Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Amid the verdant vastness of the Shimmering Meadows, Mira found herself deep in her alchemical endeavors. Surrounded by a sea of captive beasts and the now unfamiliar silence of her companions, she spent her time absorbed in countless experiments.

Each trial and failure brought her a step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the Celestial Nectar and its potential application in bloodline manipulation. Using the gathered beasts as her subjects, Mira continuously attempted to merge different bloodlines.

One such trial involved the blood of a Flame Squirrel and an Ice Hare, two different creatures with contrasting natures. After purifying the blood essences using the Celestial Nectar, Mira tried to combine the two bloodlines. The result was predictably explosive. The conflicting nature of the bloodlines made the concoction vibrate violently before bursting apart.

"Interesting," Mira murmured, noting down her observations. "Bloodlines that are vastly different in nature are incompatible even after purification. It seems there's something missing with my theory of combining opposing bloodlines to create something brand new."

Next, Mira tried combining the bloodlines of two beasts from the same species but different lineages—a pair of Ferret Toads, one with poisonous skin and the other with an enhanced ability for stealth. The outcome was different this time. After a slightly violent reaction, the Celestial Nectar purified, and with the help of her [Harmonic Trinity] technique, they accepted one another, leading to a successful merging.

However, she had no idea what sort of effects this might've brought. Would whoever accepted this bloodline have both powers? Or would something new come out of it?

"Same species, different lineages can work," Mira noted. "But the question now is, can these combined bloodlines be integrated into a living organism?"

Just because she created it doesn't mean it was actually usable. So, she put it to the side and decided to bring it up when it came to human testing.

After these initial trials, Mira decided to investigate the possibility of improving an existing bloodline. She took a small, low-grade beast, a Rank 1 Green-Leaf Rabbit known for its quick regenerative ability.

She first increased the Rabbit's blood purity using Celestial Nectar. This process was more delicate, as the rabbit was alive. The Rabbit's eyes flashed with a strange glow, and its entire body trembled slightly, but it didn't resist. It seemed that the Celestial Nectar, aside from its cleansing properties, also had a tranquilizing effect on the beast.

After having it perform a few actions, such as running, jumping, and kicking, Mira noted down that its strength did increase, but it wasn't by much.

'Now, I wonder if its potential had risen.' Mira pondered as she took out the meat of a Rank 3 beast. All the beasts' eyes, lit with desire, locked onto it, their mouths drooling pools of saliva.

"Eat." She ordered, and the rabbit didn't hesitate to jump forward and consume it as if it had been starved for months!

Quickly, the rabbit's aura rose, and its cultivation broke through the ranks. It stopped around the Peak of Rank 1 before Mira tossed a few more Rank 3 beast corpses, this time including their Blood Essences.

The rabbit, like a mad dog, forced down as much of it as it could before-

Rank 2!

*BOOM!*

The rabbit exploded into a shower of blood and guts immediately after due to consuming too much Qi at one time.

"...So weak." Mira shook her head in disappointment, but what could she expect from a Rank 1 Rabbit with a Common-Grade bloodline?

"Do I have to help it evolve? Are low-ranking beasts so useless that they can't even break through on their own? Or do I need to feed it beasts of its kind?" Mira's gaze glossed over the herd of beasts, who all lowered their heads, too afraid to meet her gaze.

With a wave of her hand, Mira brought over 2 more rabbits, which were almost exactly the same as the first.

She did the same experiment, but for one, she only fed it rabbits, this time at Rank 2. While for the other, she did the exact same thing as the one that exploded, except this time, she helped it digest all that excess energy.

After a while, no explosions happened, and they both reached Rank 2, causing Mira to release a subtle smile. She sent her Soul Sense into both of them to see if anything was wrong, but everything checked out. They were stronger, bigger, and their innate abilities had improved.

As for their potential… When Mira examined their Blood Essence, she realized that there were significantly fewer impurities than before. Normally, this would be a great thing, but for Mira, it wasn't.

This essentially meant that while it was indeed possible to improve the grade of a beast's bloodline through Celestial Nectar, there would be an exponential decrease in the benefits achieved with each subsequent attempt. Who knows if these little rabbits could even make it to Rank 3 after pumping them full of resources?

Now, Mira began to see the limitations of Celestial Nectar. It may have amazing effects, but all it really did was bring out one's potential. The little rabbit had the potential to reach Rank 2, and maybe even Rank 3 all along, but without an abundance of Qi, great control and intelligence, as well as a lucky encounter, it'd never be able to reach it without her interference.

If a Common-Grade beast was born without any impurities in its Blood Essence, then no matter how much Celestial Nectar she pumped into them, it wouldn't do anything.

Still, just to see if her conjecture was true, Mira pumped more Celestial Nectar and resources into the poor rabbits, and before long, they reached the Peak of Rank 2. Then, with one final push after consuming a Rank 4 corpse, they entered Rank 3.

*BOOM!*

However, the one she wasn't assisting ended up exploding, dying on the spot. With the remaining one, she tried to forcefully increase its strength, to see what its limits were, but-

*BOOM!*

It exploded before long as well.

'So, there really is only so much I can do, at least for living beasts. If their potential is shit, like these rabbits, then they'll just be slightly stronger shit after I'm done with them.' Mira noted down, but this was useful information nonetheless.

Maybe through years of selective breeding, using Celestial Nectar to constantly purify their bloodlines, and increasing their cultivation to its max potential, she could create a Green-Leaf Rabbit with the potential to reach Rank 8 or beyond, but she didn't have the time, patience, or desire to do such a thing.

Still, it was worth noting, just in case she wanted to create a beast farm in the future.

'So, through this, I learned that it's not necessary to kill dozens, or hundreds of beasts of the same species, purify them, and merge their Blood Essences together to improve the grade of the Bloodline. I can accomplish something similar, so long as they're alive.' Mira recorded her findings, but she still felt it'd be easier just to kill a bunch of them and do it herself.

With this method, she'd have to find, capture, and experiment on a live beast! Just imagining herself trying this on a Rank 8, 9, or 10 beast made her understand that this approach wasn't any better than the other.

'Alright, onto the next experiment.'

Next, Mira turned her attention to the combination of similar species' bloodlines. She decided to experiment on a Rank 2 Frost Fox and a Rank 2 Mist fox, one known for its agility, while the other was known for its mental resilience.

She extracted some of their blood essence, purifying it with Celestial Nectar before merging them together. The reaction was mild, much less violent than when she tried to merge vastly different bloodlines. The result was a sort of hybrid blood essence that bore the traits of both foxes.

'So, I can merge bloodlines together, but they have to be close in rank and potential while also part of the same family of beasts.'

For example, she couldn't take two completely different beasts, like a hawk and a lion, and try to merge them together with this method.

However, since the two beasts were part of the fox family and didn't have opposing affinities, she was able to merge them successfully.

Mira stored the Blood Essence and put it to the side for future use. Then, with a grin, she turned around to the rest of the beasts and continued her experiments.

This went on for about 3 days straight until Mira had pages of notes and a mountain of corpses. It was only after so much trial and error did she feel confident about testing the results on live humans.

"Have you found the closest village, Rhydian?" Mira asked after she removed all the blood from her clothes.

Rhydian nodded and pointed southeast.

"Good. Take us there." Mira ordered. She walked over to a dead-tired Hana, wrapped her in one of her tails, and leaped into the air.

Rhydian grunted in affirmation, flapping her wings and taking to the sky.

***

[A/N: I probably won't do too many of these kinds of chapters where Mira is experimenting with "Alchemy". (I know this isn't exactly Alchemy, but you get the point). However, since these things are fairly important in the short and possibly long term, I figured I should dedicate a chapter to it. Let me know if you want to see more Alchemy experiments or if you really only want to know the results. It doesn't bother me either way, I'm just curious. :)]