Chapter 123: Advancement

Mira walked back to her room in an extremely bad mood. Not only did she speculate that the shitty things that happened around her weren't just because of her bad luck, but due to the person that put her in this situation. Obviously, she had no way to prove this as of right now, but she guessed that there was probably a 60-75% chance that it was due to him. Of course, she didn't rule out her own bad luck. Mira was also upset because she didn't get to kill her target, not only that but the guy wasn't even punished by the Sect Master. This didn't cause her too much trouble though since a few years to her is pretty much nothing.

When she made it back to her residence, Maria and Dominique could instantly tell that Mira was in a bad mood. They both wanted to ask what happened, but Mira just glared at them and went to cultivate in her room.

Mira spent the next few days sorting out her thoughts about her newfound knowledge. She sifted through all of her memories and tried to remember if there was anything different about the people that made her go through so much hardship.

After spending a few days thinking about this, Mira was able to find quite a few memories where someone did something unexpected which caused a snowball effect that eventually led to pain and suffering for her. She came to the conclusion that even if certain people had been 'brainwashed' or manipulated, it doesn't really seem to affect their memories or nature but is more like a suggestion. Maybe like forcing them to do something that they wouldn't normally do and if they continue down that path without interference then that will be their new life. Like how Elder Bates came here without consciously doing so, then forgot what he was doing after being knocked out afterward. Mira interfered with his suggestion as soon as he came to the Battle Maiden Sect, thus clearing his mind enough to consciously understand what's going on around him. This is only her theory and it might not be 100% correct, but it seems probable. So basically, she just has to beat up Maria and Dominique more so they don't do something weird.

After sorting out her thoughts her mind felt much clearer than before. But this only caused Maria and Dominique's heads to hurt a lot more due to Mira increasing the difficulty in the training. During the sparring sessions, she moved the group into Training Ground 8 and increased the weight that everyone had to wear. The sparring sessions were also much more brutal, to the point where bringing Rejuvenation Pills started to become a necessity.

Mira also went to the Treasure Hall to see if there is anything that can help with her training outside of the Training Grounds. The main thing she searched for was ankle bracelet weights, bracelet weights, chest weights, body tempering pills, and an array that can provide pressure to her nonstop.

She had accumulated around 5000 points after the two pills were deducted, at a reduced price, since she was accepted into the Sect. Most of the time she'd take on a bunch of missions at a time and just spend a day completing all of them and thus she accumulated this many Sect Points. After walking through the Treasure Hall for a while, she found a Late-Stage Rank 4 Pill called the Foundation Forging Pill and Late-Stage Rank 4 Core Refinement Pill. They were a bone tempering pill and an organ refinement pill. These cost her 4000 Sect Points. Then she found a few sets of weights for her to use. This cost her 400 Sect Points and she found a pressure array along with an energy gathering array that cost her 600 Sect Points. Mira nearly spent all of her Sect Points in this one trip to the Treasure Hall on things to train her body.

Mira walked back to her room and forced Maria to buy the same things. Thus, both of them were now broke in terms of Sect Points.

Mira walked to her room and popped in the bone tempering pill first. She immediately felt like someone was striking her bones with a hammer over and over again. Like she was a weapon being forged! Cracks formed in her bones and the energy from the pill entered those cracks to run rampant through her bones. Mira didn't find the pain overwhelming as her whole body was being hammered by the pill. The cracks slowly started to heal as her bones got stronger. After a few hours, the hammering stopped and Mira felt like her bones had been reforged. She moved her body a bit and heard all of her bones popping as they got used to this newfound strength and after Mira felt like the pill had been completely used, she popped in the Core Refinement Pill.

The effects of this pill were much different than the Foundation Forging Pill. They were much calmer, almost soothing. It was like a wave crashed into her organs, condensing them, then filling them back up. Her organs were becoming much stronger than before as they became denser but more elastic. After a few hours, the pill finally got used up.

Mira's strength increased quite a bit from those two pills, but the greatest boon was that her body became stronger allowing her to fill up her body with super condensed Qi.

Maria also did the same thing as Mira and both of them were satisfied with the results, especially Maria as she didn't have to go through that much pain this time.

After both of them finished the pills, they found an Array Master Elder. They asked her to put the Energy Gathering Array and Pressure array on their backs. The Elder looked at them like they were crazy people and tried to tell that the purpose of those arrays is not for doing this, but Mira was unyielding and told her that this is how they will be used.

The Elder just sighed and started to link the two arrays together, then placed the two arrays on their bodies. Their bodies were soon covered in weird symbols and lines that were made out of unknown materials. After the Elder finished she activated the arrays and both of them immediately felt the pressure. Their movements were almost halved and they became sluggish. Mira then took out the weights that she purchased and started putting them on right in front of the Elder.

The Elder just watched her with her mouth slightly agape. She thought that the pressure from the array was already enough, but this training maniac went and added weights?! She's just a walking Training Ground! She just showed them how to activate and deactivate the arrays then left, not wanting to interact with this training maniac anymore. She thought that she might ask her to dissect her body and put an Energy Gathering Array in there to improve her cultivation or something stupid like that.

Mira just nodded in approval and started to walk away, much slower than when she came. Maria watched this scene with a strange look on her face and ended up putting on the weights and following Mira.

Time went by quickly.

Mira's schedule became filled up with training, training, and more training. Even if she was sleeping or cultivating, she was training due to the pressure array. She spent less time learning inscriptions and more time trying to get stronger. The tournament and Secret Realm events were coming up soon and being as strong would increase her chances of participating along with surviving. Inscriptions were just something that she planned on using to gather money in the future. She didn't participate in many missions and would only gather a few that happened to be in the same area, get them done in a few hours then come back. She didn't forget about Rhydian though and went ahead and left her outside the Sect to go and hunt. She'd check on her while doing missions.

Another few months went by and now it was Mira's 10th month in the Sect. She was currently in the Cultivation Cave filling up her body with Qi. At some point in her cultivation, she felt like she hit a bottleneck and stopped. Mira's body felt extremely full and it was actually very comfortable. It didn't feel like her body was about to pop or anything like that but felt good instead.

She took out the Mid-Stage Rank 4 Energy Gathering Pill that the Sect Master gave to her a few months ago and popped it into her mouth and soon started to feel overwhelmed with Qi. Mira waited until she started to feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of Qi in her body then began to condense it.

Not every cultivator needs to take an Energy Gathering Pill to break through to the next stage but Mira and Maria are slightly different. Their bodies can handle more Qi than most people thus they can handle the side effects of doing this. It'll also help them break through and consolidate their Foundation in the next stage.

Mira continued condensing the Qi in her body for hours before she reached a point that felt like the maximum her body would be able to handle. Mira opened her eyes after she was done advancing and started to investigate her body and strength.

Mira felt several times stronger than before, but she didn't know exactly how much stronger she was. Nonetheless, she felt amazing! It took her almost a year to reach this point, but she knew that it would only get more difficult and take longer from here on out. She's already able to cultivate around 10 times faster than normal people just because she's a Core disciple with special privileges. This level of strength and advancement speed would not be possible without joining a Sect or having similar training and cultivation areas. If she was just a normal person, this advancement could've taken her a full decade though if she didn't condense her Qi to such a degree during her breakthrough into the Foundation Realm, then this number would be significantly reduced.

Mira got up feeling satisfied with these results and left the Cultivation Cave.

'It's almost time those girls and Maria's parents finish the trial. I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I guess I should also spend some time coming up with options for them seeing that a lot of them won't be able to join a Sect unless they want to go to different Sects. I don't know what the age limit for the other sects is and I doubt they'd be willing to go to any other Sect other than the Battle Maiden Sect. Hmm... I'll have to give this some thought.' Mira thought to herself as she went back to her room.