Mira didn't bother with Elenei anymore and went back to what she was doing. She didn't want to stop trying to comprehend her Yin Fire since it was much more difficult than she originally thought.
There's still around 2 years left in this Secret Realm, but Mira realized that if she doesn't put in all of her effort in comprehending the element of fire then she may not be able to keep her end of the deal with Elenei.
Originally, she was going to spend around a year cultivating and at least reach the Peak of the Foundation Realm maybe even breaking through to the Core Formation Realm if she's lucky, but it seems that's nothing but a pipe dream!
Most likely, she won't be able to cultivate at all during these next 2 years!
But Mira's not too upset by this. Or really, it's probably a good thing. What's 2 years' worth of cultivating compared to nurturing a Frost-Fire Phoenix? Something that Immortals would fight wars over to get their hands on?
Even if had to give up 100 years just to comprehend Yin Fire in order to nurture a future Immortal, it'd be worth it!
Doing this might cause some trouble amongst the Immortal Dragon and Phoenix clans, but that's something that future Mira will worry about. She'll leave Immortal problems for when she is near or actually becomes an Immortal.
With that though, Mira went back to comprehending the Yin Fire element.
Elenei saw that Mira seemed to have become a bit more focused and cast an approving gaze at her. Mira is her last hope at progressing further in her cultivation and it'd be better for both of them if she puts in as much effort as she can.
***
It took a few days for Maria to fully recover from her injuries and during this time, they said goodbye to Aaron's group.
Celaine was pretty much fine after their fight with the Light Drake and Aaron's group wouldn't be very helpful against an enemy that Celaine herself couldn't handle.
Originally, after saying goodbye to Aaron's group, the two of them wanted to go back to Mira, but then they realized that they haven't looted the Light Drake's lair! Surely such a strong beast wouldn't be so poor, right?
Maybe its layer will be filled with rare herbs, precious metals, and maybe even the loot of other people!
The only problem is they don't know where its layer is located! So the only thing they can do is guess.
Both of them remembered the direction that the Light Drake came from and started off from there.
"I wonder what we'll find at the Light Drake's lair. What do you think will be there, Celaine?"
"I don't know, but I'd be happy as long as there is something there. Who knows, that stupid lizard may have eaten all the good stuff in order to reach its level of strength."
Maria was stunned when she heard Celaine's answer and felt what she said might come true.
What if that Light Drake wasn't originally a Light Drake and only evolved into one because of the resources it found?
"No no no, how can that be? Surely there would at least be something leftover even if that was the case. Also, how can someone as lucky as me meet with such misfortune?"
Maria said with confidence to which Celaine just shrugged her shoulders.
The two of them continued talking as they searched for this shitty Light Drake's lair.
.
.
.
A few days later, the two of them stumbled upon a large cave that held a dense amount of Qi inside and there were tons of large footprints around the outside of the cave.
Maria and Celaine beamed as this cave is most likely the place where the Light Drake lived.
"Hehe looks like we finally found it!"
Maria exclaimed.
Celaine nodded with a slight smile as she too was a bit expectant to see what's inside.
Although the two of them were excited, they didn't let their guards down. In fact, they raised their guards. Who knows what kind of dangers are lurking around this cave just waiting to loot it.
The two of them slowly snuck their way into the cave and other than the dense amount of Qi, there was nothing special. But that's fine, they are still near the entrance!
They slowly crept through the cave and it didn't take long for them to find the end of the cave and what they saw left them dumbfounded.
The first thing they noticed was the overabundant amount of bones, in particular beast bones. The sides of the cave were filled to the brim with beast bones.
The next thing they noticed is the whole place smelled like shit! Literally! It smelled like someone used this place for the last hundred years as an outhouse and didn't bother doing anything to mask the smell.
And finally, the last thing they noticed was… That there is nothing else in this cave!!
"Are you kidding me?"
Maria felt like crying right now. Where was her loot? Where were her precious herbs and rare metals? At least give me a Spirit Stone as a consolation prize!
All she got was a bunch of shit and bones!!
"Sigh… From the looks of it, the Light Drake must've recently evolved and decided to move out. This smell isn't the smell of poop, but the smell of impurities cleansed from the body. Also, if you look closely you can see the skin it shed as it evolved. I guess an 'I told you so' is in order hehe."
Celaine tried to tease Maria a bit to ease the tension.
"Shut up! What do you know?! Maybe there is something extraordinary in this poop! Maybe that big dumb overgrown lizard forgot some of its loot in its excitement after evolving!" Maria yelled with vigor.
"Haha! If that really is the case, then I'll eat its shit if you can really find something like that."
Celaine said casually.
"You said it! Don't go back on your word when I find my priceless treasure!"
1 Hour Later
"Hahaha! It looks like I won't be eating any shit! Hahaha!"
Celaine was laughing at Maria, who at this point was covered in… unique substances.
Over the last hour, Maria had sifted through every ounce of this cave. She tore apart the bones, poop, impurities, shed skin, and even dug a bunch of holes in the ground.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she turned this cave upside down, but even after all of her hard work, all she ended up doing was washing her clothes in freshly shat poo.
"That damn useless lizard! How dare it call itself a Light Drake?! What Drake doesn't have a secret stash of loot?! Argh!"
Maria wailed.
"Alright. Alright. Seeing as you literally tore this cave apart, I think it's time we head out of here and get ourselves cleaned up. Although it seems this Light Drake consumed all of its treasures, we still have its corpse. We can also keep adventuring to make up for our loss today."
Celaine tried to calm Maria down as there was nothing they could do at this point.
"Argh! Whatever, let's just get out of this place and go take a bath! I'm tired of smelling like this!"
The two of them ended up leaving the cave with nothing to show except for extraordinarily smelly bodies.
