Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

"Praise the Heavens!"

"Praise the Heavens!"

"Praise the Lord!"

"Praise the Lord!"

In a giant temple built on top of a hidden mountain, a monk in long blue robes shouted while kowtowing in front of a ten-thousand-step staircase. Behind him were thousands upon thousands of monks, wearing all white and repeating the same thing as the man in blue.

At the top of the staircase was a platform with an Eight Trigrams Formation. However, above it floated various treasures. In the center of it was a large twelve-petalled ice lotus sculpture with an egg-like item in the center.

Surrounding it were all kinds of treasures, some made of ice, but others were more neutral, but it was clear that the formation was missing several parts. One section of the formation had gate pillars, yet no gate. Another had various shards made of their own respective elements. One even had what seemed to be parts of mythological beasts in it.

Regardless of what the formation was made of, every single one of them was a rare treasure.

Yet, they were all channeling their energy into the icy lotus in the center. It wasn't just the treasures that it was absorbing, either. Whether it be the surrounding Qi, the energy of the monks, or the blizzard itself, the lotus sucked in anything it could take.

Ever since the blizzard started, it was as if a switch was flipped. Before, it could only utilize the various treasures, but now it was as if a limiter was unblocked. That's why the monks believed this to be a blessed era for the continent. They even seemed ecstatic at the fact that the lotus wanted to absorb some of their energy.

The echoes of their unified chants, "Praise the Heavens! Praise the Lord!" reverberated against the ancient stone walls as they continuously kowtowed, creating something that looked like a snowy wave from a distance.

The monk in long blue robes, recognized as Master Liang, raised his head, his eyes reflecting a deep conviction. With a voice that carried the weight of thousands of years of practice, he preached, "Brothers, today we stand on the brink of witnessing a miracle. The Heavens have blessed us once again! The time of our Lord's resurrection is almost upon us!

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Our faith, our dedication, it all culminates for this sacred moment!"

Behind him, the sea of white-robed monks responded, their voices rising in a crescendo, "We are ready, Master Liang! We believe!"

"Praise the Heavens!"

"Praise the Heavens!"

"Praise the Lord!"

"Praise the Lord!"

Above them, the Eight Trigrams Formation hummed with power, the treasures floating around the ice lotus sculpture glowing with an ethereal light.

Suddenly, a ripple of gasps swept through the crowd as a beam of celestial light pierced the temple's ceiling, illuminating the ice lotus. The egg-like item at the center of the lotus began to pulse, its rhythm synchronizing with the heartbeats of everyone present.

Master Liang stood up, extending his arms toward the formation. "The Lord has declared that we must find the rest of the Heavenly Relics within the next year, or chaos and destruction will descend upon us!"

The monks intensified their chants, their voices merging into a single, powerful force. The treasures around the lotus vibrated, releasing more streams of energy that intertwined and revolved around the center.

The monks' chants grew even more fervent, their collective voice a mighty cascade that seemed to shake the very foundation of the temple. Each monk's face was etched with determination and faith, their eyes alight with the purpose bestowed upon them by their revered Master Liang.

"Brothers, we must act swiftly! The Lord hath spoken, and we are His chosen instruments!" Master Liang's voice boomed across the vast expanse of the temple, his words igniting a fire in the hearts of the assembled monks.

"Praise the Lord!"

"Now, go, my disciples! Find these relics spread across the land! May the Heavens guide you!"

"Praise the Heavens!"

***

Mira swung her scythe, chopping the head off of another Titanic Snow Bear, a Rank 9 beast that was tens of meters tall and whose only redeeming quality was its immense strength.

She extended her hand, absorbing its energy and placing its remains in her Storage Space. Now that she had finally broken through, she could gather, absorb, and refine Qi again without being forced to suppress it.

"Why're there so many of these things around here?" Mira grumbled, looking behind her at the long trail of blood left in the snow. She felt as if she had been killing bears for hours now, and it showed.

"...I'm not sure," Hana murmured, closing her eyes as she tried to remember all the information she had obtained, along with a map of the Northern Continent. "From what I know. Titanic Snow Bears don't exactly live in packs. They have their own territory but tend to stay away from one another. It's odd that there are so many of them together, much less in this area."

In all directions around them were flat plains of snow. No trees. No mountains. No frozen lakes. Not even any hills. Just snow.

However, the blizzard was extremely bad in this location, so it could be that she was just standing on tens of meters of snow, covering up everything below it.

"Maybe even for bears, this weather is too damn cold, so they started migrating?" Mira speculated, and that was the only thing Hana could think of as well. Even she was thinking about transforming into a giant fox just to keep herself nice and warm. But as someone who pursued the Absolute Ice Dao, how could she do such a thing?

Something inside Mira told her that the instant she sought refuge from the cold was the moment her Dao cracked; something akin to a heart demon. So, instead of hiding from it, she chose to embrace it, lowering all her defenses to feel it more clearly, only using her Qi to keep Hana from dying.

"Do you think we're close to this so-called religious cult?" Mira asked, tired of traveling in this vast expanse of nothing. Forget about the cold, this was too boring! Killing brain-dead bears wasn't interesting at all!

"How should I know? All we heard were rumors, remember? We could've stayed to gather more information, but you insisted we leave as soon as possible!" Hana snapped back, a bit annoyed. One day was hardly enough time to gather information, especially about some hidden cult that was merely hearsay, a longstanding myth, amongst the general populace.

"Well, what difference would it have made?" Mira chose a random direction and started flying. "The public knows nothing. Maybe the top guys on the Continent do, but if you can't already tell, I'm not great with people, much less those who hold some sort of authority. Chances are, instead of trading information, we'll fight to the death."

And as nice as that sounded, Mira didn't feel like running around the Continent, making one enemy after another when she could be gathering precious resources!

"..." Hana couldn't argue with that. She had already pissed off three Sect Masters, after all. No need to add more to the list.

"Hm?" Suddenly, Mira sensed something in the distance–something other than a freaking bear! It felt human! "Someone's coming this way."

"What?! Really?! Maybe they can help us!" Hana's eyes shone, only to see a sharp light heading straight for them.

Mira calmly dodged out of the way, allowing the strike to penetrate the snow behind her, but her expression grew serious when she realized that person had just used [Sword Manifestation].

"DIE HERETIC!" A shout came from the distance, followed by thousands of sword lights that surrounded them.

'Or not.' Hana ducked into Mira's tails.

Mira's frown deepened as she unleashed her own [Scythe Manifestation] and swung her scythe, counteracting the strikes. Then, she saw a man in a plain white robe descending from the sky with rage etched all over his face.

"HERETIC! Hand over the Holy Relic or die!" He demanded, creating thousands more swords around him.

"...What the fuck?" Mira tilted her head, wondering what this lunatic was talking about. Heretic? Holy Relic? Did he have the right person? Or was he even more brain-dead than those stupid bears?

"I'll give you one more chance! Hand over the Holy Relic! I know you have it! I can feel the Lord's power on you!" The white-robed monk shouted once again.

"...What the hell are you talking about?" For the first time in a long time, Mira had the urge not to fight this guy. His crazy, fanatic stare made her skin crawl so much that she'd almost rather deal with that stalker 'god'.

'Maybe he's one of his worshippers?' She thought.

However, the term "Holy Relic" caught her attention. Truthfully, she had a lot of items that could be considered a 'Holy Relic'. It just depended on who was asking. Her entire body could be considered a Holy Relic, in a sense!

"...Err-Which Holy Relic are you talking about?"

"So… You even have more than one?! DIE!"

A rain of sword lights came crashing down onto Mira.