"What happened?"
Davis was not paying attention as he had just come out of the resting hall, wanting to deliver Niera to Evelynn so that the latter would protect her from his mother, who was still angered, wanting to berate Niera for being reckless.
"They both struck each other defenseless…" Natalya uttered with a worried expression on her face.
"These two…"
Davis couldn't believe Niera and Sophie's boldness to use their lives like this as he sucked in a cold breath of exasperation, wondering if anything happened to Sophie as his soul sense penetrated the spatial formation. However, what he saw left him relaxed.
"What happened?"
"Nothing happened…"
This time, the others asked him, causing him to reply.
"Although…"
However, he smiled as the misty fog caused by the fiery and icy explosion cleared slowly amidst the millions of gazes of the shocked people.
"This…"
Suddenly, a powerhouse saw a bright purple flaming star above a white-robed figure he deemed as Sophie before seeing another purplish icy-blue wisp whose body continually wavered as though it couldn't maintain a proper shape above Mu Bing.
"Controlling Spirit Attribute Sources…?"
Abruptly, many powerhouses stood up before they hurriedly screamed in disbelief.
"How is it possible!?"
The Mandate Emperor and the three other righteous path leaders seemed also taken aback, looking astonished.
"They do not have any unique physiques, right?" The Vast Sky Emperor felt enough.
The Alstreim Family had enough anomalies as it is, and now, the Mystic Ice Sect was also starting to show the same signs. This was too presumptuous of small powers! Or so he thought.
"I don't think so."
The Karmic Guardian Emperor shook his head, and everyone believed his words because his senses to anomalies were sharper than them all.
"Then how are they able to… command them?" The Starnova Emperor couldn't help but ask, "Those two Spirit Attribute Sources; a Fire Essence and an Ice Elemental…?"
"My Heaven Mandate Temple has a way to force Spirit Attribute Sources to submit through the usage of Mandate Laws, but it is not going to work if the host is weak."
The Mandate Emperor continued to explain, "However, the cultivator has to be stronger than the Spirit Attribute Source by a few times, and so, this precious technique redundant unless we could find a young and immature Spirit Attribute Source but even then, it isn't a given that the immature Spirit Attribute Source would communicate as their prenatal tendencies that come from humans absorbing heaven and energy for cultivation purpose forces them to stay clear from humans or remain hostile to them as the innate fear of getting absorbed is very real to them."
The others nodded as well as they were aware of these things.
However, it still didn't explain how they could control them!
"Mandate Emperor, what should we do?" At this moment, Honorable Elder Mihangel Evan's voice sounded in his head, "No matter how we see it, they used treasures above Peak-Level King Grade as those Spirit Attribute Sources are at High-Level Emperor Grade, perhaps near to the Peak-Level."
"Rules are rules." The Mandate Emperor's brows narrowed, "Eliminate them, but you can decide upon their ranking."
"This, they both used their Spirit Attribute Sources at the same time…"
Honorable Elder Mihangel Evans asked, but no response came, causing him to sigh.
Sophie held her bosom as she heavily gasped, looking at the purplish-blue energy body of the Ice Elemental she recognized as the Dreamy Iceflow Wisp. She also recalled that its essence seed was gifted to Ancestor Tirea Snow as a marriage gift, allowing her to step into the Mid-Level Law Rune Stage but to think Mu Bing tamed it.
Now it all made sense to her, Mu Bing's might that was confusing for her to comprehend.
"Hsss!~"
Bright purple flames and icy fumes kept expunging from the two Spirit Attribute Sources. Both appeared to be disliking each other's presence while protecting their humans.
On the other hand, Mu Bing looked shaken. She clenched her teeth, looking remorseful, for she had brought the battle to a dangerous point. She reacted to Sophie's attack carelessly, employing full power while Sophie had lessened the surging might of her attack because she was going to be gravely injured at that moment. While Sophie managed to hold the might of her attack back, having immense control over her powers, she almost messed it up by sending a powerful attack against her while Sophie was lessening the impact for her to defend against.
Fortunately, they both had their Spirit Attribute Sources to protect them. Otherwise, she knew that she would've incurred the wrath of the Emperor of Death.
"I apologize, Sophie Alstreim."
She uttered with a solemn countenance.
"It's fine. Accidents do happen while intensely battling like that, and I'm just glad that you aren't harmed. I enjoyed it while it lasted. Hehe~"
Sophie giggled, looking fine while her words indicated that they were going to be eliminated at any moment.
Mu Bing appeared taken aback. Was this worry because of how they reached their hands out to them when they needed external help the most?
Biting her lips, she couldn't help but send a soul transmission to Sophie.
"You asked me how I came into existence, right? My unknown father violated my mother before the Mystic Ice Sect executed him as revenge, and that's how I came into existence. That's how most Mystic Ice Sect disciples come into existence while the others are purely orphans or voluntarily sent by their own parents so that they could have a better future, but it was not better for my mother, who later killed herself from being unable to endure the shame, was it?"
Sophie's eyes were wide in shock as she listened to Mu Bing while the latter opened her mouth.
"It's your win. I surrender."
White light flashed on Mu Bing, throwing her out along with her Dreamy Iceflow Wisp.
Honorable Elder Mihangel Evans was just about to eliminate the both of them, but looking at one of them voluntarily surrender, he pursed his lips, refraining from declaring both of them eliminated. He turned to look at the Mandate Emperor and saw him shake his head, both of them agreeing the competition should continue with Sophie as the winner for that battle.
With that, everyone made the second move in the third round.
Once the doors became green, the Burning Phoenix Ridge disciple in the fifth row, second column spatial bubble, headed backward and ended up directly ousting herself, causing her to heave a sigh, but the moment she saw that she was ranked sixth, ranked above Mu Bing who was at the seventh place, she grinned so much that her bright teeth could be seen through her semi-transparent red veil.
"Did you notice that the majority who stepped out of the spatial formation are youths who possessed Supreme Domains?"
Honorable Elder Mihangel Evans couldn't help but point out to his partner.
"That just means that they have less destiny, and their luck isn't anything special." Honorable Elder Julian Kruse nodded, "Their luck was just a tiny bit more than the others, allowing them to enter the final round. Fate works in mysterious ways we don't know, so beware of the path you all take in the future as karma will certainly affect your path."
"Indeed." Honorable Elder Mihangel Evans couldn't help but nod.
This kind of scenario just reaffirmed their notions of heaven's mysterious ways of doing things. Those who weren't much were just randomly ousted as though they weren't even worthy to face opponents of high prowess.
If it wasn't fate, what was it?