Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance
Chapter 54: Bloodlines and Elemental Essences

Mira walked back to her room with her newfound loot in hand. She was quite happy with the rewards for completing the trial. Mira took out the Lightning Beast Egg and just stared at it.

"What do you think is going to be hatched from the egg? Some kind of snake or serpent? OH! Maybe a Dragon? Hehe. Though I couldn't really picture you with a dragon or anything that majestic. Maybe it's a giant lightning turtle or something! I hope it hatches soon! I can't wait for Vulcan to play with it!" Maria started asking all kinds of questions as she followed Mira back to their rooms.

"I don't know what will be hatched, but I can feel strong Lightning energy coming from this egg. Personally, I don't really care what comes out of the egg, but I guess if I had a preference then I would want a wolf-type magical beast even though this is unlikely due to wolves not being born from eggs. Dragons, Serpents, tigers, phoenixes, and other creatures are extremely powerful, but wolves are extremely loyal and ruthless. I'd prefer something that isn't as grand or majestic as those creatures because those that stand at the top always have a certain pride built into their genes that make them look down on their opponents. But wolves are different. They always attack their prey with full force. Just this alone can be the difference between life and death." Mira explained to Maria as they walked.

"I see, I see. I also think a wolf would suit you perfectly. It reminds me of you. You are like a wolf in sheep's clothing and never pull your strikes. Whatever hatches from the egg, Vulcan and it will have to play together! I can't wait! Anyways, I'm going to sleep! I'll see you tomorrow for inheriting the blood and absorbing the Elemental Essence!" Maria said goodbye to Mira and Mira nodded.

Mira walked to her room and once she entered her room she activated her Ice Domain. She started to create a bunch of small ice shards and had blue lightning streak across them. She then set down the egg and had it absorb as much of the blue lightning as it could while also inserting her Qi into the egg.

Mira could feel the lightning entering the egg, but its aura had barely increased. It was almost a negligible amount. Mira knew it would take a while by using this method to hatch this egg. She didn't care though. She was willing to wait to hatch it using this blue lightning. She wanted to see if she could mutate the beast before it hatched by using her icy lightning.

After a few hours of this, Mira got tired and stopped. She put the egg next to her and fell asleep.

The next day Mira woke up and examined the egg. She didn't see any changes or any signs that it might hatch. Even though Mira wanted to be patient, she was a little anxious. This would be her first pet and she had never taken care of anything like this before. She also wanted to know what beast it would be.

Mira shook away her thoughts, stored the egg, and walked out of her room. When she walked out, she saw Maria walking out as well.

"Good Morning Mira! Ahhh! I feel much better knowing that I don't have to continue with that trial! I had a beautiful sleep last night! Well, let's go!" Maria was already loud this early in the morning. Mira just nodded to her as they walked together to meet with the Caretaker.

It took them a bit to find him, but they eventually found him.

"You're here. I guess we can start with you absorbing the bloodline as that will probably take the longest. Follow me." The Caretaker started walking as the two followed.

Soon they made it to a large table.

"Mira will go first. Lie on your stomach on the table and lower your robes so that I can insert the bloodline into your heart." It said as Mira just nodded. She figured the procedure would be something like this. Plus, the caretaker was essentially an automaton with no desires or gender.

Mira lowered her robes and lay on her stomach.

"You will be inheriting the Kuraokami bloodline. Inheriting a bloodline can be a painful process as the new blood will course through your blood and start to consume the old blood as it is replaced with the new blood." The caretaker explained as it took out an almost cup full of blood. This blood felt extremely cold and emitted a domineering and freezing aura.

"Ready?" It asked and Mira just nodded.

The caretaker took out a long, but extremely thin needle and sent it into Mira's back. It went all the way to the heart and poked the heart, leaving a small indention on it.

He then removed the needle and controlled the blood. He started to slowly send the blood into her heart and soon Mira felt her body temperature start to drop. Just one drop of the blood started to cause her body to start to freeze over. When the blood entered her heart, the heart started to pump this blood to the rest of her body. This domineeringly cold blood started to travel through her body as it froze anything in its path.

The Caretaker kept sending in more and more blood into her heart. It was only drops of blood at a time, but even a drop was insane.

Soon, the Kuraokami blood that was in her body started to want to consume her blue blood that made its appearance during the lightning stage. A battle started to rage in Mira's body as the Kuraokami wanted to consume this blood and replace it, but Mira's blue blood didn't want to be consumed. Mira then started to feel her blue lightning start to streak across her body as her blood and the Kuraokami blood started to fight.

Maria and the Caretaker were also able to see blue lightning spread across the top of her body. The Caretaker didn't know what was going on but felt like it wasn't a bad thing so he kept sending more blood into her. But Maria couldn't hold back her curiosity.

"What is happening to her? I don't remember ever seeing her use lightning before." Maria asked.

"I don't know. This is new for me too, but if I had to guess this was a result of the lightning stage. Apparently, when all of her energy was destroyed, there was a fusion between the lightning and her special physique. But I didn't expect it to react to the bloodline as well. I wonder what will happen." The Caretaker explained to Maria and Maria sort of understood the logic behind it.

The two types of blood continued to fight, but after a while, a change happened. The blue lightning started to focus on the Kuraokami blood as it wanted to make a connection. The Kuraokami blood wasn't able to consume Mira's blue blood that easily and kept refusing the lightning's connection, but after a while, it felt that it wouldn't be able to consume Mira's blue blood that efficiently and also felt that it might be able to get stronger if the connection was made.

The Caretaker had finished sending all of the Kuraokami blood into Mira just now when the connection was made with the blue lightning. The blue lightning shot through all of the Kuraokami blood as the connection was made. Then Mira started to feel unbearable pain!

"ARRRGH!" Mira gritted her teeth. The blue lightning, her blue blood, and the Kuraokami blood started to fuse. This was an extremely painful process and generally, something like this wouldn't happen. Normally a bloodline would just coexist with the blood already there, but Mira's blood was actually fusing with the bloodline.

Mira felt like her entire body being frozen into something like an ice cocoon as her blood continued to fuse. This was extremely surprising for Maria and the Caretaker and Maria wanted to help, but the Caretaker stopped her and they both just watched.

When the blood that was currently in Mira's body was done fusing, it went straight for her bone marrow. The fused blood now wanted to fuse with her marrow so it could continue to produce this blood.

The fused blood and blue lightning coursed through Mira's marrow and began to change it on a cellular level. It didn't temper her marrow at all but just made it so the current blood would be produced by the marrow. Mira was in constant pain when this was happening. It took a while for the fused blood and blue lightning to fuse everything together, but once it was finished the blood shot to the rest of Mira's body as now all of the blood in her body was something new. The ice cocoon exploded and a chilling aura permeated from Mira. It was a mighty and domineering aura, even though Mira is just in the Qi Condensation Realm. Mira opened her eyes and withdrew this aura. She then looked at Maria and the Caretaker and they could both see that her pupils have turned more into slits. They weren't reptilian and were still closer to a human's but they were more vertical now.

"Congratulations on absorbing the Kuraokami bloodline. I don't know what happened, but I feel that it only brought you benefits." The Caretaker said and Mira nodded.

"What was that Mira?! What was that lightning? Why are your eyes different? Your aura is also different as well? What happened?" Maria bombarded her with questions.

"My physique resonated with the lightning in the lightning stage and allowed me to produce this blue lightning. It isn't that useful in fights but does seem to make my body stronger. My eyes are probably different because the bloodline fused with my own." Mira explained to her.

"What?! Fusion? Your blood actually fused with the Kuraokami bloodline? How can that be? That is an ancient and domineering bloodline, it would never succumb to something weaker!" The Caretaker didn't want to believe it. Mira just shrugged her shoulders.

"That's what happened. That blue lightning is incredibly annoying when it comes to things that want to destroy it. Plus that blue lightning is linked to every part of my body. It can't attack, but it can make connections." Mira explained as she pulled up her robes.

"Anyways, why don't you just let me absorb the Ice Elemental Essence right now? I'm sure it won't take very long especially with this new bloodline." Mira suggested and the Caretaker just nodded with a complicated expression.

He took out a jar that held a small Ice Shard that was moving around inside it.

"This Ice essence is extremely weak and is called the Lunar Ice Essence. It was formed in a place that received a more concentrated amount of moonlight. I will just send this into your heart and it will probably just be immediately subdued." The Caretaker said to Mira as she nodded.

Mira was back on her stomach and lowered her robe a bit to allow the Ice Essence into her heart. The Caretaker opened up the jar and grabbed the Ice Essence that tried to escape. He then shoved it into Mira's heart. Mira felt a wave of ice try to attack her body, but she just used her Absolute Ice Dao and it submitted easily. Mira tried to send her blue lightning into it as well.

She sent her blue lightning towards it and was actually able to make a connection. Mira then felt a weak ice energy flow through every part of her body, but it was so weak that it didn't increase the power of her ice at all. It probably only made her use of ice a bit more efficient, which was fine. Nothing major happened this time and Mira just fixed up her robe and hopped off the table.

"Your turn, Maria. When you are done then we can talk about what to do next and leave this place." Mira said to Maria. Maria just nodded her head and looked towards the Caretaker. It just nodded its head.

Maria did the same thing as Mira and walked up to the table. She removed some of her robes from her back and laid on her stomach.

The Caretaker then took out a dazzling golden blood that seemed to radiate light. He repeated the process of stabbing the needle into Maria's body and stopped at her heart. Then he started to slowly send in the Chalkydri blood. Maria felt this new blood shoot through the rest of her body and the light emitted from the blood started to burn away hers. Maria gritted her teeth at this, but it just continued to happen in her body as more blood entered her heart. This continued to happen as more and more of Maria's blood was destroyed and replaced with the new bloodline. Maria then started to feel some of the blood enter her marrow and replace it as well. This was so that the new blood could still be produced as well, but her old blood would also still be there. This was the coexistence of the two different types of blood instead of a fusion.

It took a while for this process to be completed, but it went by without a hitch. After that was completed, Maria stayed where she was on the table as she waited for her Light Essence. The Caretaker now had a jar that held a ball of dazzling light.

"This is the Dazzling Golden Light Essence. We aren't sure how it was formed exactly, but we guessed that it was formed in a place where the light there seemed to sparkle and shine. This one might take a bit more effort as you will have to subdue it. Be careful." The Caretaker explained as Maria nodded.

The Caretaker opened the jar and caught the Light Essence and then shoved it into Maria's heart.

Maria soon felt a small ball of light start to rampage in her heart as it sent waves of golden light through her meridians and body. Maria knew she had to fight back so she started to utilize her Light Dao and attack the Light Essence. They soon entered a fierce battle in Maria's heart, but this Light Essence didn't have the stamina to keep up with Maria and ended up losing because it didn't have the energy. Maria shot her Light Dao into it and felt the Dazzling golden light start to fill up her meridians and Qi. It was a calming feeling as she felt like her Light would now look like this.

Maria opened her eyes and looked over at Mira and smiled brightly.

"I did it! Now we can finally plan to leave this place! But first I want to sleep. I want to sleep until I don't feel tired anymore!" Maria said excitedly to Mira as she just nodded.

"Congratulations on inheriting the bloodline of Chalkydri and absorbing the Dazzling Golden Light Essence. You two may stay here as long as you like, but please don't take or destroy anything. If you have any questions, feel free to come find me and ask me. You already have your rewards from the trial, so you are free to do whatever you want." The Caretaker explained.

Both Mira and Maria looked at each other and nodded. They both just wanted to rest for now and get some quality sleep. Something that they haven't had in a long time. Maria fixed up her robe and walked with Mira back to their rooms.