Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Several years ago, Mira obtained a technique from the Mermaid Queen back in the Secret Realm called the Water Body Transformation Technique. Until now, she hasn't had a good opportunity to use it, either because her meridians weren't strong enough or she was just too busy with other things.

There are 8 Stages to the Water Body Transformation Technique, but what's odd about these stages as they don't necessarily get progressively harder the more you cultivate it. Rather, the 1st Stage is the most difficult as many people's meridians can't handle the weight of the water flowing through them and would burst.

The only thing one needs to cultivate the technique properly is a certain amount of strength to withstand the pressure of the water; that's all.

There are 8 stages to the technique:

Stage 1: Meridian Cleansing

Stage 2: Skin Cleansing

Stage 3: Flesh Cleansing

Stage 4: Bone Cleansing

Stage 5: Marrow Cleansing

Stage 6: Organ Cleansing

Stage 7: Blood Cleansing

Stage 8: Heart Cleansing

From what Mira could remember, the technique doesn't directly increase one's strength more than some other techniques, like the Magma Dragon Body. If this was before her rebirth, it might bring her an immediate 40% boost, but she was skeptical about that number now.

However, that's not why Mira wanted to practice the technique in the first place, as the benefits of the technique lie elsewhere.

The Water Body Transformation Technique is a technique that cleanses the body of all impurities. That isn't just the case for right now, either, but in the future as well. If for some reason, she accumulates impurities, they'll be much easier to extract because she practiced this technique than if she didn't.

That's also where the strength boost comes into play, as ridding the body of impurities is one way of making someone more efficient, which in turn would make them stronger. Also, without impurities, she'll be able to store more and purer Qi, cultivate much faster and will be able to consume pills without worrying about the lingering impurities in her body. Those are just to name a few.

Fortunately, the F.LD.I.L considered that Mira would practice this technique in the future; thus, two ingredients for her Core Formation breakthrough were Yin Qi Water and Heavy Water.

Now that her meridians were strengthened after the rebirth, she should have no problem blazing through the stages as long as she can find a suitable body of water. Though, that shouldn't be hard, as the Ancient Beast Mountain Range has all kinds of lakes, ponds, and rivers.

Besides that, due to how cold the mountain range is, she might even be able to strengthen her ice affinity.

Hopping on Rhydian, Mira said, "Take us to the nearest lake!"

The wolf nodded and took flight toward the last known lake.

In under an hour, Rhydian dived into a bowl-shaped valley in between a bunch of mountains with a large, frozen lake at the bottom. However, unlike the volcanoes, which had very few beasts around them and were mostly barren, the lake was surrounded by them. There were also many creatures under the water as well!

Mira hopped off Rhydian and looked at the wolf, "Do you want to take them, or should I?" She spotted quite a few Rank 7 beasts and many more Rank 6 ones. If she still hadn't reached the peak of the Core Formation Realm, she would have killed them, but right now, they were useless to her.

*Woof!*

Rhydian barked, and without giving Mira any other option, she dove down to kill the beasts. Mira shook her head and let her do as she pleased, knowing it would benefit the winged wolf. Like Mira, she, too, could advance her cultivation and strength by consuming other things. This wasn't limited to just beasts, either. Rhydian could consume anything and come out stronger. The only downside to this ability was its terrible efficiency, and she had to hibernate often to digest it.

So, even after killing all those Rank 7 beasts, she would only see an insignificant bump in her cultivation, but not enough to bring her up a minor stage.

After clearing out all the beasts from inside and outside the lake, Mira dove into the water. The biting cold seeped into her body, threatening to turn her into an ice sculpture, but with her physique and affinity, it could not do anything to her.

Enveloping herself with Qi, Mira descended deeper into the water until darkness surrounded her.

'Since there's no order in which I must complete the Water Body Transformation Technique in, let's just do them all at once!' Mira thought. She didn't have time to waste going through each individual stage.

Plus, cultivating the technique was only secondary to her, a bonus. Her true purpose was to integrate her ice and water affinities, so they are one and the same. Therefore, to try and understand how the two interact with each other, their differences, and similarities, it was better to flood her body with water rather than one particular area.

Not one to hesitate once she made a decision, Mira opened up her pores and controlled her meridians to absorb as much water as possible, which was quite a lot.

*Swoosh!*

A mini whirlpool formed above Mira's head as water flowed endlessly inside her, washing over her body.

Mira didn't pay any attention to that and focused on controlling this water through every nanometer of her body, pushing out every little impurity.

Typically, this would take much longer than it should, and she'd have to be much more careful than she was because flooding her meridians with that much water could cripple her. That is, if they weren't made of Chaotic Silk. With the malleability and strength of her current meridians, as long as she didn't try to cripple herself, it was basically impossible to do so.

Her bones creaked underneath the water and weighed down on her like a mountain, but she could handle it without imploding, thanks to her newfound bodily strength.

As the water in the lake disappeared into Mira's body, washing away all the impurities, steamy black wisps exited her pores.

*Tsss*

These wisps reacted poorly to the water around them, indicating their toxicity, but that wasn't enough to wake Mira from her state of concentration. She was too busy splitting her mind in half, one side using the Water Body Transformation technique, the other trying to comprehend the profundities of the water element.

A few hours passed by, and eventually, Mira sucked the lake dry until there was nothing left of it.

Opening her eyes, she was surprised to notice that her body felt lighter. It was as if she had a weighted vest on this whole time, and only now did she take it off.

Punching the air a few times and doing a few kicks, she gasped in surprise. "It feels like my body is more flexible, and my muscles are easier to manipulate. The ease at which I can control my own body seems to have increased, and that was just after one session!"

She wasn't close to cultivating the technique to completion, but the effects were already noticeable!

"I suppose, just like Kayda, I'll have to give my regards to Mermaid Queen Asherah for handing over something so precious."

Remembering the sweet little mermaid made Mira remember that she felt like the Queen could be the reincarnation of her sister from her first life. While she couldn't confirm it, the similarities were uncanny despite the species difference.

"I'd like to see Asherah again…" Mira's eyes drooped, and her tails encapsulated her. Perhaps the only person besides Maria to make her feel like this was Aurora, her sister from her first life.

*Pah!*

Slapping her face, Mira pushed these emotions away, brushed off her clothes, and returned to Rhydian.

"Take me to more lakes." She demanded coldly, making the wolf's hairs stand on end.

'What? What did I do to make Master angry?' Rhydian wondered but couldn't figure it out. Shaking her head, she decided not to think about it and just do as she was told.

***

Just like with the volcanoes, Mira and Rhydian traveled around, killing beasts and soaking up lakes for a week until she finally completed her Water Body Transformation Technique.

In truth, Mira nearly completed the requirement for this round's weakness, but she stopped herself before she could do so to finish the technique. She might not get a chance like this again for a while, so she figured it wouldn't hurt just to wait another couple of days until she could complete all of it and move on to the next round, much stronger than before.