Once the smoke cleared, Mia summoned her ice scepter and Mariel glanced at it with a frown.
[ That's a god-grade weapon. Did the ice powers give you this as a beginner's gift? ] She asked Mia with a spiritual message so that no one else would be able to hear her.
[ It comes with the package. ] Mia replied as she touched the ground below her with her scepter.
It started turning to ice and Mia pulled the scepter back as the ice stopped spreading.
[ Since you are using such a powerful item, I also have the right to use my powerful item. ] Mariel said with a grin as flames started to dance around her right hand.
A purple longsword emerged from the flames as Mariel grabbed the hilt of it. A giant Ruby was incrusted in the place where the hilt joined the blade.
The ruby looked exactly like the rubies Mia saw on Mariel's crown and armor.
"Those were just replicas. This is the original one." Mariel said as she pointed at the ruby.
As for Riang and the disciples, they were dumbstruck by this display. Both the weapons were radiating a very powerful aura and they could sense it clearly. All of them knew that the weapons in front of them were beyond their understanding as the power they contained didn't belong to this world.
[ We don't have Kai's memory removal powers so we should be careful about using our powers since we won't be able to manipulate their memories after our display. ] Mia warned Mariel who nodded while shifting to a battle stance.
Purple flames danced around the sword as Mariel advanced towards Mia. Since they decided to keep the fight to a basic level, they decided that they will only attack once.
Ice revolved around Mia's scepter as she too stepped forward. Ice surrounded the top half of her scepter and turned into a spear.
Both of them met each other in the middle of the courtyard and attacked each other. Mariel swung her sword towards Mia's right shoulder whereas Mia decided to strike Mariel's stomach.
But before either attack could land, both of them changed the weapons trajectories and blocked the other's attack.
"And that concludes our display." Mia said as both of them stepped.
Riang and the disciples were so shocked that they forgot to speak. To Mariel and Mia, it felt like they were clashing at a normal speed but to Riang and the disciples, it looked as though Mia and Mariel were moving at an inhuman speed as their figures had vanished and appeared so quickly.
Other than that, their reflexives were extremely sharpened as they both managed to counter the other's attack while protecting themselves from any harm.
"You expect us to do that?" Yui asked in a shocked voice and Mariel grinned.
"We don't expect you to do that. We will make you do that." She said as her hands lit up with flames.
The disciples sweatdropped as they looked at the evil Mariel. They then looked at Mia who didn't grin but ice swirled around her at a very fast speed and that was enough to terrify the disciples.
"Let's begin the training." Mariel said cheerfully. The disciples wanted to cry but their tears evaporated because of Mariel's flames.
They surrendered themselves to the two trainers and started the hellish training.
While on the southern continent, Kai was standing at the entrance of the royal capital. After spending some time resting in a cave, he decided to enter the royal capital.
He teleported to the place where the royal palace was built but that was before he burned it to the ground.
Now, a new palace was being built on the same ground and members of the royal family were orchestrating the whole thing.
It turned out that the royal treasury was situated below the palace so it survived when Kai burned the palace.
The royal family was now using the wealth from the treasury to build a luxurious palace.
Kai looked around the entire place and saw the person he was looking for. A person with bright red hair and kind brown eyes was talking with a group of people. This person's name was Haruka. Mariel had told Kai to make him the new ruler of the southern continent as she believed that he was the best choice.
Haruka was asking the group of people about the palace's safety when Kai suddenly popped in front of him.
"Ahh!" Haruka screamed as he was startled and the group of people started giving him weird looks.
Kai snapped his fingers and their eyes fogged as he manipulated their memories before teleporting them to a random location on the construction site.
"Only you can see me." Kai said to Haruka who managed to calm down.
"You are the most wanted person on the entire southern continent and you decided to pop up in front of a royal family member without worrying about the consequences. Why?" Haruka asked him as he was confused by Kai's behavior.
"I kidnapped Mariel right under your noses and I also defeated Jin and his entire army of followers single-handedly. Do you really think that I am afraid of some stupid royal family?" Kai asked in amusement and Haruka's face turned red.
"Back to business. Mariel sent me here to make you the new ruler of the southern continent." Kai said as Haruka's expression turned blank.
Kai's eyes started glowing as he peeked into Haruka's mind.
"Why should I believe what he says? And even if by some tiny chance it was true, why would Mariel chose someone who is weak like me?" Kai heard Haruka's thoughts and was surprised to see that Mariel's choice was a person who was extremely intelligent while being physically weak.
He also looked at Haruka's memories and saw that Haruka was a very caring person. If any servant was hurt in front of him, he would make sure to give them some medicine to apply on the wound.
And instead of giving the poor some money, he gave them apples. He told them that they could eat some apples while they could sell the rest of them for money.
In this way, Haruka established the royal capital's best apple-selling shop from the scratch. He was not only intelligent but also kind.
However, he didn't have enough physical strength to fight for the throne. He could use his brain to play some tricks but in the end, he would have to fight directly.
The reason for this was that he was born with a spiritual disease that blocked the flow of his spiritual energy.
The disease was successfully cured later on but it already cost him his physical health. By using the royal family's resources, he somehow managed to advance to the 6th stage of the hell spirit realm but he was now stuck here while the rest of his cousins advanced in their cultivation.
"Even though I saw your memories, I will still like to judge you." Kai said as he returned to the present. Even though Haruka was someone Mariel wanted on the throne, Kai wanted to see his full potential so that any incident like the hotel doesn't happen in the future.
"I will offer you a contract. I will give you all the power that you will need but you will have to use it yourself to win the crown. And as for what I gain by this, I will watch your decisions to see if you are fit for becoming the ruler of this continent and if I find out that you are not worthy, I will choose someone else. What do you say about this contract?" Kai asked as Haruka started thinking.
If he declined it, Haruka's oldest cousin would win the crown and the entire continent would always be at war as his oldest cousin loved war.
'This is my only chance to improve this continent.' He thought as he nodded his head.
Kai extended his hand forward and Haruka held it. Purple sparks surrounded Kai as a pheonix appeared beside him.
"Choose him as your next host as he is intelligent and worthy of your power." Kai said to the pheonix as Haruka's jaw dropped.
"I don't know how you summoned me but you are right. He is indeed worthy of my powers. I will definitely choose him as my next vessel." The pheonix said in a deep voice and he turned into flames that launched themselves at Haruka.
His entire body started glowing as the flames surrounded him and everyone stared at him. Haruka rose in the air as two pheonix wings opened from his back.
His cultivation started increasing by many folds and he landed at the 10th stage of the hell spirit realm.
Kai stared at this with a small smile on his face.
"You are someone who is worthy of becoming a vessel. Congratulations Haruka on becoming the host of the Vermillion Bird of South." He said as flames engulfed the entire place.