Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

After Mira was done absorbing all of the Tiger's blood, she felt the blood-infused Qi flowing through her body. She let it roam around her body in order to exam it a bit more.

Then she tried separating the blood from the Qi while adding the latter to her cultivation. After she was done separating a bit of blood and Qi, she now had a bit of excess blood which she was a bit unsure what to do with.

Can she use it to help heal her injuries? Will her blood and this magical beast's blood conflict with each other? Will the blood add impurities to her body? Can she just force the excess blood to leave her body? If so, how? Also, if she can expel it from her body, can she send it into other people's bodies?

She had too many things to try and understand, but luckily this was a perfect situation to test out these things.

First, she tried using the excess blood to help heal her or at least try and make up for any lost blood.

She sent the blood into her bloodstream and saw it seamlessly integrate into the rest of her blood.

Mira also noticed that all it did was help replenish some of her lost blood while also helping to heal some of her injuries. It's not like she was gaining the bloodline of the White-Ice Tiger, it's just that the blood in the blood-infused Qi she absorbed lacked the properties they once held inside the Tiger, causing it to seamlessly integrate into her own blood.

The only downside is that Mira's vitality is too high for this to be super effective and she'll most likely have to absorb much more blood and spend a bit of time separating the Qi from the blood in order to show significant results.

One important thing to note though is that the Qi she absorbed didn't immediately integrate into the Qi already refined and condensed in her body. It had a similar effect to that of water and oil and would most likely need some time to consolidate. Either that or she would have to spend some time on her own to help speed up the process a bit.

The last thing she noticed was that although doing this caused impurities to build up in her body, with her Magma Dragon Body, Extreme Overlord Yin Physique, and Bloodline this effect was minimal at best. Rather, she'd probably gain more impurities by absorbing pills.

Mira went ahead and separated the Qi and blood from the rest that she absorbed from the Tiger then walked over to Celaine. She now wanted to test out if she could send this blood into other people.

Maria was busy trying to deal with her injuries and didn't have the time to notice Mira approaching.

Mira didn't say anything and just kneeled down beside Maria and put her hand against Celaine's chest.

"What are you doing?" Maria asked doubtfully with a hint of anger. She still didn't like how indifferently Mira treated this whole situation. She could also see that Mira wasn't looking at Celaine with concern, but more like a test subject. This only increased Maria's anger, which was slowly rising.

"Testing something out," Mira said indifferently then ignored Maria and put her attention on Celaine.

She could sense several Healing Pills and even some Blood Restoration Pills that were currently in her body, but her injuries were pretty bad. Not to mention she was unconscious and Maria was forced to try and control this energy to efficiently heal her body.

Most of her bones were broken or fractured, there was plenty of internal and external bleeding, her Qi was in somewhat disarray, and she was pretty much on the brink of death.

She was lucky to be alive right now and the only thing that saved her life was the dress she was wearing, which was actually a Low-Earth Grade piece of clothing that was given to her by Coralia the mermaid. It was part of the apology gift that was given to Mira's group. If not for this, Celaine would be nothing more than roadkill right now.

Mira began taking out the excess blood she had removed which was a rather slow and somewhat painful process and then she forcefully shoved it into Celaine's body.

The blood started to integrate into her bloodstream which seemed to be greedily absorbing it as if its life depended on it.

Mira could see Celaine's injuries starting to heal at a rapid pace due to the overflowing amount of blood and vitality now in her body. Her external wounds were also starting to close up as well to stop the leakage of blood which was a good sign.

All that's left is for all of her fractured and broken bones along with the rest of her internal injuries to heal.

One thing that also helped Celaine heal much faster than it should have was the bloodline that she gained from the Trial. Celaine actually had a rare Sylph bloodline. This helped to increase her Vitality while also increasing her comprehension of her Wind Dao. Sylphs are known as Wind Spirits so obviously, their bloodline would hold these properties.

Seeing Celaine's complexion getting better, Maria sighed in relief then looked at Mira with a complicated gaze. She wasn't really sure what to think about Mira right now. They've known each other for over a decade and she knows that Mira only cares about one thing: Strength.

She couldn't care less about someone's feelings, problems, future, past, or anything regarding inter-personal relationships. If you get in her way, she'll cut you down or die trying. She's cold and aloof most of the time unless someone makes her angry, which is quite hard to do and whenever that happens she's worse than any devil.

Mira's a terrible, awful, selfish, self-centered, narcissistic, and cold person. There are only a few good traits about her, one is her resolve and the other is her combat prowess.

Maria's always known this, but… but she can't help but feel sad and disappointed about how Mira treated Celaine like an extra that didn't matter. They've known each other for years and she's even put in a decent amount of effort to train her, but she didn't even blink when Celaine nearly died. She can't help but feel that Mira doesn't actually care about Celaine and merely finds her 'somewhat useful'.

'Does Mira also think of me like that? We've known each other for so long and I've even spent almost half of my life with her but I still don't know if she actually cares about me. What if that was me that nearly died? Would she get angry? Would she do her best in order to save me? If I actually died would she even get sad?' Maria had these thoughts entering her mind as she blankly stared at Mira.

"Don't think too much about it, Maria. If you really want to know, yes, I don't hold any feelings towards Celaine other than her being a companion that's following us on this journey. Sure, I've helped to train her a bit, but she's still far away from the level of strength that I'm looking for. Although I do hold a somewhat favorable impression towards her and look forward to her future achievements as she's a genius with the saber, that's it as of right now. Until she reaches a level of strength I'm satisfied with will I start to hold her in high regards." Mira said and took a short pause before continuing.

"I doubt you'll understand my position, but I want you to realize that I've lived many lives and have seen most of my friends throughout these lives die, some even by my hand. Celaine might be trustworthy, but she's too weak to freely live in this world! So what if she's trustworthy?! So what if I've known her for several years and even helped with her training?! It makes no difference if she's dead! I can't go around guarding her 24/7 either or else even if she becomes strong, she'll be weak in almost every other area! Not to mention I also have to get stronger!"

"I've trained a lot of people over the last few years, do you expect me to watch over and protect them like some sort of mother?! NO! Of course, you don't! Sure, Celaine is our companion right now and it's great that you became friends with her, but I'm not here to protect her. I'm here to get stronger! She and even you need to go through life-and-death experiences in order to get stronger. If you do, when you become a true powerhouse, you will be a frightening existence!"

"How do you think I got so good at fighting? By frolicking through the flowers? Lazing around while having someone else protect me? No. I became like this through thousands, tens of thousands, or maybe even more battles! Celaine will never get stronger if she doesn't go through these experiences. You should already know this." Mira finished talking and let Maria soak it all in.

'Strike while the iron's hot' is what Mira's doing right now. She knew that Maria is in a vulnerable state right now and planned to take advantage of that.

Maria started to tear up after hearing that as she found it extremely cold and unfeeling yet she couldn't refute it. It's true that she hasn't experienced what Mira has and neither does she know what she's gone through. All she knows is that Mira has had an incredibly rough time that still shows no signs of holding up.

It's just hearing these things only made her heart feel worse. She started to feel that she was only an eyesore in Mira's mind and this feeling only started to increase the more she listened to Mira.

"But… what about me? What if I was the one who nearly died? Would you even feel anything?! Would you even be sad if I did die?! Am I really that insignificant in your eyes that even after all of this time you still don't care about me?!?!" Maria started to cry and even began to try to run away and hide.

Mira was slightly confused at first because she thought this issue had to do with how she treated Celaine, but who would've thought that this was actually about Maria?

Mira didn't really know what to do or say at this point as obviously, she holds Maria in high regard. Her life has been much more colorful ever since she entered her life, but she's had a wall put up for so long and she's tired of watching friends die because of her whether it be directly or indirectly.

That's why she wants Maria to get stronger so that she can protect herself and safely live and follow her. If Maria was at the peak of the mortal realm while being one of the strongest cultivators below immortals then she wouldn't have a problem accepting her as a friend. The likelihood of her dying at that point is much lower than a Foundation Realm ant.

But it seems she has to rearrange her thoughts a bit if she wants Maria to stay around for the long road. Mira's sure that she won't find a better friend other than Maria in the future, but also can't find it in her to open up to her.

This is one of the first times in a long time that Mira has hesitated and doesn't know what action to take. Should she let her go? Should she confront her right now? What would she do after? What if Maria doesn't want to follow her anymore?

After several scenarios played through her mind, Mira decided to try something that she hasn't done in many lifetimes.

She soon appeared in front of the crying Maria that was running away.

"What are you doing? Go awa-"

Maria was about to dart off again but was interrupted when Mira suddenly embraced her in a hug. She then heard Mira whisper into her ear…

"I'm the only one that's allowed to kill you..."

Although it was quite possibly the worst thing to say right now in order to comfort Maria, she couldn't help herself but start crying in Mira's embrace yet this time they were out of happiness and relief.