Kai was moving towards the center of the forest and behind him, five different animals with their heads drooping were following him.

The animals were – a white and black colored cat, a yellow and brown colored lizard, a flame red sparrow, a small black turtle, and a blue snake.

These were of course the five greats beasts or were in the past, but now, Kai had turned them into their insulting versions.

The White Tiger was called an overgrown cat, The Vermilion Bird, a red sparrow, The Azure Dragon, a snake hovering in the air, The Black Turtle, a turtle with a hard shell, and the Yellow Dragon, a lizard with wings.

And thus, Kai gave these names life, as he turned the five beasts into what they were now.

“Umm, Kai, what exactly is a purple Thornpick?” The Vermilion Bird asked. He didn’t like their animal voices, so instead, he gave them their normal spirit voice back.

“Honestly, even I don’t know much about it. The purple thornpick only exists in the mortal world. I have searched every other realm but I have never even heard of its name.” Kai said and shrugged his shoulders.

“So you know nothing about it?” The Azure Dragon asked, sounding surprised. The beasts had known him for a long time, and for them, long means like a few millenniums.

“Gale, you are right, I only know a single fact about it.” Kai said to the Gale, the Azure dragon, or precisely the elemental spirit in the form of the Azure dragon.

He didn’t like to call them elemental spirit or something, so instead, he gave them names.

“The purple thornpick is a walking fart bomb.” Kai said dramatically which made the beasts stop in their tracks.

“Fart as in fart-fart?” The Vermilion Bird asked, its nose quivering.

“No, Sera. By fart, I meant that the purple thornpick releases deadly gasses out of its butt. Though, the poisons are inflammable, except for my Amatara, no other fire can burn it.” He said and stopped to look at his beasts.

The beasts were standing in the correct order, the Black Turtle of North, standing at the left; and the Yellow Dragon Of Centre, standing in the right. The other three were in the middle, from west to east.

“Misty ( meaning mist ), Raiden ( meaning thunder or lightning ), Seraphina ( meaning fire or flame ), Gale ( Meaning wind or storm ), and Jade ( meaning a beautiful stone obtained from the earth ).” Kai called out their names, each signifying their elements.

These spirits had been captured for an entire century when a bunch of dark magic users captured them and did experiments on them.

Kai had killed those guys and freed the spirits, however, instead of going back to where their home is, they decided to follow Kai. He then gave them names and let them become his partners.

“Just follow me and here.” He said and snapped his fingers, turning them back to their original forms.

All of them nodded eagerly and followed him. Kai kept walking towards the center of the forest when he started to feel that something was wrong with the air around him.

“The air’s full of poison.” He said as he looked back at his beasts. They were fine as his powers protected them. However, when they will return to Tzu’s house, he is going to have a special talk with her.

They then moved further in, the air getting thicker with the poison. After being about 200 meters away from the purple thornpick, the air started turning purple and one could easily see it.

After two minutes, they saw the purple thornpick. It turned out that the purple thornpick was actually an oversized skunk that released poison instead of normal gas.

As Kai didn’t like the smell, he just killed the entire animal using his black flames, leaving out its heart. He then picked up the heart and dismissed his spirits before teleporting back to Tzu’s house.

When she saw Kai empty-handed, she was about to close the door on his face. But she stopped when she saw him taking out a tongue, tail, heart, and a petal of ice flower.

She was about to take them from his hands when he stopped her

“You really thought that I wouldn’t know why you require this, the tail and heart are beacons of yang energy whereas the flower and tongue are the beacons of yin energy. And with these ingredients, you can increase your cultivation.” Kai said and showed her a smile, telling her that he knew her secret.

Yin and Yang were the purest forms of energy, the more concentrated, the more powerful. Yin turned plain water into ice whereas yang turned a small flame into a raging storm. Light and dark were created because of the balance of this energy.

If one consumes it, then it could benefit their cultivation. However, the higher they reach, the less it affects them. Or that’s what happens with pretty much 80% of this universe’s population.

This happened because they only absorbed 20 to 30% percent of the energy present in it. But for Kai, who absorbed 100% of the energy, this was like a gold- no, a diamond mine.

“Use these and your cultivation will increase by 3 stages, thus, landing you at the 4th stage of heaven spirit.” Kai said as he handed her a vial, half full of his yang qi.

Even with the glass, preventing the energy from escaping outside, Tzu could still feel its purity.

She greedily picked it up and went inside to cultivate it, as though she was hypnotized by it. Kai chuckled before calculating the energy he could get from the ingredients he had collected.

When he finished his calculations, he was grinning like crazy. He summoned his spirits, happily patting them on their heads. They stared at him in confusion, wondering why he was happy.

“It’s time, I am going to break through to the 10th stage of heaven spirit realm.” He dropped the bomb on their heads, startling them and perhaps, some unknown entities.

( AN: Did you expect that or did it startle you? I don’t want to drag this story on for, you know, forever. So, I am moving things at a considerable pace. Though, if you believe that the story is progressing at a fast pace, just let me know. )