Heaven, Earth, Me Chapter 1678. Evil Source Sect and... Someone’s Starting Line.

"You dare to come in the way of our Evil Source Sect’s plans!? You will regret this deeply." For the next few weeks or so, Shang Qinqin got to know the rest of the wives. After meeting with Cecile, she then met Evelyn, Kali, and Andrea. Each of them gave Shang Qinqin quite a shock, hitting her confidence one after another.

Nevertheless, Shang Qinqin, in order to protect her future children, bore the blows one after another while gritting her teeth. While she was not much at an individual level compared to the absolute monsters that were Yasenia’s wives, Shang Qinqin had her background as her ultimate weapon!

Shang Qinqin welcomed the morning that day, eating the absolutely delicious breakfast Yasenia had prepared, tears in her eyes. Never in her life had she eaten something this delicious. ’My wife of my future 24 children is a great cook! They won’t ever go hungry in their lives!’

Although when her gaze lingered around Yasenia’s bosom area, she felt that even without her cooking skills, no child would ever go hungry. ’She can feed an orphanage with that... Ahem.’

She cleared her twisting thoughts and glanced around. ’The maids are also perfectly trained. Each of them is stronger than me as well.’

This one thing didn’t surprise her greatly. While her main house didn’t have this many mid-level Transcendence Realm maids, they had enough low-level ones. Those cultivators were individuals who got stuck at the early levels and didn’t have much strength. Therefore, they applied to famous families to become servants and, if they were lucky, catch the eye of some descendant or elder.

Many low-level maids and butlers became partners with famous and talented descendants thanks to that initial connection. After all, even when they were unable to continue to advance, they were immortals. Their talent and beauty were not low in the slightest.

Remember that breaking through the Sixth Realm tribulation didn’t happen often. A very, very large percentage of cultivators died in Heavenly Tribulations. Our group was a big exception, with no one dying in such events because each and every single one of them had monstrous talent.

As she was finishing breakfast, she heard someone walk into the place.

"Oh? You already finished? I thought I could make some time and come, but I am just a step late."

An elegant and beautiful voice reached her ears. When she turned to look, her jaw stopped working on the delicious food.

The woman who entered wore a loosely open black dress that hid enough not to reveal the most important parts. Her long, midnight black straight hair flowed down to just above her perky butt. She walked barefoot, but that didn’t diminish her beauty, as even her feet were soft-looking and beautiful.

Her face, if Qinqin had to use a short adjective, she would choose "violently gorgeous." It was the beauty of an empress combined with the laziness of an elegant seductress. Those red eyes, especially, felt like two vortexes of blood absorbing everything that dared look at them.

Tatyana’s red eyes shifted, meeting Qinqin’s. "Ah. You are that girl Little Treasure picked up. Nice to meet you. I am Tatyana Dravory, one of Yasenia’s wives."

If the previous four beauties she had met caused Qinqin to feel intimidated, this one felt crushing. Shang Qinqin could tell that the woman before her was in a whole other dimension compared to everyone else in the room.

If Cecile felt like a perfect counterpart to Yasenia, this woman felt like the perfect partner for her. Like someone who was basically made to walk by Yasenia’s side.

’...Main wife? I thought Cecile was the main wife?’

Tatyana smirked faintly when Shang Qinqin didn’t answer. "Don’t be so scared. You are sweating. You will ruin your pretty makeup, fufu~."

Shang Qinqin was shocked. ’Sweating from nervousness? Me, an immortal cultivator?’

Her skin was filled with goosebumps when she realized.

Ignoring Shang Qinqin, Tatyana walked toward Yasenia and sat on her lap with effortless ease. Leaning onto Yasenia’s soft body, she looked up and smiled playfully. "Feed me."

Yasenia laughed and hugged her waist, using her energy to bring a few plates of Tatyana’s favorite dishes in front of them. Then, she cut it elegantly and began feeding the lazy empress sitting on her lap.

Tatyana squinted with delight. "Your cooking has gotten incredibly good. I can say with certainty that, flavor-wise, you are not too far off from the best dishes I’ve ever tried. Your talent in Spirit Cooking is as impressive as ever."

Tatyana had met Seventh Realm Spiritual Cooks. In terms of effects, those people could create better foods than Yasenia. Nevertheless, in terms of just flavor, they were not much better than her Little Treasure. If they were a five-star restaurant, Yasenia was currently a 3.9 Star Restaurant. She was just shy of the 4 stars, but not by much.

Of course, if her food were compared to that of normal five-star restaurants, Yasenia’s cooking could easily earn her 50 stars. There was no comparison.

While feeding Tatyana, Yasenia asked curiously. "How is the formation going?"

"I finished my part," Tatyana said after swallowing the mouthful. "Angel is working on the rest."

Shang Qinqin gathered her courage and spoke, trying not to stutter. "U-Um. What formation is Lady Tatyana building?"

Tatyana glanced at her with her bright, blood-red eyes, causing Qinqin to momentarily flinch. "Right... You might know about it. Do you know what this is?"

With a wave of Tatyana’s hands, a small yet complex formation was formed instantly, almost causing Qinqin to choke on her saliva. ’Instant formation creation? And one at this level!?’

The formation manifested a small recording of the area Tatyana and the rest were working. It was a large spherical cave with a pulsing black mass in the middle. That black mass didn’t move strangely, and it also didn’t give any corrupted feeling.

It was just a deep amalgamation of something that devoured Life from its surroundings.

Tatyana and the others had decoded how it worked and were now using the entire valley as a giant formation to reverse its functions and cause it to collapse. That way, it would return this energy-rich area to normal and even serve as nourishment.

However, when Shang Qinqin saw it, her eyes widened. "E-Evil Heart!? W-Why is there such a thing here!?"

Tatyana hummed and chuckled. "Well, that’s not ominous in the slightest."

Shang Qinqin spoke with urgency. "L-Lady Tatyana. This is not something to be joking about. Evil Hearts are diverse, and each of them has different effects. This one, from what I’ve seen and heard, is probably the [Life Devouring Evil Heart]. It is essentially a gigantic egg of malice. The creature that is born from it becomes an uncontrollable catastrophe."

Tatyana’s eyes shone with a touch of interest. "Oh? Tell me more."

Everyone sat up and turned to look at Shang Qinqin. "Around 100,000 years ago or so, there was a powerful [Evil Source Cult] that almost managed to bring catastrophe to our world. Back then, Divines, Demons, and even the Neutral Forces gathered to fight them off. They stopped the birth of most [Evil Hearts], but some of them managed to hatch. Those that hatched caused several parts of our world to change permanently and killed many Half-Step Transcendence Realm cultivators and their equivalents."

Yasenia’s eyebrow rose with surprise. "So... this thing can hatch that kind of monster?"

Shang Qinqin hesitated. "It is past history, so we weren’t taught too deeply. Just the shapes of each of the hearts. As for what it can hatch, it’s unknown. Each [Evil Heart] is different even if they are of the same type. The only thing they need is sacrifice and someone to activate them. This one seems to be a remnant of the [Evil Source Cult] that never actually managed to activate."

She had not expected to encounter a sleeping catastrophe in this place. Thanks to that, the previous intimidation that almost took hold of her vanished. Shang Qinqin’s heart was flooded with another thing.

’I must protect Yasenia!’

Tatyana noticed her change of disposition. ’Oh? Not bad willpower.’

When she arrived, Tatyana purposely pressured Shang Qinqin. This woman was after Yasenia, and Tatyana naturally disliked that. So, if the woman gave up just because she was pressuring her, she would consider her worthless and prevent any further involvement with Yasenia.

Tatyana was about to label her that way, so she asked about the black mass to squeeze out the woman’s remaining value. Lo and behold, the candle about to snuff away began burning brightly once more.

’It seems that she is not led by lust, but by love. If she were only lustful, her current feelings would be about how to leave this place, not how to protect Yasenia.’

Thinking up to this point, Tatyana re-evaluated Shang Qinqin in her mind. ’If she wants to join, good luck. Either a maid or a true lover, we will have to see from now on.’

Speaking of lovers, Tatyana’s eyes moved toward the largest figure in the room. Valeria, who would usually eat at the food prepared by Yasenia with relish, was frowning faintly, her eyes somewhat shifty.

’...Oh?’

That reaction was not normal. Unlike with the others, Tatyana couldn’t really poke around with her Spiritual Sense to detect what Valeria was thinking in detail. If she did that, Valeria would notice.

Therefore, she could only use her experience and visual clues. What the clues were saying was... ’She is starting to notice.’

Valeria, who had observed Shang Qinqin since she arrived out of pure instinct, had begun to notice the parallels with herself.

Truthfully, Tatyana didn’t blame Valeria for not noticing. Valeria was a being who had been living for tens, if not hundreds, of millions of years. She was basically almost as old as a star.

Since she was born, Valeria had "loved" all life equally. Even when she previously had children and such, she did it just to fulfill her role. There was no affection between her and that person. Valeria just used her female body for what it was meant to be used and chose the best fit for the act of reproduction.

That was all. No deep emotions, no deep bonding. Nothing.

She even later mated with her own children to purify the bloodline of her species. So that should tell you enough to know about her feelings back then.

This time, her feelings started from the same direction. Valeria saw Yasenia as an incredibly fertile and powerful mating partner. Her bloodline, constitution, life force, and everything else were just a "best fit" for Valeria to create a new and successful species.

And yet, something was different this time. Because Yasenia was rather weak and ever-changing, she created situations and emotions within Valeria that no immortal could.

And those emotions were faint. Very, very faint at first. Yet, that crack was enough for her to gradually fall. The "emotionless love" Valeria had always felt, for the first time, became something more.

And that "more" was fatal for Valeria, who represented Life to a level as deep as Tatyana represented Death. Like poison spreading through the bloodstream, Valeria’s view of Yasenia changed slowly.

The same love she gave to all life, yet with a different depth.

And now, Valeria had unconsciously noticed. Just a touch, but again, that single and faint feeling was about to flip Valeria’s world upside down. It wasn’t going to be soon, as Valeria was a far too old existence for such things to affect her in just a few years. Nevertheless, she had finally taken a step forward from the starting line.