Heaven, Earth, Me

Yasenia's group continued their search, and soon, they visited all planets before Distancia without any success. Yasenia crossed her arms, thoughtful, and saw Distancia passing by. 

She had ordered the maids to travel near Distancia for a few moments, even if she didn't want to go and appear on the planet. Kali hugged Yasenia's arm and smiled while looking at the gigantic planet. "What are you thinking, Yasenia?"

Yasenia answered softly. "Well, I am thinking about what our babies are doing, what my darlings are doing if there have been any complications because of my absence…" 

Kali raised her eyebrow and looked toward Alaia. "Can we take a look? This ship should have a way to zoom into the world's surface, right?" 

Yasenia answered instead. "It does."

"Oh?" Kali looked at Yasenia, surprised. "Then, why aren't you doing it?"

Yasenia placed her hands behind her, caressing the base of the tail as she spoke measuredly. "Well, I want to show trust in my lovers. They have a communication device, right? So, if they were in trouble, I want to believe that they would contact me, regardless of my situation."

Kali realized and smiled. "Do you want to trust them and not look? Do you think that checking on them means a lack of trust in their abilities?"

Yasenia shook her head. "No, that's silly. How could making sure that they are okay be a sign of distrust? If that were so, I'd rather become the most distrustful lover in the world." 

Kali blinked and burst into laughter. "You are adorable, love. I love you."

The dragoness blinked twice, not knowing where those words came from, but she was happy regardless and used her tail to entangle Kali's four tails and play a bit. 

"Either way. My reason for not looking is the opposite. I think that if I look, I won't be able to hold myself from going down and meet all of them. After all, I miss them dearly." 

The dragoness sighed, looking at the green and blue pearl that shone in front of her. Having studied the geography of the World, she could effortlessly locate the area where the Astral Sky Sect was located. 

Doriel asked. "Young Miss, thanks to Soluna's purification, you have a lot more time. Do you want to go down and relax for a month before you leave again?"

Yasenia shook her head. "It is easier to accept a long parting than constant goodbyes. Coming back home now will make all my babies excited and hopeful, but if I say that I'll leave in a month, they will spend the entire month trying to be with me as much as they can. When I leave, it will hurt them." 

The dragoness sighed with half a smile. After Yasenia gave one last look to Distancia, she smiled softly and commanded the maids to leave for the outer worlds in this solar system. "We need to depart."

The skeletal warship turned around and then soared into the void while aiming for the next world orbiting this sun. The journey was not a problem at all, even when there were dangers. 

Alaia looked at their spatial map and spotted a strong energy signal nearby. She stretched her fingers and touched the illusory three-dimensional star map, zooming in on the place where the strong signal was detected. 'This is from a Sixth Realm being. Did I find you, Ayanduin?'

However, once the lightning-attributed dragon woman zoomed in on the location, she realized that it was a herd of Star Beasts. Clicking her tongue, she quickly used the formations to calculate the route and average detection range of a Star Beast of that level. 'At this pace, we will enter its detection range in thirty seconds. She quickly ordered. "Activate stealth. There is a Mythical Core Realm Star Beast in the distance." 

"Understood."

The maids in charge of manipulating the core formation that Tatyana was in charge of in the past moved with ease and familiarity. In less than a second, an energy pulse ran through the warship while runes lit up on the vessel's hull. 

Kali asked. "Are Mythical Core Realm Star Beasts common?"

Flora answered. "Depends on what part of the universe you are in. Imagine that each star is a group of trees, and these beasts are beasts that live in the area. Naturally, their strength will depend on the environment." Flora looked toward the Sun while protecting her eyes and said. "This Solar System's star is quite strong and nourishing. Therefore, I would expect the average Star Beast to be Level 10 Legendary Core Realm to Level 2 Mythical Core Beast Realm." 

Yasenia hummed. "That's interesting. I wonder how the defenseless worlds are still whole. Don't Star Beasts like to attack worlds?" 

Flora shook her head. "While some aggressive ones do attack worlds, not all of them are aggressive towards them. They are good sources of nourishment, but Star Beasts are not stupid and know that retaliation is very possible. So, only if they have no other choice do they usually attack Worlds." Flora smiled. "Furthermore, a World without energy is just a floating big rock. The nourishment value is too small."

While speaking about those things, they crossed the powerful Star Beast's detection range without any hiccups and arrived at the first world. Yasenia looked at the gigantic mass of gas and asked. "Um… do gaseous planets have life in them? I don't remember reading anything about it."

Valeria spoke. "Some do. Creatures that live on those kinds of planets are usually not intelligent beings because of the lack of… triggers to develop intelligence. Intelligent species, most of the time, start as ignorant and evolve over millions of years, gaining intelligence at a slow rate, and eventually become what we classify as sapient beings." 

Valeria pointed at the massive ball of gas and laughed. "There, the only thing a creature can learn while evolving is to survive." 

Kali asked. "What about the planet's core? Can't a being develop and live there?"

Valeria shrugged. "Perhaps, perhaps not. I have personally not seen any civilization successfully choose that kind of place to settle permanently. The environment is too harsh. Terrible gravity, temperature, pressure, winds, lack of essential gasses, and if you want to leave the planet, you need to cross several layers of cloud formations." 

Kali was confused. "People have lived on the surface of stars but not gaseous giant worlds?"

Valeria laughed. "It's different, Kali. A star is a source of pure Yang energy that can be constantly harvested to support formations and all kinds of wonders. A gaseous planet, on the other hand… It is not that easy to exploit as a resource." 

Yasenia asked. "Should we check if it has a Heaven at least? If it doesn't, we should move on to the next one… Although, wouldn't Gale Soul Natural Treasures be born there in large batches? Wind elementals, Water elementals, and other kinds of elementals should love such an extreme environment, no?"

Valeria nodded. "You are right. But Spirit Civilizations are a new concept for me, so I can't really tell you what those spirits would do based on my experience." 

The warship approached the gaseous giant, but even after crossing the atmosphere for a few seconds, there was no trace of Heaven. Therefore, Yasenia shook her head and spoke. "Let's leave. If there is no Heaven, I doubt there is enough energy for a Natural Treasure to form. Are there any signals, Alaia?" 

Alaia looked around with the map and shook her head. "There are no large energy signals. Sadly, it is a sterile world, Young Miss." 

The dragoness looked around for a few more seconds, observing the violent winds that made pressurized metal rain almost horizontally. 'We can skip this planet. Searching this place will give us nothing at all. If we don't find anything in the rest, we should come here to inspect in detail, though.' 

"Depart!"

"Yes, Young Miss."

The warship accelerated and left after a few seconds, driving into the vastness of space once more.

The journey continued to be a very relaxing one, and even before the day ended, the girls arrived at the next World. Yasenia sighed, looking at the illusory map that Alaia was using. 'Only two more worlds to inspect… Where are you, Ayanduin?'

Alaia reported. "Young Miss, we have arrived!"

Yasenia looked over the railing and raised both her eyebrows. This rocky world was large! Larger than Distancia. However, when the warship approached the enormous reddish, greenish, and blue world, Yasneia's excitement died together with the lack of a Heavenly Layer. She sighed. "Another dead world." 

Alaia informed. "Wait, Young Miss. You are incorrect. Look at the energy signals."

The dragoness approached and looked, being surprised once more. "The World is creating energy? How? It doesn't have a Heaven. Moreover… are those small energy signals people?" 

Alaia nodded. "Yes, Young Miss. This World is not a sterile world. It has life. Moreover, it is not mortal life; there are cultivators, and the estimated population ranges between 100 billion and 500 billion."

Kali chuckled. "So vague. Why is that?"

Alaia sighed. "While there are cultivators, the number of mortals is staggering. Detecting mortals is very difficult. Even the approximation I just did is quite unreliable."

The dragoness shrugged. "It is good enough to tell us that many people inhabit this world… Also, what's wrong with this planet? Why doesn't it have a Heaven?"

Alaia answered with interest in her voice. "It is a rare situation once more, Young Miss. To think that this Solar System not only has a Spirit World and a Body Cultivation World but also a Fallen World. Something big must've happened in the past."

The dragoness remembered about Fallen Worlds and muttered. "A world that had a Heaven but for some reason, that Heaven perished, leaving a dying world behind."

Valeria corrected. "Dying world is a strong term. It is more like a world that has its Dantian punctured. It is losing energy faster than it can create it, making its overall cultivation level plummet with time. Overall, the population of a Fallen World will slowly decline without the support of energy, making it a lawless and very dangerous place with tons of demonic cultivation techniques."

Valeria looked at Yasenia and said, "If the cultivators go crazy, mortals will suffer. Eventually, the population will disappear and go extinct, and only then will the world be considered dead."

Kali asked, intrigued. "Do you think we will be able to find demonic Body Cultivation techniques?"

Valeria paused and smiled. "Perhaps. If we do, that would be incredible. Demonic Body Cultivation Techniques are even rarer than Orthodox Body Cultivation Techniques. Finding them would be a fortune."

The dragoness asked, surprised. "Do you not despise Demonic Techniques? They are all quite gruesome to practice and genuinely evil, no?" 

Valeria nodded. "They are. However, I've never judged them. Creatures choose how they want to live, and what other creatures need to do is decide whether they accept or not." Valeria smiled. "If a creature's way of life is not accepted, they will be eventually eliminated. If it is, then they will be accepted." 

Yasenia laughed. "That's a very… objective? Way of seeing the world. I thought you'd be more compassionate."

Valeria laughed softly. "I am the personification of Nature and Life. Nature and life are neutral to all; there are no favorites, only survivors."