Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

Kai's attacks were relentless. Each fist was enhanced with Daemonic Thunder-Qi, allowing him to unleash an insane amount of devastation on the spire. The only downside was that his Qi was being drained at an alarming rate, so Kai could not keep this up for very long.

Each fist ripped chunks of black stone off the spire. Kai hard surmised that the illusion beast was likely releasing more fog at this moment, meaning it had halted its regeneration process which Kai was now exploiting to the fullest.

Kai threw another heavy fist at the spire. Red bolts of thunder flashed again, but this time, the crater collapsed into itself and revealed an opening. Kai was perplexed and looked inside. To his surprise, there was a staircase leading to the top. 

Before Kai could react, a flurry of spikes appeared him, aimed at piercing him through the back. Kai did not have time to dodge, but he had already activated his [Primordial Dragon's Scale Armament] and further enhanced it with Daemonic Thunder-Qi.

The spikes landed on his back but did not impale him, instead, pushing him into the opening that he had created. Kai landed on the spire wall heavily. He wanted to escape but noticed that the opening was now completely covered by rock.

"Is the spire going back underground?". Kai mumbled while looking up.

'I need to move!'. Kai thought as he ran up the stairs at top speed. He didn't know what was up there, but if it was going down, then he had to go up.

Outside, the survivors noticed the spire had stopped releasing fog and was quickly retreating into the ground. Those who had been in immediate danger sighed in relief when they saw this.

Wu Xianhai also stopped moving when she noticed the illusion demon's retreat. "Did he do something?...". Wu Xianhai thought as she felt the veil elixir in her pocket. She was convinced that it worked seeing as Kai was still alive, but did not want to take the risk herself.

When Hou Zhou noticed the spire retreating, he remembered Kai's words. Kai had told him and Song Wei his real plans and asked that they keep it a secret from Wu Xianhai. In essence, Kai wanted to force Wu Xianhai to help the others survive which was why he had come up with this elaborate plan. 

Hou Zhou looked at the dozens of survivors hanging on the makeshift ropes and sighed. This was only a fraction of the people who had entered but they were still alive at least. Without Kai's plan, they would have all died horrible deaths long ago.

Back within the spire, Kai was moving fast up the stairs. He had expected to be completely impaled by spikes by now, but to his surprise, not even one appeared which gave him a bad feeling.

When the stairs finally ended, Kai found himself on a small platform. The area was the size of a small room and shaped like a cone, indicating that he was close to the top of the spire. Located at the very top was a small blue light that gave the room an inviting blue hue.

Kai looked around for an exit but found none. Just as he was about to try punching through the wall, Kai heard a child's voice echo in his ears.

"You...what...are?"

Kai looked around but couldn't find the source of the voice, but then the voice spoke again.

"No smell...but feel like Jie..."

"Spire demon?... Your name Jie?" Kai asked carefully while looking around the small, empty room. He had concluded that it was somehow relaying the information straight into his brain.

"Me Jie..."

"Well, then Jie. Could you please let me out of here?", Kai asked with a nervous smile.

"Jie hungry..."

"..."

Kai was not sure how to proceed. He knew that the illusion demon was intelligent, but had no idea that it could speak.

"Jie, you said you can feel me right?". Kai said while releasing a little bit of his Daemonic Thunder-Qi.

When he did so, the spire shook a little then Kai heard the childish voice in his mind again.

"Um, feel like Jie, you Jie friend!"

"Yes...I'm Jie's friend!. And you know friends do each other favors!. So if you let me go, I'll do something for you as well. Deal?", Kai asked carefully. He didn't know how far underground they were but didn't want to stay here much longer.

"..."

The silence carried on for a few seconds but no response came. Just as Kai was about to give up, and start punching his way out, Jie responded.

"Jie hungry, give Jie food..."

"OK, it's a deal!, I'll bring you food if you let me out!"

Kai was feeling relieved until he suddenly remembered that this was an illusion demon that was currently eating an entire pocket dimension. Its concept of 'food' was bound to be completely different from his.

Kai looked up in despair and suddenly noticed the shining blue light again. 'why would it need a light source inside of itself...' Kai thought to himself, then quickly inspected it.

[Illusion Demon Heart] [Qi 16,246]

'Damn...that's a lot of Qi!' Kai thought to himself in excitement. This item had the most Qi that he had ever seen. Kai felt the urge to try turning it into a manual, seeing as it would be a guaranteed him C-Rank manual!.

"Jie, I  want to give you a gift!...as a friend...", Kai said in the most friendly tone that he could muster. He hid all the greedy thoughts deep within his heart and put on a sweet, friendly smile.

"gift?...".

"Yes, a very nice gift. It will make Jie much more powerful and will even let you eat a lot more food!"

"More food?, Jie want a gift!". Jie responded with excitement

"Of course, but this big brother just needs to touch your heart to give you the gift..."

"...Friend promises more food?...". Jie responded again but this time seemed a lot more skeptical.

"I promise!. Big brother would never lie to Jie!...", Kai said while rubbing his hands together and releasing some more red Thunder-Qi.

"OK!", Jie agreed readily and the heart floated down to hover before Kai.

Kai did not waste time held the heart with his right hand.

"Create manual!...", Kai whispered. At this moment, Kai was glad that his face was completely covered because he could not hide the excitement on it. This was going to be a C-Rank manual after all!. Kai's hand glowed for a brief moment, but to his horror, an error message popped up.

==[Cannot create manuals from living beings]==

'Dammit!, how is this thing a living being? It's just a pile of rocks!', Kai thought in frustration.

"Friend lie?...." Jie slowly asked with an eerie tone, sending shivers down Kai's spine.