Heaven, Earth, Me Chapter 1708. Empress, Emperor, Shadow Guards.

The disappearance of the incubi group was detected rather soon. The main reason was that the Empress was checking on them closely, as she had expected them to be the ones making contact with Yasenia’s group first.

What she had not expected was that they would disappear and vanish in a matter of days. Their necklaces and such, as Yasenia had already guessed, had an almost undetectable tracking formation. The formation was done by the strongest formation sect, so the chances of it leaking out were slim. Who would tell on themselves?

The noble families and supreme sects were not stupid, though. They naturally knew that the necklaces were much more than they looked to the naked eye.

Still, since no one had been harmed by them in the past, no one really commented on it.

Either way, the Empress frowned deeply and sent a few shadow guards to check the area. "Go and check. I want to know what happened or if there are any strange traces."

As she was ordering, though, she felt a presence manifest in her carriage. The Empress stiffened, as there was only one person who could do that.

"You can’t stay still."

A deep, cold male voice reached her, and when she looked across at him, she saw the Emperor looking out the carriage window. His face showed no emotion.

The Empress quickly composed herself. "Your Majesty, you are here. What a pleasant surprise."

"Stop it." The Emperor spoke coldly. "You know that I will be ascending soon, and yet you can’t wait to stir things up one last time before I leave."

"Your Majesty..."

"Silence."

The Emperor looked away from the window and back at the Empress. In them, the eyes that had once shown care and love were now mirror-like. No emotion showed, as if the Emperor were looking not at his Empress, but at a stranger.

With his imposing aura weighing on the Empress’s shoulders, she couldn’t open her mouth, even if she wanted to. He was someone who was about to understand his own [Law] and ascend naturally. Few could even hope to match him not only in this world, but in the entire Heavenly Layer.

So, when such an individual put pressure on the Empress, it felt as if the world itself was trying to crush her. "What you’ve done. What you’ve planned. What your little thoughts are... I know everything. I just don’t bother because I believe that dragon won’t be fazed with your antics. I will warn you now. If one day that dragon’s claws manage to reach up to you and drag you down to the Abyss... I won’t stop her."

With those words, the Emperor disappeared without any trace, leaving behind a cold-sweating woman. At first, they had married because of political links and power. However, their relationship didn’t become stale with time. On the contrary, the Emperor and Empress were, at one point, quite loving.

Still, time is merciless for emotions, even among cultivators who can persevere for much longer than mortals. The Emperor began obsessing over personal strength, desiring to reach the next Realm, while the Empress began obsessing over vanity, luxury, and power.

Eventually, the Empress made a mistake. She was seduced by a Demon who once came to the palace. As an Empress, she had no excuses. She had risen to her position to become one above all, not to fall to pleasures.

The Emperor and Empress must remain spotless. It was the sacrifice needed to stand in a position where everyone else had to bow their heads in their presence.

The Empress didn’t fulfill that, and the Emperor knew right away.

By then, he had been focusing on cultivation for a long time. Nevertheless, he still regarded the Empress as a partner he respected. Perhaps no longer loved, but he still respected her because she fulfilled her role so well.

Sadly, the Empress betrayed him. That day, there was no anger. There was no frenzied Emperor.

There was silence louder than any angry scream could’ve produced.

That day, the Empress knew she had completely and utterly messed up. If the Emperor was angry, she at least could try to pacify him. If the Emperor was saddened, she at least could try to console him.

What met her were not emotions... it was utter and complete indifference.

Even then, the Empress tried to meet him. Once again, she thought it would be difficult to do so. Who would’ve known that the Emperor didn’t even stop her from visiting him just one day after her "mistake"?

The Empress still recalled that day. The Emperor was signing some documents, and when she entered, he raised his head to look at her.

The face she saw was the same face she would be seeing for the next several thousand years. A ruler, looking at his subject, not with arrogance, not with indifference, but with the majesty of an Emperor.

No weakness, no emotion, no way of telling what the ruler was thinking.

Royal and above all others.

The Empress looked down at her hands and noticed they were slightly sweaty. She, a Level Seven Transcendence Realm powerhouse, was sweating.

The shadow guard leader asked, his tone indifferent. "Your Majesty, should we move?"

According to the Emperor’s orders, their unit was to listen to the Empress’s words. They would not be punished unless the Empress ordered them to target the royals and they followed through. Those were all the rules the Emperor gave them.

So, whether the Empress wanted to use one of the empire’s sharpest blades to peek at a clearly young dragon from a relatively small family, or wanted them to kill them, they would follow through with no personal emotions involved.

The Empress asked, even though she knew there would be no answer. "Why do you think he holds that seductress in that much of a high regard?"

The Shadow Guards didn’t answer, unseen, unfeeling. The Empress was not surprised. "I want to see what happened. Go and tell me."

No presence was felt, but the Empress was sure that the Shadow Guards had already departed. Her cold gaze turned toward the carriage window, her eyes somewhat empty.

’The only thing I have left is my authority as an Empress. Anyone who goes against it... must die.’

***

Meanwhile, Yasenia had already looted the corpses and used a wild beast bait to attract the surrounding beasts so that they could eat the corpses.

The girls floated up, and a few moments later, several beasts soared from the distance and dove in, devouring the nutritious demon corpses.

Tatyana glanced at Yasenia. "Are you sure you didn’t want to eat them yourself? They would be quite good for you. Incubi had great energies that would benefit you."

Yasenia nodded. "I just don’t want them to use something to incriminate me. If I ate them, which I am honestly tempted to do, I would probably have their energy remain for a while on me. I can think of a thousand ways to detect something like that."

Tatyana didn’t deny it. Still, she felt it was a bit of a shame. "Ah. I know."

Before one of the Level Nine Incubi was eaten, Tatyana swept down and stole it. After returning and smacking a beast that tried to bite her, she gave it to Yasenia. "Cook it. If you change it enough with your spiritual cooking, it should work, no? You can even use transmutation to alter the effects further."

Yasenia paused and rubbed her chin. "That’s... not a bad idea. Let’s move, for now."

Their group left the place while using presence-erasing powders and the like, and about three hours later, the shadow guards arrived.

"...Eaten by beasts? Clearly a setup. Look around."

"We’ve noticed a few energy traces, but they are too faint. We can’t detect anything other than they belong to a variety of species."

"Can we detect which species?"

"No."

The Shadow Guard captain raised his eyebrow and spread out his Spiritual Sense. He could notice a few groups nearby, but pinpointing who did it was difficult, almost impossible.

"Not bad. Is there any family or sect that has the capability to hide from our detection methods this well?"

"Some can, but the combat traces don’t really match with any of them."

The Shadow Guard chuckled. "Then, it must be the dragon... no, Madam Dravory, whom His Majesty holds in high regard. I could tell she was strong when I first saw her, but I failed to see her specialness. As expected, His Majesty would not mark someone as special if they were not deeply hidden."

One of them asked the captain. "Should we return already?"

The Shadow Guard shook his head. "We’ve received an order, so we must uncover it. I feel that if we tail Madam Dravory, she might detect our presence, though."

One of them blinked. "That’s impossible. Our shadow arts are undetectable unless they have a powerful Half-Step among them."

The captain, though, rubbed his chin. "I have a hunch that this time, you are incorrect. Let’s try. If they detect us, don’t panic. We reveal ourselves. If they don’t detect us, we tail them for a while and return if we find a clue."

With those words, they all merged into the environment and began following behind Yasenia’s group. When they arrived, they noticed them fighting a Level Nine Beast, but something was strange.

The captain hummed. ’They are not trying to kill it. However, that’s a [Storm Crystal Qilin]. They are incredibly territorial.’

As they were observing, most of them suddenly noticed a few in the group turn to look straight at them. Those who turned were a black-haired, red-eyed woman; a red-haired, green-eyed woman; and an incredibly tall, green-skinned, gorgeously voluptuous woman.

It wasn’t just them. Those three detected them almost straightaway. However, soon, many more individuals, including Yasenia, glanced their way.

The Shadow Guard captain felt the atmosphere shift, and a second later, Yasenia’s aura swelled beyond anything they could imagine.

BOOM!

With a flash of blue light, Yasenia revealed her beast form in the sky. The dragon, with a wingspan spanning hundreds of kilometers, filled the entire sky with her empyrean presence.

The guards’ jaws dropped, even though they had been trained not to feel emotions.

Yasenia looked at the Qilin that froze in place and spoke coldly to it. "I told you to leave. We are not taking over this place. We will stay here for a while and then leave. Now, go."

Yasenia used her Dragon Strength. "[Tyrannical Cosmos Dragon Suppression]."

The guards felt as if the sky itself was pressing down on them, and, even if only for a moment, they felt as if they were in front of the Emperor himself.

The Qilin, utterly intimidated by Yasenia’s bloodline, froze and finally ran away. Yasenia turned her massive dragon head and opened her maw to speak. "Reveal yourselves."

The Shadow Guards couldn’t help but feel a touch intimidated by her aura and presence alone.