Chapter 214: The Fox Merchant (2)

"This place..." Inari's voice trailed off as they appeared in an open field.

Beautiful yellow flowers bloomed on the field and a huge oak tree stood in the middle of the field. Her eyes widened as she looked at Kai's face who nodded.

"But you were gone." She slowly muttered as Kai raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean gone?" He asked as Inari suddenly grabbed his hand and was squeezed it.

She then let go and took a deep breath before she took out a poster and handed it to Kai. He carefully handled it as he read the contents.

"Is this real?" Was the first question he asked after reading at contents of the poster as Inari sighed and nodded.

"New Harem Overlord competition. Come at the imperial realm with your harem and the most beautiful and largest harem wins. You can also enter with a reverse harem or a bisexual harem. Competition ends in a week." He read out loud as he looked at the date.

It was off dated to be a thousand years ago as Kai burned the paper with his flames.

"So there is a new harem overlord and the elven realm does not know about it." He muttered as Inari furrowed her eyebrows.

"You were on the elven realm this whole time?" She asked as Kai shook his head.

"It's a long story that I will tell you later but first, tell me about this new 'Harem Overlord'." Kai said as Inari shook her head.

"I don't know much about the person. The only thing I know is that he or she lives in the spirit realm. That's all." Inari replied as Kai sighed.

"Maybe I should go to the spirit realm after reaching the spiritual soul realm. The quickest way to do that is to create some pills. Do you have these ingredients?" Kai asked as he headed Inari a list.

She gave the list a thorough glance before nodding.

"I have some of them with me. But to get them, you will have to travel with me to an abandoned realm." She replied as Kai raised his eyebrows.

"An abandoned realm?" He asked with interest as Inari smiled and tapped an emerald color ring on her finger.

A projection suddenly played in front of them which showed a cluster of realms, half the size of the mortal realm, grouped together.

"I currently live around these realms cause a few people are living there. Can you teleport us there?" Inari asked as Kai nodded.

Since Inari was already familiar with Kai's teleportation, she wasn't shocked when they appeared on a barren dead land.

The entire area was completely brown and didn't have any plants growing on them. The sky appeared red in color as though someone had drenched it in blood.

The sun appeared bright red in color and was too close to the planet that it was too hot for a normal person to survive in.

"People live here?" Kai asked as Inari nodded.

"They have been living here for generations and survive on the meat of what little spiritual beasts that are left here. As for vegetation, they grow stuff in controlled greenhouses that I helped them in building. Otherwise, they were only eating meat and would have all died in a century or so." She explained as she raised her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly.

"What was that for?" Kai asked curiously as Inari smiled.

"It's a way we communicate with each other. This place has frequent earthquakes and what little spiritual beasts are left here attack the people here to eat them. That is why they have a whole set of whistles to communicate about different things over a long-range." She explained as they started walking towards the south.

Kai could see houses made from mud in the distance, probably to keep them cool. As they reached closer, he could see people walking around with determined expressions.

Their skin bore many scars and cuts but their faces beamed with happiness when they saw Inari.

But they froze when they looked at Kai. They stared at his handsome face and deep purple eyes as they lowered their gazes.

"Hmm, why are you all looking down?" He asked as they didn't speak anything.

"They feel inferior." Inari whispered as Kai looked surprised.

He suddenly remembered the memories of his past that he had buried deep inside. 

"Don't hope if you don't have the power to do anything." He had been told these words by a friend of his and he truly understood the meaning of these words when he was younger.

"Don't feel inferior to someone just cause they look better or are more powerful. Feel inferior to someone when you stop improving yourself." Kia muttered with a small smile as the people suddenly looked up at him.

"That makes sense." One of them said in a deep voice as the others slowly nodded.

"What is your name sir?" The same person asked as Kai moved his hand forward for a handshake.

"My name is Kai. Nice to meet you." He said with a smile as the person shook Kai's hand.

"My name is Giaukan. Nice to meet you too." The man replied as all of them started greeting each other.

It didn't take time for Kai to get together with the people and Inari was surprised to see how quickly this happened.

People went from looking at him as a strange powerful person to someone who understood them in less than an hour.

[ Your social skills sometimes frighten me. ] Inari replied as Kai smiled at her.

"My social skills aren't good. I just empathize with these people since I understand their pain." Kai replied out loud as he and Inari were watching the people sitting around a small campfire as they cooked some meat that Kai had given them.

"What do you mean by that?" Inari asked in confusion since as far as she knew, Kai had always been a powerful rich figure.

"There are many things people don't know about me." Kai replied but didn't answer her question as they spent some time listening to the melodious song that the people sang under the crimson sun.