Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

After Mira returned back to the Sect with Rhydian she just went back to her normal schedule of training and cultivating. After about a week, the Elders asked her where Celaine went as none of them have seen her around the Sect. Mira just told them that she sent her on a mission to get stronger and wouldn't be back for a while. They were a little surprised and wanted her to bring Celaine back, but seeing that she was already gone there wasn't much they could do. They tried to ask for more information, but Mira just kept saying that she sent her to a place that she used to get stronger. They then wanted her to send some of the other disciples there, but Mira just explained that they wouldn't benefit as much from it as Celaine would. Mira thought about Audra and Nisha, but they were about to hit the Foundation Realm within the next few weeks. If Mira took them to the Trial, they'd be forced to break through in the Endless Battlefield and would most likely die during their breakthrough or at least have it interrupted causing a severe backlash. Also, with their cultivation almost reaching the Foundation Realm they'd most likely have to fight countless Rank 4 beasts while still being in the Qi Condensation Realm. Not to mention killing them, just surviving those stages would be a godsend. They probably wouldn't even get 20% of the benefits that Celaine would get plus they'd have their breakthrough disrupted or stopped. Those were to only 2 other people that Mira was willing to send there. She thought about Jade, but she only fought with Jade once and they've sparred a number of times. But she knows nothing about her and doesn't want to risk having the Trial exposed.

The Elders understood that Mira wasn't willing to take anyone else and stopped bothering her. Though they were worried about Celaine as she was really talented, there wasn't much they could do unless they wanted to force Mira to tell them. The Sect Master strongly advised against this though.

Months started to go by and the Battle Maiden Sect Disciples were getting more and more fierce. Duels were happening almost all day every day in the Arena. Countless people were going into the Battle Tower to test themselves and everybody was training or taking missions to get stronger. The Cultivation Caves were almost always filled up as the disciples would use all of their Sect Points to buy tokens for the Cultivation Caves.

The city surrounding the Sect was a little curious as to what was going on in the Sect as all of the Disciples that left to go on missions would all have fierce or serious expressions on their faces, like they were always fighting for their lives.

The Battle Maiden Sect soon turned into a mini battlefield and Mira was actually the cause of all of this. In just a few months' time, the 15 people that Mira was sparring with all started to fill up the top slots. The Inner Disciples that she was sparring with soon filled up the top positions and even advanced into a Core Disciple. The Core Disciples she was training were always fighting over who was better. This caught the attention of the other Outer and Inner Disciples and caused a chain reaction. Soon there were hundreds of people that wanted to partake in Mira's sparring lessons and would often show up unannounced to try and get in on the action.

Mira then announced that she would only spar with the Top 15 Core Disciples and the Top 5 Inner Disciples. She'd also add a couple more if there were any Outer Disciples that caught her eye. This caused an uproar in the Sect.

While not all of the Disciples wanted to spar with Mira and only wanted to soak up the benefits of their current disciple status, there were enough Mira fans to fan the flame. Not only was Mira a top-class beauty that could give anyone wet dreams, but her training was also extremely efficient and productive. This is what caused an explosion of competition to happen in the Sect. Disciples went to look for a Master to train under so they could try and participate in Mira's sparrings.

Even though Mira told them that she would only take the Top 20, there were still a lot of people that would show up or beg Mira to teach them. Mira started to get really annoyed and just wanted these crazy people to leave her alone. So she told them that unless their body is tempered to a high degree, they are in the Foundation Realm, and they are skilled with a weapon then she'll test them out. If they meet her criteria, then she'll start another group class and charge then Spirit Stones to take part in this group training. This was the breaking point for the Disciples and what turned the Sect into a warzone.

All of the missions in the Mission Hall were being completed faster than they were coming in and the Spirit Stone income that the disciples were getting was slowing down. So disciples started betting on fights in the Arena to try and make more Spirit Stones. Body Tempering Pills and Cultivation Cave Tokens were the only things that the Disciples bought. They would also travel back to Lunar Fox City to go to the Alchemist Guild to buy Body Tempering Pills or pills to help increase one's cultivation.

Another thing worth noting is that Maria also became the center of attention, but instead of disciples being fanatic over her, they looked at her with hostility. Mira also felt like this would be a good opportunity for Maria. She then made another announcement saying that Maria is willing to reduce her strength down to their level and if they can beat her in a match of skill then she will consider sparring with them. But if they lose to Maria, then Maria will be the one to teach them with a limit of 20 people. Thus, Maria started getting challenged almost every day and was forced into a battle of skill. They all lost and ended up having sparring sessions with Maria, but after learning that sparring with Maria wasn't so bad, this turned into a secondary goal for a lot of people. Sparring with the one closest to Mira wasn't the worst thing and would actually be somewhat beneficial for them just not as much as it would be if Mira taught them.

The Elders also tried to control the situation, but nothing seemed to work and the disciples only got fiercer. The Elders ended up taking more and more people under their wing to help train as more disciples started displaying their potential.

On Mira's 8th month in the Sect, things started to settle down and become a bit more systematic rather than the warzone that was happening in the months prior. More and more missions were being created by not only the Elders, but the Sect Master also announced to the city that they would be accepting missions at a discounted rate. So there was a huge influx of missions every day for the disciples. There were also a lot of disciples that were training under an Elder and the arena became more systematic rather than something like an underground fighting ring. The Elders added a betting option to the Arena so that things weren't so chaotic.

Mira and Maria also had their own groups to spar with and the two would often compete with each other. If someone in Mira's group lost, then they'd switch with a person in Maria's group. Things started to settle down on the surface, but the disciple's competitive spirit didn't diminish. Most of the disciples also started to copy Mira's schedule to try and find some secret behind it or a reason why Mira is so strong and skilled. Though most of the reason is that the disciples just loved Mira's unique and reliable charisma along with her beauty.

Maria was somewhat flustered by everything that was happening around her, but after looking at Mira she would calm down. Mira just kept going at her own pace. None of this ever bothered her. She stuck with the same schedule down to the minute and would always just do what was necessary without worrying about others.

In these last few months, Mira was also learning more and more about inscriptions. But the lady, who she doesn't even know the name of, just keeps giving her more books to study. Though Mira isn't really bothered by this because of how confusing Inscriptions are. It's like learning a whole new language except that the symbols only mean something when there are a whole bunch of them together unlike other languages where every symbol has its own meaning. So Mira spent a lot of her time trying to make correlations between the symbols, almost like she was trying to understand the very nature of them individually. This is grueling work that can't be completed in just a few months and might even take years since she's essentially decoding and translating a language into terms she can understand. But she's not in any hurry though sometimes she'll go to the lady to seek help only to be given another book or notebook.

It's been around 6 months since Mira broke into the Foundation Realm, but she hasn't been spending as much time cultivating now as she used to so she is still a bit farther away from reaching the Mid-Houtian Stage. If she were to guess, she'd need another few months at least.

Dominique also came up to her within these last few months to tell her that she feels like she's undergone a qualitative change in her strength. This means that she was able to break through to the Strength Training Stage in the Body Tempering Realm. Mira increased her training and also made her go practice in the Second Training Ground. This is to help her breakthrough to the Bone Forging Stage because as soon as she walked into that Training Ground, her bones would start cracking and fracturing. Even though it was definitely much harder, Dominique didn't have to stay in there so long due to her injuries. Mira just told her to come and find her when her bones stop cracking under the pressure. Even though Dominique could just take a few pills and almost immediately jump into the Qi Condensation Realm, Mira didn't want to do this. It'll be much better for her to not only learn about the pain that cultivators have to face but it'll also be much more satisfying to break through each stage with her own effort. If she grasps everything with her own effort, then she won't take her own strength for granted.

Mira was feeling very satisfied with her progress in almost every area during the last few months. Her cultivation was increasing steadily, her scythe skills were slowly improving, her strength was increasing, and she was learning inscriptions. Joining a Sect turned out to be very beneficial for her.

On this day, Mira was walking to her next destination with Mira when she spotted the Sect Master walking around with someone. The person next to her stopped and stared at her to which Mira also stopped walking. Mira's rage soon started to bubble as she stared at the person and her aura soon started to get violent.

"Fuck."