Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

After killing the rest of the people in the Sect and looting all the treasures, the two of them left, worried that someone from the Unorthodox Faction would come looking for them. While Mira wasn't scared of encountering another Mortal Shedding Realm expert, she didn't want to waste another 15+% of her blood essence on something she could've avoided.

"Damn! This branch Sect was much more loaded than I thought!" Mira mumbled, glancing over the mountain of wealth she had just acquired.

Inside her Storage Space were countless Low-Stage Spirit Stones, hundreds of thousands of Mid-Stage Spirit Stones, and even 10 Late-Stage Spirit Stones! With just this amount of wealth, she wouldn't have to worry about resources until after she reached the middle stages of the Soul Transformation Realm.

However, that wasn't all she and Rhydian looted.

Weapons, armor, techniques, herbs, pills, and treasures… Essentially everything that made up a Sect was in Mira's possession.

"I guess the saying 'Theft is the fastest way to wealth' is true. With all the resources at my disposal, I could build a small Sect!" Mira suddenly thought of Maria, causing her expression to cool.

'Maria would put these resources to better use than if they were in my hands.'

She glanced at the ring on her finger and muttered, "If I get the chance, I'll track her down and give her a little help to start things off."

Putting these thoughts to the back of her mind, Mira focused on the more prevalent issue, which was her cultivation bottleneck!

Mira sat cross-legged on Rhydian's back, sending her consciousness into her Core. She grasped ahold of all her Qi and tried to stimulate a breakthrough according to her cultivation technique, but it didn't budge.

It was like a giant invincible wall was blocking her road to the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Why can't I break through?" She sent her consciousness to check out the rest of her body and even her soul, but she didn't know what she needed to do.

Luckily, the Guardian decided to enlighten her!

"Ah! It seems you're in quite the pickle! The Nascent Soul Realm is quite an important cultivation Realm. It'd be a pity if you couldn't enter it. Would you like my help to get you out of this little quandary?" The Guadian teased, but Mira's facial expression never changed, staying ice cold.

"..." Mira stayed silent. She's never begged anyone for help, and she certainly wouldn't start today. If he didn't want to offer his assistance, she'd figure it out on her own.

The Guardian knew what she was thinking and released a snort.

"Hmph! Fine, I'll give you some free advice, but it's only because I don't want to see you get thrashed around by those slutty little girls that descended into your world."

Now THAT caught Mira's attention.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Slutty little girls? You mean those bitches that were behind the murder of Maria's parents? The ones that I'd speculated the bastard god sent down?"

"Tsk. What are you calling him a god for when you don't even refer to me, your own Guardian, by my proper title?!" The Guardian complained, but his response gave Mira all the information she needed to know.

"Anyways, there are a few reasons you can't break through into the Nascent Soul Realm. However, before we get there, let me tell you a bit about what a Nascent Soul is."

The Guardian paused for a moment before continuing.

"A Nascent Soul is, to put it simply, a soul in its infancy. Every living being, whether it be humans, beasts, plants, etc., has a soul. Now, depending on the type of existence you are will determine how innately strong your soul is, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved."

"Unlike most people, you currently have partial access to your Soul. Though, that's simply because you've experienced death numerous times and have lived as a soul with all your memories intact. For this reason, you've been able to do things that other people couldn't."

"Now, Imagine your soul as a plant. Before the Nascent Soul Realm, it's akin to a seed, but after you reach that Realm, it sprouts into a tiny seedling. The Soul Transformation Realm then transforms it into a sapling, and the Divine Sea Realm advances it into a fully formed tree."

"Having access to your soul and making it more powerful brings numerous benefits, but I'll get to that later. First, I'll explain why cultivating the soul is important. You might not have known this, but a Soul is deeply linked to your brain and senses.

"While your brain controls your cognitive ability, reaction speed, etc., once you reach the Nascent Soul Realm, not only is your brain essentially backed up onto your Soul, but you'll see a substantial increase in brain functionality. Basically, this means that you can store more information and process it faster."

"I'm sure you can understand why this is so important, but I'll say it anyways. Battles in the stages above the Nascent Soul Realm happen extremely quickly. Naturally, your brain must keep up with those kinds of high-speed fights to survive."

"However, that's not all having access to a soul gives you. Once you break through, if you've already formed your Dao, you'll have minimal access to it. You've used this state a few times in the past, where you have absolute control over all the ice in the nearby area."

"You'll also gain Soul Sense, which allows you to spread out your soul and use your mind's eye to examine the surrounding area or other people. You can think of it as a kind of sixth sense."

Mira greedily took all of this information in, but her eyebrows furrowed as she just wanted him to get to the point.

"So? Why is all this important?"

The Guardian chuckled, "Hush! I'm getting there!"

He coughed lightly and continued explaining, "Ahem! While in the Mortal Realms, you might think there isn't a specified Soul Cultivation System or Body Cultivation System like the Qi Cultivation System, but that's simply not true. Body, Soul, and Qi are all mixed into one system, meaning they are all interconnected. Though Qi is certainly the most important as it's the lifeblood of any cultivator, whether it be Body, Soul, or Qi."

"However, there's a terrible imbalance in your body. Both the strength of your Body and Qi are weaker than your Soul right now, and that's before you're in the Nascent Soul Realm. So, if you want to break through, you'll have to find a way to increase the purity and density of your Qi and, at the same time, increase the strength of your body."

"Your Inner Body Cultivation is a good start, but it's not enough."

"But that's not all that's stopping you. Due to your cultivation technique, you'll have to reach the Manifestation Realm of Weapon Endowment with your scythe before attempting to break through."

"Lastly, because of your unique circumstances and the fact that you're the inheritor of the F.LD.I.L, you'll have to shape your soul into a manifestation of your Dao. If you want to make any changes to it, now would be the time, as once you set it in place, it'll be nearly impossible to change. This manifestation will be the foundation on which the base of your power is built upon."

This was a lot for Mira to take in, and she could only sigh as it seemed like she had a lot of work ahead of her. Still, she wasn't dissatisfied with-

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"Oh! I almost forgot to tell you that you'll also need to complete a few special missions in the F.LD.I.L to get the necessary resources for your breakthrough. Hahaha!"

-nevermind, now she was pretty dissatisfied.

A deep frown formed on her face as the thought of going through more missions sounded awful. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about that.

"Sigh… It seems I'm stuck in the Core Formation Realm for the time being." Mira sighed.

"Correct. However, you can speed up the process by multitasking." The Guardian said.

"Oh? How so?"

"You can begin cultivating both your Inner and External Body. Not only will that make you stronger so you can tackle future problems more easily, but you can do them simultaneously!"

For some reason, the Guardian was more enthusiastic about this, giving Mira a bad feeling, but she didn't deny that he was correct.

In the end, she just nodded her head, "Alright, let's do that then."

After saying that, she dove her consciousness into the Gates of Purgatory to begin the next Hell.