Heaven, Earth, Me

After Yasenia entered again, the dragoness started thinking about how to start the cultivation session. "Hm. Let's first do one hour of body refinement, and then I'll start body cultivation. The body refinement should warm up my muscles and meridians enough to tackle the breakthrough from low to middle-level Epoch Core."

The dragoness walked toward a corner of the room, where she had set up a bathtub, not much larger than her body. After all, body refinement was not an activity that was filled with comfort. On the contrary, it was extremely painful.

Still, the dragoness methodically took out the herbs and other materials. On average, she did this every two or three days. So, as the water changed colors and absorbed all the properties, she lit up a fire below the bathtub with her [Alchemy Fire]. 

When the concoction reached a boiling point, Yasenia let her clothes drop, going completely naked, and she lifted her long and seductive leg, sinking her feet in it.

The sensation of her skin burning while needles prickled her skin, muscles, and bones was transmitted to her brain. However, the dragoness kept a neutral face, sinking her entire body into the bath.

Her feet, legs, waist, tail, stomach, back, breasts, neck, and finally, her entire head. The boiling concoction surrounded her everything, assaulting her with pain that many would consider straight-up torture. 

Even if she wasn't really getting physically hurt to a great extent, the feeling was like hundreds of people were giving her body blows with red-hot metal bars.

Still, Yasenia closed her eyes and started practicing the technique. The skill allowed her to breathe underwater, making the concoction follow her respiratory and digestive system, spreading the medicine all around together with that sensation of burning. 'This is what burning alive must feel like. No, perhaps this one is worse. After all, I also feel like thousands of needles are piercing my body inside and outside, with my muscles and bones feeling like they are about to snap and be torn into pieces.'

Yasenia would twitch from time to time, even if she could hold her position. The pain was that big. Even when she had done this thousands of times, it still made her react from the powerful pain that body refinement carried with it. 

Moreover, each of these sessions would only increase her overall strength a fraction. At first, she made big jumps in strength, especially in defensive power. Still, as she continued to do them, they became less effective, to the point that the before-and-afters were unnoticeable for Yasenia. 

Still, she did them. She gritted her teeth and allowed her body to be assaulted by the painful body refinement technique. Because she knew. The dragoness deeply understood that cultivation was all about accumulation. The small fractions accumulated across tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years would eventually pay off. As the ancients said, even mosquito legs are meat.

The torturous hour went by rather slowly, but eventually, Yasenia emerged from the water and used her fingers to clean the water off of her eyes. She opened them, revealing her deep and profound golden eyes, and without saying anything, she stepped outside. 

Looking at the now clear water of the tub, she hummed. "I absorbed everything. I need to increase the potency for next time."

Body Refinement was a gradual process, so when you got accustomed to refining your body to a certain level, if you wanted continuous improvement, there was a need to increase the level of torture as well.

Not many across the entirety of the Heavens were able to do what Yasenia was doing. Many either gave up or went crazy from the psychological damage. 

Yasenia didn't bother putting on clothes and walked toward the middle of the room. She took a deep breath, allowing energy to flow through her meridians. The liquid energy moved slower than the gas energy. However, as it flowed through her meridians, her body was nourished with seemingly infinite energy. 

Then, Yasenia slid her foot and slapped her right palm forward.

The air compressed before her palm, and then, it burst. 

BOOM!

A massive shockwave moved forward, accompanied by a violent storm of wind. Yasenia didn't stop; her face focused on the martial arts movements shown in the [Celestial Cosmos Immortal Body Technique]. 

The first week, the dragoness practiced the movements without the assistance of the new liquid energy. She just used her Body Cultivation path, gathering and using gas-state energy. However, Yasenia felt that while possible, she would take a long while to break through to the middle-level Epoch Core.

'One week has gone by.' Yasenia muttered. "Let's start for the real." Then, she took a deep breath and wore her usual revealing blue dress. As she moved, this time, her liquid energy from the Dantian flowed. 

Surprisingly, with the liquid energy coursing through her meridians, her movements felt much more solid, fluid, and smooth. Each strike linked with the next in perfect harmony, showcasing impressive synergy. 'Gaining liquid energy has not just increased my raw strength.'

The energy created by her movements flowed to her muscles, bones, and Dantian.

'I can feel everything around me better. My senses have expanded.'

Together with the sharpening of her mind, fluidity increased. 

'My limbs move exactly as I want them to. I am correcting mistakes I didn't even feel were there before.'

With increased fluidity, her blows increased in power. 

'Each strike, each step, each movement, everything links as one.'

With the increase in power, the momentum was exponential.

'I can feel that this set of movements is not a compilation of martial art movements. They are one big movement, seemingly unending and perfectly linked.'

Subconsciously, Yasenia activated [Grand Cosmos Art]. Using phantoms of enemies to practice, the dragoness unleashed the first form, then the second, the third, the fourth…

'No wonder I could fight Mom and the other seniors during my enlightenment. I was acting according to my subconscious knowledge of the [Celestial Cosmos Immortal Body Technique].'

The dragoness performed the fifth, sixth, and final seventh forms. 

'When seniors say to be like water, to be fluid with the power of a water stream, this is what they meant. You don't release different kinds of movements. Everything must be one big stream, one big river of martial movements that connect.'

Her hands, legs, and tail constantly attacked, each blow stronger than the last. Yasenia smiled. 'I see.' Then, she focused on her Dantian and rushed all her energy toward the bottleneck.

BANG!

The energy flowing through her meridians toward the middle-dantian roared powerfully. The dragoness continued, increasing her speed until only a blur could be seen. 

Then, she shouted. "BREAK!"

BANG! 

CRASH! 

BOOM!

A hit, a breakthrough, and a violent aura explosion.

One after another, everything surged inside the dragoness. Her Epoch Core absorbed the torrents of energy surging into it, swelling and transforming, making its composition sturdier, giving Yasenia's physique nourishment like never before.

Yasenia could feel a violent surge tearing into her muscles, bones, and organs while another rebuilt it. The horrendous pain almost forced Yasenia to stop her martial arts movements. Nevertheless, the dragoness persisted. She gritted her teeth and roared. "BREAK! THROUGH!"

Her leg propelled her skyward, hitting the ceiling several kilometers away in less than a second. Then she pushed against the ceiling, falling down like a meteor and impacting the ground with her fist first. 

BOOM!

At the same time as her punch hit the ground, gargantuan energy waves exploded outward, mixing with the blow and transforming into a shockwave that slammed against the cultivation cave's walls with violence.

Yasenia stood on her knees, her fist sinking a few centimeters into the floor. That feat in itself was ridiculous since the cave she was in was supposedly strong enough even to bear a half-step Dantian Spiritualization Realm's full-blow strikes. 

Yasenia's strike damaged it, meaning that the reinforced floor couldn't bear her strength, even if it was for a second. 

The dragoness lifted her fist while breathing heavily and looked at her immaculate hand. There were no scratches or even marks. She only had a light reddish tint on her knuckles. "Huh? Did I really do that?"

Yasenia was somewhat baffled. However, she quickly shook her head. "Did I break through?"

She quickly sank her spiritual sense into her body and gazed at the Epoch Core. She was stunned to find that it had not only increased in size but also grown a few more meridian connections around itself and her body. Those connections seamlessly interacted with the other meridians and spread throughout all her bones, muscles, tendons, and organs. "Oh? Is this what the maids said about the Epoch Core integrating with myself? I see."

Yasenia stretched and moved around a bit. "Hmm… Let's test my speed. Before, I needed this much impulse to reach the other side. What if I use the same now?"

Yasenia looked at the distant wall and pushed with the same proportional strength she had before.

Her body vanished from her standing point, followed by a loud explosion.

BANG!

The dragoness bounced off the wall and rolled around, clutching her face and breasts. "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

Soluna's laughter reached Yasenia. 'What did you expect? Hahahahaha.' 

Yasenia grumbled. 'I thought I would be able to slow down enough if I was too fast. Who knew that I would cross more than two kilometers just like that!? It felt as if I took a single step!"

Soluna mercilessly laughed. 'Hahahaha. I am going to tell your wives later, hahahaah.'

The dragoness stopped on her back and opened her arms, looking at the ceiling resignedly. "Sure. Go ahead, sigh." Then, she spoke. "Anyway, time to go out and deal with whatever it is I need to deal with!"

She walked outside, and like the previous time, the maids arrived and kneeled. "Congratulations, Young Miss."

Yasenia raised her eyebrow. "Oh? But I didn't use my aura this time. How did you know?"

Alaia smiled. "Everyone heard the large explosive sound coming from your cultivation cave, Young Miss. It happened in the middle of the night, so you startled everyone awake."

The dragoness coughed. "Everyone? Even the children?"

Selena smirked. "Don't worry, Young Miss. Their sound canceling formations prevented such a scene from happening." 

Yasenia sighed. "That's good."

"How is that good? I jumped so high that I hit the ceiling!"

Yasenia smiled widely and looked sideways, seeing Evelyn wearing a beautiful purple kimono with blue flowers. The dress increased her mature aura, and because her hair was gathered in a gorgeous bun with accessories, it gave her a completely different feeling than the usual mischievous girl.

The dragoness was not shy with her praise. Her tail wagged as she approached with sparkling eyes. "Wow! You look so pretty, Dear. Like a beautiful petunia that has been recently watered." 

Evelyn blinked and coughed. "Praising me won't make me forgive you!"

Yasenia leaned forward and pecked her lips, putting on a cute and smiling expression. "How about this?"

Evelyn stuttered. "T-That's not fair! I finally had an excuse to act angry. I don't want to lose it like this!"

Yasenia blinked twice adorably and rubbed her cheek with Evelyn's while purring. "Are you sure you want to be angry~?"

The maids sighed. 'This time, it is Madam Evelyn's loss.'

And that it was, as Evelyn's determination to be angry at Yasenia crumbled like a stack of cards. "I don't…" Evelyn sighed and hugged Yasenia tightly. "Welcome back. I missed you."

Yasenia smiled softly and hugged her back. "I missed all of you too~. I love you."

Evelyn looked upward with a gentle smile. "I love you too, Yasenia."