Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Without giving them any time to think, the Dragon Butterfly descended into the hole.

"Oi! It's time to fulfill your end of the deal!" Mira yelled, seeing how her idea went down the drain.

"Like I have a choice!" Yanira shouted back, gathering as much fire as she could muster. 'Volcanic Eruption!'

A pillar of fire burst up from the floor to the sky, followed by a painful screech from the beast.

While it was distracted, Yanira channeled fire into her odachi and shot into the air. "Die, you damn beast!"

Her sword cut cleanly through one of its wings. She was a bit surprised at how strong she was after her breakthrough, but could only put that aside for now.

Suddenly, all the Qi in the surrounding area was sucked into the pillar of fire before Dragon Butterfly opened its mouth and released a screeching roar, sending waves of Qi across the valley.

"Argh! B-Bastard!" Yanira's eyes and ears bled as she dropped to the ground, immobilized. The same went for the other Sect Masters watching from the side.

As she was falling, the club end of the beast's tail smashed into her chest, sending her crashing.

Yanira coughed up blood, feeling her injuries worsen. Only for the Dragon Butterfly to land on her, leaning down to inject venom into her body and rip her head off.

"Get off of me!" Yanira roared, covering her entire body in fire, but even as it was scorched, the beast only saw red. Unless she was dead, it couldn't live in peace. Not when she was trying to steal its child!

'Haaa… I'm going to regret this.' Mira thought, watching this. Even as she bled from all of her orifices, she cloaked herself, becoming near-invisible, and sprinted toward the beast.

She leaped into the air and stabbed her scythe into one of its eyes. With her other hand, she ripped off a chunk of its horn.

Immediately, it roared and thrashed around, letting Yanira go. Mira was thrown off, but staying in its blindside, she reduced her presence and hid.

'Attack! Now!' She said to Yanira through a Voice Transmission.

"Ha-ap!" An upward, fiery slash dug into its skin, searing its scales. Flames burst out of Yanira's feet as she followed up the slash with a flurry of attacks. "Die! Die! This is for your shitty subordinates poisoning me! This is for being ugly!

This is for daring to be a worm! This is for making me get involved with that psycho woman!" She roared like a mad woman, expending tons of energy with every swing.

The Dragon Butterfly sensed that things weren't going its way and attempted to hide in a cocoon, but Yanira ripped through it with her bare hands, lighting it aflame. She ripped off its other wings, chopped off its tail and limbs, and finally, with the nail in the coffin, stuck her sword in its skull, melting her way into its brain.

She left no room for opposition. If there was one thing she learned from those damn worms, it was that they needed to die swiftly and brutally.

Then, she quickly shoved the entire thing into her spatial ring, not allowing any greedy bastards a chance at stealing her prey.

"What?! Are you serious, Yanira?! You're going to claim the whole thing after all the work we did to weaken it?!" Master Lei yelled as he jumped down the hole.

BOOM!

The ground cracked as he landed, lightning coursing around his body.

Next to him, a shadow silently appeared, revealing Master Zhuo. "As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with him. If it weren't for us, you wouldn't have killed it so easily. We deserve at least a part of it."

"Bullshit! If you failed to kill it, that's your own problem. Now, don't waste my time with this crap. I'm not in the mood." Yanira sent a secret signal to Mira, who just rolled her eyes at this flaming dumbass.

The two Sect Masters turned their heads and noticed Mira, whom they hadn't thought much of previously.

"Oh? It seems a rat has snuck her way in." A bolt of lightning shot toward Mira, who had already dodged. Yanira groaned in annoyance but jumped in front and severed the bolt.

"Bastard Lei, what do you think you're doing?"

"What? I thought I saw her nabbing some of the loot. I was just taking back what's ours."

"Ours? This is all mine! And I'd rather her have that loot than someone as ugly as you."

"...I really can't stand that mouth of yours sometimes. But it seems I was right. She does have something. " Master Lei waved his hand. "Master Zhuo, if you may."

"Already on it." A voice came from behind Mira, who could hardly react before a cold blade was pressed against her neck.

However, rather than being mad at her attacker, she sent a glare at Yanira. 'Can't you shut the hell up for one second?! Why're you yapping so much?!'

Meanwhile, Yanira was practically trembling with rage. "Zhuo! Do you really want to go to war!? If you don't let her go within 3 seconds, I'll lead the charge to slaughter your Sect as soon as I leave this place! Don't test me!"

"You dare?!" Master Zhuo's aura burst forth, forgetting about Mira for a moment. If it were this crazy woman, she really would go to war for something so petty and unreasonable.

Yanira laughed maniacally, the flames around her burning brighter. "Of course I dare! I always dare! I've always hated you black-robed bastards anyway! Now's as good a time as any to finally get rid of you!"

Master Lei watched all of this happen from the sidelines, a slight smirk etched on his face. However, he noticed a heavy gaze on his body and turned to see Mira staring directly into his eyes. Then, her lips curved up as she glanced at Yanira, sending her a sound transmission.

"And you! Bastard Lei! Don't think I've forgotten about you!" Yanira turned her rage to the Thunderstrike Pavillion Master, who gradually lost his smile. She took out a few talismans and raised her hand. "This girl is under my protection! You have two more seconds before I send a message to my forces, ordering them to attack your Sects!"

"..."

"1 second!"

"..."

"0 se-" Just as Yanira was putting pressure on the talismans, Master Zhuo threw Mira to the ground and backed away.

"Whatever. Killing this woman isn't worth it. With how greedy this crazy bitch is, she definitely only left scraps behind."

Furrowing his brows, Master Lei thought differently, but as things weren't going his way, he could only back off. As the saying goes, 'It's better to fight a smart opponent than a crazy one.'

People like Yanira weren't afraid of mutual destruction. It wasn't worth dealing with someone like that, especially during this time of opportunity. For now, it was better to back off, especially considering how it seemed Yanira had broken through.

"...Fine. Just don't come to regret this decision in the future."

"That's not for you to decide. Tch!" Yanira quickly grabbed Mira by the arm and shot up out of the hole, quickly disappearing from the valley.

***

"So, where's my 60%?"

"...Do you want me to send you back down there?"

"..."

Once they made significant distance from the valley, Yanira landed and dropped Mira.

"Well, I hope you're happy." She crossed her arms, staring at the fox woman. "I just offended two of the strongest people on the continent for you."

Mira brushed off her robe and stood up, giving Yanira an indifferent shrug. "Sounds like this wasn't the first time to me."

"..."

"If anything, I'm the one who's in more danger. Yet, you don't see me complaining."

"...I really hate you, you know?"

"The feeling's mutual."

"..."

The two stared at each other for a moment before Yanira sighed. "Just go, please. I'm tired of your nonsense. Consider it my bad luck for getting involved with someone like you."

Mira was a bit surprised that Yanira was going to let her go without putting up a fight but nodded nonetheless. "Let's not meet again."

"Tch! Don't say it like that! Now, I'll be forced to see your stupidly beautiful face again!"

"..."

"Tsk… Our deal's over. May you have a shitty journey!"

Flames burst from Yanira's feet, and she took to the skies, not looking back. She was too embarrassed by what she had just said to dare to turn around.

Mira shook her head but did the same thing. She concealed her presence and glided across the snow, ensuring she didn't leave any traces behind. The last thing she wanted was for Yanira to change her mind and come after her.

A few hours later, she found a big tree and hopped in it to regain her bearings. Finding a nice, thick branch to sit on, she rested against the trunk.

Feeling a slight rustle in her, Mira chuckled and said, "You can wake up now."

"Is-Is it finally over?" A voice no higher than a whisper came from her tails.

Mira was about to open, only for all of her instincts to scream danger. Her ears twitched, hearing the faint crackling of lightning in the distance, and her face changed. 'Are you serious?! He's still after me?!'

She gave Hana a tap, sending her back to sleep.

'Dammit! What do I do?!'

She couldn't run, he was too fast.

She couldn't hide, there was literally nothing around.

And she couldn't fight.

However, there was one thing she could try. Something she hadn't voluntarily used since her time in the Primal Ascendance Convergence.

'I don't know if it'll fool him, but it's the only shot I got!'

With a thought, her body rapidly shrunk and changed until she transformed into a little snow-white fox. She dropped to the ground, cast an illusion on Hana, and wrapped herself up in a ball, acting like she was asleep.

Lastly, she masked her cultivation to be at Rank 6, something she'd never tried before.

Not even two seconds later, a man surrounded by lightning stopped by the tree. He glanced around, frowning. His gaze was then attracted to the only thing around, the small fox sleeping in the snow.

Part of him felt that something was off about it, but he didn't think even for a second that it was Mira. 'Maybe I missed her? Whatever. She can't escape me forever.' With an audible snort, he shot back into the sky after not finding anything.

Mira let out a sigh of relief but didn't move. She didn't know if someone was still watching her. So, she remained in that spot, sleeping like nothing ever happened.