"W-WE SURRENDER! STOP!! YOU CAN STOP!!!" A strained scream shook the world with heart-quivering terror, almost nearing a shrieking shrill. It belonged to a middle-aged woman, her left arm was missing from her tattered sleeves, her forehead was covered in an icky-green blood that emanated refined wood energies, and those dark-green eyes of her were bloodshot.
She levitated in the sky of the planet called Autumn, a small-sized planet. Its atmospheric layers reflected a dark, rich orange light. This planet was at the edge of the Endless Prosperity Domain, a location ruled by the Golden Life Pavilion, yet was open territory to all those forces that were unable to establish roots within the numerous World Realms within.
The middle-aged woman ruled this planet, her cultivation at the Ninth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, Star Core Phase, a long lineage of outstanding experts who specialize in Wood-Attributed Cultivation Methods. At the moment, she faced her greatest nightmare.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-oOoOrrRrRRrrnNK!!!
BA-REEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUURRRRNN!!!
Rheeeeeeeeeeegha-ohwoooooo!!!
Within her dark-green eyes was the reflection of beasts, an array of unfettered, bestially violent, and scaled creatures that ravaged the planet and her soldiers. The screams of her men resounded without end, losing their lives by the ferocious jaws of these beasts or their claws drenched in blood. Her heart was in total disarray.
Yet her focus was on a single figure standing upon a gigantic azure-scaled creature that sundered the clouds, quaked the earth, and thundered the air with its every breath. A large portion of its enormous body was outside of atmospheric layers of the planet. Yet its head was firmly nestled on the ground, as if a firm mountain.
Despite being so far from this creature, the middle-aged woman could see the figure on its head with astonishing clarity. She could see their hazel-colored eyes with navy blue flecks that emanated a bestial pressure, apex among predators.
"Surrender?" The figure spoke with ridicule. If Wei Wuyin was here, he would easily realize that this gorgeously domineering figure that stood upright and stable upon the head of the azure-scaled Horned Firmament Dragon was none other than Xue Yifei, his concubine!
She was adorned in her signature five-clawed dragon embroidered cheongsam, form-fitting, short-sleeved, and wearing a pair of black shorts that touched her knees. Her slender arms wore a pair of fingerless evening gloves with the design of dragon scales that faintly glowed with violet light.
"Dragonborn Saintess! Don't push me too far!!" The middle-aged woman grew enraged at the utter dismissal within that voice. Yet facing the sight of winged beasts flooding the skies caused her expression to worsen and her own voice seemed lacking in strength.
Xue Yifei's eyes were calm, but a cold light flickered without end. "Push you too far? Did you think it was too far when you fed on my dragons? When you enslaved the family of these beasts?" Her words roiled the world, her aura seething as the clouds twisted and faint draconic roars erupted. The beasts of the dragon lineage then resonated with it, releasing their roars of rage that shook the entire planet.
The middle-aged woman paled, her complexion exceeding even ghosts.
Anu beneath Xue Yifei snarled, his draconic pressure inundated the entire world in its might. Those beasts felt their bloodline energies rile uncontrollably, especially those of the dragon lineage. They acted even more ferociously, ripping against the defending experts with greater violence. Blood and pain splattered the entire planet.
In the distance was a flickering black lightning, a fierce neigh of a pegasus resounded as it impacted a Gravity Emission Phase expert. An explosive boom resounded. A life had come to an end. From the resulting dust cloud, a winged figure with black strips like lightning flew out.
"You!" The middle-aged woman was enraged, but felt utterly helpless. While Xue Yifei's cultivation was inferior to her, she had that terrifying azure-scaled dragon protecting her. She cursed, "You bitch! You'll regret this! I PROMISE YOU THAT!" She roared, converging her remaining strength and shot into the sky, breaching past the atmospheric limits and escaping into the Dark Void.
The middle-aged woman engulfed herself in spatial force, about to zip away in the speediest of means she could.
Xue Yifei watched her flee with her tail between her legs, leaving her millions of subordinates to fight another day. However, was Xue Yifei such a kind soul to leave behind a seed of disaster? While Xue Yifei wasn't much of a cultivator before she met Wei Wuyin, she was well aware of the struggles of war being a princess of the continuously conflict-ridden Bloodforge Continent, including the consequences of leaving behind troublesome variables.
Yuan Longshi was a complete menace to those who underestimated him, allowing him to escape again and again. She didn't even need to speak before Anu acted, clearly as merciless as she was. He lifted his titanic head, opening his bloody maw, and a scintillating light of silver started to build-up at the base of his throat.
The middle-aged woman was about to unleash her spatial force infused movement art, but her spatial energies within her body started to destabilize, cancelling her movement with an abrupt boom. Her eyes widened in shock. But before she could react, she felt herself be engulfed by a ray of piercing silver light.
When the light that pierced hundreds of miles into the Dark Void vanished, a terrifying beam of compressed spatial energies, the body of the middle-aged woman had vanished without a trace. No, there was some trace. Her clothes and bits of congealed blood remained.
Xue Yifei stared at the gaping hole in the sky of Autumn. The cold light in her eyes intensified for a long moment before it dimmed, becoming calm and relaxed. She swept her eyes over the beast-on-human fights, and the absolute slaughter that was occurring. Those who tried to flee would find their escape route impeded by black lightning or a flurry of winged dragons.
Almost at all times, winged dragons and beasts of various varieties were returning to Autumn from the Dark Void after successfully chasing their targets and returning. While temporarily outrunning a slow Star Beast was possible, their stamina was far too high, and their speed was too consistent. These beasts didn't suffer any impediments from the Dark Void's hostile environment with their natural protections, while all except Mystic Ascendants must rely on their Worldly Domain. A huge consumption of their energies was required to maintain it.
Anu let loose a low growl, resting its head once more against the ground. "These people never learn," he remarked. Since they've gained their autonomy, Xue Yifei had decided to lead the various beasts, be it dragons, birds, or canines to establish themselves in comfortable environments in suitable planets. While some beasts were primal and basic, most at the Star-level were rather intelligent. Even Xiao Bai was intelligent despite being a newborn colt.
However, beasts of such a high level was mostly a novelty, and some even considered them enriched food or targets to be enslaved and trained as pets, guardians, and the such. Despite only a few years having passed since, these events were occurring continuously.
And such, Xue Yifei decided to act.
"You should've acted like him sooner," Anu remarked with a little frustration. Xue Yifei's attitude towards these things was that it should be handled through negotiations, hopefully peacefully. Yet these forces merely agreed on the surface and acted wildly behind her back.
She nor Anu minded the occasional deaths amongst those settled beasts, as that was life. Beasts could refine humans and humans could refine beasts, it was just a matter of cultivation and life. It was difficult to regulate if she wanted to have them settle themselves properly, forming a cohabitation relationship.
Yet these forces enslaved them, the powerful experts killed them all, or reared them to be slaughtered and act as food. It was disgusting. She would return to a planet where only beasts in chains or sealed by spells were the norm, causing her to become enraged.
"I hope his plan works," Xue Yifei said as she didn't give out any orders to stop the carnage, wanting to drench this entire planet in blood. Xue Yifei's words referred to Wei Wuyin's actions in the Myriad Monarch Sect. He had decisively killed one entire group without mercy, setting them as an example for those who took him too lightly or didn't understand his means.
While her actions were more direct, terrifyingly brutal, acts like this were quite common in the cultivation world. She was just lucky that the Endless Prosperity Domain only regulated conflict inside the World Realms, including Ascended level fights, so she had such freedoms to do this.
"If this doesn't, so what? We'll teach them all a lesson! Let them understand our might! ROAR!" Anu had no issue killing humans, especially those of the dragon lineage that suffered for thousands of years. This action was cathartic to them.
Xue Yufei nodded. Besides the beasts from the Everlore Starfield, all other beasts in the Aeternal Sky Starfield were subject to being reared as food or enslaved by the Liu Clan and other lesser forces, their relative power and speaking rights was none. To live in captivity, unable to enjoy life before your death, just so your carcass can be cooked and given to others was a horrendous fate that no species should suffer.
She had to fight for those things, for these beasts' right to live and thrive, to grow and have the right to happiness. She must develop these beasts into a genuine force that commanded respect, and if not that, then demanded to be feared.
She hoped that beasts and humans would be able to live as one without a lopsided dynamic and views. That being said, she would eventually have to cut off the source of such ideas to truly push forward change and set an eternal example throughout the stellar region.
Her eyes flitted with a fierce light, those dark pupils of hers faintly transitioning to that of a dragon's. The Dark Void's gorgeous scenery was taken in by her gaze, and she knew her objective: "Liu Clan…"