Two weeks passed by in the blink of an eye from when Mira started studying the Water Body Transformation Technique.
This technique was truly profound as there were many different steps on how to cultivate the technique. There are 8 Stages to the Water Body Transformation Technique, but what's odd about these stages as they don't necessarily get progressively harder the more you cultivate it.
The only thing one needs to properly cultivate the technique is a certain amount of strength to withstand the pressure of the water, a peaceful place to cultivate, and time. The stages go from 1 to 8 and are as follows:
Stage 1: Meridian Cleansing
Stage 2: Skin Cleansing
Stage 3: Flesh Cleansing
Stage 4: Bone Cleansing
Stage 5: Marrow Cleansing
Stage 6: Organ Cleansing
Stage 7: Blood Cleansing
Stage 8: Heart Cleansing
From what Mira understood, the technique offers little in the strength department, but she understands that it'll probably increase her strength by about 40% once it's cultivated to completion. That's a 5% increase every stage.
This increase may not seem like much, but Mira understands the difference between having that 5% and not having it. That 5% is the difference between living and dying. Hell, even 1% is more than enough.
Also, the benefit of the technique isn't in its strength, but in the other benefits, it has to offer that is much better than just an increase of 40% in strength.
The Water Body Transformation Technique is a technique that cleanses the body of all impurities. Not only that, but when cultivated to completion, the body will constantly be expelling any new impurities, always making sure the body is pure.
The benefits that come from this are immense that the increase in strength pales in comparison. Her body will be able to store more and purer Qi, she'll be able to cultivation much faster, she'll be able to consume pills without worrying about the lingering impurities in her body, and other things that Mira can't even imagine.
In addition to all of this, Mira is 70% sure that the Water Body Transformation technique will merge with her mutated physique, strengthening it and allowing her a certain control over water.
This made Mira somewhat expectant to try out this technique, but after confirming some things with Asherah and with the scroll, she understood the reason as to why she can't cultivate it right now.
The main is getting past Stage 1, the Meridian Cleansing Stage. From what Mira gathered, apparently one needs to create a bunch of acupuncture points on their body, which will allow a highly pressurized stream of water into her meridians cleansing them.
The only problem is that this stream of water is entering her meridians at many times the speed of sound. Naturally, her meridians would instantly rip apart with her current strength.
However, it seems once one passes the first stage, then the rest of the stages are much more straightforward.
Of course, it won't be so easy that one she'll be able to just breeze by one stage after another as she'll need to go deeper underwater for each subsequent stage, requiring stronger meridians.
Although the technique may seem reliant on one's cultivation, it actually just requires one's meridians to be as tough as steel, which often comes with higher cultivation.
This made Mira feel a bit better but at the same time a bit bitter. Finding ways to strengthen one's meridians is very rare and even if Mira were to find something like that, it's a huge risk to try and temper one's meridians.
Either way, Mira wasn't satisfied by the requirements at all since the benefits are just that good. If it was something easy then Mira would be a bit suspicious.
After two weeks of studying and talking with Asherah, mostly conversing with Asherah, Mira has finally committed the technique to memory so that even if she were to die she'd remember this technique in her next life.
Mira has gathered in the Throne room with Maria, Celaine, and Queen Asherah.
"It's about time for us to leave, Asherah," Mira said curtly while looking at Asherah.
"Mou~ Even though I don't want you to leave, I understand that this is something necessary for you to get stronger. In fact, let me give you something before you leave." Queen Asherah walked over to Mira and handed her two things.
One was a round metal token with a picture of a crowned mermaid on it while the other thing is a small red pill.
"This is a token that will notify you if you are ever near me. I also have a token that does the same thing except it'll notify me whenever I'm near you. I'm not ready to part with you so I'll work hard to become an immortal! You have to do the same! I'll find you whenever you ascend! Ah! As for the other thing, I'll keep that a secret for now but I'll give you a hint. Take that pill when you reach the Core Formation Realm, it'll help give you a headstart." Queen Asherah winked at Mira while keeping things mysterious.
Mira had some doubts about the pill that she received. It's not that she didn't trust Asherah-well, actually, that is part of it. Another reason is Mira isn't just going to swallow some random pill she knows nothing about, even if it is from someone she trusts. Of course, there's no reason for Asherah to try and harm her in such a lengthy process as she's nothing more than a bug in front of her so this alleviated some of her worries.
"Sure and I'll be waiting for you after I ascend," Mira smirked almost like she's the stronger of the two.
"Hehe, I suppose I'll have to work extra hard then. I'll miss you during this time of separation, but we'll have all of the time in the world after we ascend so that'll be my motivation to work harder!" Asherah pumped her fists in excitement as she felt like she'll be able to enjoy many new experiences with Mira after becoming an immortal.
There have been quite a few mermaid ancestors who have ascended into immortality and onto a new plane of existence so Asherah knew that it was possible for her to do the same as well.
Although she can't say that Mira is especially talented in cultivation, her strength compared to her cultivation is extremely abnormal. Her body has actually been tempered to a point where it's stronger than her actual cultivation base.
Asherah also has a feeling that if she and Mira had the same cultivation, she'd stand no chance in a fight against her. This is just a difference in experience as Mira has fought in wars, gone through tens of thousands if not more battles, and has been honing her battle sense almost every day for nearly 1,000 years.
Even cultivators who have lived for ten times that amount of time may not have the amount of experience Mira does when it comes to battle as cultivators spend a lot of time… well, cultivating.
"Well, whatever. I just hope that you won't be useless when you reach that point." Mira said this while still smirking as she knew that Asherah has very little battle experience compared to herself.
"Hmph! You don't have to worry about that!" Asherah pouted but didn't look displeased.
She then approached Mira and gave her a big hug.
"Make sure your life comes first. I don't want you dying before we can see each other again." Asherah whispered.
"You too…" Mira also muttered while patting her on the back.
"Alright, it's time for you 3 to go. If you stay here any longer then I won't be able to hold myself back from keeping you here." Asherah backed away and said.
"Sure, I'll see you later." Mira waved her hand and turned around.
"Bye-bye! It was nice spending time with you Miss Asherah! Thanks for your hospitality and kindness. I'll be sure to repay it when I ascend as well!" Maria exclaimed while waving her hand. She also held a favorable impression of Asherah.
"Although I don't know if I'll be able to ascend, it seems that I'll also have to try my best to become stronger so I can repay you for your kindness." Celaine calmly stated while waving her hand.
Queen Asherah just nodded her head and smiled. She also likes these two companions of Mira's as they were both nice to talk to and never held any ill-intentions even knowing how many resources her city had.
As she saw the three of them off, Asherah let out a small tear but reaffirmed her decision to get stronger and ascend.
On Mira's side, Maria and Celaine caught up to Mira and asked her a question.
"Should we go say goodbye to Coralia?" Maria asked, but Mira replied without hesitation.
"Fuck no."
"Wha-?! Why? She wasn't that bad and she even gave us gifts and a place to stay." Maria complained.
"No. Knowing that pervert she'll ask to come with us. Even if we say no, she'll probably follow us anyways, making the situation worse! And those gifts and place to stay was payment for kissing me! Actually, that's letting her off lightly! She shouldn't even be alive right now and you think I'll even give her the chance of following me?! Hell no!" Mira got angry and started to speed up while concealing herself.
Maria and Celaine got shivers knowing that Mira might actually try and kill her should she follow them and gave up on the idea of saying by to Coralia.
At their current speed, it didn't take them long to reach the exit. The guard stopped them, but Mira showed them the token that the Queen gave her which made them give way to Mira and her companions.
After exiting the city and getting back into the sea, Mira felt relieved that they hadn't run into Coralia as she didn't want to deal with that troublesome person.
'Goodbye, Meropis, the City of Mermaids!" Mira motioned to her two companions and the 3 of them swam off into the ocean.
Unbeknownst to the three of them, there was already a pair of eyes on them as soon as they left the city and entered the water.
