Chapter 466: Northwest

Azaar immediately turned the ship around to search for Mira, but he wasn't all that hopeful. They were only able to chase after Hana because she was just a mortal, and the pendant she always wore released a particular aura.

As long as they were in Hana's general vicinity, they'd be able to sense this aura.

Of course, Hana could just drop the crescent moon pendant somewhere so she wouldn't get caught, but that's pretty much the last thing she'd want to do.

For one, Azaar and his family would still find it, and since she's only a mortal, she'd be unable to create enough distance between herself and the pendant before she got caught.

She might have her impeccable stealth skills, but as a mortal, there are only so many places she can hide in the mountains without getting killed. Additionally, her stealth skills are only at their full potential when she's standing still.

With Azaar's entire family and gangs of mercenaries looking for her, it's only a matter of time before she's either captured, killed by a random beast, or starved to death.

While Hana might not like Azaar and his family, she didn't want to die for them.

However, things would be different if the pendant was in Mira's hands! Due to Mira's beauty, talent, and strength, Hana assumed that her background was anything but ordinary.

So, she could just hand herself over to the Lionel family, ensuring her safety while also fucking them over!

Azaar knew this, and that's why he was so mad!

After commanding his crew to turn the ship around, he approached Hana and said in a stern voice, "For the sake of your mother and clan, you better hope we can find that fox lady, Matriarch."

Hana's expression hardened, but she just kept quiet. Azaar scoffed at this and left to go help find Mira.

***

Meanwhile, Mira just found some random cave with a Low-Stage Rank 7 beast and decided to camp out in it. She swiftly knocked it unconscious, then created her own little area in the cave.

Afterward, she concealed her Qi and aura and began waiting until Azaar eventually left the area.

She knew that with Azaar's ship, his strength, and the strength of his subordinates, there was absolutely no way she could run away. So, her best bet would be to hide, but hiding in an empty cave is too obvious.

That's why she only knocked the beast unconscious instead of killing it, to help mask her presence. Mira was banking on the fact that Azaar would never think she was crazy enough to hide near a beast that could kill her.

Fortunately, her gamble seemed to pay off because nobody barged in looking for her, even after several hours of staying in the cave.

However, she did have a few problems with the beast.

After several hours, the beast eventually woke back up and charged at Mira immediately.

"Sigh... You know I just knocked you out without any effort, right? What are you gonna do, charging at me like that?" Mira said, then slapped the beast back to sleep.

Mira shook her head and continued to wait. She could still vaguely feel Azaar's presence searching the mountains around her.

A few hours later, the beast woke up, but this time it didn't immediately charge at Mira. It understood that it was no match for Mira and that its home was stolen by some stranger.

So, with a depressed look on its face, the beast walked over to the exit, ready to leave. That is until he heard the indifferent voice of the homewrecker behind it!

"Did I give you permission to leave?"

That's all he heard before he was knocked unconscious again.

Another few hours passed until it woke up again, but it didn't dare make any moves this time. It was smart enough to understand that the evil fox lady wanted it for something. It just didn't know what she wanted!

"Be a good boy and stay right there. I don't want to have to keep knocking you unconscious." Mira said with a smile, but this smile made the beast tremble in fear.

It didn't quite understand Mira's words, but it understood her intent.

The beast vigorously nodded its head and sat right there without moving.

Mira gave it a satisfied nod and said, "I'm going to cultivate. Every time you bother me, I'll cut off a foot. However, if you stay quiet and leave me alone, I'll give you something good."

She then took out a star fruit and showed it to the beast.

The beast trembled at first when it heard Mira's first words, but as soon as the Star Fruit appeared, its attitude took a complete 180. It almost wanted to attack Mira and steal that fruit from her!

However, as soon as it stepped forward, it felt pain in one of its feet. It looked down and saw a line of blood on its ankle.

"That's just a warning. The next time you do something like that, I'll remove that foot. Now go over there and sit." Mira pointed at a corner in the cave.

While trembling, the beast followed Mira's command, sat in the corner of the cave, and then proceeded to stare intently at Mira.

However, Mira ignored it and began taking out handfuls of Spirit Worm meat. She still had quite a bit of it, which she would use to break through as many times as possible.

Fortunately, she could still conceal her aura while using Spirit Worm meat and Star Fruits to cultivate.

***

It wasn't until two months later did Azaar finally stop looking for Mira and left on his flying ship.

During this time, Mira was able to make it to the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, and she also amassed a total of 5050 Abyssal Battle Ladder Points!

She could only break through so many Stages because of the Spirit Worm meat and Star Fruits. However, now she had finally run out of Spirit Worm meat, and Star Fruits weren't nearly as effective on her anymore.

This wasn't too surprising because Mira had eaten quite a few of them over the last 5 months, and her body had built up a tolerance against the energy contained in the fruits.

During this time, she had also given 2 Star Fruits to the beast in the cave, allowing it to become a Mid-Stage Rank 7 beast.

Of course, when it broke through, it thought about attacking Mira and kicking her out of its home, but when it thought about its precious foot...

Needless to say, he preferred having it attached to its body.

After Mira sensed that Azaar was finally gone, she knocked out the beast one last time and left the cave.

"It looks like that bastard finally left. That pendant Hana left must be quite important for him to search these mountains for so long. Do you know anything, Guardian?" Mira asked out loud.

"Of course, I know what that pendant is." The Guardian said smugly.

"Then, why don't you tell-"

The Guardian interrupted, "No! I'm not going to tell you what it does or what it represents. Where would be the fun in that? Plus, it wouldn't be of much use to you even if you did know. Just know that it's something very important to that little girl. Though, even I don't know what that Azaar guy wants with it..."

Mira bitterly smiled but didn't respond to that. By now, she expected that kind of answer.

She gazed in the direction Azaar left, contemplating whether she should chase after them.

During this time, her feelings of anger have had time to simmer down, and if she were being honest, she really didn't want to waste her time on this petty 'revenge', if it could even be called that.

Mira just wanted to give her a few spanks, maybe break a few bones, then force Hana to hand over her stealth skills.

On the other hand, she felt like the best form of revenge might be to simply head back to the Battle Maiden Sect and forget about the pendant. Since it was so important, Hana would eventually come looking for her.

Mira was also worried about Maria and wanted to let her know that she was alright.

She didn't know how long she would be gone if she did try and get her revenge on Hana. She might end up being gone so long that she gets kicked out of the Battle Maiden Sect!

"Thankfully, Rhydian is with Maria to let her know I'm not dead," Mira muttered, and in the end, she chose to get her revenge on Hana.

The main reason was that her Stealth skills were too amazing that Mira didn't want to give up on obtaining them.

She can focus on the various professions like alchemy, blacksmithing, and arrays later when she returns to the Sect, but she might never get a chance to obtain such amazing stealth skills again if she gives this up.

With her mind made up, Mira started running Northwest, in the direction Azaar's ship left!