Chapter 773. Reasons

Meanwhile, on a deep chasm, about 500 kilometers away from the coast, there was a merman and a demon facing each other. The merman spoke coldly. "We've already done what we could. Now we just need to wait for the results. Is there anything else that you want?"

The green-skinned demon laughed, her twelve wings neatly folded behind her back. "Nothing more. I'll take my leave." She approached the five-meter-tall merman, grabbing his chin with a smirk. "It's a shame you rejected me, though. I think we could've had a great time together." 

The demon woman was four meters tall, about a fifth smaller than the merman. 

The merman didn't react, looking at her coldly. The demon woman grinned and then licked his cheek, quickly flashing backward when the merman punched at her gut. 

Seeing his wrathful face, the demon woman laughed loudly and used her wind element to move away rapidly. "Bye-bye, handsome~. You are delicious~." 

The merman, with a disgusted face, used his hand to clean his cheek from the sticky saliva. 

A star-fish man at his side asked. "What do we do now, Sect Leader?"

A mermaid in the group also spoke with a frown. "Right, are you sure about this? Those demons didn't look trustworthy."

The merman looked at her. "And what was I supposed to do? The demons currently have the support of the Ocean Chasm Empire. Not to mention, they are hopelessly strong. That green demoness has the strength of a mid-level Epoch Core, yet she could easily dodge my full-blow punch after she disgustingly licked my face. If we had denied their request, we would probably already be dead."

The mermaid grimaced and then spoke. "What if the Astral Sky Clan comes here? I've heard that the Astral Sky Sect has uprooted many powers inland. Moreover, what about the Mermaid Race? We are not too far away from their territory. With the summit coming, if we make trouble, we'll get on the bad side of the Mermaid Queen."

The merman sneered. "While I admit the Astral Sky Clan are powerful and influential inland, here is the sea. Fighting underwater is a very different thing. So, while they are powerful, they have to lower their heads when they are in our territory. Moreover, we are a first-rate sect. Even if they miraculously come, our defenses are not easy to breach."

The merman then added. "We are now allied with the Ocean Chasm Empire and deeply connected. If the Mermaid Race wants to move, they will have to consider many things before they do so. The current political situation is extremely messy, so the mermaids won't go out of their way and spend effort on us when the outer world beings are causing trouble all around the world. At most, they will send a unit to attack us and make us suffer for a bit. Still, we are far from being eliminated. " 

The merman sat on his coral seat and sighed. "Worst case scenario, we reduce our activities for half a century and gather our strength again. I honestly can't predict how the situation will unfold now that otherworldly beings are interfering." 

The mermaid was still unconvinced. "Should we at least enter the high alert mode? We can activate the stealth and defensive formations to their maximum. It will consume a few Flawless Parus, but it should be worth activating until the Summit."

A crab woman at the side protested. "That's a waste of our fortune! While the fully activated formation is certainly strong, it is not worth activating it unless we are in a life-and-death situation. According to what we've heard, the Astral Sky Clan only has 400 people, with only 100 of those being Epoch Cores and even fewer being high-level Epoch Cores. Even if the infamous Peak-Level Dragon Woman comes, a single person is not enough to breach our defenses. No matter how strong, she will get tired and eventually defeated by us."

The mermaid sneered. "Right, because she got very tired while fighting 20,000 Epoch Core cultivators at that war."

The crab woman rolled her eyes. "A defensive battle and an open war is very different. We are in our home advantage, underwater, and our sect is inside a reinforced cliff with formations surrounding all entrances possible. Even if someone wants to enter our sect by force, we reside in a natural fortress, which is why our sect has been so successful, even when we focus on assassinations. All powers that managed to find us and attacked us failed to eliminate us."

The mermaid squinted. "What if the Mermaid Queen decides to step forward with an army personally? I've heard that the dragon and her have had many dealings lately." 

The Sect Leader commented. "How would they find us, either way? It's not like our enemies will go and communicate any information to them before the summit. There are less than four days remaining until the summit starts. Nobody has time to meddle in small skirmishes. On the contrary, hoping for those powers to weaken, people will open one eye and close the other. Some might even throw blood into the shark tank to muddy the waters even more. But that's all." 

The mermaid frowned, still unconvinced. The crab woman shook her head and said to her. "The people we sent are trained assassins. They are the pavilion masters of our five most successful assassin groups. Capturing them is completely out of the question, as they know thousands of ways to return to the sect without being followed. But, even if, by some miracle, they are captured, they won't be able to squeeze any information out of them. They might take a week, even if somehow they can do so."

The merman Sect Leader nodded. "That's right. Even if they are captured, which I doubt, they won't speak. They are heavily trained to resist all kinds of torture. That's another reason why I accepted their proposal so easily. Adding to that, those mercenaries have a reputation for not saying anything as well. In short, we are relatively safe."

BOOM! 

Without any previous sign whatsoever, the entire cliff where the sect was built suddenly trembled as if an underwater earthquake had hit them. 

They all stood up at once, their faces solemn. 

Then, a mellow and seductive voice echoed around. "I'll give the Sect Leader 1 minute to come outside before I'll make them."

The people in the main room stiffened, looking at the Sect Leader, who was now looking outside with a crumpled expression.

The mermaid laughed in mockery as she looked at the crab woman and clapped. "You were right. How could they do it in one week? They just needed a few hours to extract information and find this place." 

However, while the mermaid was mocking the crab woman, who had an expression as if she had just swallowed a bug, the rest of the executives of the sect panicked and began looking at the Sect Leader. 

"Sect Leader, what do we do!? Didn't you say that there would be no problems!?"

"Sect Leader, if we talk with them and tell them our situation, they might understand! Please listen to their demands and go out."

"That's right, sect Leader, you should go outside and apologize to them. We might-."

"SILENCE!"

The merman's enraged voice echoed in their room, and his aura made the water around them tremble as if pressure as heavy as a mountain fell on all of them. "Is this how the elders from an assassin sect act!? What a disappointment! Is an otherworldly power that scary!? They are nothing but a new power that just arrived not long ago! At most, we defend ourselves until they give up! Otherworlder or not, they are all in the cultivation same realm as us!" 

Everyone shut up, lowering their heads. 

Then, he spoke with a murderous tone. "Call all elders of the peak-level Ethereal Soul realm and above. Even if they are strong, are we so cowardly that we won't even dare face them!? We are going to do what we do best. KILL!"

One of the elders, who was old and therefore fearful of death, felt the aura leaking from the beings outside, got scared and began blaming the merman. "You are a failure as a Sect Leader! How dare you even provoke them in the first place!? We should've asked for help from the mermaids as soon as the Demons contacted us, and yet-"

The merman looked at him with a cold expression and extended his arm. The water around that person stilled, and as the elder's eyes widened, he clenched his extended hand. "[Water Intent Level Five], [Crushing Ocean]."

With his words, the water around the elder suddenly compressed, creating a cavitation bubble that brought the weight of the ocean on the relatively weak mid-level Epoch Core elder. 

BOOM! 

With a muted explosion, that elder's body exploded in a gory red could that got swept away by the natural currents. 

Then, the merman ordered the others without even looking at the result of his attack. "Let's go outside."

Nobody dared defy him. 

Yasenia waited outside, and when the minute was about to run out, she saw humanoid sea creatures swimming out from the cliffside in the thousands. They were like a swarm of sardines as tens of thousands gathered. 

One thing ocean creatures had going over land creatures was population. In most places, if land and water creatures could fight without environmental restrictions, water creatures would win eight out of ten times. 

Of course, that was in an ideal scenario; reality was much different. Still, being underwater, subaquatic species had an advantage. That's why, for most land beings, oceans and seas were natural barriers that could separate continents in the same world for tens of thousands of years or even longer. 

The popularity of Flying Ships in higher-level worlds is attributed mainly to this innate fear of the ocean all beings had. For example, even that random algae monster Clara encountered could fight three maids at once and injure them. Of course, in a fight to the death, the maids clearly had an advantage, but it showed that there were incredibly strange and strong creatures in the oceans of most worlds. 

Yasenia looked at the nearly fifteen thousand beings with an indifferent face. Twelve thousand of those were Peak-Level Ethereal Souls, and most of the others were a combination of low and mid-level Epoch Cores. 

There were around 35 high-level Epoch Cores, with none being at the peak level. 

It was a relatively strong first-rated sect. If Yasenia wanted to face them without the maids, only using the accumulated power of the Astral Sky Sect, her only option would be to retreat and swallow the insult, abiding for her time until she could get revenge. 

The Sect Leader, a tall merman about five meters in height, swam at the front of their group with a large harpoon-like spear. 

He spoke solemnly. "Who are you? To dare come to our gate and act so arrogantly with such a small group, you better have a good reason!"

Yasenia used her tail and swished it from side to side, propelling herself forward at a gentle pace. She sent a few messages to the maids on how to act before advancing forward alone.

They were currently floating in the middle of a chasm, with cliffs at each side and bottomless darkness below them. The cliff where the Assassin Sect was had many cracks as a powerful attack from one of Yasenia's maids had hit it. 

Both sides were incomparable in size, but Yasenia was unafraid. Her maids had many Dantian Spiritualization Realm Half-steps. 

The spirits were ignorant about Yasenia, so they talked to the maids. Soluna was the one who spoke, her exotic, echoey voice sounding anxious. "Why are you letting her move forward alone? Yasenia might be your leader, but she is still weak, right? I can sense that she is just in the fourth realm! Moreover, didn't you all get punished because of the attack she received previously?"

Alaia, as the leader of the maids, smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Soluna. Yasenia is stronger than you think. She is one of the participants at this summit. Now that we've talked things out, mistakes like the previous one won't happen. Just look at the show." Alaia looked at the back of the dragoness and smirked. "Moreover, Yasenia is very angry currently. If she doesn't vent, she might explode."

The spirits opened their eyes, showing surprise at Alaia's confidence when Yasenia was approaching an actual High-level Epoch Core. 

Embera commented. "Are you sure? If you want our help, we're happy to step forward."

Alaia understood that their words were out of goodwill, so she laughed softly and answered. "If she needs help, we will be the ones stepping out even before she asks for it. When we charge forward, you can all follow us if you want."

The spirits nodded and looked at Yasenia.