Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

Kai ran towards the location marked on his map. According to old man Song, this new area would have an abundance of fire element materials for him to gather.

Up to this point, the map had been accurate, so Kai was no longer worried about being a trap. He followed the seemingly endless river of magma for a few hours until he reached the next destination.

This new location had geysers that emitted steam every few minutes. Kai could also finally see the source of the magma river which was a massive waterfall of magma flowing from the ceiling.

"I wonder how deep underground this is...", Kai thought as nearby geysers erupted. At that moment, the rocks and magma close to the stream started to move on their own. They assembled themselves into large rock creatures of varying shapes and sizes which slowly started to move towards him. They seemed to be moving extremely slow, so Kai had enough time to analyze one of them.

[Lava-Rock-Golem] [Grade-2] [654 Qi]

"There are a lot of them, but at the speed that they're moving, avoiding them shouldn't be a problem...", Kai thought while nodding his head. He moved around looking for anything of value in the area while avoiding the Golems but was surprised to not find anything.

"Hmm, maybe...", Kai walked towards the closest Golem and looked at it carefully. It was moving hilariously slow, so Kai felt absolutely no sense of danger from it. With one Qi enhanced fist, Kai was able to crush it into pieces, but as soon as he did, the Golem quickly reassembled itself as if nothing had happened.

"The regeneration is pretty fast though. I'll have to be faster", Kai said as he attacked it again. Each time he did, Kai would quickly search the remains for anything valuable before it put itself together again. Only after the fourth time did he notice a small red gem within the remains. Kai quickly grabbed it and notice that it wasn't giving off any Qi signatures.

[Lava-Rock-Golem-Essence] [Grade-2] [654 Qi]

"Essence? it's not a core?...", Kai thought while putting the essence in his bag. Once it was inside of his bag, the rocks stopped moving and its regeneration stopped.  He smiled and turned to the other [Lava-Rock-Golems], the hunt was about to begin. 

After a few hours of hunting, Kai noticed a powerful Qi presence moving towards him at high speed. He immediately stopped hunting and made some distance between himself and the remaining Golems.

"Can't they just let me farm materials in peace?...", Kai thought while observing the small object flying towards him. He knew that he couldn't outrun whatever it was, so he decided to just face it and see what happens.

Kai put his arms behind his back and watched the object approaching him. A few seconds later, it came into view and Kai was able to see it clearly. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a flying carpet carrying three people. Kai assumed that the carpet was some sort of artifact and looked at it with some interest. 

The woman standing at the front of the carpet noticed him and directed it towards him.

"You there, what are you doing here?... Do you understand that you're trespassing on the Twin Lions Sect's private property?!", The woman said as she jumped off the carpet and walked over to him confidently.

Kai noticed her golden-green robes from the Twin Lions Sect. 

"I came in with the earlier group and got lost. Thank goodness you found me, I felt like I was going to die down here!", Kai said in the most innocent tone he could muster. Hou Zhou and Song Wei who were sitting on the carpet couldn't believe their ears. 

"That's...hard to believe..."Said the woman incredulously. She pulled out a sword and brandished it close to Kai's neck.

"Hehe, relax there miss, there is no need for violence...", Kai said while raising his hands. He quietly analyzed her and was surprised by the result.

[Human Mortal-Grade-4][ 997 Qi]

"Mortal-Grade-4 and Peak of Qi condensation?...", Kai thought while watching her. She was only one step away from breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage. Kai had to admit that she was the strongest Qi-Condensation cultivator that he had ever seen.

"I am taking you into custody. Empty everything you have or die!", she said in a cold voice. As she spoke, Hou Zhou and Song Wei physically shivered. 

Kai slowly pulled out his spatial bag and threw it on the ground, then took a few steps away from her. The woman carefully picked up the bag but before she could get back up, Kai tried to kick the sword in her hand. She seemed to be expecting this as she gave a diabolical smile and moved her sword towards Kai's leg, attempting to slice his leg off.

To her surprise, her sword clashed with Kai's leg but instead of being chopped off, she was instead forced back. Kai didn't let the opportunity go to waste as he moved to grab her arm. She moved her sword towards his neck. The sword glowed with a faint light as she slashed at Kai's neck.

Kai simply ignored the sword and moved to grab the woman. The sword met his neck, but she was astonished yet again to find that she couldn't penetrate. She looked closely at the point of contact and realized that the area was covered in strange golden-brown scales that were brimming with Qi.

Before she could react, Kai grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back. He made to grab her neck with his other hand but was taken aback when the woman dislocated her own wrist and deftly slipped out of his grip.

She turned back to Kai with an angry look on her face as the Qi around her started to rotate wildly. Her entire body emitted large amounts of Qi which started to flow toward her sword. 

"I'm going to enjoy this!...", She whispered as her eyes turned blood red.

Kai put his hat into his spatial bag then put the bag into his breast pocket ."Beauty, you really left me no choice. The amount of killing intent coming off you was a dead giveaway. You obviously had no intentions of letting me go from the start..."

"Give me the veil-elixirs and I'll make yours a painless death!", She said in anger.

Kai could only shrug his shoulders but decided to get serious. His body started to give off massive amounts of Qi as his hands were slowly covered with red bolts of thunder. The sinister-looking crimson bolts flowed around Kai's hands and seemed to slowly be increasing in intensity. 

The woman was weary of the thunder and decided to avoid them. She moved forward with her sword brandished at Kai. Her speed had increased dramatically to the point where Hou Zhou and Song Wei could not even keep track of her movements.

Kai did not move, but every inch of his body was quickly covered with beautiful golden-brown scales.

"It's that strange technique again!", Hou Zhou yelled as he watched the scales appearing over Kai's body. He had fought against him once before so he was well aware of how powerful Kai was.

"Is he even human?!", Song Wei exclaimed with fright in her voice.