Heaven, Earth, Me

After that day, months quickly started going by, and Yasenia and her lovers began arranging the people to take over their positions in the sect. 

Ghana looked at all the work on her desk and sighed. "This is really… a lot. Do I really need to look at all of this?"

Yasenia was standing by her side with a smile. "If you want to avoid corruption seeping inside without you knowing, this is what you should do. Of course, it is not necessary. I am just teaching you the way I do things." 

Yasenia leaned over and pointed at a document that had a few plans written on how to manage things. "Ghana, you are very intelligent. So, I am sure that you can perfectly guide this sect. However, you lack something."

Ghana looked at Yasenia, and the dragoness smiled at her. "Strength." 

The harpy blinked and sighed. "Well, that's the truth. I am just a middle-level Epoch Core. My Spiritual Cultivation is just too low to matter for now." 

The dragoness encouraged her. "You have the aptitude for Spiritual Cultivation, and that's a big plus. However, many geniuses will appear in this sect during the following years, Ghana. Remember that our entry test is a way to filter between those who can reach the fifth realm and beyond and those who don't."

Ghana nodded; she couldn't help but ask, "I am unsure, though. Why me? You know who those geniuses are, and you probably have eyed people better suited than me for the Sect Master position. Still, you are going to choose me. I don't really understand. "

The dragoness looked at the brown feathered harpy and crouched down, leaning on the desk while looking at her. Ghana's heart couldn't help but speed up a little; her current look was a little bit too cute and attractive. Yasenia smiled faintly. "The reason I choose you is because I like you, and you are good enough."

"L-Like me?" Ghana asked, baffled, her mind spiraling into confusion. 

The dragoness moved her tail and bonked the harpy. "Not in that sense, silly. I just like how you were able to slowly shift from someone who supported Tengliu to such a loyal person." Yasenia looked toward the door, resting her chin on the top of her hands. "Being honest, Ghana. You are far from the best choice to become the next Sect Master. There are others who would make a much better Sect Master than you." 

Ghana laughed dryly. "Thanks for the honesty."

Yasenia stood up and snorted, looking at Ghana from above. "What? Do you want me to lie?"

Ghana looked up, having a hard time looking at Yasenia's eyes with the pair of prominent mountains looming over her. "U-Um. No, I don't want that."

The dragoness nodded, satisfied. "Good. So, you are not the best. But I don't want the best, Ghana. A Sect Master must be someone who can control the Sect. Do you understand? How they connect with others, how others perceive them, and how others look at them is very important." 

Yasenia sighed. "Sadly, the only person who can keep this sect unified is me or Tatyana. Any other person, even my lovers, becoming the Sect Master will eventually create a rift and different parties." 

Ghana pondered and couldn't help but agree. There were people who were very loyal to Yasenia and would probably look with a very scrutinizing gaze regardless of who the next Sect Master was. 

Yasenia looked at the harpy and smiled. "But, you are someone who everyone knows. Moreover, while your talent or strength is not the best, you have the backing of Tengliu and many others. They know your personality and how you act. Meaning, you might not be the best Sect Master, but you are certainly the most popular choice outside my family." 

Ghana could start to see the reasoning behind Yasenia's choice. 

Seeing Ghana's expression, the dragoness smiled, satisfied. Then, she crossed her arms behind her, slowly walking toward the door. "This sect doesn't need a strong leader to substitute me. In the minds of people, there won't be a stronger Sect Leader than me. What they need is someone that keeps them unified, someone that knows how I think, and someone that will be able to keep the relationships that I've built tight and close."

Yasenia reached the door and turned her head. "That's you, Ghana. Only you. And nobody else is more qualified for this position than you. You want strength? You are the Sect Master, Ghana. Take advantage of that and give yourself enough resources. Of course, remember to follow the rules that I created; abusing that power is not something I want."

Ghana laughed. "As if. If I abuse that, the formation will probably smite me." 

Yasenia grinned. "See? That's why I like you. You know how far to reach out." Then, she exited the room and commented. "Once my youngest child becomes 30 years old or I reach a point where my cultivation is starting to slow down, I will announce you as the next Sect Master and completely disappear. During this time, the Dravory Clan will help you train. We will also give you the <!-- --><Astral Sky Inheritance><!-- -->."

Ghana asked, surprised. "What's that?"

The dragoness smiled, turning around to face her. "That's the knowledge about most of the Dravory Clan's secrets. While the Sect Master will be the leader of this place, my Dravory family will be above them as a hidden clan. Of course, the Sect Master must know. Moreover, it also has knowledge on how to train people to become loyal and useful." The dragoness paused. "It is a bit ruthless, but if you slack in training, you will also slack in whatever position you make it to."

Ghana sighed. "Does it have anything more?"

"Skills, cultivation techniques, access to resources that only the Dravory Clan has, and a general understanding of how to control the basics of the Sect formation."

Ghana rubbed her forehead. "That's… quite a lot."

Yasenia smiled. "As long as you follow through, training your successor as a Sect Master is not impossible. Take a few talented disciples and train them. You have a right to choose direct disciples five times per recruitment. You can go over everyone, and whoever you point at will become your disciple."

Ghana nodded. "I see. This is a good way to transfer the power from generation to generation."

Yasenia lifted her finger with a smile. "This sect will start to become corrupt the second that the <!-- --><Astral Sky Inheritance><!-- --> falls into the wrong hands. So, you better teach your successor how to be ruthless. Good people are usually not fit to rule; they are good soldiers."

Ghana frowned and asked. "Hey, are you telling me that I am not a good person?"

Yasenia raised her eyebrow. "Are you?" She smiled and turned around, leaving the office room in this building. 

Ghana looked at the swaying hips of the dragoness as she walked away and rested her head on her hand. "I will age too quickly at this pace… I need to increase my subordinates to efficiently manage everything without going overboard. I am far from being as intelligent and efficient as Yasenia, so my best bet is to have more arms and legs. With the <!-- --><Astral Sky Inheritance><!-- -->, I will be able to train a few people to work directly under me. This way, I can also enter seclusion to break through without fearing a total collapse from within the sect." 

Ghana looked at the table for a few seconds and eventually commented. "Well, I will need to draft a plan with a few blanks to fill later when I receive that inheritance." 

After the dragoness walked out of the room, she waved her hand, summoning a tablet. This tablet was the [Astral Sky Inheritance] she spoke about. It was already finished and ready to pass down. However, she wanted to wait a little bit more and create a few restrictions within it. One of them was leaving behind a strand of her soul to question the person who would gain the inheritance. 

Yasenia frowned. "However, if I want to do that, I will need to use a lot of soul energy. That will hurt me almost for sure. Moreover, I need to ensure that the small me that is inside the tablet won't disappear with time."

Because of its characteristics, a soul strand has advantages when guarding places for a long time. First, it had almost identical beliefs as the original at the time of creation. Second, because it was just a strand of soul, boredom was not a thing. It was there to do its duty, like an emotionless being. For that, it could simulate the personality of the original, but it was just that, copying mannerisms.

The only problems would be if it became corrupted or, as time passed, the soul energy inside it dissipated, and eventually, that strand disappeared. The process was slow, but if Yasenia wanted this inheritance to last for many thousands of years, it was a problem that she needed to take into account. 

Therefore, Yasenia was pondering these problems by herself. Of course, she could get the answer, but since it was a soul-related matter, Tatyana, Valeria, and Mirrory actually told her to think by herself. 

While investigating this matter, they wanted to see if the dragoness could understand more about the soul path. The dragoness didn't really have any problems with it, so she was working on that.

"A soul strand is a part of myself that I need to pass onto an object and trap it there." Yasenia pondered. "However, do I lose that strand when I pass it down? Do I need to detach a part of myself to do that?"

Yasenia frowned. "How do I know that it won't affect me when I do that?" She was honestly unwilling to take the risk if that was the case. The soul strand would allow this sect to have a prosperous era for much longer, but losing part of herself for that was not worth it.

Yasenia reached the new cultivation room they had built for her and sat in the middle. The new Dravory Family's mansion was at the top of the massive palace-like structure that compromised the [Spatial Astral Sky Sect]. Her room was not that big. In fact, it was smaller than the one down in the [Astral Sky Sect]. The reason was that they didn't take Yasenia's dragon form into account this time around. 

Yasenia's dragon form, when she absorbed Cosmic Energy, was just too big to create a room for it. If the dragoness wanted to cultivate in her dragon form, she would need to float around the sect. 

Yasenia hummed, looking around. "To think that teleportation formations can be used to fill spaces like these with normal energy. It is quite genius to suck in energy from Distancia World and use it to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that will nourish that energy." She couldn't help but sigh in awe. "This place is quite crazy…" 

Then, she spent the next week researching how to separate the soul strand and create what she wanted.