Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

When Mira entered the Abyssal Battle Ladder, a humanoid shadow entered the large arena with her. The Shadow held a sword and was at the 1st Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Glancing at it, Mira barely felt any danger.

Her raw power and newly acquired Intents were more than enough to kill it, but when Mira thought about having to face 10 similar beings, she knew she'd have to put in a bit of effort, but that's about it.

The simple saying, "Nothing matters in the face of absolute power." fits this situation well. While Mira doesn't have absolute power, nor can she be considered invincible even against her current opponent, to say that she'd have to try and lose would be an understatement.

However, Mira didn't want to do that. Fighting against this Shadow is a chance! A chance for her to understand the power of a true prodigy! A chance for her to see someone utilize every ounce of potential!

Even Mira is still unable to use all of her potential in a fight. Sure, she has perfect control over her body, but that's not her only weapon. While she's learned Scythe Intent, that's merely her setting the foundation for her growth.

Lastly, Mira's use and control over her Qi are sub-par at best. For the most part, she's just been relying on her deep Qi reserves to blast out power with overwhelming might. She doesn't even have to worry about the consequences of doing this because of her quick Qi regeneration and black runes.

If Mira could maximize the power of her Qi, her strength would skyrocket!

Therefore, Mira wasn't going to immediately strike down her opponent with overwhelming might.

She wanted to use her shadow opponent as a training tool to help refine her current powers.

Seeing Mira appear, the Shadow immediately charged at her. Mira was curious about its attacks, so she decided to take a defensive position.

When the Shadow got within range of Mira, it slashed its sword, but Mira felt like this slash was extraordinary.

Surprisingly, she actually felt a bit of danger from that slash, and if she were to just stand there and take it, she'd definitely get hurt.

Not only was it fast and concise, but it was beyond what a normal Stage 1 Core Formation Realm cultivator is capable of.

However, the most shocking thing was that Mira had a hard time reading how, when, and where the Shadow was going to slash.

Most people, even if they try and hide it, telegraph their attacks to some extent; more so when they are involved in a deadly fight.

Even Mira, who has been fighting for most of her life, can't completely hide her intentions. Of course, it'd take someone either really powerful, really sensitive, or experienced to see through her.

'To think that the first opponent I face is able to hide their intentions until the very last second. I wonder if it's because they're shadows? Is this the reason they can be considered 'perfect'?' Mira thought to herself as she continued defending.

Time passed as Mira stayed on the defensive, letting the Shadow do whatever it wanted.

The longer this went on, the more reluctant Mira felt when she knew she'd eventually have to end this match.

There were too many things she learned, and that was only from the first opponent!

First, she learned that the Shadow was able to mask its attacks and hide its intentions.

Second, its Qi control is amazing! Throughout the entire battle, the Shadow and its sword was wrapped in a layer of Qi. This by itself was nothing amazing, but upon closer inspection, Mira realized that the Qi wrapped around its body was separated into tiny countless threads. These threads were then woven together to create a tougher, more durable, and flexible armor.

Aside from that, its sword was also coated in a fine layer of Qi that boosted its power and sharpness by a considerable degree.

It didn't just stop there, either. By just using attributeless Qi, the Shadow used it to empower itself, move faster, create strong long-range attacks, and deflect her attacks.

Mira couldn't help but be in awe at the Shadow's Qi control.

Unfortunately, it would take her time to reach such proficiency, and isn't something she can learn in the span of a few minutes or even a few hours.

She'd need days, weeks, months, or even years to reach such mastery; it all depends on how much time she's willing to spend practicing it every day.

'Maybe if I make it through a few stages, I'll be able to speed up the process.' Mira excitedly thought to herself.

Third, just fighting the Shadow on equal footing helped boost Mira's battle prowess. Its footing, the way it attacks, and how it makes decisions based on the circumstances all helped Mira understand what she could do better.

Lastly, it used a technique! She's finally gotten a good look at what a technique is supposed to look like!

Granted, the technique it used was rather simple, but at least Mira was able to experience a technique without being blown up, like what happened against Number One.

The technique it used was an oscillating wave of darkness, and with each subsequent attack, the number of waves increased, and the oscillation speed quickened.

The final move of the technique was a giant tidal wave of darkness that consumed everything in its path!

The power behind each move of the technique was at least 2 to 3 times its normal attack power. While the final attack was at least 5 times higher! That amount of power was more than enough to cause some damage to Mira if she decided to take it head-on.

Of course, with how strong her body is, she wouldn't die, but it definitely wouldn't feel good.

However, seeing the Shadow use a technique made Mira feel both excited and bitter at the same time. She was excited since she might be able to gain some inspiration on how she should make her own technique. But bitter because she knew the upcoming battles just got that much harder if all her opponents knew how to use techniques while she didn't know a single one.

No, forget about knowing a technique. Mira's control over her powers is already severely lacking compared to these shadows! The only thing she has going for her is her two Intents, experience, and overwhelmingly high raw power.

However, once her opponent's raw power is equal to hers, she'll start having a hard time.

'And here I thought that I could breeze through the Core Formation Realm Stages and earn myself a few thousand points. It seems there's still much for me to learn.' Mira thought to herself as she cut the Shadow in half.

She had learned pretty much all she could from that round. There's only so much she can gain from an opponent that's weaker than her. If she wanted to improve at the fastest possible rate, she needed to fight with someone on even ground.

Thus, it was time for her to move on to the next round and see for herself just how good the teamwork between the shadows was.

Immediately after 'killing' it, the Shadow's body reformed while a second one appeared next to it. This time, the second Shadow was using a bow.

Other than that, Mira could immediately tell that the swordsman had switched styles. The way it held the sword and its body language told her so.

Without any sort of warning, the two attacked, and Mira noticed how even before they made any attacks, they were already working in tandem.

The swordsman and the archer were trying to position themselves so that Mira would be forced to focus on only one of them.

The swordsman was the first to initiate an attack, sending a slash toward her neck. As the slash came, the archer in the distance released an arrow at her legs.

Mira wanted to dodge the sword, but as she dodged, the sword seemed to follow.

This caused Mira to be unable to use her scythe to block the arrow, and she was forced to cover her legs in ice to defend herself.

Mira didn't need to experience anything else to know that these two were working in perfect sync, almost as if a single mind was controlling both of them.

A slight frown formed on her face as she realized that her future in the Abyssal Battle Ladder looked bleak.

'Fuck! Have I been fighting trash all my life, or what? I've fought against duos and groups that have been together almost their entire lives, but even they weren't so perfectly in sync. No matter how great they were, there would always be a bit of a delay between attacks. However, there was absolutely no delay there. It's as if they know each know the statistics of their attacks in real-time and can adjust accordingly! Are these guys robots or what?' Mira thought to herself as her expression turned more serious than before.

'It seems that if I want to win this round unscathed, I'll have to quickly adjust to how in sync they are.'