Fight Till Your Last Breath

Silence claimed the entire place as Mariel's memories ended. However, instead of returning to the original world, they stayed there as darkness surrounded them.

Mia looked at Mariel and she opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Mariel just formed a sad smile as she looked at Mia.

Seeing her in such a condition, Kai went near her and hugged her to his chest. She wrapped her hands around his neck and they stayed like that for some time.

Mia wanted to speak something but she couldn't figure out what she should speak. Kai slowly released Mariel as she stepped back, her cheerful smile back on her face.

"So, let's go back." Kai said as they appeared in the real world.

For them, many minutes had passed but in the real world, only a second had passed away.

"Mariel, how did you become the first fire spirit when you were a human?" Mia said as she finally thought of something to ask.

"In the past, humans could become spirits of their emotions resounded with the elements. But the human nature started to corrupt and thus, they lost the ability to become spirits." Kai answered instead of Mariel.

"Currently, spirits are born from nature only. Their personalities make them the spirits of certain elements. Passion makes a spirit belong to the fire category, whereas calmness makes them belong to the water category. Similarly, protectiveness makes them belong to the earth category and free will makes them belong to the air category. Whereas ferocity means that a spirit belongs to the lightning category." Mariel explained.

"There still two types of spirits left. What do they symbolize?" Mia asked as she remembered that there were dark and light type spirits too. However, these spirits were extremely rare.

"Light and dark spirits symbolize balance like yin and yang or good and evil. They maintain the balance between the spirits as balance is crucial." Kai explained as he turned to look at the disciples.

"So there are seven types of spirits." Mia said.

"Yes, there are seven types of spirits." Kai said with a small smile as he gazed at the sky. Mariel too gazed at the sky as though both of them were thinking about the same thing.

"But let's forget about that. We should check on their techniques." Kai said as he looked in the direction of the disciples.

One of them had used the water element to wet the floor and while battling, his opponent slipped on it.

It was a good way to gain advantage in a real battle as the moment the opponent slips, you can easily kill him or her in a second.

Unfortunately, this trick would only work on cultivators who were in the hell spirit realm or below as cultivators were able to fly once they reached the heaven spirit realm.

Only two weeks were left before the tournament and the disciples had only learned the basics.

"All of you will have to gain real combat experience. All of you form a circle around me." Kai finally said after he watched everyone demonstrate their moves.

All the disciples gathered around him in a circle and waited. He left Mia and Mariel at the sect as he teleported the disciples to the edge of the continent.

"I will now create a large formation here that will spawn spiritual beasts at the hell spirit realm and they will be real beasts that will be created using my energy. They can hurt you and can also kill you. Whoever kills the highest number of spiritual beasts would receive a prize." Kai said as he snapped his fingers.

A huge cube surrounded the disciples and it extended on for a kilometer. Kai snapped his fingers and his body started to glow. Different types of spiritual beasts appeared beside him and started attacking the disciples.

He tossed them a few weapons as some disciples screamed in terror as the beasts started to attack them.

"Attack them while remembering to block their attacks. Swing the sword in such a way that it severs the beasts' claws while making sure that you are not hurt. Ranged weapon users could infuse their elements with the arrows and strike down the beasts from behind." Kai shouted helpful tips and the disciples started to adjust to the battle.

Many had wounds on their bodies but their faces contained determined expressions. But they suddenly stopped as a terrified scream rose in the air.

One of the disciples' body landed on the ground with a thump as a beast pierced the disciple's heart.

The others were frozen in fear as they saw the disciple die but Kai was still there.

"Fight till your entire body hurts. Fight till you want to cry. Fight till your body allows you to fight. Fight till your last breath and before dying, take your enemy down with you." Kai said as he resurrected the disciple from the dead.

The others had forgotten about his ability to bring the dead back to life and that was the reason for them being terrified.

No, that they knew that he would resurrect them, they fought as though their life really depended on it.

They massacred many beasts and new ones kept rising. Their bodies would sometimes stop working from fear and they would be killed but Kai would resurrect them.

They battled the beasts for who-knows-how long and they continued to fight till the fear left their bodies.

They trained their physical skills and elemental control to their limits till they finally crashed after reaching their limit.

"All of you lasted for ten days without any nourishment. The total number of deaths were 46 but still, you didn't give up. Your bodies no longer retract from fear and you can process things much faster than other cultivators. I am proud of you." Kai said with a smile as he completely nourished their bodies.

"All of you did much better than I expected and all of you deserve a reward for that." He added as he took out 21 swords from his pendant.

All of them were low-tier divine grade weapons and the disciples gasped when they saw Kai laying down the swords in front of them.

"Pick them up, my disciples." His words brought them out of their daze and all of them knelt in front of him.

He just gestured for them to stand up as they picked their swords. In reality, he has wanted to give them peak tier immortal grade treasures but they didn't exist in this world and the disciples won't be able to use them anyways as their cultivation was low.

Other than that, low-tier divine grade treasures were a good as they could easily use them, even though they were extremely rare.

But it wasn't as though anyone would ask him for the treasures and if someone did ask him, he would just say no to their face.

Other than that, if anyone tried to steal the sword from the disciples, a formation will tell Kai about it and he would be able to teleport and easily catch the thief. It was a win-win situation.

"That was all I can do for your physical training. However, I can still strengthen your mentality beyond any human's comprehension." He said as he sat down in a cultivation pose.

He gestured for the others to follow him as all of them sat in cultivation poses. He slowly opened his eyes as he entered the disciples minds.

"Where are we?" Nezuko asked as the disciples were currently in a dark place and there was no sign of Kai.

"Wherever we are, it sure is dark." Yui commented as she wasn't able to see anything in the darkness.

"We are currently inside your minds as I have combined them together. You will face your worst fears here and you will have to battle them. you cannot punch it, touch it, run away from it or even close your eyes in front of it. You will have to confront your deepest fears here and after that, you will emerge as a completely different person." Kai suddenly said as he appeared behind the disciples.

He teleported everyone outside the darkness, everyone except Nezuko who was left alone with Kai.

"You will be the first one to face your fear. Remember, whatever you see or hear, I will be here to look over you so you can easily face your fears. Remember, the only way you can defeat it is if you face it head-on and resolve it. I will not let anything happen to you so be confident and give your best. Good luck." Kai motivated her as he snapped his fingers.

The darkness started to revolve around Nezuko as she strengthened herself. Kai's speech gave her a lot of motivation and she believed that she would be able to face her fear.

But when her deepest fear took place in front of her, she could only scream in terror.