Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Knowing exactly what she needed to do to evolve, Mira didn't waste any time trying to become a Legendary Ice Beast.

She explored new lands, killed new beasts, consumed their flesh, grew more powerful, and searched for any ice treasures that could be useful to her.

Occasionally she'd find a nice, cold area to meditate, but most of Mira's time was actually spent hunting.

Years went by, and there wasn't anything different in Mira's routine. She hadn't found any humans, so there were no civilizations. The beasts in this world, especially the stronger ones, do not generally stay in groups because any and every beast in this world is merely seen as a large piece of flesh by other beasts.

Even Mira would kill weaker beasts because they are an easy source of energy.

That being said, there wasn't anything in this world that could distract her from completing her goal. No humans or other humanoid races were blocking off certain areas because of a treasure or something like that. No beast societies were made, which could hinder her quick progress.

The one and only rule of this world is survival of the fittest. Only the strong can survive. You die and become food for the strong if you aren't strong yourself.

The beasts here don't care about the deaths of their brethren, as such a thing is typical here.

In this world, Mira can kill whoever or whatever she wants without worrying about the possibility of revenge!

Well, another reason for that is because the beasts in this world lack the emotional intelligence that the beasts outside of this trial world have.

However, Mira's not one to complain about such a thing as it makes her job easier. She can run around killing whatever she comes across without facing the consequences! The only thing she has to worry about is coming across a more powerful enemy, but so far, she hasn't had a problem with this.

Foxes are known for their intelligence, which, combined with Mira's own intelligence, intuition, and instincts, make for a fearsome combo that can allow her to gauge whether an area is dangerous based solely on her instincts.

All she has to do is glance at an area to know if there is a high chance of her dying in the said area!

This ability has saved her life on more than one occasion, and Mira can't wait to see how powerful this ability is once she becomes a Legendary Beast. Maybe by then, she'll also be able to use this ability to search for treasures!

Soon enough, 30 years passed by in the blink of an eye, and Mira had done nothing other than eat, sleep, hunt, meditate, and work on evolving.

During the first five years, Mira spent most of her time trying to reach her body's maximum potential before working on her evolution.

The following 25 years were spent forming her third tail, refining her bloodline, increasing her comprehension, and hunting down more beasts for more energy.

Then finally, after 30 years, Mira was finally able to evolve her bloodline and species again! Although she didn't know what kind of fox she was now, she knew that as long as she became a 9-Tailed Fox with ice set as her foundational powers, she'd be able to complete the trial.

However, there was one thing she was a bit confused about. She still didn't know how bloodlines rank in this world or if there even is a ranking.

For example, she has to evolve six more times to become a Legendary Beast, but wouldn't that mean there are nine different bloodline rankings? No, there are probably beasts in this world with a higher-leveled bloodline than just Legendary.

That thought left Mira even more confused than before because she felt there were probably only 5 or 6 official bloodline tiers or rankings in this world. Well, that's just her theory and can't actually be proven, especially in this world where the intelligence of the creatures isn't high enough to categorize themselves.

In the end, Mira could only put that thought to the back of her mind as it doesn't matter a whole lot. At the end of the day, she still needs to evolve six more times.

Anyways, now that she has evolved her second time and formed her third tail, Mira's power and strength have skyrocketed!

Another thing to note about this evolution is that Mira can feel her tails becoming heavier and more dextrous. She felt like they could now be used in battle and not just get ripped to shreds before she could even use them.

Her body size also shrunk back to its infantile stage, but that didn't bother Mira. Yes, it was a bit of a pain to reach her new body's full potential again, but at the same time, it allowed Mira to get used to her newfound strength.

Mira also understood that she's not actually reverting back to when she was just a baby fox. It only looks that way because, during the evolutionary process, all of her body's power and potential is condensing. That way, her new body will have plenty of room to grow after she evolves.

That being said, her body's maximum potential will exponentially increase after each evolution. This goes for her size as well.

If she's not wrong, then to reach her maximum potential after this latest evolution, she might grow to the size of an elephant or even bigger!

Who knows how big she'll be after becoming a Legendary Beast! She might very well be the size of a city!

Mira didn't even want to think about how much energy she'll need in order to reach that size. She might very well have to consume entire continents' worth of beasts to sustain her growth!

Mira put these thoughts to the back of her mind and prepared herself for another period of hunting and meditation.

The only thing Mira found challenging about this trial so far is the long years of mind-numbing meditation and the constant hunts she has to go on. Other than that, this trial is relatively straightforward, but it's times like these when Mira is thankful for the Abyssal Torment Steps.

Perhaps if she hadn't refined her will through such a torturous process, she might not be able to keep her cool in this trial once the years started piling up.

She will definitely be fine during the beginning years, but give her a few thousand years, and she might start going crazy if the only thing she can do in this world is kill, consume, and meditate.

Now, after going through such pain and torment to her mind, body, and soul for what felt like hundreds or even thousands of years, Mira's will wouldn't be shaken by something as simple as this.

The only thing that bothers Mira regarding this trial is the time it takes to evolve. She's only evolved twice, and it's already taken her 35 years! At this rate, she might actually need over 100,000 years to evolve into a Legendary Beast!

She doesn't have that long! She has, at maximum, around 82,000 years, but that will leave her with no time to finish the other two trials, meaning she won't be able to form her desired Core!

Mira felt a sense of urgency after her second evolution and knew that if she wanted to become a Legendary Beast within a reasonable amount of time, she'd have to put in a bit more effort.

***

Time quickly passed for Mira as she sped through each of her evolutions.

For her third evolution, it took her another 100 years before she was able to evolve.

Then it took her another 250 years to evolve for the fourth time.

From then on, the time it took her to evolve increased exponentially.

It took her 500 years for the fifth evolution.

Another 1,000 years for the sixth evolution.

2,000 years for the seventh evolution.

5,000 years for the eighth evolution.

Then finally, an entire 30,000 for the ninth and final evolution!

That's right, in total, it took Mira 38,885 years to become a Legendary Ice Beast.

Well, those last 30,000 years include reaching the full potential of her Legendary Beast Bloodline.

When she finally did, she was completely and utterly wrong about how large she would be and how much energy she'd need to reach that state.

Once she reached her full potential, Mira was the size of a small country, and just to reach that size, she needed what seemed like an entire world's worth of nutrients.

Of course, she didn't have too much of an issue reaching that state as this trial world seemed nearly infinite.

That's just one of the many things Mira has learned about this trial world over the last almost 40,000 years. Another thing she learned is that there is no other environment other than ice and snow in this trial world.

There are no deserts, forests, plains, jungles, or anything like that. There are a few oceans, but they are frozen over on top while the temperatures under the surface are sub-zero. In truth, some of the coldest places in this trial world are at the bottom of the ocean.

As for Mira's appearance, her body is entirely white. There isn't a speck of another color on her body. Her tails, however, are each different colors. They are white, silvery-white, icy blue, pinkish blue, pink, turquoise, gold, sapphire, and black. Each color represents different parts of Mira's comprehension of the Dao of ice. There are also no more stripes running down each of her tails.

She has a small ice crown on her head, which symbolizes her status as a progenitor of a Legendary Beast Bloodline.

Her eyes have gone from crimson to blood-red from all the killings she's done over the last nearly 40,000 years.

She looked incredibly majestic and beautiful but at the same time extremely deadly.

Now that Mira had finally become a Legendary Ice Beast, she knew it was time for her to be sent out of the trial. She didn't understand why she knew; she just did.

However, right before she was sent out of the trial, Mira clearly felt her body and bloodline urging her to try and evolve again.

Feeling this, Mira grew ecstatic because she knew that although she had completed the goal of the trial and wouldn't be able to stay in this world any longer. If the Legendary Beast Bloodline she received was indeed the bloodline she worked so hard on to evolve, then it means it can grow stronger!

Those were her final thoughts as she was thrown out of the trial world.