Chapter 19: Frozen Hell

Mira woke up and started slowly refining her organs. After a few hours of this, she stopped and went to find Maria to begin their sparring. Maria was already on the training grounds waiting for Mira. Mira started walking over to her.

"Hey, Mira! I've been waiting for you!" Maria exclaimed

"We will generally be sparring in the afternoon as I like to cultivate in the morning." Mira said, feeling a little bad that Maria waited here for hours for her. Maria just nodded.

"Maria, what elemental affinity do you have. If I had to guess it'd be air or light due to your nature." Mira asked.

"You're right! I have a light elemental affinity, but while some light users have a healing light affinity mine seems to be more attack-focused. I haven't spent too much time in the Dao of Light so my understanding is low and I can't utilize the attacks that well. I already have much to learn in using the sword not to mention my element." Maria said a little dejected.

"I see. Starting today you will use your element in our spars. You can use your element however you want, but I will make it harder for you. During our spars, I forbid you to use the same attack twice in a row." Mira commanded.

Then they began their spars. Maria had a tough time at first. The only thing she could think of is a light beam and a light wave, which is similar to Mira's Ice Blade. She only used those 2 elemental attacks in the beginning, but started to get used to her element. She started coming up with other attacks but wasn't able to utilize them. She would have to meditate on this session later and further understand these insights and progress in the Dao of Light. Even though her light beam and lightwave were weak, she became more proficient with these 2 attacks. She started to get used to using them while attacking with her sword as well. She would try different ways to utilize them as well.

After the spar finished, Maria fell to the ground and looked at Mira.

"How do you have so much stamina, Mira? I should have more stamina than you, but you seem like you could spar forever." Maria asked.

"There are multiple reasons why you are wrong. One, you waste a lot of unnecessary energy in these spars. You use big moves or large swings. You aren't efficient in your energy usage. Plus you always seem to want to go all out, you should do your best to try and conserve every last bit of energy. What if after you defeat the first enemy, another one come? If you don't have the energy to deal with that, then all that awaits you is death. Two, part of it is your mentality. You seem to hardly ever want to push yourself to your limit, therefore your brain puts a limit for you. Surpassing this will help unlock your latent potential and repeatedly doing this will increase that potential as well. Three, I use a scythe. If you can't break my momentum, then all I need to do is make sure the scythe stays in my hands. Fighting the current you require little effort. Plus I'm not trying to kill you. If I was then I would put a lot more energy and force into my attacks. You should try to focus on conserving energy to last longer while using less in the upcoming spars. Now go meditate on your insights." Mira said and walked away.

Maria thought about what she said and felt it was right. Mira hardly has to do anything to beat her. She just has to keep twirling her scythe blocking her hits, then attack her weak spot. The scythe can pretty much keep the momentum going once it gets started and Mira just needs to stand there with it. She got up after thinking this and went to go meditate.

Mira went to go find Cole to ask him for something. She walked throughout the house and found him in his study. She knocked on the door and heard him tell her to come in.

"Oh, Mira. What can I do for you? Do you need something?" He asked.

Mira nodded. "Yes, though it can be for both me and Maria. I was wondering if you have a liquid that has a low freezing temperature?" Mira asked.

"Yeah, we do. We have a whole pond full of it out in the back. It's called Spirit Water, water infused with Qi and is nearly impossible to freeze. Why do you ask?"

"I want to use my ice affinity to make the water bone-chilling for training. I want to use this to temper my muscles and if it's a full pond then Maria can use it too. I will have her start tomorrow morning." Mira said.

"It's no problem, it's there really just for looks and keeps the plants around there stay healthy. If it can be used to help Mira then feel free to use it. When are you going to start using it?" He asked with a smile.

"Tonight."

"Very well. Let me guide you there."

Cole started to guide Mira to the pond. They made it to the back of the house and found a rather large pond. It was around 50 meters in diameter and she couldn't see the bottom.

"Here it is. Feel free to use it. I have to go back and do something so I'll see you later." Cole said and turned around and left.

Mira nodded and started to walk towards the pond. She took off her clothes and dove into the pond. She went straight to the bottom. She realized that it went around 50 meters deep. There wasn't a lot of room at the bottom. Maybe enough for 5 people to sit comfortably.

Mira sat in a lotus position at the bottom and started releasing a frosty aura and chilling the surrounding water. She continued doing this for 10 days. She had to come up every 30 minutes for air. The day after she started, Maria went to find her and found her in the pond. Mira told her that she was preparing this pond for training and asked her to bring food to her.

After 10 days she was satisfied with how cold the pond was. She could continue her training with this and temper her muscles. She might also be able to progress more in her Dao. After she was satisfied it was night and she went to her room to rest.

The next morning she found Maria and dragged her to a freezing hell. When Maria walked in the back, she could already feel the bone-chilling cold coming from the pond. She gulped and already knew what was going to happen.

"This will help temper your muscles. You can even try to temper your bones if you are careful, but you should wait to do that. It can also make your meridians a bit stronger too. Just make sure you don't let your meridians freeze. Now strip." Mira said.

Maria didn't say anything and just did as she said. After she took off her clothes, she hesitantly walked towards the pond and refused to go in. Mira grabbed her and threw her in. She felt like she might die in this frozen hell. Her meridians were started to freeze along with the rest of her body. She immediately started circulating Qi through her meridians to prevent it from freezing. Water then started seeping into her skin and muscles. They started to freeze over as well after some time. She kept circulating Qi through her meridians and then sent it to her muscles to heal what's being frozen. Her muscles were already starting to compress due to the freezing temperature.

Maria was now sure of something. Mira enjoyed sending her to various types of hells. Sparring with her is hell, her strength training is hell, now this pond is a frozen hell. Maybe she might actually send her to a fiery hell. She must've done something unforgivable to her in a past life to deserve this.

Mira dove into the pond but didn't go to the bottom. The chill and pressure from the water will be a bit too much for her right now. She went down around 10 meters and found a place to sit then started doing what Maria is doing right now. The only difference was Mira kept releasing her frosty aura to make the pond colder. She wasn't sure how cold the pond was, but it was probably around -40 degrees celsius currently. Absolute zero is -273 degrees celsius. If she continues this for the next 6 months and can gain more insights into the Dao of ice, she might be able to slowly get it to -100 degrees celsius. Her muscles would be like metal, but she would have to find a way to temper her bones more to utilize that power. If her bones weren't stronger enough then they would crack under the pressure of her muscles.

Mira and Maria continued this for 6 hours. They then got out to eat something and went to the training grounds to spar. After sparring, Mira went back to the pond to try to temper her bones with the freezing temperature. The only way to do this is to let her bones freeze over and start to form hairline fractures on her bones, circulate Qi through her meridians, and send it to her bones to start using that energy to heal the cracks. After a while, Mira began to notice that using the cold her temper her bones were more efficient due to her physique. Part of the freezing energy from the water would be absorbed into her bones after the bones started freezing. Doing this would help to further increase her understanding of the Dao of ice, making her elemental attacks stronger. Mira then entered a state of enlightenment as her understanding of Ice was further increasing. During this time, Mira almost looked like she was dead. Her heartbeat was incredibly slow and her eyes were shut. She stayed in this state for about an hour before she woke up from it. She immediately swam to the surface to steady herself. She realized that she hit a bottleneck in her Dao and didn't know when she would be able to cross it to reach the next stage in her understanding. Mira dove back in and continued tempering her muscles and bones until midnight. Afterward, she got out and went to her room to sleep.

Mira and Maria would continue their training of muscle tempering in the pond in the morning, sparring in the afternoon, then Mira and Maria would split up. Maria would meditate on her insights during sparring and Mira would temper her bones and muscles at night. Mira would also keep making the pond colder every time she went in. This went on until Maria was ready to break through to Qi Condensation.