Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

"Sue Ming…" Zehir muttered with a frown.

"Hmm?" Sue Ming gently landed on the ground in front of Zehir, looking at him with a hint of amusement. "So, you know of me? I thought I had hidden my existence well enough from you all."

Zehir's frown deepened as he stared at Sue Ming. Although he had to admit that the woman was beautiful, the way she gazed at him told him everything he needed to know about her.

'An arrogant bitch through and through.' Zehir grumbled, wishing he could go back to cultivating right now.

He already didn't want to be here, interacting with Nathaniel or anyone else from the Unorthodox Faction. However, his father had ordered him to stay for another 20 years.

If it weren't for that, he would've already left.

"...There are some people in this world that even someone as strong as you can't escape from," Zehir replied, trying his best not to scowl.

"Oh?" Sue Ming's eyebrow lifted before she gave a captivating smile, "And who might that be?"

As she asked the question, her body emitted an enticing scent while a pink mist began to form and gather around Zehir. It headed straight for his orifices, but Zehir was quick to react.

He immediately closed any openings in his body while using his Qi to shield himself from the 'subtle' mind attack.

"...What do you think you're doing, woman?" Zehir growled, beginning to lose his patience.

Sue Ming had already been spying on their conversation, and now she was trying to affect his mind?! There was a limit to his patience, and Sue Ming was beginning to cross that line.

Sue Ming narrowed her eyes slightly before clicking her tongue and reeling in her Qi.

"Tch. Whatever," she huffed under her breath. A moment later, her smile returned, but this time, it was significantly less appealing to the two men. "You didn't answer my previous question."

"No," Zehir immediately replied, "If you want me to kill Mira, that's fine, but the rest are a no."

Sue Ming's eyes narrowed as she glanced at Nathaniel, causing the man to tense up. He could tell what the woman meant by that look and knew his future looked grim.

"No, no. You're mistaken." Sue Ming waved her hand dismissively, "I don't want you to kill Mira."

"Victor and Nathaniel seem to hold you in high regard, and from your strong bloodline, I can tell you're quite the talented young man. I merely want to borrow your talents to teach an… unruly Sect Master a little lesson. Of course, I'll reward you properly should you do a good job."

Zehir understood she was talking about Aelina, and his frown deepened even further.

"...Why don't you just do it yourself?"

"Why should I when there's you?" Sue Ming retorted with a smile, but from the slight twitching of her lips, they could tell she was growing irritated.

Zehir's brows scrunched, and he spat, "Well, it's your problem, not mine. Solve it yourself."

"..." Sue Ming's eyelids twitched. Her aura slowly began to leak, causing the mountain to tremble slightly as she was about to lose her temper.

Fortunately, she managed to control herself before she did something she might come to regret. Zehir was too unique. She had been aware of his existence for a while now and knew he wasn't ordinary. Whether it be his bloodline, talent, strength, or calmness, he clearly wasn't someone ordinary.

While she might be an arrogant, manipulative, and sadistic woman, she wasn't a complete moron. Although she wanted nothing more than to snap this young man's neck, she knew better than to cause trouble with someone who gave off a similar aura to mythical beasts for no reason.

Even her Master wouldn't casually make enemies with them, and he was revered as a god! If even her Master respected their strength, nothing more needed to be said about her.

Taking a deep breath, Sue Ming's smile returned before taking a large, beating heart full of vitality from her storage ring. A dense, overpowering aura filled the mountain and beyond, alerting every being in their vicinity!

"Really? What if I offered you this? Would you still decline my request?"

Zehir froze as soon as the heart appeared, his own heart pounding wildly. His stomach growled with the urge to devour whatever was in front of him. His eyes quickly turned bloodshot, and he nearly lost all rationale, only thinking about the beating heart before him.

Luckily, Sue Ming returned it to her storage ring, allowing Zehir to calm down.

After about a minute of taking long, deep breaths, he managed to say, "...Let's talk."

Sue Ming's smile widened, but inwardly she was sneering, 'Hmph! All people are the same. So long as you offer the right price, anyone can be bought and sold. All pride and honor are useless in the face of self-interest.'

'You want to challenge me, Battle Maiden Sect Master? You're a thousand years too early for that!'

***

"That bitch!" Cyrus slammed his fists onto the table in anger, instantly reducing it to dust.

"Does she really have to go this far?! It's not like I killed her family!"

Ever since Aelina released the video, his disciples were being killed, his businesses were disrupted, and his Sect's reputation was dragged through the mud.

Aelina clearly wasn't content with merely killing him and the Crimson Slayer Sect's disciples. No, she intended to dismantle the entire organization from its roots!

'She's using me to set an example for the world. To make everyone think twice before causing trouble with her Sect!' Despite understanding her motives, Cyrus remained infuriated.

The Sect was his life's work! He had nurtured, controlled, and ruled it for thousands of years. How could he stand by and watch it crumble before his very eyes?

Even the most altruistic people would struggle to remain neutral in such a situation, let alone someone like him.

To make matters worse, Cyrus could already envision his fate. Aelina would continue systematically tearing him apart before eventually delivering the final blow, annihilating the Crimson Slayer Sect forever. Even with the Toxic Blade Sect's support, he doubted his survival.

Unless Victor Steele intervened personally, Cyrus feared his Sect would not withstand this ordeal. However, the chances of him doing such a thing were slim to none.

'Those damn Central Continent bastards.' He grumbled, his blood boiling.

For everyone who reached the Divine Sea Realm, there was one ultimate goal: to break through to the Ascension Realm and become an Immortal. However, the Central Continent was the only known place to achieve that.

Victor Steele took control of the Unorthodox Faction primarily to discover and nurture geniuses who could compete with the prodigies from the Central Continent. If the Crimson Slayer Sect couldn't even withstand the challenges posed by the Western Continent's residents, how could they ever hope to triumph against those from the Central Continent?

If the situation reached a point where Victor's intervention was necessary, the Sect and its cultivation methods would already be deemed failures in his eyes.

Why would he bother saving a group of failures?

For Victor, the loss of Cyrus and the Crimson Slayer Sect was nothing more than a pruning of the weak. In fact, he probably viewed this conflict similarly to Aelina.

An opportunity for any hidden talents to flourish.

'Dammit!' Cyrus ground his teeth and cursed again, 'All of you… I'll teach all of you bastards a lesson! Even if I'm going to die, I'll make sure to drag you down to hell with me!'

For a moment, it felt like the world was closing in around him, cutting off all paths of retreat.

Cyrus gritted his teeth in frustration, knowing that he could no longer continue to hold back unless he wanted to be destroyed without ever putting up a fight!

"Attention, all Elders!" Cyrus roared, sending his voice directly into all the Elders' minds. "Send word to all disciples, including those from the branch Sects! Tell them to prepare for war!"

"Yes, Sect Master!" A unanimous cry from all the Elders came back to him.

Then, Cyrus took out a talisman and sent his Qi inside it. Once it activated, he said, "I want everything ready in three days!"

A voice came back from the other side, which Cyrus recognized as the leader of the Toxic Blade Sect, "Don't worry. I'll make sure everything is ready by then."

Cyrus cut off the connection and sighed before his lips rose into a cold smile.

"You want to abandon me, make an example out of me, force me to become your dog… Well, I've had enough! Even if I have to give up everything, I won't let you all have your way!" His eyes turned bloodshot as he laughed maniacally.

The more he thought about his situation and seemingly inevitable fate, the control and rationale he had over his cultivation technique faded, allowing for the side effects to be more prominent.

Just like how Zander went crazy, the Master was slowly succumbing to the same fate.

A fate shared between almost all of the disciples who are a part of the Unorthodox Faction Sects.