Chapter 967. Tatyana's Softening Heart. Space Talk!

Tatyana walked out of the room and continued toward the outside. Once outside the house, she used her movement technique and quickly reappeared on a mountain peak several dozen of kilometers away. 

After moving there, she sighed and sat on the mountain's peak, looking at the scenery before her. She had seen this type of scenery so many times in her life, and yet, it still had a magical feeling of relaxation.

"Mountains and Rivers interlock while the clouds and wind dance… Earth goes beyond the gaze…" Tatyana's serene red eyes locked on the horizon. She muttered. "Fast… Everything is moving…" Tatyana sighed. "... Too fast."

"Is that a problem?"

The Death Empress didn't even turn around to find out whose voice it was. "Mirrory, Valeria, what are you two doing here?"

Mirrory crossed her arms and floated to her side. "Seeing you leave so suddenly, I first thought you noticed some problems, so I followed." Mirrory smirked. "Turns out, the little girl was having a mood swing situation. Do you want to cry to Mommy Mirrory?"

Tatyana looked at her with a smiling expression, confusing Mirrory. "Um. What's wrong?"

Tatyana laughed. "You really adopted that name, Mirrory?"

Mirrory snorted. "What's wrong with that? It might not be the best name, but it is an honest name. While at first, Angel didn't really have a sense of what I was, and she even called me Mirror… Mirrory is a way for Angel to connect with me. Why not accept it for all of that instead of the sound that it makes when it leaves my mind?"

Valeria at the side chuckled. "You said you wouldn't know if you are compatible with Little Angel at first, acting grumpy and cold like a resentful old creature who had been awakened from their comfortable slumber since the Heavenly Cataclysm." 

Tatyana laughed, and Mirrory asked. "So, what's wrong?" 

Tatyana sighed. "Nothing much. Feeling that things are happening too quickly." Tatyana pointed up and said. "Yasenia wants to go outside. She is stuck in her comprehension of the Celestial Intent and Energy. Therefore, she wants to try to explore how the cosmos feels on her body."

Valeria asked. "What's wrong with that?"

Tatyana looked at Valeria and spoke. "She is not even 100 years old. She is too young to go outside."

Mirrory spoke, curious. "This is not like you, right? You've always allowed her to take risks, even if you had safety nets behind her." 

Tatyana answered. "It's out of space, Mirrory. What if, I don't know, a Star Beast appears and swallows her?" 

Mirrory asked. "What if that happens?"

Tatyana looked at Mirrory, and Mirrory leaned forward, asking with a serious face. "What if that happens?"

Tatyana sighed. "I know that it is… normal for accidents to happen. But having the strength to prevent it…" 

Mirrory sighed. "Tatyana, did something happen? I don't need to tell you that keeping things inside will just feed those nasty Heart Demons you have, or do I?"

Valeria sat by Tatyana's side with a smile. "Was it… Estrella? Did she say something?"

The Death Empress looked at Valeria with both eyebrows raised. "How are you so sharp in this situation, but usually, you are so slow?"

Valeria blinked twice, not understanding, and Tatyana sighed. "Yes. That's the problem. After the maid training attack, Estrella said the exact same things Yasenia said when she was little. I am afraid that Estrella's path will become similar to Yasenia's because Estrella doesn't have the talent to overcome what Yasenia has gone through."

Tatyana chuckled. "Estrella is talented. I can feel it. Even while being attributeless, with Body Cultivation, Soul Cultivation, and Beast cultivation, she will have no problem facing everything… But she is not Yasenia."

Mirrory interrupted her. "The real problem is that this would be the first time that Yasenia is in an area that you have no control over. None. Zero. You can try and use your Fate Attribute, but overuse it, and you know the consequences." 

Valeria complemented that sentence. "Moreover, because of your maternal senses and heart demons, your mind is clouded, and you can't make completely accurate predictions or, in the worst case, save her." 

Tatyana snorted. "Can you both stop treating me like a young girl?"

Valeria looked at Tatyana and smiled. "As if 425,000 years of age is old."

Tatyana's face dropped. "D-Did you just reveal my age!?"

Valeria was confused. "All three of us knew it."

Tatyana groaned. "But they don't."

Mirrory asked, her face similarly baffled. "Are you talking about your Heart Demons?"

Tatyana snorted. "Anyway, leaving that aside," Tatyana admitted. "Yes. I am reluctant."

Mirrory smirked. "Who would've thought?"

"What?" Tatyana asked, annoyed. 

Mirrory chuckled. "Although I know that you probably would've let her go, knowing that you are struggling this much is quite fun. You really got your loving heart back with Yasenia's birth, didn't you?"

The Death Empress looked at the horizon and smiled. "I can't deny it. My Little Treasure took around half a century to make me feel real love for someone again…" 

Valeria added. "That's why the thought of her death is so bad that it is hindering you from making the most obvious choice." 

Tatyana shrugged. "It is. What can I do? I don't want Yasenia to take unnecessary risks. The reason she is so rushed is because she wants to help me back in the Sky Continent. She wants to lend me a hand at fighting off the demons back in the Sky Continent." 

Mirrory laughed. "That's quite fun. After all, the conflict will happen in what, three more centuries? Four at the latest." 

Tatyana shrugged. "Somewhere around those dates."

Mirrory smirked. "So, our Young Dragon wants to grow into a Star Core Realm Beast like your mount, who has taken who knows how many years, using 400 years?"

Valeria chuckled. "That's cute. Taking into account her current cultivation speed, she is already having trouble proportionally absorbing as much energy as the rest of her girls." The Nature Queen sighed. "Her body craves for rich energy. Yasenia's body constantly absorbs the energy around her; she is like a whirlwind of energy." 

Valeria sighed. "The reason Yasenia is not advancing as quickly as the rest is not that she needs to absorb more, although it has a big influence, but that what she absorbs is higher-quality energy."

Tatyana hummed. "I know. The reason for these impulses. The reason that Yasenia has no real attachment to Distancia is because she wants more. She is my greedy little daughter. I've even used a few Purple Crystals from the Sky Continent in her formation. Sadly, the base material I have to work with is just… useless. If Yasenia would want to enter the half-step… No, even the Seventh Level of the Dantian Spiritualization Realm, she would probably be unable to without some radical Formation Building."

Mirrory asked. "So. What's your decision?"

"So hasty?"

The ancient Mirror smiled. "Why not? Do you want to think about another excuse not to tell Yasenia?"

Tatyana clicked her tongue and stood up. "I was going to tell her either way. Can't you like wait a year or something?"

Valeria asked. "How is Estrella doing, by the way?" 

Tatyana smirked. "She is shook! Very much so. That's good; it means that she understands the situation well. We need to push her forward instead of protecting her too much. Frightening them is more of a foundation for the real lessons about discipline and decision making."

The two seniors didn't say anything, and Tatyana spoke to the air. "Communicate with the madams and tell them to go to the living room. It's time for a little lesson about the Universe."

"Yes, Lady Death Empress."

Valeria looked over and hummed. "Was this assassin team really necessary?"

Tatyana shrugged. "Perhaps it was. Perhaps it was not. I just raised them to protect my bloodline. If they can do that over a few generations, that would be perfect. If they can do it for just this generation, that would also be good."

Tatyana arrived at the living room and smiled at the gathered family. "How is everyone doing?"

The dragoness leaned on the armchair with Estrella on her lap and smiled back. "We are all perfectly fine. How are you doing?" 

Tatyana answered. "Young, beautiful, and looking like your younger sister. So, I think I am quite good.

The dragoness and Estrella synchronized during the following eye-roll, making everyone in the room laugh. Tatyana started quite directly. "Outer Space is one of, if not the most dangerous place that you can be in. Practically infinite stretches of pure void where you can't see an end. You can't see the beginning either. Up, Down, Left, Right… Everything stops making sense."

Skye giggled. "That sounds fun."

Tatyana looked at her and lifted her eyebrow. "Is my cute little Skye making fun of me? Oho~." 

Skye shook her head, sticking out her budding chest. "I would never mock Mama Tatyana!"

The Death Empress laughed and looked back at Yasenia. "Yasenia. If you want to go out, we can. There are usually dead worlds that have been transformed to become enormous and interconnected spatial hubs. Those connected planets, star systems, and many other things communicate with them, and if you have strong enough people to represent your own planet, becoming part of them is not that hard."

Tatyana hummed. "In short, they are meeting points where the top powers or the top power of those areas create to control their domains and maintain a relatively safe environment. 

Yasenia hummed. "So… Our first step is one of those?"

Tatyana shook her head. "No. In case you go outside, we will probably go together with the [Profound Skeletal World Jumping Warship]. 

Yasenia asked. "What about [Star Beasts]? What are those?"

Tatyana laughed a bit. "Well, [Star Beasts] don't all have [Star Core Beast Realm] strength. Not even close. [Star Beast] is the term for intergalactic creatures that live in space. It is true that Space is mostly empty, but there is much more life in that darkness than someone can imagine."

Tatyana commented. "Regardless, a [Star Beast] is a normal beast who has adapted to the hostile spatial environment and can live without problems. Challenging one in the same realm is, most of the time, very stupid. Not even strong beasts can win the battle against [Star Beasts]. In Space, they are just the things that you need to avoid."

Angel asked. "What about formations? Do they work? You told us in the past that energy doesn't really accumulate outside the world, right?" 

Tatyana smiled. "Yes, outer space is hostile to cultivators due to that lack of energy. Still, we can absorb natural energy using other methods that I will slowly teach you once we are there."

To finish the conversation, Tatyana commented. "Finally. Remember that in space, we are all something akin to prey. All elements are much more messed up and difficult to control, and then we have the biggest problem. Energy regeneration is almost null. Oh, and don't worry about decompression. The natural forces are too weak to affect any of you… In a normal situation."

Kali blinked. "So… We can't visit space, right?"

Tatyana laughed. "What are we, Kali? We are cultivators. Do you think a thing as simple as the absence of concepts is strong enough to stop all of us?"