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Chapter 275 - War Empress Celes
🕑 Added 2025-03-28 07:00:08 +0000 UTC"Hehe. Let's go, then," Anda agreed, her excitement palpable.
Tamina adjusted her Qi, and the cloud boat veered to the right, following the trail of drifting clouds.
Since they had started traveling with the mystical clouds, Anda and Tamina had significantly reduced the number of times they descended to investigate areas with high spiritual energy readings. There were simply too many to explore. Now, they only stopped if the spiritual energy reading was at least double what they had encountered before.
A few days after their detour, the Qi-Seeking Radar detected an unusually high spiritual energy fluctuation ahead.
"Tamina, get ready. We might be looking at a great treasure today!" Anda exclaimed, her eyes lighting up as she stared at the radar.
Tamina glanced at the device, her expression shifting to one of awe. "A large area of extremely dense spiritual energy? That's way higher than anything we've seen so far!" Her eyes widened, gleaming with anticipation.
Tamina quickly navigated the cloud boat, descending toward the area indicated by the radar. "It's pandaploration time!" she declared, her voice tinged with excitement.
Anda giggled inwardly at Tamina's reaction. It was amusing how even a lady from another continent had fallen under the spell of her "pandawashing." At first, Tamina had been reluctant to use the term, but now she embraced it wholeheartedly, declaring it every time the radar showed a promising reading. It's a pity she's already engaged, Anda thought with a smile. She would have fit into the Leyan Family perfectly.
When they reached the area, Little Fiery melted the snow around them, revealing the frozen ground beneath. Their spiritual senses swept the area, but as usual, they found nothing on the surface. This meant the treasure was buried underground—again. Without hesitation, Tamina began digging. By now, the routine was so familiar that they barely exchanged words, moving with the efficiency of a well-practiced team.
Thanks to all the digging they had done so far, Tamina's ability had improved significantly. She could now pinpoint foreign objects within the earth up to a certain depth, her senses honed to near-perfection.
"Hmm... I'm not detecting anything yet," Tamina said, her brow furrowing in concentration. "Anda, this treasure might be deeper than we thought."
"Can you dig deeper? If you feel like it's too much, don't force yourself. We don't want the hole to collapse and bury us alive," Anda advised, her tone serious but laced with concern.
Tamina grinned, her confidence shining through. "Hihi. Who do you think I am? I am Tamina Arterton, the Great Young Lady of the House of Arterton, the co-founder of the Mystic Pandaplorers, the future greatest excavator! In the future, I will lead my harem sisters to excavate every inch of the Howling Kingdom with my newfound talent and uncover every treasure hidden beneath its soil! A deeper hole? It's not a problem at all."
Anda was momentarily stunned, her lips parting in surprise. It seemed Tamina had truly embraced her newfound talent. Anda had assumed such a skill would only appeal to men, but clearly, she had been wrong.
Over the past month, the two women had grown close, sharing stories and dreams during their travels. One of Tamina's most striking revelations was her ambition to manage a large harem and make a name for herself in history—a rare and unconventional dream.
Tamina's vision had been heavily influenced by one of the most legendary figures in the history of the Protogaea Continent: War Empress Celes, a towering figure from 400,000 years ago. War Empress Celes had once been a fierce general of a small kingdom, renowned for her unmatched prowess in battle. Her victories were so numerous and her demeanor so intimidating that no one dared to court her. That was, until a new king ascended the throne and declared his love for her, offering to make her his queen.
To everyone's surprise, the new king admired strong, fierce women. Queen Celes accepted his proposal on one condition: even as queen, she would retain her position as the kingdom's general and continue to lead armies into battle. The king agreed without hesitation.
With her newfound influence as queen, Celes recruited and nurtured a legion of fierce, strong women, all of whom joined the king's harem. These women became her loyal soldiers, fighting under her command in a united, unstoppable force. Over the centuries, Queen Celes and her army of warrior women conquered kingdom after kingdom, expanding their territory into a vast empire. Some conquered realms submitted, while others fled the continent entirely. The remaining kingdoms formed an alliance, barely managing to halt Celes's relentless expansion.
For thousands of years, War Empress Celes and her harem of fierce, invincible warriors ruled as legends, their names etched into the annals of history. But after her passing, the empire weakened, eventually shrinking back into a single kingdom.
Tamina had grown up listening to the epic tales of War Empress Celes, her imagination captivated by the idea of leading a group of extraordinary women to greatness. Inspired by Celes's legacy, Tamina dreamed of forming her own harem of talented, powerful women, united in purpose and ambition.
Later, to her surprise, Tamina found herself betrothed to Crown Prince Dastan of the Howling Kingdom, a man she had known since childhood. She didn't reject the arrangement. It was, after all, a golden opportunity to gather extraordinary women around her, much like War Empress Celes had done. However, she had no intention of leading armies or waging wars. Instead, she envisioned her future harem achieving greatness in some other ways, though she hadn't yet figured out the specifics.
Unfortunately, her grand plans hit an unexpected snag: her royal fiancé himself. Crown Prince Dastan declared that he would love only her and have no other women. Tamina was stunned. His unwavering devotion, something many women would cherish, had become her greatest obstacle.
You're the future king! How can you not want other women? I even planned to select great women for you! Why are you cockblocking yourself? she lamented inwardly every time they met. She never voiced these thoughts aloud, though. Her fiancé had a notoriously unpredictable temper, and she had no idea how he might react.
In an attempt to dampen his feelings for her, Tamina began avoiding him, hoping distance would make him open to the idea of a harem. But her strategy failed miserably. Crown Prince Dastan remained fixated on her, his devotion unwavering.
After growing close to Anda and sharing life-and-death experiences with her, Tamina finally confided in her during one of their late-night talks. Anda was both amused and fascinated by Tamina's predicament. It sounded like the kind of overdramatic plotline found in the novels Sayu loved to read.
In an effort to help, Anda offered to subtly influence Crown Prince Dastan, whispering about the benefits of having a harem. But Tamina quickly shut down the idea. She knew her fiancé too well—he wasn't someone who could be reasoned with, and the risk to Anda was too great. Despite not being a powerful cultivator himself, Crown Prince Dastan was always surrounded by formidable Royal Guards, making any attempt to sway him a dangerous endeavor.
An abrupt surge of earth Qi snapped Anda out of her thoughts. Tamina had reinforced the walls of the excavation hole, hardening them to an incredible degree. Even a strong earthquake wouldn't cause the hole to collapse. Anda was impressed.
I keep underestimating her digging talent, she thought.
Reinforcing the walls drained a significant amount of Tamina's Qi, making the excavation process much slower than usual. She had to pause multiple times to rest and replenish her energy with Qi Replenishing Pills. The deeper they went, the harder the digging became. By the time they finally broke through to a hollow area, it was already night.
What they discovered was unlike anything they had encountered before. Instead of foreign objects buried in the earth, the hole led to an underground cavern. As soon as the connection was made, a torrent of spiritual energy rushed out, engulfing them in a dense, almost tangible wave. A powerful wind whipped through the hole, scattering their long black hair and filling the air with a faint, luminous glow.
"What? This is incredible!" Anda exclaimed, her eyes widening at the sheer density of the spiritual energy. Not wanting to waste such a rare opportunity, she immediately began circulating her cultivation method. An invisible vortex formed around her, drawing in the escaping spiritual energy as fast as she could absorb it.
Tamina's eyes widened as her spiritual sense detected the rapid absorption of spiritual energy by Anda. She was all too familiar with the invisible vortex swirling around her friend. "Legendary-grade spirit root!" she exclaimed, her voice tinged with awe.
She hadn't expected Anda to possess a legendary spirit root. It was a stunning revelation. But it also raised questions. Anda had mentioned she was already 30 years old. How was it that she was still in the early stage of the Core Formation Realm with such a rare and powerful spirit root? Even if her focus on alchemy had delayed her progress, she should have reached the late stage by now.
Anda had told her she used to belong to a sect before establishing her own cultivation family. Did that sect really fail to provide resources to a cultivation genius like her? Tamina thought, a flicker of irritation rising within her. What a waste of talent. What kind of sect neglects someone with a legendary spirit root?
