Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

"Woah!" Yanira gaped at the sight in front of her. It was like they entered a completely different world. No more ice, no more bone-chilling cold, and Qi in abundance.

Rather than that hellhole they just came from, this was like a paradise with greenery everywhere.

Her meridians felt flooded, there was so much Qi down here.

"Remember, I get 60%," Mira said, dowsing a bucket of cold water on Yanira.

She scowled and glared at the fox woman. The thought of killing her passed through her mind more than once.

'Nothing's stopping me. I might not be in peak condition, but it's more than enough to roast her.'

The two stared into each other's eyes, glaring, just waiting for the other party to make a move. However, neither backed down.

Yanira couldn't see any fear in Mira's eyes. Instead, her eyes said, 'If I can't kill you, I'll at least take an arm or a leg before I die.'

From what she had experienced with Mira earlier, she was sure that the girl would absolutely do something crazy out of spite, regardless of the consequences.

A chill ran up her spine at the thought, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance before averting her gaze. 'Tch! Why do I have to be involved with this lunatic?'

On the other side, Mira breathed a sigh of relief. 'The pressure of a Divine Sea Realm master is no joke.'

'Luckily, it ended without a fight.'

Mira adjusted her stance, her fox ears twitching as she scanned their new, verdant surroundings. "We need to keep moving," she said, breaking the tense silence. "There are bound to be guardians or something of the sort protecting this place. And we're not exactly in the best shape to deal with them."

"Heh~" Yanira sneered. "You really have a bright imagination. If that beast from before wasn't the Guardian, then I don't know what would be."

Mira shrugged. "My luck is pretty bad. I'm just warning you, but if you die, I'm looting your corpse."

Yanira narrowed her eyes. For some reason, she had a faint premonition that Mira's words might come true. "Fine…"

The two set off, cautiously navigating through the lush, unfamiliar terrain. The air was thick with Qi, a stark contrast to the barren wastelands they had traversed before. It was almost intoxicating, and Yanira could feel her strength slowly returning with each step she took.

Suddenly, they felt like they walked through some sort of invisible film, and their vision changed slightly. The environment was still the same, but now, instead of just a small grassy plains, it was filled with treasures.

Yanira rushed forward with shining eyes. "Peak-Stage Spirit Stone Mine!"

"Divine-Grade materials!"

"Blood Essences of Rank 10 beasts!"

"Holy shit! We just hit the jackpot!"

The more Yanira looked, the better the items around her were. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed an egg with an incredibly strong life force. It looked similar to the ones in the chamber before but distinctly different. Its aura resembled that beast that the other Sect Masters were still fighting.

"I'm taking this!" She quickly nabbed it, bringing it close to her chest. Although she had no idea what it was, if she could raise it right, her Sect would have a Guardian beast that could grow up to be stronger than her.

Mira nodded without much care. She already had enough 'pets' to take care of and certainly didn't want some disgusting worm stinking up the place.

Instead, her eyes were drawn to a piece of ice in the center of this secret chamber. At a glance, there was nothing special about it other than it being a random chunk of ice in a paradise. But Mira could sense just how unbelievable it was.

With all the arrays and formations suppressing and taking advantage of it, the chunk of ice lacked any sort of aura. However, Mira had a guess.

'It's this that's suppressing our Qi so much.'

It wasn't affecting this room simply because of all the formations and arrays sealing it and pumping its energy into the rest of the mountain, but it was certainly a treasure.

She picked it up, feeling a subtle shift in the air as she did so. "I'll take this, then."

Yanira looked over, saw a chunk of ice, and snorted. "No problem."

Mira didn't store it just yet, as she had a feeling her Storage Space would cut off any sort of connection it had with the outside world. The consequences of that were unknown.

Those were the only unique items within the chamber. Thus, Mira and Yanira spent the next few minutes dividing up the rest, with Mira getting 60% and Yanira getting 40%.

After looting the place dry, all that was left was a coffin that was buried beneath everything.

"So, this was someone's inheritance?" Yanira asked aloud, not all that shocked. This was a valley of death, after all.

So many people have died in this ridge, it wasn't surprising that someone would leave an inheritance behind. What did surprise her was that someone so rich died here.

'Well, I guess it's not all that shocking. I almost died here as well.' She thought, feeling bittersweet about it.

"Should we open it?" Yanira asked, with her hands already on the lip of the lid.

"Wait!" Mira suddenly called out, with her weapon at the ready and aura at the max. She looked as if she was about to fight a battle to the death.

"What?" Yanira chuckled. "It's just some dead guy. Stop being so paranoid."

"Stop-!"

Yanira yanked the top open, revealing a skeleton wrapped in an iridescent shirt. However, before any of them could react, a shadow shot out of the coffin. Mira tried to slash it, but it was already too late.

"You'll do!" The shadow shouted as it entered Mira's skull.

Heading straight for her soul, the shadow suddenly crashed into an icy barrier. "What the hell?!" It screeched. "What is this?

Mira's Nascent Soul, sitting on her throne with a scythe in hand, lazily opened its eyes. It saw someone trying to pierce through its domain and snorted in disdain.

Raising its hand, it sucked in the invader and grabbed it by the neck.

"Wha-What?!" The shadow, revealed to be an old woman, screeched in shock. "Wh-What the hell are you?! No! Where the hell am I?! This isn't a soul! What's happening?!"

The Nascent Soul just smirked like she was watching a bug flail about. It amused her.

The old woman saw that and struggled further, doing her best to break out of the Nascent Soul's grasp. "Don't look at me like that! Don't you dare! I've been waiting for this moment for thousands of years, trapping my very soul to search for a new, better host! Everything you faced before, everything you went through, was all planned by me, a trial to test whether you were worthy!

I won't be killed off by some child! Not now!"

However, Mira's Nascent Soul didn't care and just waited patiently for the old woman's monologue to end. Everything was under her control, after all.

In here, she was god. She was… Absolute!

The old woman struggled some more but was unable to make Mira's arm budge. After a few minutes, she realized resistance was futile and decided to switch tactics.

"Fine! I don't want you anymore. I'll go snatch that other woman! Although she looks a bit stupid, her strength for her age is commendable. If you let me go, I'll reward you with whatever you want. Techniques, treasure locations, cultivation assistance, I can offer you anything.

There are tens of thousands of years of knowledge in here for you to choose from." She pointed at her head, but the Nascent Soul continued to look at her coldly, like how a god would look at an ant.

Almost as if she was saying, 'Is that it?'

The old woman was going to yell and complain some more, but the Nascent Soul yawned and raised her scythe. The woman's expression changed.

"No! No! Don't kill me! You can't kill me! I'll give you whatever you want, just let me go!"

The Nascent Soul didn't stop. It tapped the old woman, who screeched in pain. "NOOOO! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I don't want to die!

I don't want to-!"

Her form disintegrated into nothing but specks. The Nascent Soul opened her mouth, sucked in the remains, and burped before slumping back on her throne and closing her eyes.

Mira suddenly came back to her senses to Yanira shaking her shoulders. "Wake up, asshole! We got a problem! Ah, fucking-"

"What?" Mira smacked Yanira's hands away.

"Finally!" Yanira exclaimed, nearly jumping for joy. "My muse, my bait! You're finally awake."

"...Just get to the damn point," Mira grumbled, but Yanira just pointed up.

Mira turned around and looked up through the hole. There, floating around the surface of the valley, a group of people, along with a giant beast were peering down into the hole staring at them.

"Ah." She muttered, the light in her eyes dimming. Then, with a quick sleight of hand, she turned around and grabbed the skeleton's shirt and Spatial Ring, shoving them into her Storage Space.

Yanira was speechless but inwardly thankful that she had already taken her share from the ring.

"Looks like we're screwed," Mira said, calming down.

"No shit!"

"Then, we might as well make a mess out of everything."

"Hmm?"

Mira stored the ice crystal in her Storage Space.

"..."

But nothing happened.

"Well, shit."

SCREECH!