snickered, making Aoshuang glare at her.

After waiting for around three more hours, the two final fights ended with their winners, and until the end, the other two Long Family Dragons didn’t appear. Tianyi sighed with a sad expression. “They failed? I hope they are safe…”

“Don’t get distracted by them. First, we need to find our trial door.”

Tianyi nodded at their words. Soon, a pillar of light descended in the middle of their room, revealing a hidden door. The door had gorgeous images of dragons and other beasts fighting. However, in all depictions, the dragons were seen fighting alone against armies, showcasing the innate might of the Dragon species.

Yasenia and the others walked toward the door and crossed it. Once they did so, they arrived at a dimly lit stone area. The passageways were around 5 meters tall and wide. Much smaller than the ones outside this area. Yasenia guessed that this was due to dragons taking the appearance of normal humans in their transformed state. So, there was no need to make them wide.

Tianyi, Yasenia, and Aoshuang quickly rushed ahead, passing through the six, seven, and eight clawed areas. Behind them were a few dragons, clearly intending to mess with them because they found them an eyesore. Yasenia muttered. ‘There are quite a few challenges on each level. However, in total, there should be less than 400.’

Tianyi spoke. “We’ve arrived.”

Yasenia looked around.

The room was immense and beautiful, with polished stone slabs on the floor and white walls. There were three massive doors here, surpassing the size of any other door Yasenia had encountered before. On top of these three gorgeous doors, a multicolored nine-clawed dragon hand ominously hovered with a presence that made the air around it stagnate. Yasenia's face changed and became solemn, feeling an incredible sense of danger from them.

Aoshuang spoke with a sigh. “That one is ours.”

Yasenia looked over, and her face twitched. The claw on this one, other than shining with multicolored lights, was actually moving. The fingers were opening and clenching faintly, giving a sensation of overwhelming presence, as if that one claw could hold the sky itself.

Tianyi frowned and looked at Yasenia with worry. “Yasenia… If you don’t want to challenge it, don’t. It is clearly the most difficult door of this entire temple. Your chances of dying are very high.”

Yasenia smiled at Tianyi and shook her head. “I promised that old man that I would give it a try as long as I felt that I had a chance… And I do.”

While Yasenia could feel its threat, there was also a sense of anticipation deep within. Therefore, she knew that she had a chance. She sighed. ‘It would’ve been nice if Soluna was here with me.’

Wanting to escape from the other Sixth Realm cultivators, Soluna needed to be left behind to hold them back. Moreover, she didn’t know if she could’ve summoned Soluna here. She might’ve been struck by lightning for breaching some kind of hidden rule. If she had the option now, Yasenia would’ve chosen to keep Soluna hidden until the very last moment.

‘Well, now that layer of assurance is gone, but things remain unchanged. I need to beat the trial and get back safely.’

Then, Yasenia walked forward and saw a large timer floating above her.

29:59… 29:58… 29:57…

Taking out Draheart, Yasenia smiled and stuck it in the ground. “Let’s see if anyone dares to challenge me.”