Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Mira decided to leave the book on how to create your own techniques for last as she felt it would be the more impactful and focused on the one describing the various ranks for Weapons, Pills, Arrays, Formations, Techniques, treasures, ores, etc.

After a few minutes of reading, Mira learned that there are 7 different rankings for the items in the Mortal Realm, with Grade having 4 substages-Low, Mid, Late, and Peak.

They are:

Human Grade: Meant for those in the Body Tempering Realm.

Mortal Grade: Meant for those in the Qi Condensation and Foundation Realm.

Earth Grade: Meant for those in the Core Formation Realm.

Heaven Grade: Meant for those in the Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation Realm.

Mystical Grade: Meant for those in the Mortal Shedding Realm.

Divine Grade: Meant for those in the Divine Sea and Ascension Realm.

Origin Grade: Can be used in any Realm, and the power varies depending on the user and what's being used.

Many things go into how something is graded, but it's mostly based on the density of the aura released by the product. Or in cases like Arrays and Formations, it's determined by their power, efficiency, and the quality of Spirit Stones they use.

As for pills, they are mostly graded by the ingredients used to make them, along with the effects of the pill.

Well, there are many other ways to grade an item, but these are the ones used the most.

However, there are rare items that don't belong to any of these grades and thus fall under the Origin Grade. These are items that could be the most useless trash in one person's hands while also being an ultimate treasure in another's.

Unbeknownst to Mira, along with the rest of humanity, Mira was actually able to purchase an Origin Grade product from the Mercenary Association: [Liquid Metal].

That's because this metal is too hard to work with, and humans have been using it wrong this entire time.

On the surface, this metal is seemingly useless. It has a low boiling point, needs excessively cold temperatures to turn into a solid, and loses its form quite easily as it is a liquid. Making a weapon out of it using normal means is virtually impossible, and even if someone did manage to create one, it would just turn back into a liquid not long after.

Hell, even if someone were a blacksmithing genius at the Ascension Realm, they still wouldn't be able to use this metal properly. Its properties are just too unique.

However, Mira's Core seamlessly merged it with her scythe, which is also tied to her cultivation, effectively making it an Origin-Grade growth-type weapon that will grow alongside the user. That's why calling Mira's scythe a Stage 1 Core Formation Realm scythe isn't necessarily wrong.

Unfortunately, even now, Mira still doesn't know how amazing a resource like [Liquid Metal] is or how it merged with her scythe, and even if she did know, she probably wouldn't understand it.

Well, frankly speaking, several of the items used during Mira's breakthrough were Origin-Grade items.

The Immemorial Dao Comprehension Ice, Chaotic Silk, World Tree Seed, Samsara Dogwood Tree, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Mira's bloodline is an Origin-Grade bloodline as well though that wouldn't be exactly correct.

Also, with how Mira's Core used the [Dao Comprehension Stone] during her breakthrough, that could also count as an Origin Grade item, though Dao Comprehension Stones are a bit unique.

These kinds of stones come in all different shapes and sizes. They can also be used for different things, but most of the time, they are used to help people attain enlightenment. However, they affect each person differently and only really help when you are already on the cusp of enlightenment.

It's not like having one around you will put you in a constant state of enlightenment.

Unfortunately, aside from that, these stones don't have much of a use. There are different grades of Dao Comprehension Stones, but their effects remain the same. Only the quality is increased.

However, when Mira merged with one, it allowed Mira to enter a pseudo-enlightened state as long as she focused hard enough.

Such effects could only be categorized as something within the Origin Grade!

So, unknowingly, Mira's existence contains many different Origin Grade items that will constantly grow as her cultivation rises.

Aside from that, Mira was curious about why Divine Grade items are split between both the Divine Sea Realm and the Ascension Realm. She thought for sure that those in the Ascension Realm would use Immortal Weapons or at least Psuedo-Immortal Weapons, but it seems that's not the case.

The book doesn't elaborate much, but based on her limited knowledge of the Immortal Realm and Immortal beings in general, there's a substantial difference between something that can be called 'Immortal' and something that is not.

Even just referring to something as a half-step Immortal or Pseudo-Immortal is impossible. Someone or something is either Immortal, or it's not. There is no in-between.

Actually, Mira was also curious as to why every other Grade correlated to two Realm while the other Grades only correlated to one.

But, according to the papers, it just says that it happened to turn out like that. Part of the reason, though, is because of Spirit Stones.

Spirit Stones are also separated into 4 stages-Low, Mid, Late, and Peak-but the cultivation Realms that these stages are useful for vary greatly.

Low-Grade Spirit Stones are meant for those in the Core Formation Realm and below.

Mid-Grade Spirit Stones are meant for those in the Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation Realms.

Late-Grade Spirit Stones are meant for those in the Mortal Shedding Realm, while Peak-Grade Spirit Stones are meant for those in the Divine Sea and Ascension Realms.

As for the reason why 3 different grade classifications are for the 4 Realms that Low-Grade Spirit Stones are useful for? That's simple!

Those in the Body Tempering Realm can't use Qi and are still just normal humans with a bit of strength. Thus, the items they can use are limited to what normal humans can use. People are unable to store Qi in their bodies at this stage and have no use for Spirit Stones.

Those in the Qi Condensation and Foundation Realm can use Qi and have officially started their cultivation journey, allowing them to use items containing Qi. It's only obvious that Low-Grade Spirit Stones are useful for these people.

As for Earth Grade items meant for Core Formation Realm experts, those items are fundamentally different compared to Human and Mortal Grade items, but even then, Low-Grade Spirit Stones are pretty much the limit for these items.

Since 1 Mid-Grade Spirit Stone is equivalent to 1,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones, the jump to using Mid-Grade Spirit Stones is quite large. That's not to say that using Mid-Grade Spirit Stones at a lower Realm isn't useful, but Low-Grade Spirit Stones work just fine in these Realms.

The efficiency only takes a steep decline once one hits the Nascent Soul Realm and are almost forced to rely on Mid-Grade Spirit Stones unless they want to unload tens, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of Low-Grade Spirit Stones every time they cultivate for extended periods of time.

This only gets worse for those in the Nascent Soul Realm as they might go into Seclusion for years or decades at a time, causing them to waste countless Spirit Stones if they were to only use Low-Grade ones.

That's part of the reason for several different item grades among lower cultivation Realms, but there's something else that Mira found quite odd.

Why are Late-Grade Spirit Stones only meant for those in the Mortal Shedding Realm?

Hell, even Peak-Grade Spirit Stones are separated into two different Realms! Logically, it doesn't make sense, but maybe that's the reason why this Realm has its own Grade as well, the Mystical Grade.

Mira figured there must be something special with the Mortal Shedding Realm, but she decided to put that in the back of her mind. Even the book she read on the Mortal Cultivation Realms also had very little information on the Mortal Shedding Realm.

That's about everything there is on the grading system of the Mortal Realm. Mira figured there were probably a few other things she was missing, but this was more than enough for now.

The last thing she decided to get to is the book on Heavenly Tribulations, but this one was especially short. It just said that for every Major Realm after the Core Formation Realm, one will have to go through a Heavenly Tribulation.

These tribulations are meant to test one's foundations and help provide the necessary energy to break through to the next Realm. Basically, as long as you didn't use forceful means to break through, the tribulation shouldn't be too hard.

There was some other nonsense about Heavenly Tribulations, but Mira didn't care about that. She wanted to know more about Heavenly Punishment Tribulations!

Unfortunately, it seems she is either not permitted to learn about this information or the Battle Maiden Sect doesn't have any records on it.

Mira put the papers down and turned her sight to the last book, the one about how to create Techniques!