Chapter 71: Punishment

After cultivating for the rest of the day and through the night, Mira got up and went to train Maria. They met in their usual place, the courtyard, to train. Mira saw Maria waiting for her there and walked up to her. She didn't say anything as she approached Maria, but when she got in range Mira quickly took out her scythe and swung towards Maria. Maria was barely able to dodge in time as she felt the blade of the scythe almost chop her head off. Mira didn't stop there and continued to come at Maria with the intent to kill her. Mira continued to swing her scythe as Maria just continued to dodge. Mira then spoke to her as she kept swinging.

"Today's lesson will be on how to fight someone that has a weapon when you don't. Now come!" Mira said as she swung her scythe down again and Maria was barely able to dodge.

"Are you crazy Mira?! I don't know how to do that! Plus, why does it feel like you are actually trying to kill me?! That first swing almost cut off my head!" Maria yelled.

"That's why I'm having you learn and what better way to learn than having me actually trying to kill you? This is also part of your punishment, remember?" Mira said as she twirled her scythe and the blade of her scythe cut part of Maria's skin. Maria saw a cut form on her arm and realized that Mira wasn't messing around today.

Maria tried to clear her mind to get ready for battle. When she cleared her mind, thoughts on what she needed to do started to swirl in her head.

'I need to stop that scythe if I want to be able to do anything to Mira. Let's see, a scythe is similar to a spear in length with the main difference being the curved blade at the end. I will have to get with range to prevent Mira from swinging the scythe. I think if I can just stop her from swinging her scythe, Mira will switch to hand-to-hand combat.' Maria started to come up with a plan.

Mira continued swinging her scythe as all Maria could do is dodge. Maria was looking for an opening for her to grab hold of the scythe, but Mira wouldn't allow such an easy mistake to happen.

Hundreds of swings and many cuts appeared on Maria, but she kept looking for an opening. Maria then had an epiphany. If Mira isn't going to create any openings herself, then she just needs to create one. Maria wasn't exactly sure how she would do this, but she had a rough idea. She wanted to have Mira think that she was growing tired and try to attack with a finishing move. When that happens, Maria will step up and grab the shaft of the scythe.

Maria inwardly nodded her head at this plan and got ready to proceed.

More cuts started to appear on Maria's body as she tried to look like she was growing tired. Mira noticed this as well.

'So you want to play me, eh? I guess I will play as well.' Mira smirked in her mind as she could tell what Maria was trying to do. It wouldn't take a genius to know that Maria was faking as she was terrible at hiding it, but Mira decided to just go along with it.

Once Maria's movements started to visibly slow, Mira decided that now would be a good time to go in for the final move. Mira swung down her scythe as it tried to pierce Maria's head, but at the last second Maria charged forward and grabbed hold of the scythe's shaft. Maria then tried to use the momentum from the scythe to toss Mira to the side.

Mira decided to just play along and let herself get tossed. When Mira was tossed to the side, Maria charged at her to try and grab hold of Mira force her to get rid of the scythe and fight her in close combat.

Mira just played along and let Maria grab her. When Maria tried to disarm her with the grab, Mira just went ahead and dropped the scythe. She then got herself released from the grab and came at Maria with her fists.

"I'm surprised that you came up with that idea. Trying to bait me in thinking that you are at your weakest and try to get me to make a finishing move. Then you would make your move after you see that I made an opening in that final move to try to disarm me and force me into close combat. It was a good idea, but your execution was poor. I could immediately tell that you weren't actually tired. You were trying too hard to hide it. I followed along with your idea to give you some experience in baiting people in. We will spend some extra time every day where you learn how to fight against someone that has a weapon when you don't. This is much harder than fighting against someone that doesn't happen, so I don't expect you to learn how to do this anytime soon. Heal your wounds first and we will continue with our training in hand-to-hand combat." Mira said to Maria. Maria was a little sad that Mira figured out her idea from the start, but was extremely happy when she was told that she was on the right track with that baiting technique. Maria felt like she just got praised a little by Mira and grew even happier. Maria had a wide smile on her face as she started to focus on healing her wounds. After her wounds were healed they continued with training like normal.

***

2 weeks before the Entrance Exam for the Battle Maiden Sect.

It has been a total of 5 months and 2 weeks since Mira and Maria came back to the city after their meeting with Ellie and Diana in the forest. In these last 2 and a half months, Mira has spent the majority of her time cultivating, while the time spent not cultivating was spent training Maria. Mira also made sure to punish Maria thoroughly in these last 2 and a half months. Mira would always find some way to sneak up on Maria and try to kill her. Sometimes Maria might be sleeping or cultivating and Mira would sneak into her room and swing down her scythe without hesitation. Maria would always barely dodge the attack in time, but sometimes she would get a cut or gash on her body. There was even a time when Maria went out of the house to explore the city and Mira actually left the house to follow her and try to assassinate her. Maria almost died when Mira did this because Mira stabbed her with a small knife, but luckily it didn't hit any vitals. Maria had to take a Rank 2 Rejuvenation pill and spend the next few days recovering from that injury before it fully healed. When that happened, Maria vowed that she would never bring people to meet Mira without her permission. After this attack, Maria was constantly stressed out as she was trying to watch out for any attack from Mira. But after she got stabbed, Mira stopped attacking her. This stressed out Maria even more because she didn't know if Mira was through with her punishment or if this was still part of it. Maria was on edge for an entire month before she finally felt like Mira was done with this nonsense. Things wouldn't go her way though as Mira was waiting for this moment. Mira attacked Maria out of nowhere just as she let her guard down.

"Please stop, Mira! I can't take this anymore! I promise I won't make the same mistake again. I will make sure to ask you beforehand if I can have someone meet with you." Maria started to beg Mira to stop doing this to her.

"It seems you've learned your lesson. But I will correct you on one thing. I don't really care if you want to bring people to meet me or whatever, but I was in the middle of training Rhydian along with practicing myself. I don't want people that I have no affiliation with knowing more than basic information about me. Also, I don't want Rhydian's wings to be seen. I don't want to incite the greed of people without being able to protect what's mine. If I was just cultivating or something, then it wouldn't have mattered. But if you want to bring any male over to see me then you must tell me beforehand because I will kill them without hesitation if they see me without a mask on. I will leave with this thought as your punishment is over." Mira said and turned around and left without waiting for Maria to respond. Maria decided that she would be careful and always try to ask her beforehand if she wants to bring new people to meet Mira.

Mira and Maria went back to their normal schedule until it was 2 weeks before the Entrance Exam. Within these last almost 6 months, Mira was actually able to gather and condense enough Qi in her meridians to reach Stage 8 Qi Condensation. Mira felt like she was overflowing with power as her body held an immense amount of Qi for a Stage 8 Qi Condensation Realm Expert. Mira felt even more Qi flow throughout her body as her body reached another level of strength.

Mira stood up with a slight smile on her face as she was able to reach this stage before the Examination. She then looked over to the sleeping Rhydian. Rhydian has actually been sleeping for about a month and Mira could feel her power growing every day. Mira figured that Rhydian must be breaking through to Rank 4 which is similar to when a human cultivator is breaking through to the Foundation Realm.

Mira wanted to go out and test out her Ice Prison and Earth-Shattering Fist on some beasts but didn't want to leave Rhydian alone here in the Zaria Family. She didn't know what Rhydian might do if she can't find her. Mira also didn't want to bring her with as well because she didn't want to disturb Rhydian. She just sighed and sat down as she started cultivating to stabilize her foundation.

A few days later, there was finally a change with Rhydian. Golden lighting with blue streaks started to surround her body. A qualitative change was happening to Rhydian as lighting continued to surround her body. The lightning continued to swirl around and cover Rhydian's body for a while before Mira felt a massive amount of energy surge from Rhydian. Not long after that, the lightning that was surrounding her started to condense. Rhydian was absorbing this condensed lightning as Rhydian got stronger and stronger with each passing second.

After several minutes, all of the lightning was absorbed into Rhydian and Mira was now able to get a good look at her.

Rhydian seemed several centimeters taller and longer. She still looked like a wolf cub, but a bit more grown-up. The biggest change though was that Rhydian seemed to grow another tail. One tail is a bright gold color and the other tail is an icy blue color. Rhydian opened her eyes and saw Mira staring at her. She unfurled her wings and flew across the room into Mira's arms as she was incredibly excited that she got stronger. Mira held her in her arms and was happy that Rhydian got a lot stronger, but was a little worried about the second tail. Mira didn't even understand why there was a second tail. Mira wished that she knew more about Rhydian's species.

"I will think about this later. First, I want to go out and try out my new techniques. Alright Rhydian, now that you are done we can head out of the city and stretch our legs a bit. Let's go!" Mira said to Rhydian as she carried Rhydian in her arms and had her tuck her wings back in.

*Woof!* Rhydian barked happily.