Kai leaped forward and grabbed the throat of the creature. It struggled to free itself from his grip but it was a futile attempt.
Kai slammed the creature into the ground of the space gate and knocked it unconscious. He then sat in a cultivation pose and started focusing.
The air inside the space gate started to darken as he started to suck the energy present inside the space gate.
Souls contained large amounts of energy which could be used to make multiple breakthroughs. However, if you don't absorb this energy perfectly, you might explode because of it.
But Kai knew how to absorb it easily and that's what he was doing. With the help of these souls, he would be able to advance to the imperial spirit realm.
The darkness present around him started to enter his body. He suddenly opened his eyes as they started to glow.
Pure balls of light shot inside the space gate and entered Kai's body. He consumed them one by one as the darkness inside the space gate started to vanish.
The creature finally woke up and growled in pain as his energy started to fade because Kai was absorbing the souls that created the creature.
The space gate became a transparent place where one side showed the southern continent whereas the other showed the forest on the western continent.
The creature was now almost half-dead as his body was fading away. Kai stared at his body before the creature started to enter Kai's body.
Kai's body started emitting a purple glow as the spiritual energy from the souls gave him the push to break through to the imperial spirit realm.
He slowly started levitating in the air as cracks started to appear in the space gate. A huge wave of energy was released as he advanced to the 1st stage of the imperial spirit realm.
The space gate shattered on both the sides as waves of energy traveled for a few kilometers before disappearing.
Since Kai entered the space gate through the southern continent, he ended up on the western continent.
He glanced around and saw that the everything within a two-kilometer radius had turned to ash.
He stretched his body a little before teleporting back to the sect where a new drama was awaiting him.
***
As soon as Kai disappeared, Mia had to drag an unconscious Mariel back to her house which was difficult.
After reaching halfway to her house, she gave up on dragging Mariel and summoned a cot made from ice.
She tossed Mariel on top of it and the cot started to levitate. The ice suddenly started to sizzle as Mariel's eyes flew open.
She didn't say anything and just attacked Mia with a hot ball of fire. Mia just sighed and threw an ice spike at the fireball.
Much to Mariel's shock, the fireball froze because of the ice and fell on the ground and shattered.
"Unmeltable Ice." Mia said with a shrug as she hit Mariel on the neck and thus, knocked her unconscious.
The next time Mariel woke up, she was tied to a bed, and chains made from ice were binding her body.
She tried to destroy them with her flames but she was not able to do it. In the southern continent, no one was able to withstand her flames.
Be it fire, water, earth or any other type of attack, her flames always ruled over them. But now, her flames didn't even scratch the surface of the ice that was binding her.
"Oh, you are awake." Mia said as she came out of the bathroom. Her ice-colored hair were still wet and were hanging on her right shoulder as she gazed at Mariel in amusement.
"Where am I and what have you done to me?" Mariel asked in a gruff voice as she thought that Mia wouldn't answer her. But surprisingly, Mia did answer her.
"You are on the western continent and this house is a part of the Blue Moon sect's core court. You already know my name so I don't think you need to know anything else about me. Other than that, the reason your flames are not able to melt my ice is that this ice cannot be burned. Nothing can burn or shatter this, well except Kai and probably a few other people." Mia said as she started levitating in the air.
"Oh, and where is he?" Mariel said as she glanced around the room. She believed that Mia and Kai were about to r*pe her or something but that was of course not true.
"He is currently destroying that space gate and who knows how long he will take to do it. Till then, you are stuck with me so it's better that you keep your mouth shut or I will bind it up too." Mia replied in a normal voice as though what she said was just friendly talk instead of being a threat.
Mariel closed her eyes and started concentrating. Suddenly, the room's temperature started rising and a deafening cry was heard.
A magnificent red phoenix emerged from Mariel's body and stared at Mia with malice before it spread its wings.
"Sera, please take care of this spirit." Mia said loudly as a whooshing sound was heard.
A minute later, Sera appeared in her phoenix form and glared at the opposite phoenix. Both Mariel and her phoenix were frozen in shock as they saw Mia summoning another phoenix.
"Chirp Chirp Chirp." ( Translation - Why are you disobeying the laws of the spirits? )
( AN: I don't know how a phoenix speaks so I just wrote chirp. )
"Cause I am not a spirit bound with the spirit world." Sera replied as the other phoenix's eyes widened.
It stared into Sera's eyes for a minute before it slightly nodded its head.
"Chirp." ( Translation - Yes, you are right. I am not able to sense the mark of the spirit world on you. ) The phoenix replied.
Every spirit was bound to the spirit world and bore a mark that connected them to that place. But since the five spirits were Kai's partners, he removed the mark from them.
"Are you not able to sense her energy?" Sera suddenly asked as she pointed towards Mariel who was supposed to be the ruler of fire spirits.
"What energy?" The phoenix decided to speak in normal language as it was tired of chirping.
"The pure fire energy that runs in her veins." Sera replied, momentarily confused. Every spirit could feel the energy of the spirit rulers but here, a fire spirit was not sensing the energy of the fire spirit's ruler.
"Pure fire energy? That's only a myth that the old ones told about some mythical elemental spirits who ruled over the other spirits about two thousand years ago before they were all killed. I can't believe you think that such myths are true." The phoenix said in a disappointed voice before it vanished in a swirling miniature storm of flames.
"Two thousand years?" Both Sera and Mia said at the same time and glanced at each other, not sure that they heard the right thing.
According to the phoenix, two thousand years had passed since the elemental rulers had been killed meaning that two thousand years had passed since Kai resurrected Mia and the others. Both of them were so stunned that they had to sit down for a minute to digest everything.
Mariel, however, was confused by everything she heard. She didn't understand what was happening but she felt that she had to escape.
A plan clicked in her mind and she moved her hands towards the walls. She calmly took a deep breath before releasing two fireballs towards the walls.
The house caught fire and it started to spread like wildfire. Mia saw this with a cold expression and if looks could kill, Mariel would be dead by now.
Mia just covered the entire fire covered area with her ice and stopped the fire within seconds.
She then looked at Mariel with a creepy grin and tightened her ice around her. Her body was completely chained from head to toe and only her nose was left open for breathing.
This continued in for six days and there were no signs of Kai's return. However, on the seventh day, Mariel cried in pain as flames started to dance over Mia's ice.
She dissolved the ice and stared at Mariel whose entire body was bathed in flames. And that's when Kai appeared in the sect.
He teleported at the sect entrance and suddenly felt a huge wave of energy ripple through the air.
This energy was strong enough that even imperial spirit realm cultivators won't be able to feel it.
The only reason Kai felt it was because he felt his harem mark ignite on Mariel's body. He quickly teleported inside Mia's room and saw that Mariel's body was completely bathed in flames and she rising in the air.
"It's starting." He said to Mia as she looked at him and suddenly, the room burst with a brilliant spark of light.