Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Mira fought against the shadow duo for over half an hour before she finally got used to their teamwork.

That doesn't mean Mira has found a way to overcome it; she's just no longer being led around by the nose.

She also realized that unless she relied on her overwhelming strength, she's going to have a hard time beating this duo.

If she tried attacking the swordsman, the archer would interrupt her, and hitting the archer with long-range attacks was easier said than done. It was constantly on the move, aiming for parts of her body that she hardly bothered defending.

That made the archer especially annoying because it never went for any killing moves. It only wanted to hit her; it didn't matter where.

The shadow duo's ability to read and adjust to the situation was also impeccable. Somehow, they were able to tell when she wanted to attack, defend, parry, or counterattack, and they could even tell when and where her attacks were going to land!

Mira quickly understood that she was telegraphing her intentions, but she wasn't sure how. She was controlling her muscles, suppressing her killing intent, and she never focused on the part of their bodies she wanted to attack, but they still seemed to know her next move!

If it wasn't any of those things, there were only a few ways they could possibly detect her next moves, most of which Mira felt were impossible, even for these shadows.

One, they can sense her intentions based on the way she twirls and moves her scythe.

Two, her footwork wasn't as good as she thought, and it was projecting her thoughts unknowingly.

Three, they can accurately predict who she's going to target with her Qi based on how it moves through her meridians.

Four, mind reading, but Mira doubted this to be the case.

Five, these things are literally robots in the form of shadows and can accurately simulate and predict her intentions based on her actions so far.

Lastly, they have some sort of insight ability that lets them see a few seconds into the future.

To be honest, it could be all of them or, at the same time, none. Mira's not omnipotent. She doesn't know everything the cultivation world has to offer. They might be able to read the vibrations in the air to predict her next moves for all she knows!

Anything is possible, and this frustrated Mira to no end. She knew they were taking advantage of her, but she didn't know how, nor did she have a solution!

'Fuck it! Since I don't know how they're doing it, I'll just improve it all and hope it works out.'

Yes, Mira decided to stop thinking so hard about how the shadows were taking advantage of her and instead focus on improving in all the areas she felt like her intentions were leaking.

It would be an arduous task since she has to improve almost every aspect of herself, but that's the whole reason she's 'training' with the shadows. They are literally the perfect training partners! That's not an exaggeration, either.

To Mira, they can be considered the epitome of perfection at the 1st Stage of the Core Formation Realm.

Fighting against such beings for so long not only tells her what she can improve upon, but when she does improve, she should be able to see immediate results.

This time around, Mira had no intention of ending the round so soon. If anything, she wished she could stay in this round until she could fix at least some of her issues.

Unfortunately, nothing in the F.LD.I.L was that easy, and after staying in this Round for an hour, another shadow, a spear user, suddenly appeared.

'What the hell? So, I can only stay in a Round for an hour before I automatically win and move on to the next? Then, what happens in Round 10? Do I automatically fail? Or maybe I have more time? I mean, an hour seems kind of short when I have to kill 10 seemingly perfect shadows.' Mira thought to herself but was unable to continue thinking as the trio of shadows attacked.

For the next hour, Mira dealt with a similar situation she was in during Round 2, except this time, the number of deadly attacks was more frequent, and it was even harder to hit them.

Still, Mira could feel the pressure building, forcing her to improve or else she'll soon hit a wall.

Although she still couldn't feel much danger from the shadows due to the difference in power, the gap in skill made Mira feel weak.

Such a thought only spurred Mira on as she felt a sense of urgency! How strong will the shadows at the 2nd Stage of the Core Formation Realm be? Will she even be able to fight against them without relying on the gap in raw power?

What about the 3rd Stage of the Core Formation Realm?

The 4th?

Will she even be able to fight them at the 5th Stage even with her power and all her abilities?

If she gets 1 hour per round, that means the 5th Stage is less than 2 days away!

Two days is nothing! Even in the mortal world, 2 days is nothing!

If she doesn't hurry up and improve, then in 2 days, she might actually end up failing even to reach the 6th Stage!

'Fail?'

When that thought entered Mira's mind, she felt her mind and body jolt. It was unknown whether it was out of anger, shame, disappointment, or fear, but regardless of the reason, she felt her mindset slowly changing.

'Me? Fail?'

Mira remembered all the times she was tortured, abused, and forced to do things she didn't want to do.

Then, she remembered the voice of the god always forcing this shit upon her.

'No! I refuse to fail at something like this! I've slaughtered an uncountable number of foes! I've had my body, mind, and soul tortured until there was barely anything left! I've gone through so much shit, and for what? To fail to meet the bare minimum standards for the power I've earned? NO!'

Thinking this far, Mira stared at the three shadows like a hungry beast and growled.

"Come at me, you little shits! I'll take that so-called 'perfection' of yours and shove it up your ass!"

The shadows didn't react to what Mira said and just continued attacking her as if nothing had happened, but Mira was slowly entering a hyper-focused state where nothing else mattered other than the 3 shadows in front of her.

On the outside, it might look like Mira was afraid of failing, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. She's 'failed' many times throughout her life and never felt this way. Actually, Mira felt that failure wasn't a bad thing as she considered it fuel for her growth.

However, this situation was a bit different. From her estimations, the shadow's raw power is about 3 to 4 stages higher than the average Core Formation Realm cultivator. Mira, on the other hand, Mira's raw power is about 7 to 8 stages higher, putting her near the Peak of the Core Formation Realm without any amplifications.

So, the Stage 5 shadows should have an equal amount of raw power as her. To Mira, although she is still young in the ways of cultivation, there should be no reason for her to lose against someone who's equal to her in raw power.

Not only that, but the Abyssal Battle Ladder has given her everything she needs to improve. So, if she still can't win even under such circumstances, she'd be doing a disservice to the power she's received.

Would she really be worthy of wielding this power for the sake of her goals if she can't even get over a hurdle she should have already gotten over?

From this moment on, Mira's mindset changed. At first, she just wanted to learn from the shadows. Overcoming their skill right now just didn't seem possible, but that sort of mindset was simply asking for failure in this situation!

If she wanted to successfully pass Stage 5 and be able to move on to Stage 6, she needed to learn how she could overcome this gap in skill!

Mira's eyes burned like a blazing fire as she took in every little detail from her own body, the surroundings, and the shadows.

***

The hours went by, and eventually, Mira passed all the Stages and made it to Stage 5.

It wasn't easy for Mira trying to perceive, analyze, comprehend, and implement everything happening in and around her.

And although she was able to make it this far, she still wasn't completely confident in being able to pass Stage 5. It wasn't the early rounds she felt would be a problem, but the later rounds.

Nevertheless, Mira was still a bit excited to see how much she's grown and if she was right about the Stage 5 shadows having about the same raw power as her.