Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Mira came to a few conclusions as to why her shovel disintegrated slower than the piece of ice she threw in the fog. One is that her shovel was much denser than the piece of ice she threw. Now, this is probably true even if it's not the main reason, but with how powerful the fog is, it would still disintegrate in an instant, but one instant will be a bit longer than the other.

Another reason is the ground might not be as toxic as the fog. However, Mira has some serious doubts about that. The ground is literally a purplish-black color, almost like it's been contaminated for years. Not to mention that the ground seems to be the source of the fog or at least tied to the source. If anything, the ground should be several times more toxic than the fog.

The last reason is because she was holding the shovel. It sounds crazy and highly implausible, but that's the last thing that was different. So maybe this fog isn't so deadly to people? Or maybe the fog is sentient and it feels like Mira is a good person?

Mira decided to put her theory to the test since it's the only lead she has. She extended a long piece of ice from her finger and touched the fog with it. If Mira wasn't back to her usual self, she might've jumped for joy seeing her test yielding positive results!

The ice that touched the fog, although it was still disintegrating, Mira could actually see the process instead of it being destroyed in an instant.

The fog was entering the ice, corroding it, then when it was fully corroded, that piece of ice would turn into dust.

Mira was happy to see this result since she finally found some clues! That being said, she still needed to run a few more tests just in case. She threw the rest of the ice in the fog and started running more tests.

She threw a rock in the fog and watched it disintegrate in an instant.

She had Maria and Celaine shoot wind blades and light beams into the fog, but they weren't even able to penetrate the fog before being corroded and destroyed. However, they did last longer than the rock.

Mira formed a large ice hand to carry large amounts of dirt into the fog and watched as the dirt instantly disintegrated within the ice hand as the ice hand was slowly corroded.

However, Mira's last test kind of stumped her. She took out a low-level beast from her storage ring and threw it into the fog, but instead of it living or at least slowly corroding, the thing up and vanished leaving only its bones. However, not even its bones were spared as they sank into the ground.

Mira, Maria, Celaine, and Elenei were speechless when they saw that. That was a Rank 4 beast! It was a creature that was, at one point, alive.

This latest test confirms one of three things.

The fog only accepts living beings into it.

The fog doesn't accept beasts.

Or the fog doesn't accept anyone into it unless they are strong enough to handle the consequences.

However, that last one seems a bit unlikely since even Elenei feels a bit of trepidation while looking at the fog and Mira isn't about to throw her into the fog just to see if she'll die or not.

"Elenei! Fetch me a living beast! It doesn't matter how strong it is!"

"Got it!"

Elenei shot off of Celaine's shoulder and within a minute Elenei was back with a large boar in tow. The boar was only a Rank 3 beast, but it'll do just fine.

"Alright. Toss it into the fog."

Elenei nodded and tossed the boar into the fog. The boar screeched and roared as it saw itself being thrown into the fog but there was nothing it could do.

However, what happened next was beyond their expectations! The boar was actually able to land on the ground without dying! Even the boar was in disbelief! It thought that it was surely going to die when it saw this creepy place.

It woke up from its stupor and started roaring happily, but that didn't last long and before their very eyes the boar was literally vaporized leaving only its bones. But the bones didn't last long as they got sucked into the ground.

Everyone, even Mira and Elenei, felt chills run down their spine when they saw that scene. Especially Elenei. She was so glad she didn't recklessly charge in there with Mira or decide to follow Mira into such a wretched place!

However, although Mira was shocked and a little terrified, she was also excited since she gained some valuable intel thanks to that boar. From what she could tell, since the boar was able to safely enter the fog and even land on the ground without dying, this means that this place accepts living beings. However, it seems this place doesn't take kindly to beasts so as soon as it realized that a filthy beast entered its place, well you know the rest. It died without even knowing how.

Rest in peace, poor beast, for you sacrifice will not be in vain. You can die knowing that Mira's chances of getting a treasure were raised thanks to your help…

So that basically confirms that this place accepts living beings, but now it's just a matter of how does this place deem if someone is worthy enough to enter?

Does it base it off of strength? Race? Affinity? Or maybe it accepts anything that isn't a beast?

These are the questions that Mira has, but they'll pretty much stay unanswered. Sure, she could try and collect various races of different strengths and different affinities to test out her theories, but that would take forever! Plus, she might as well give this opportunity to someone else if she's going to waste all of her time testing the limits of this place.

Mira came to a conclusion and decided to do something that she almost never does…

Gamble!

She's going to take a leap of faith! This isn't something she can just give up on! She can feel that this place will be useful to her even though her instincts scream danger!

She decided to finally act like a cultivator! Ready to brave dangers and risk everything in order to reach the peak! That's what a true cultivator is like!

As soon as Mira came to that conclusion, an ethereal feeling washed over her, almost like a mountain was removed from her mind and body. It was a weird feeling but not a bad one. Her mind felt a bit clearer and her body felt a bit lighter.

No, she didn't all of a sudden get smarter and stronger, she merely lifted the shackles that her mind subconsciously placed since she's lived for almost a thousand years as a normal mortal!

Now, she finally started understanding what it means to be a cultivator!

Mira straightened her back and stored her mask and changed into normal robes. She didn't want her stuff getting destroyed by this shitty fog, after all. After she was finished changing into something that she's fine with getting destroyed, she stared at the fog with anticipation evident in her eyes.

"Whelp… Here goes nothing!"

…And she jumped straight in!