Chapter 108 Training Grounds

,m "I feel much better now." Mira said as her mind seemed to clear up.

She looked around her to see what kind of damage she caused and was rather surprised at how powerful her attacks were. Disregarding the large cone of destruction in front of her, there was a river of blood and bodies everywhere. Plus it seems that her attacks had enough force behind them that there were even small crevices made from her scythe. Everything around her was either frozen or ripped to shreds.

"Damn. To think I did all of this without even trying. Plus that Earth-Shattering Fist felt amazing. The Leader literally exploded into a bloody mess even though I'm a stage lower than him. I think I could've achieved the same result with only 50% of my power, maybe a bit less than that. But using so much Qi in one move just feels so satisfying." Mira lamented over what happened, but now that her mind has cleared up a bit, she realized she made a bit of a mistake.

"Fuck. I needed that guy's head for the reward. Hmmm… What to do? Seeing how everything is destroyed, I'll just have to bring them the heads of the subordinates." Mira said as she took out her scythe and started slashing off the heads of the dead bandits.

While Mira was doing this, she felt Dominique start throwing up all over her. Mira kept slicing off heads as she talked to her.

"Get used to this sight, kid. I took you out with me so you'd get to see and experience the truth of the cultivation world. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows just because you get a little stronger. In fact, the world only gets tougher and more brutal. You'll have to fight stronger enemies, see scenes like this more than you'd wish to or you might even be the cause of such a scene. Take in everything that I did in this fight as it may very well save your life. I attacked without hesitation, killed everyone that stood in my way in the quickest way possible, and obliterated the leader before he could even think about doing anything. That's how I was able to wipe out almost 1000 bandits plus the leader in around 3 minutes. If you were to watch Maria do something like this, it might take her 10 times as long, maybe more because even though she's come to terms with killing other people, there will most likely still be moments of hesitation and she'll try to finish them cleanly." Mira said while cutting off heads. Dominique still trying to take everything that Mira was saying in.

"Did… Did you only do this because they were bad people? Because they were bandits? Dominique asked with a hoarse voice.

"Huh? I don't give a fuck what they are. They could be saints that feed the hungry and help the poor and weak for all I care. If you want to compare good and bad, then I'd be the Devil compared to these Angels here. They were merely an annoyance to the general public, ostracized as bad people, then finally a bounty was put on their heads. They also seemed to mess with some of the Disciples. These guys were bandits because this was their way of trying to get stronger. I came here to kill them to help me get stronger. There is no good or bad in the cultivation world. People who say otherwise are just being hypocritical." Mira explained to the naive and ignorant 8-year-old, filling her head with venomous thoughts like this. Dominique took everything Mira said to heart and forced herself to look at the scene before her so she can try and prepare her mind for things like this in the future.

After Mira collected all of the heads, she found Rhydian and told her that she can go wild for the rest of the day, as long as she came back here. Rhydian seemed to understand and just flew off, and not long after they started hearing loud 'booms' and lighting flying everywhere. Mira just sat down to gather her lost energy back and then she started cultivating. Dominique sat on her lap as she kept organizing her thoughts, but eventually dozed up.

Hours went by and the day was drawing to a close. Rhydian came rushing back, covered in blood, but seemed incredibly happy. They found a nearby stream to wash up a bit then went back to the Sect. The way back was silent as Dominique didn't know what to say and kept organizing her thoughts from what happened earlier. She didn't know what was right and wrong, but she couldn't argue with Mira's logic and this was the internal struggle she was going through.

After making it back to the Sect, Mira dropped off Dominique and Rhydian in her room and noticed Maria also made it back. She then immediately went to the Mission Hall to turn in her mission.

She walked up to the Elder in charge and gave her the mission slip.

"I've completed the mission, but I was unable to retrieve the Leader's head." Mira said in a cool voice.

"If you don't have the Leader's head, then unfortunately I cannot sign off this mission as complete and give you the reward." The Elder sighed.

"The Leader blew up into a bloody mess, including his head. But I was able to gather all of the subordinate's heads. This should be enough proof as I killed everyone in the bandit camp." Mira said as she started dumping hundreds of heads near the Elder. The Elder and everyone else just stared at this scene, not knowing how to react. They could see that the bandit's faces looked like they were in complete horror before they died. This sent chills up their spines. Not only that, but Mira actually walked around and removed the head of every single person all because she blew up the leader?

"Ah! You can stop now! I get it! They're all dead. Even if the leader ran away, their raids won't be able to continue now that his entire group is dead. I'll just go ahead and give you the rewards for the mission." The Elder said with a tired face.

Mira was handed her 75 spirit stones and looked at her bracelet to see that the [SP] section went from [-] to [400]. Mira nodded and left the place, leaving all of the heads with the Elder. The Elder was about to speak up, but Mira was already gone.

Mira walked back to her room and noticed that Dominique had gone to sleep and Maria was cultivating. She just shrugged her shoulders, went to her room, and cultivated through the night.

The next day, Dominique woke up early to continue her training as she was finally able to organize her thoughts on what happened yesterday. She came to the conclusion that even if Mira is wrong, she doesn't care. She wanted Mira to teach her and that's what she did by taking her on that mission yesterday. Mira was doing that to make her stronger, mentally. Once she realized this, she knew that if she wants to stick with Mira in the future, then she'll have to get used to those scenes whether she likes it or not.

Mira and Maria did their usual thing, and went to the cultivation cave first thing in the morning, but after that Mira brought up something a little unexpected.

"We are going to the Training Grounds!" Mira said and dragged Maria to the Training Grounds. They walked over to the Ninth Training Ground and could immediately feel an intense pressure come over their bodies.

"So this is the Ninth Training Ground, Huh? Truly a great place for training one's body!" Mira said as she made her way over to the training gear.

There were tons of dumbbell-like weights, but what surprised Mira the most was all of the bracelets and ankle bracelets. She went to pick one up and realized that picking one up is actually fairly difficult.

"Put an ankle bracelet on each leg and a bracelet on each arm. We are going to spar until our bodies give out." Mira commanded as Maria immediately wanted to cry. She saw Mira struggling to pick one up, and now they have to put on 4?! Even just moving might be difficult, not to mention fighting! But even though she wanted to complain, she knew this day was coming and just accepted it.

"Oh! Let's put on these vest weights too. I'll make some Ice Balls to put around us as we train as well to improve the efficiency!" Mira said, putting on the vest weights and creating a bunch of head-sized ice balls to put around them. After the setup was finished, they began sparring.

It was incredibly fun to watch them spar because their movements were slowed by around 90% or more. It almost looked like they were moving in slow motion. But if you were to look at all of the weights they were wearing, you would understand that these 2 are crazy. Halfway through their spar, they took out their weapons then continued. There was nobody in the Ninth Training Grounds right now, so nobody was there to see these two fight. But if one were to watch closely, they'd be able to see small improvements in their movements. Things that you wouldn't notice when you're always moving at full speed.

After hours of this masochist training, their bodies finally collapsed and they couldn't move. After getting some energy back, they were finally able to remove the weights and exit the Training Ground, feeling like a mountain was lifted off of them.

"We will continue doing this every day until we can spar normally with all of the weights on. Then we'll just add more weights and continue!! Once there are no more weights to put on, we'll move onto the Tenth Training Ground! Remember what the Elder said if we want to advance we have to prepare our body to be able to hold all of that Qi so this is necessary for our future growth. No complaining!" Mira said sternly as this was actually extremely important. Probably more important than anything else right now other than cultivating.

"I know… But that doesn't mean I have to like it. I'm only doing this because it's necessary and I get to spend some time with you where you aren't beating me up." Maria pouted as they walked back to their room to rest and cultivate.