Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

"Oh? Have you finished your cultivation, Mira?"

As soon as Mira's consciousness returned to her mind, she heard Maria's voice.

However, before she could respond, her body spasmed as if someone had electrocuted her.

"Urgh!!"

Mira bent over and grunted in pain! Her eyes opened wide as it's been so long since she's felt such a sensation. In fact, the last time she felt pain equivalent to what she's feeling now was back during the F.LD.I.L trials.

'Fuck! When is my own inheritance going to stop trying to kill me?!' Mira cursed inwardly.

"Wh-What? What happened? Are you okay?" Maria ran to Mira's side and began examining her body, but immediately after, she became confused.

"It doesn't look like anything is wrong with your body. Did you experience Qi deviation or something?" Maria asked.

Mira shook her head.

While gritting her teeth, she raised her head to look at Maria and uttered, "It's… part of… my cultivation."

Maria nodded in understanding but still had a worried expression on her face. She has rarely heard her grunt in pain, much less cave in from it! That alone told her that was she was facing right now must be beyond her imagination.

"This… Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked, but Mira shook her head again.

"Just… *cough* speak… normally… What'd Aelina… say?" Mira asked with bloodied teeth.

Maria still looked worried, but she understood Mira wanted to turn her attention away from the pain flooding her body.

So, like a good girlfriend, she changed the subject according to Mira's wishes.

"The Sect Master said she'd dispatch a few Elders and would keep her ears open for any news about my parents. I told her places I felt like they might have gone, but this world is too hard to predict. Who knows if they're actually there?"

Maria's face scrunched up and her head lowered. She didn't feel good about this situation at all. Her parents were missing, and unknown people were chasing after them.

She didn't even know these people! Yet, for some reason, they're trying to capture her parents to harm her and, by proxy, hurt Mira. That didn't make any sense, but Maria's trust in Mira was at its peak.

She'd never lied before, and Maria didn't believe she'd lie to her in the future either. At least, not about important topics like this.

Still, she couldn't help but feel a little skeptical about this whole situation. Who wouldn't?

To some extent, it almost felt like Mira was too paranoid about all this, but after giving it a little thought, she realized that wasn't the case.

Although Mira has never trusted people, she wouldn't act like a scared little rabbit just because someone was out there scheming against her.

'But, how does she know they're after my parents? I've always been by her side for over a month now. Where did she learn this information?' That was what Maria really wanted to know, but looking at Mira keeled over on the bed, she shook her head and put off those questions.

She reached out her hand to rub Mira's back, but-

"Kugh!"

-Mira grunted in pain, and her body jolted as soon as her hand made contact with her skin.

Maria hurriedly retracted her hand and said, "I'm sorry! I didn't know that would hurt you!"

Mira waved her hand, telling her it was fine, then closed her eyes, "I'm… going to… focus on… acclimating to the pain. If you think… your parents are… nearby… feel free to take… Rhydian with you."

Mira would never say something like that if she were in the right state of mind. She'd never let Maria roam the world with the god's lackeys after her, but it's also true that she trusted Rhydian.

The wolf, when flying, is incredibly fast. If she wanted to escape an altercation, very few on this continent could catch her.

Maria smiled softly and said, "Thank you for your concern, Mira. I'll do as you say if I 'feel' them nearby. However, I think, for now, it's best to leave it up to the Sect Master and the Elders. They can scour the continent much faster than me, after all."

Afterward, she moved away from Mira so as not to disturb her. She could tell Mira was trying to acclimate to the pain filling her body and didn't want to be a burden during that process.

Meanwhile, Mira was having a conversation with the Guardian.

'What the hell is going on?! How is this so painful?!' Mira screamed while gnashing her teeth, only to hear the Guardian chuckle.

"What? Did you think something called the Gates of Purgatory would go easy on you? You might have grown accustomed to pain, but that doesn't mean you're impervious to it. The Hell of Pain has exploited that weakness," He explained.

"Hell of Pain?"

"Yup! That's what you're going through right now! It's the first out of the Nine Hells you'll have to go through to complete your Inner Body Cultivation. Honestly, I feel you're pretty lucky to have this as your first Hell."

'Lucky? Lucky my ass! I can barely think because of the pain, much less talk. God forbid I move!'

"Hmph! What do you know?! If you were to face this Hell in one of the later Realms, you'd turn into a bumbling idiot. No, if your mental fortitude wasn't high enough, your brain and body might just shut down and die! So, quit your bitching and get over it!"

'Kurgh!' Mira grunted but did as he said anyways. Still, she had a question that she couldn't just ignore.

'How long will this Hell last? Will this go on indefinitely, or are there conditions I need to meet to move onto the next Hell?'

"From what I know, there are two conditions you have to meet. First, you have to grow accustomed to this type of pain. I don't mean something as simple as gritting your teeth and moving on with your life. No, this pain has to be so ineffective that you can hardly feel it."

'Okay, that's easy. What's the second?'

"You have to be able to control your sense of touch freely. You have to be able to turn it off and on at will, amplify and reduce it, and isolate it so that only specified body parts can, well… feel. This goes for the Qi around you as well. You should be so sensitive that you can feel the atmospheric Qi undulate around you."

'...'

'...Are you serious?'

"Yup! Those are the only conditions you need to meet to pass this Hell!"

'Isn't that a little too difficult? This is only the 1st Hell, after all! Also, I thought this was Inner Body Cultivation, not mind cultivation!'

"Hmph! Isn't your body a part of your body too? Part of what makes a cultivator superior to a mortal is that they can control their bodies in ways that should be impossible. However, over 99% of cultivators never learn to control their minds. Instead, they are a slave to it! You must learn to overcome this hurdle and gain control of your mind!"

Mira was confused by what the Guardian said, as never once had she felt like a slave to her own mind. No, it'd be more correct to say that if it weren't for her mind, she might not have achieved what she has today.

'Whatever. For now, I'll just focus on getting used to the pain.'

…Is what she thought, but the Guardian didn't seem to agree.

"No!! You should try and achieve both conditions at the same time! Although the pain you're feeling right now is terrible, it's also an opportunity! The 1st Hell stimulates all the pain receptors in your body. You can use this to find the areas in your brain that control your sense of pain, eventually leading you to the areas that control your sense of touch."

Mira's eyes lit up at his suggestion.

'Fuck me! Why didn't I think of that?!' She cursed but didn't waste any more time.

With her understanding of her body, extraordinary senses, and comprehension speed, it didn't take Mira long to locate the parts of her nervous system which regulate pain.

Then, she followed that line back to her brain. After doing this several times for all the different parts of her body, she managed to locate the areas in her brain that handle pain and, similarly, touch.

'That was… a lot easier than I thought it would be.' Mira thought.

'Now, I just need to gain authority over these parts of my brain. But the problem is, how do I do that?'

The brain, no matter what world she's lived in, has always been a mysterious entity. The amount of work and information it can process in a single second is mind-boggling. Like most people, she's been curious about the brain, how it works, and what it can do, but that's it.

She never dived deeper into those sorts of topics as it'd take too long to research, and Mira neither had the time, patience or need for such things.

However, now, she has begun to rethink her stance.

'Maybe the brain is a more mysterious entity than I originally thought.'

With that thought, Mira separated her attention from finding ways to gain authority over her nervous system to how the brain interacts with the rest of her body.