The Host Of The White Tiger

Nezuko's body was suddenly thrown into water. She started to sink as she struggled to breathe.

She tried to swin upwards but the more she struggled, the faster she sunk. She cried out for help but no one was there.

Kai was watching her tackle her fear with a thoughtful expression. To a normal person, it would look as though Nezuko's deepest fear would be drowning but it actually contained a more complicated meaning.

It could mean that she was afraid of dying without anyone being near her or of a meaningless death where no one would remember her.

It could also mean something else but Kai didn't know what it could be. The mind and soul were things that even he couldn't decipher.

But what interested him the most was how Nezuko would overcome her fear. After many minutes of struggling, Nezuko calmed down and sat in a cultivation pose with her eyes closed.

She let herself sink peacefully as though she accepted it. However, instead of sinking, she started rising and was soon out of the river.

He didn't know what she did to overcome her fear. No one but Nezuko could understand how she overcame her deepest fear.

She jumped in joy as she looked at Kai. He gave her a smile before he summoned the other disciples.

Many of them had same fears like being afraid of heights, being burned alive, being r*ped, which was the worst thing ever and should never happen to a woman.

However, the most unique and darkest fear belonged to Yui, which was something Kai had not expected out of the mischievous girl.

She was in a dark place that stretched on for miles. She could not speak, see or hear anything and she curled up in a ball.

The meaning of this fear was crystal clear, abandonment and loneliness. Abandonment, meaning that everyone abandons you to die alone and there is nothing you can do against it.

As for loneliness, it was the most effective way to interrogate someone. Deprive them from any human contact for months and they will tell you anything.

Yui stayed curled up for almost half an hour and showed no signs of moving. Kai feeling that it had gone overboard, started moving towards her.

For Yui, it felt as though a spark of light had appeared in absolute darkness. She slowly regained her eyesight as she looked at Kai's handsome face. He slowly bent and picked her up in princess style as she kept staring at his face.

"You are surrounded by people who care for you and that includes me. Everyone one feels lonely, sometimes I too feel lonely. But when you look around, you will see that you are surrounded by people who pay attention to you." He said to her with a smile as she slowly started recovering.

Her face too lit up with her trademark mischievous grin as Kai gently put her down. After that, he exited the disciples combined minds and all of them woke up inside his formation.

"Only a single day is left for the competition to begin. All of you will rest till tomorrow evening and I will then teleport everyone to the tournament's residence. For now, let's go back to the sect." Kai told them as he teleported them back to the sect.

The disciples bid farewell to him and went back to their houses. Kai then went to meet Riang.

"I have prepared the disciples to the best of my abilities. They should be able to speed through the tournament since the other sects would have low standard but they might face a little difficulty against the other two great sects." He told her as she sighed.

"I forgot to tell you that the four great families and the royal family will be also be participating in the tournament and that includes the current host of the White tiger." She said as Kai started thinking.

"The disciples would face many difficulties against the great families as their standards are very high. I guess I will have to ask Mariel and Mia to participate." He sighed as Riang was confused.

"You won't participate?" She asked as he shook her head.

"If I participated in the tournament, I will single-handedly win it. And other than that, I have to solve a few mysteries." He told her the truth.

He wanted to find about Mia's past in this world and why was she souless while the other members had half of their souls with them. And he also find out who took care of her while she was walking around like a zombie.

"Tell everyone in the sect to gather around the courtyard tomorrow. I will teleport us to the royal capital where the tournament would take place." He said his goodbye to Riang and vanished.

Instead of returning to his house, he instead went to check up on Watanabe and Kiana.

Kai appeared in front of the royal palace and used his spiritual sense to find Watanabe and Kiana.

He sensed Watanabe inside a cave and someone at the 8th stage of heaven spirit realm was with her.

When he teleported to the cave, he was surprised to see that the second person there was Kiana.

"How did you manage to increase you cultivation so quickly?" Kai asked as the two women jumped in surprise when they heard his voice.

"You always pop up without any warning." Watanabe complained as soon as she saw that the person who spoke was none other than Kai.

"Answer my question." He said as he stared at Kiana.

Kiana looked at Watanabe who nodded. Kiana's eyes split-pupiled lightning yellow eyes suddenly started to glow.

She extended her hand and a pure white tiger appeared around her. It completely wrapped its body around her and sat down.

"The white tiger!" Kai exclaimed as he stared at the tiger's pure white fur. Wait, pure white fur? The white tiger was a mixture of black and white. So why did the tiger in front of him had only white fur.

"I will bring Mariel here." He said as he suddenly vanished.

He appeared back at his house in the sect and quickly picked up Mariel and vanished in the matter of seconds.

"Where are we?" Mariel asked Kai as she saw two women standing in front of her.

As for Kiana and Watanabe, their jaws dropped as they stared at Mariel's appearence. Her clothes and cat like eyes were so piercing that they were speechless.

'Where does he find such girls?' Both Kiana and Watanabe thought at the same time as Mariel noticed the pure white tiger sitting near Kiana's legs.

"A pure white tiger?" She asked as she looked at Kiana.

"Do you know why that tiger is completely white and if Kiana here is the host of the white tiger, how does another person have the white tiger?" Kai asked as Mariel knelt down to pat the tiger.

It purred as Mariel slowly rubbed it's fur and she stood up after a few minutes.

"A lightning spirit is usually made up of two types of spirits, one water and one air, both of which are necessary for lightning. The white tiger is also made up of two types of spirits and that is why it's body is made up of two types of colour. But what would happen it the two spirits clash?" Mariel asked as Kai thought about it.

"They would diverge as the white tiger is only formed when the two different spirits are in complete harmony. If their opinions differ, they would ultimately revert back to their original selves or according to this realm's law, a white tiger and black tiger." Kai finally said as Mariel nodded.

As for Watanabe and Kiana, they could only nod as they didn't know much about the White tiger. They were wondering how Kai and Mariel knew so much about it.

"Watanabe, why is the Black tiger tournament celebrated?" Kai suddenly asked.

"Its to celebrated in honor of the white tiger finding a vessel." Watanabe replied in a confused tone as she thought that Kai already knew this.

"Let me rephrase the question. Why is the tournament called the Black tiger tournament instead of the White tiger tournament even though it is celebrated in the honor of the white tiger?" He asked again and Watanabe started thinking.

"I don't know. This tournament has been going on for many centuries and has been a tradition of the royal family. I don't know why it's called the Black tiger tournament." She replied honestly as Kai started thinking.

"The White tiger diverges into two and becomes a pure white and pure black tiger. Both of the tigers choose a host and Kiana was one of them. But because of the soul controlling pill, her soul was forcefully bound to that mustache dude's soul and the white tiger could not appear because of it.

Every spirit binds itself to its host's soul and since your soul was occupied, the pure white tiger could do nothing. But when you were released from the effects of the pill, the pure white tiger came back and you experienced a huge jump in your cultivation because of it." Kai concluded as everyone there nodded.

[ I was originally bound with the Vermillion Bird but I only got to the 3rd stage of the heaven spirit realm, even though I had the bird with me from the beginning. But here, she managed to skip an entire realm in just a matter of days. How? ] Mariel asked Kai through a spiritual message as she didn't want the other two to hear that she had been a host as that would undeniably tell them that she was from another continent.

[ The reason for that is... ]