Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

A day after Mira's talk with Sect Master Aelina, she sat on her bed, meditating. She was preparing to go into closed-door cultivation for a month to refine her techniques and study all the new ones she had just received.

The only thing stopping her was the Sect Master, who should be bringing tons of herbs, seeds, and plants for her to put in her Infinity Garden.

*Vwoop!*

'Speak of the devil, and he shall appear,' Mika thought, feeling a disruption in space behind her.

"It's rude to teleport straight into someone's bedroom, you know?" Mira spoke with a frown, dissatisfied with the person who had just intruded.

"I'm already doing you a favor by letting you know I was entering. If I really wanted to intrude, you wouldn't even know." A neutral yet magnetic voice said.

Mira opened her eyes and turned around, staring straight into a pair of violet eyes.

"Did you finish picking out what herbs, seeds, and plants you wanted to give me, Aelina?" Mira said casually, causing Aelina to lift an eyebrow.

"Aelina? I didn't know we were so close to address each other so casually." She questioned.

Mira shrugged, "The only people allowed in my personal bedroom are those of equal standing with me. Since you entered unannounced, you're telling me we are of equal standing. Why should I add honorifics if that's the case?"

'What sort of twisted logic is that? And since when was I forced to conform to it?' Aelina wondered but quickly dropped the topic. She didn't come here to talk about this nonsense, nor did she care what Mira called her.

"Whatever. Anyways, yes, I prepared all the items for you. Some of them are extremely valuable, so don't die or get captured before returning them to me, or else I'll be quite upset." Aelina said lightly, but Mira could feel the pressure behind those words.

She could tell Aelina would be a lot more than just "upset" if she lost them.

Aelina flicked over a spatial ring to Mira, who caught it and began inspecting the contents but was thoroughly shocked by what she saw!

Thousands upon thousands of herbs, seeds, and trees of various grades were in the spatial ring. The grades ranged from anywhere between Earth-Grade and Mid-Divine Grade! Not only that, but each item was of superior quality in its own grade!

"Damn! Did you loot your entire treasury or something? Where'd you even find so many plants?" Mira asked after she tossed the ring in her Storage Space.

Aelina nodded, "You aren't too far off the mark. I looted my treasury and multiple Sect Gardens. I also went around the Mountain Range and plucked anything that looked interesting or useful."

Mira looked at the Sect Master incredulously, "You didn't take everything, did you?"

Aelina scoffed, "Do you think my Sect is that poor?"

Mira shook her head. She doubted what was in her possession was even 1% of the Sect's wealth.

"Alright. I'll get these planted and will let you know when they are ready to be harvested," Mika then shooed Aelina away, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go into closed-door cultivation to prepare for your little test."

However, contrary to what she expected, Aelina shook her head.

"That'll have to wait. I mentioned you being the Sect's Prime Disciple to the Elders, and they didn't seem to like the fact that I picked someone in the Core Formation Realm when the Central Continent Competition was only 20 years away. So, you'll have to meet them first."

An annoyed look appeared on Mira's face, "Why? Why do I have to go now?"

Aelina chuckled, understanding Mira's circumstances, "They want to meet the person I have my eye on as soon as possible. Oh, and I'll use this time to introduce you to the people who will be joining you on your mission."

Mira felt irritation rise up within her as she couldn't give two shits about the Elder's opinions or her future team members, at least not right now.

She's busy, after all! She's got multiple techniques to learn!

Unfortunately, Aelina doesn't look like she'll be leaving without her, and Mira doesn't have the strength to resist.

Suppressing her irritation, she sighed, "Fine. But you have to throw in a large Low-Stage Heaven-Grade Knife and a set of Mid-Stage Heaven-Grade Throwing Knives for my troubles."

Aelina nearly lost her composure upon hearing Mira's brazen request, "What do you need those for? And why should I give them to you?"

"I'll use them on the mission. Spirit Stone Mines are narrow, and my scythe is too big to be used in them."

Aelina pondered for a moment but eventually agreed. Although Heaven-Grade equipment isn't necessarily cheap, all Nascent Soul Realm and Soul Transformation Realm disciples have at least one.

Since Mira can fight someone at the Nascent Soul Realm and is about to embark on a near-impossible quest, it makes sense for her to need Heaven-Grade equipment. Plus, knives are relatively cheap in comparison to other weapons.

"Sure. I'll give them to you before you leave," Aelina nodded before walking over and grasping Mira's shoulder, "Alright, now let's go meet the Elders and your fellow team members."

Just as she was about to leave, Mira stopped her.

"Wait! Let's take Maria, as well. Due to her healing capabilities, I will take her with me on the mission."

Aelina found her request reasonable and teleported next to Maria, grabbed her by the should, then brought the two of them to the mountain's peak.

Maria was clueless about what was going on, but seeing Sect Master Aelina, she decided to voice her questions later.

Soon, the three of them appeared in the middle of a large room, surrounded by 50 Elders and several younger women. They all raised an eyebrow seeing Mira's unparalleled beauty and her 9 multi-colored tails.

Although they were somewhat ignorant of what a 9 tailed fox signified in the fox community, they've all read the legends. 9 tailed foxes were supposedly beings nearly on the same scale as Dragons and Phoenixes.

However, Mira clearly wasn't a beast, indicated by her cultivation and aura.

A vast pressure crashed onto Mira and Maria as countless eyes drilled into their bodies, inspecting every centimeter. Maria squirmed in discomfort while Mira's face contorted into a frown, but she didn't do anything as it was basically impossible for these people to learn any of her secrets by staring at her.

After a few moments, Aelina clapped her hands, dispelling the Elders' auras, "Alright, that's enough inspecting. Can't you see you are making them uncomfortable? Anyways, I'll let them introduce themselves."

Mira inwardly sighed, still annoyed that she had to deal with this shit, but acquiesced nonetheless, "My name is Mira. I look forward to working with you."

Many of the Elders frowned at her impassive and disrespectful attitude, while the disciples watching seemed to have gained interest.

Meanwhile, Maria took a few seconds to gather her bearings before speaking up, "Hello, Elders! My name is Maria Zaria, and I'm Mira's wife! I'm at the 4th Stage of the Core Formation Realm and have an affinity for light. Nice to meet you!"

The Elders' frowns lessened upon hearing Maria's enthusiastic introduction, but they were confused about why Aelina brought her here.

Seeing their confusion, Aelina spoke up, "She will be joining Mira and the other disciples in the mission to steal Unorthodox Faction Spirit Stone Mines. Her healing skills are quite impressive and will certainly be useful, so I decided to bring and introduce her to the other disciples."

The Elders' nodded in understanding but soon brought their attention back to Mira. Although they could tell Maria was extremely talented, at least at the level of their top disciples, they were more interested in Mira.

No matter how much they inspected her, the only thing they could gather was her cultivation level.

Physique, Core, Meridians, Tails, and even her internals, such as her organs and bones. They couldn't sense any of it. It was as if a fog had covered her entire body, which spiked their interest and doubt as they couldn't tell how talented she was.

Something like this has never happened in the past, and they couldn't help but come up with all sorts of conclusions.

'Is she really that talented?'

'Why can't I sense anything unique about her? Is she hiding something? Or is the reason I can't sense anything because she's too talented?'

'There must be a reason why the Sect Master spoke so highly of her!'

All sorts of thoughts passed through their mind, but they were interrupted by a cold voice.

"So, you're Mira, huh? The girl that the Sect Master wanted to give the Prime Disciple position to. You don't seem that strong to me." A woman with auburn hair approached Mira with steady steps.

Mira turned her head and stair at the woman approaching and narrowed her eyes slightly.

'She's powerful!'