Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Above where the Gates of Heaven stood tall, a spatial tear appeared in the sky. It started as a small crack that would've escaped most people's eyes but soon turned into something more. A massive hole the size of a volcano ripped the world apart as if god himself was going to descend onto the world.

The hole didn't stay empty for long as it was immediately filled with menacing blacking clouds with bolts of red lightning crackling inside it.

The mere presence of this cloud caused the world to tremble as its booming thunder shook the land! However, it soon sensed the presence of the Gates of Heaven below it and roared with rage, destroying everything within the vicinity.

Blood-red lightning gathered around the bottom of the cloud and struck the Gates of Heaven, shattering it with one hit! The world was dyed red as the lightning was too intense to contain in this small world. The Secret Realm once again shook, but this time, it seemed more like it was about to flip upside down and implode just from the presence of that red lightning!

The cracks in the ground below grew wider, and the lava pillars became larger, hotter, and more deadly. If Mira and Huoyan were on the surface, they would not doubt that this place wouldn't last much longer. The presence of the black cloud was more than what it could handle, and with its lightning raining down upon the land, it couldn't take much more rampant destruction.

After destroying the Gates of Heaven, the black cloud sent tendrils of its red lightning throughout the Realm as if it was searching for something, and it didn't take long for it to long onto its target: a beautiful 9-tailed fox woman with both hands on a World Core!

It also noticed the dead soul of an Ashura next to her but paid no attention to it.

That man was already dead. What could he do? His flimsy soul was nothing in the face of its overwhelming power!

The black cloud gathered another bolt of lightning, much smaller than the one it used to destroy the Gates of Heaven, and launched it into the ground. The lightning bolt hit the ground with more force than an Ascension Realm expert could generate, creating a massive crater and uprooting all the earth around it.

However, that wasn't the end, as the bolt of lightning dug deeper into the ground, vaporizing it to form a massive hole, leading all the way down to Mira and Huoyan's position.

"Looks like you caused a bit of trouble this time, woman," Huoyan commented as he let go of Mira and looked up. With a playful expression, he chuckled, "The Heavens themself have decided to grace us with its presence! Don't you feel honored? Kuhahahahah!"

Mira also felt the looming presence of death above her and paled in horror.

An all-too-familiar aura filled the sky, one that Mira wanted to avoid at all costs.

'Fuck me!! Are you telling me I need to fight against that to beat this trial?! No way! It's impossible! Forget about fighting it! With how angry the Heavens are, I'd be lucky if I survived the first hit!' Mira cursed but immediately returned her attention back to the core before her.

'It seems the Heavens came due to me trying to gain ownership over this orb. If that's the case, does that mean this is actually a World Core??' Then, she glanced back at Huoyan, who stood in the middle of the giant hole the lightning strike had created.

'Did he know this would happen? Is that why he told me the story of how some of those demons I killed ended up in this place? To warn me?'

Regardless of how she felt about the Ashura, his actions have ignited her interest. She couldn't tell whether this was all premeditated or she was just lucky someone decided to help her and guide her through this Realm. Either way, Mira felt an odd desire to learn more about the man before her.

"Focus, woman!" Huoyan yelled with his back facing her, "You have a few seconds at most to gain ownership over that core! Once you do, be sure to collect my soul before you leave this place! I'd hate to die a second time for no reason!"

"What?!" Mira shouted in shock, but the thunderous roar above her drowned out her voice! She instinctively wanted to turn back and look at the man, as she had not expected that from him, but she knew the situation was dire.

The Heavens had already locked onto her, ready to strike her down. If she didn't use every nanosecond available, she would die–not just in body but soul as well.

Her consciousness swept through her body, and she forced more blood out of her body and found more Qi in her body that she could extract. This Hell didn't have much Qi in the air, so replenishing her reserves was not an option. She could only pry out every little ounce of Qi hidden away deep in her body to try and speed up the process.

However, it seemed like the World Core was a gluttonous beast as it absorbed her energy without end.

'Dammit! How much longer will it take for this thing to accept me as its master??' Mira clicked her tongue, but then a thought struck her, 'Or could it be I'm missing something?'

Her eyes lit up as that was a very real possibility. Most items in the Cultivation World, if they need a drop of blood or Qi to accept someone as their owner, only take a little, and the process is over instantly. However, this World Core was sucking her body dry and still showed no signs of acceptance.

'What if… I use my soul?' It was a crazy thought, but it was her only other option. The only problem was she had never manifested her soul outside her body before.

No, she didn't even know if she could since she wasn't in the Nascent Soul Realm.

While the quality of her soul was way too high for someone at her level, it was still blocked behind her cultivation, unable to be put to use. _{𝗳𝗿𝐞ℯ𝙬𝗲𝗯n𝗼νel.𝒄𝑜𝘮}

*RUMBLE!**RUMBLE!**RUMBLE!**RUMBLE!*

The Heavens had finished preparing for their next, and hopefully final, strike. Dust rose around her as the Realm shook, tearing apart at the seams.

Mira's mind raced on how she could control her soul or at least a part of it! She stopped inserting Qi and blood into the World Core and instead swept her consciousness over her soul.

She tried to urge it out of her body, like how she would do with her Qi, but it wouldn't budge.

'Dammit! Just mo-'

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

Mira's thoughts came to a halt as the world was dyed red again, and a long strand of lightning descended from the Heavens straight toward Mira's body.

"It's time to go out with one last HOORAH!" Mira heard Huoyan shout in the distance, "You may have gotten me last time, and you will certainly kill me again, but as long as my soul still stands, I won't let you touch a single strand of hair on this woman's body!"

Huoyan raised his fists and jumped into the air, intercepting Heaven's strike! He gathered every iota of power left within and punched the lightning bolt!

"..."

However, there was no explosion or climactic battle. The blood-red lightning just entered his fists and passed through the rest of his body, destroying it upon contact. He never stood a chance.

"Just like last time, huh?" Huoyan muttered. His body was quickly destroyed, turning to dust, as his head was the last thing left before he turned into a white wisp, just like the other demons in this place.

"Praise be, Mahabali, for granting me this opportunity to experience such passion and vigor again. May you bless this young wayward child with strength and fortune on her bloody path to the top." He gave a short prayer, his head slowly disintegrating afterward, but before he died for good, he smiled and left Mira with his last 4 words:

"Ayur Arogya Sampada, Mira."

….

Everything went silent after he said that, and Mira knew he had died. However, now wasn't the time to think about that as the remnants of the lightning charged at her! Although it was just a fraction of the strength it had before, that was still enough to wipe Mira from the face of the planet.

Fractions of seconds away from death, Mira roared in her mind, 'Fuck it!'

Then, she used her scythe to chop off a piece of her soul and shoved it into the World Core!

As soon as the two made contact, a bright, white light bloomed and formed a protective barricade around Mira, blocking the lightning strike from killing her.

Without looking back, Mira focused on where Huoyan died and swept her tails over that area, collecting his soul.

Feeling the familiar sensation of a white wisp entering her body, Mira knew that she had grabbed it.

Though, she couldn't help but feel bitter on the inside…

[Congratulations, Successor Mira XXX, for completing the "Afterlife Trial"....]