Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

"..."

The air was thick with tension as the crowd of people stood in silence. The only sounds that could be heard were the soft rustling of clothing and the occasional shuffling of feet.

Some looked anxious, their eyes darting back and forth as they waited for the unknown. Others stood with stoic expressions, faces betraying nothing. And others had tears in their eyes, the gravity of the situation weighing heavily on them.

The last were those with a strength similar to the man Mira had obliterated.

No one spoke. The silence was heavy, almost suffocating, as it seemed to press down on the crowd, making it hard to breathe.

Some of the more righteous people wanted to speak up, but their words got caught in their mouths. They didn't want the next person to die, after all!

"..."

Suddenly, Mira started chuckling. Her voice was as beautiful as cherry blossoms blooming at the beginning of spring, but to them, it was no different than a Demon Queen's.

"Why are you guys so tense? I was just kidding. It's not like I would really kill all of you guys for no reason. I'm not that unreasonable."

Elenei and Rhydian rolled their eyes, wondering how Mira could say something like that with a straight face.

'Bitch! Who are you trying to fool?? You literally just killed someone for no reason, yet you still dare to spout such nonsense?' Elenei cursed Mira in her mind.

Even the crowd almost rolled their eyes at Mira's words. How could they trust this woman so easily?

Sighing audibly, Mira shrugged her shoulder, causing everyone to flinch and raise their weapons.

"It's up to you to believe me or not; I'm really not lying. Whoever wants to leave can leave. However, just know that you will forfeit this cute little snake if you do." Mira stroked the 'snake' around her neck.

When one of the weaker and more cowardly beasts in the back heard this, it immediately turned tail and ran away.

Unfortunately, before it could move more than a few meters, its body exploded into a million pieces.

*BOOOOOOM!*

Under where the beast had just died, a deep imprint of a fist sank into the ground.

"Woops~" Mira chuckled, "I slipped. My bad~."

"..."

Anyone who thought of leaving froze in place, no longer daring to move. They stared at Mira in horror as their decision not to trust this woman was reaffirmed. She was too devious.

'Why are you messing with them so much, Mira?' Elenei asked, confused. The Mira she knew wouldn't play with her 'food' so much. Instead, she would slaughter her opponents like a reaper without whispering so much as a word.

'I'm in a good mood.' Mira replied, the wide smirk on her face proving this.

Elenei's lips twitched, and she thought inwardly, 'This is you in a good mood? You've really become more fox-like since the last time I saw you.'

'But that's not the only reason why,' Mira continued, 'When I killed that first person, these people hid in their little turtle shells like cowards! How am I supposed to test my strength and get a good fight out of them if they are too scared to use their full power?'

With Elenei's intelligence, she instantly understood what Mira was trying to do and couldn't help but shiver, 'I-I see… So, you're driving them into a corner.'

Mira nodded, her grin widening, 'It seems your intelligence has improved alongside your bloodline! That's right! I need to have a rough understanding of my current power, but if these people are too focused on escaping rather than fighting, then I can't obtain that.'

While she didn't feel any real threat from these people, and Mira figured she'd have to fight someone much more talented than them to understand her strength better, these people should do for now.

Mira was overflowing with power right now and needed a place to release it. These people were the unlucky bunch that happened to have met her at the wrong place and time.

As Mira was conversing with Elenei, a few other beasts in the back, mainly the ones that specialized in speed and stealth, tried to sneak away.

Mira sensed their actions and snorted. She waved her hand and sent half a dozen tiny ice needles toward their positions. Before they could even realize Mira had attacked, the ice needles pierced their skulls, freezing their brains and killing them instantly.

'Oh!! That was stronger than I thought it would be!' Mira's eyes widened in surprise.

While those beasts were just Low and Mid-Stage Rank 7, she killed them without much effort. It was literally as easy as waving her hand.

Although she could kill such 'low-leveled' beasts before her breakthrough, she still needed to exert a little bit of effort. It would've definitely taken more than a small ice needle.

'It's probably safe to assume that anything at my cultivation doesn't stand a chance against me.' Mira mused. She still needed to fight more talented people to confirm her conjectures, but just based on the results so far, ordinary people couldn't even touch the hem of her dress.

"Alright, I'm getting bored. You have three seconds to decide what you want to do, or else I'm just going to leave," Mira's cold voice rang out, startling the crowd. Their blood ran cold when she said that she was going to leave.

Their instincts told them that things would end so simply…

Mira held up her hand, raised three fingers, and began counting down.

"Three."

"Two."

Before she could get to one, someone in the crowd shouted, "Miss, don't you have any morals?! How can you force us to fight you when we haven't done anything wrong? We just wanted to see what kind of treasure was born!!"

Mira glanced at the man who had spoken out, and instantly, he felt like his body was dunked into a frozen hell. While Mira's mouth was raised into a smirk, those eyes… those indifferent eyes held not an ounce of emotion in them. It was as if she was looking at a talking corpse.

'Fuck! I'm dead!' The man panicked and cursed. He tried to raise his weapon, to circulate his Qi and attack, or run away, but his body refused to move.

'Move! Dammit, move!' He tried to raise his leg and run, but it stayed rooted to the ground.

"Why should I care about your shitty morals?" Mira said.

"Eh?" The man's mind blanked out.

"If I weren't strong, you lot would've already killed me and plundered the items from my corpse, then fought for them among yourselves. Quit spewing bullshit and make up your mind."

Mira's middle finger lowered, leaving only her pointer finger left standing.

"One."

That finger began to slowly close as well, but just as she was about to release an annoyed sigh, Mira felt a dense killing intent coming from the crowd. Human and beast alike all circulated their Qi and glared at Mira, hatred evident in their eyes.

Mira's eyes narrowed with excitement, but her senses picked up something before she could get too riled up. Her head swiveled, and she focused in on a man hidden in the middle of the crowd.

His aura and Qi were murky and polluted compared to the other cultivators as if they came from multiple, impure sources. Only one organization on this continent had such a disgusting aura.

'The Unorthodox Faction.' Her expression grew serious, and she was reminded of her goal of coming out here in the first place.

To teach these bastards that they couldn't afford the consequences for offending her!

Clenching her fists, Mira took a deep breath and calmed down. She examined the man more closely and noticed that he was actually in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm.

'This bastard is quite strong. I'm sure he has quite a high position in one of the Unorthodox Faction Sects.' Mira thought with an evil glint in her eyes, 'I'll save him for last. Maybe I can extract some useful information from him.'

While she was examining him, she had totally forgotten about the other people here.

"If we work together, even this monster won't be able to deal with all of us!"

"Kill her!"

"Kill her before she kills us!!"

All the cultivators and avian beasts soared into the air and launched so many attacks at Mira that they blotted out the sky. Meanwhile, the non-avian beasts charged at her like a herd of bulls.

Mira snorted in disdain and raised her hand above her head. A dense stream of Qi flowed out of her, creating an ice dome above her head, covering her and Rhydian.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!*

…

Attacks rained down on Mira's position, destroying the land around them. After a second, a massive crater formed where Mira was standing. A few people released a sigh of relief, believing that their attacks had killed her, but the rest still donned serious expressions.

"She's not dead yet! Attack again!"

"OOOOOOOH!"

Another wave of attacks fell on Mira…

And then another…

and another….

Soon, dozens of seconds passed, but the people hadn't stopped attacking. In fact, with each passing second, their expressions worsened as their Soul Sense could still feel Mira alive and well.

As they were attacking, suddenly, a loud sigh entered their ears, followed by a melodious yet chilling voice.

"Is that it? Then, I guess it's my turn!"